Opinion ID: 518482
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: County Attorney as Municipal Policymaker

Text: 23 A municipality or governmental entity cannot be found liable under section 1983 on a respondeat superior theory; such liability can be imposed only for injuries inflicted pursuant to an official governmental policy or custom. See Monell v. New York City Dep't of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 690-94, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 2035-38, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978). [I]t is when execution of a government's policy or custom, whether made by its lawmakers or by those whose edicts or acts may fairly be said to represent official policy, inflicts the injury that the government as an entity is responsible under Sec. 1983. Id. at 694, 98 S.Ct. at 2037. While a single decision may satisfy Monell's municipal policy requirement, that decision must have been properly made by one of the municipality's authorized decisionmakers; that is, by an official who possesses final authority to establish municipal policy with respect to the [challenged] action. Pembaur v. City of Cincinnati, 475 U.S. 469, 479-81, 106 S.Ct. 1292, 1298-99, 89 L.Ed.2d 452 (1986). In St. Louis v. Praprotnik, 485 U.S. 112, 108 S.Ct. 915, 924, 99 L.Ed.2d 107 (1988), the Supreme Court pointed out that whether a particular official has 'final policymaking authority' is a question of state law. [S]tate law ... will always direct a court to some official or body that has the responsibility for making law or setting policy in any given area of a local government's business. Id. 108 S.Ct. at 924-25. 12 24 The complaint alleged that Maricopa County by policy, custom, and law authorized and delegated Collins and Stoller the authority to be the final policymakers regarding the investigation of [bad check offense] charges under Ariz.Rev.Stat. Sec. 13-1807, 13 and that pursuant to this authority Collins and Stoller had the plaintiffs arrested and publicized their arrests without conducting a reasonable investigation to determine whether there existed probable cause to make the arrests. 14 In granting Maricopa County's motion to dismiss, the district court entirely rejected the notion that by enforcing the bad check law the county attorney could be said to be acting as a policymaker for the county: 25 [T]he county attorney and his agents were following the statutory mandate ... from the state legislature, and, therefore, any policy would be set only within the county attorney's office in its prosecutions of these matters for the state.... Under [the bad check law] the county attorney establishes and exercises policy, not on behalf of Maricopa County, but solely on his own behalf ... [The] authority to act devolves only upon the county attorney; it does not in any way pass through the county itself. 26 Likewise, Maricopa County contends on appeal that it cannot be held liable for any misconduct by the county attorney because he is not employed by the county, but is a separate elected official whose powers and duties are defined by state statute. The county contends that in criminal prosecutions the county attorney acts on behalf of the state, not the county. 27 These analyses are erroneous and their conclusions are not necessarily correct. By establishing investigative and enforcement policies for prosecuting bad check offenses, the county attorney, as the chief prosecutorial official for the county, may indeed be acting as a policymaker for the county. 28 Several courts have held that the official conduct and decisions of elected city or county officers may automatically constitute official city or county policy. In Blackburn v. Snow, 771 F.2d 556, 571 (1st Cir.1985), a county sheriff's policy of strip-searching all visitors to the county jail was held to constitute a county policy. The court noted that under Massachusetts law the county sheriff was expressly responsible for security at county correctional facilities, and that because this county sheriff had appointed himself superintendent of the county's jails he had statutory authority to control all visitation to the county jail. The court also pointed out that the sheriff was the county official elected by the county voters to act for them in this domain and to exercise the powers created by state law. For these reasons, the sheriff's strip search policy was the county's policy and the county could be liable for any injuries inflicted pursuant to that policy. Id. 29 In Crane v. Texas, 759 F.2d 412 (5th Cir.), aff'd in part and rev'd in part, 766 F.2d 193 (1985) (per curiam), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 1020, 106 S.Ct. 570, 88 L.Ed.2d 555 (1985), a district attorney had created a procedure whereby a court clerk would issue misdemeanor arrest warrants based solely on a district attorney's affidavit and without any probable cause determination by a neutral magistrate. The district court held that the county could not be liable in a section 1983 action challenging the constitutionality of this warrant procedure because the procedure was  'neither done for the county nor subject to its control.'  Id. at 428. The Fifth Circuit reversed, holding that since county voters had elected the district attorney (who then established the misdemeanor arrest policy by virtue of his office), the district attorney was a county policymaker and his warrant procedure was a county policy. Id. at 429-30. [B]ecause the ultimate authority for determining County capias procedures reposed in the District Attorney, an elected County official, his decisions in that regard must be considered official policy attributable to the County. Id. at 430. 30 In denying rehearing, the Fifth Circuit rejected the argument that the Texas district attorney was a state, not a county officer. Crane v. Texas, 766 F.2d 193, 194-95 (5th Cir.) (per curiam), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 1020, 106 S.Ct. 570, 88 L.Ed.2d 555 (1985). Although the district attorney had some attributes of a state official (e.g., office created by state constitution, geographic authority created by state statute, governor appoints interim successor if vacancy occurs, bond for faithful performance of duties runs to governor), the court found that other considerations led to the conclusion that he was a county official (e.g., elected by county or district voters, prosecutorial authority limited geographically to district, paid by county funds even though county partly reimbursed by state, other local offices also created by the state constitution). Id. at 194-95. In sum, much like the county itself, his office is a local entity, created by the State of Texas and deriving its powers from those of the State, but limited in the exercise of those powers to the county, filled by its voters, and paid for with its funds. Id. at 195. 15 31 Gobel and DeFranco may be able to prove that in Arizona the county attorney is the kind of county official whose policy decisions automatically constitute county policy. An Arizona county attorney is elected by the county voters, Ariz. Const. Art. 12 Sec. 3, is an officer of the county who is required to reside in the county, Ariz.Rev.Stat. Secs. 11-401(A)(5) and 11-404(6), and is the public prosecutor of the county who [a]ttend[s] the superior and other courts within the county and conduct[s], on behalf of the state, all prosecutions for public offenses. Ariz.Rev.Stat. Sec. 11-532(A)(1). His budget is set by the county board of supervisors, Ariz.Rev.Stat. Secs. 11-201(A)(6), and he picks a chief deputy whose salary is set by agreement between the county attorney and the board of supervisors. Ariz.Rev.Stat. Sec. 11-419(D) and (E). This is not, of course, an exhaustive enumeration of an Arizona county attorney's powers and responsibilities (nor does it address the role of an Arizona assistant county attorney), but it is sufficient to indicate that Gobel and DeFranco may be able to prove that County Attorney Collins was acting as a policymaker for Maricopa County when he decided to hold a public roundup of bad check offenders, and that Maricopa County is therefore liable if the carrying out of that policy violated the plaintiffs' civil rights.