Opinion ID: 779203
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Postdeprivation remedies are inadequate

Text: 53 Defendants further contend that the existence of postdeprivation remedies for eviction under Kentucky law satisfies the requirements of due process and a lack of predeprivation process is therefore not violative of the Fourteenth Amendment. In support of this argument, Defendants point to the Eighth Circuit's decision in Reese v. Kennedy, 865 F.2d 186 (8th Cir.1989). In Reese, an unmarried couple shared a home for two years. The couple shared bills, but the deed to the house was in the male defendant's name, and he made the mortgage payments. At some point, Reese, his female companion, agreed to move out as soon as she was financially able. But before she could do so, the defendant, who was out of town at the time, called police officers to remove her from the home. Two officers spoke to the couple's neighbors and then asked Reese to leave. The officers prevented her from retrieving any of her belongings. Reese filed a § 1983 action against the officers and others. The district court rejected Reese's procedural due process claim and the court of appeals affirmed, holding that because the state provided adequate postdeprivation remedies for wrongful eviction, no due process violation had occurred. Reese, 865 F.2d at 187. 54 On appeal, Defendants rely upon Reese for the proposition that a § 1983 action may not lie under a procedural due process theory. Needless to say, we are not bound by a decision from another circuit. See In re Ann Arbor R.R. Co., 623 F.2d 480, 482 (6th Cir.1980). In addition, subsequent cases lead us to a different conclusion than the one Defendants advocate. First, Reese was decided prior to Soldal, Good Real Prop. and Flatford. Its continuing relevance is therefore doubtful. Furthermore, in deciding Reese, the Eighth Circuit relied upon an outdated interpretation of the Supreme Court's decision in Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527, 101 S.Ct. 1908, 68 L.Ed.2d 420 (1981). In Parratt, a prisoner sued a state employee who negligently lost materials the prisoner had ordered by mail. Although finding that the prisoner had suffered a deprivation of property interests within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Supreme Court held that all the process due for such random and unauthorized conduct was provided under state tort law. In Reese, the Eighth Circuit held that an extrajudicial police eviction was the type of random conduct at issue in Parratt. However, this reading of Parratt has since been called into question. In Zinermon v. Burch, 494 U.S. 113, 136, 110 S.Ct. 975, 108 L.Ed.2d 100 (1990), the Supreme Court declined to extend the random and unauthorized conduct standard to situations where a deprivation of rights is predictable. Instead, the Court recognized that Parratt presented a special case ... in which postdeprivation tort remedies are all the process that is due, simply because they are the only remedies the State could be expected to provide. 55 Based upon the reasoning in Zinermon, we recognized in Flatford that a citizen has no cause of action under § 1983 for due process violations where state tort law furnishes all appropriate process, or where the deprivation cannot be predicted. Flatford, 17 F.3d at 168. However, we determined in that case that postdeprivation state tort remedies are neither timely nor sufficiently remedial for emergency evacuees because [f]undamental fairness expects more than mere tort remedies where [the] government dispossesses its citizens from their homes. Id at 169. It would therefore stand to reason that state tort remedies are likewise insufficient in situations where, as here, there is no emergency. 56 To be sure, in Flatford we did not require predeprivation process; rather we held that the state was required to provide an immediate and meaningful postdeprivation administrative process, including notice of the right to an administrative hearing and direction as to the procedure for administrative review. However, we reached this result only because the existence of exigent circumstances made predeprivation process impractical. Our holding was based upon the rationale that  emergency evacuations ... are not so rare that city officials cannot prepare for advising emergency evacuees of their right to an administrative hearing as similarly provided to landlords. Id. at 168 (emphasis added). Conversely, in the instant case no exigent circumstances were present. Furthermore, Kentucky law provides for judicial predeprivation process prior to evictions. Therefore, the instant case is factually distinguishable from situations such as those in Parratt in which the deprivation is unpredictable and predeprivation process is impractical. 57 The Supreme Court has recognized that the right to maintain control over [one's] home, and to be free from governmental interference, is a private interest of historic and continuing importance. Good Real Prop., 510 U.S. at 44, 114 S.Ct. 492. The government's interest in enforcing a landlord's unauthorized directives pales in comparison to the importance of Plaintiffs' interest in maintaining possessory rights to their place of residence. Therefore, postdeprivation remedies of any sort would be inadequate. Instead, we believe that given the magnitude of the indignity and the loss of personalty attendant to an eviction without notice, it is indisputable that [P]laintiffs are entitled to insist upon a genuine effort to provide notice having a substantial degree of effectiveness at a meaningful time prior to eviction. Sallie, 998 F.Supp. at 620.