Opinion ID: 767557
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Municipal Policy, Custom, or Practice

Text: 41 Next, we must consider whether a material question of fact exists regarding whether the constitutional deprivations (which for purposes of summary judgment we must assume occurred) were caused by a practice or custom which constitutes . . . standard operating procedure. Trevino v. Gates, 99 F.3d 911, 918 (9th Cir. 1996). The Wallises adduced testimony from Pitcher, Burkett, and Claytor that there was a practice -a longstanding agreement, in Burkett's words -of enforcing orders to take protective custody of children without ever seeing the order.This is sufficient to raise a genuine issue of material fact regarding the existence of a custom or practice of taking children from their homes based on telephone calls from CPS without adequate safeguards to ensure that the removal is legal. 42 Furthermore, the Wallises presented evidence from which it may reasonably be inferred that the Escondido Police Department customarily took children that it placed at Hillcrest Receiving Home for invasive investigatory examinations at Palomar Hospital without obtaining a court order and without notifying their parents. Detective Pitcher, who ordered the investigatory examinations, acknowledged that she may have done so in fulfillment of her function as the juvenile detective who removed the children from their parents' custody, and that there was a contract between Palomar and the Escondido Police Department for the performance of such investigatory examinations. A reasonable inference may be drawn from this evidence that it was standard operating procedure to obtain those examinations without seeking judicial authorization or notifying the parents; indeed, given the absence of any individualized suspicion of sexual abuse, it is difficult to imagine, on the basis of the record before us, why else the Wallis children would have been subjected to the invasive examinations. 43 The Wallises also produced sufficient evidence to create a question of fact for the jury as to whether these customs and practices had a direct causal link to the deprivations of the Wallises' constitutional rights detailed above. City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378, 385 (1989); Chew v. Gates, 27 F.3d 1432, 1444, 1456 (9th Cir. 1994) (holding that city may properly be held liable where policy is moving force behind constitutional violation); Jackson v. Gates, 975 F.2d 648, 654 (9th Cir. 1992) (holding that city's policy need not be unconstitutional per se, but need only cause a constitutional violation). A reasonable jury could readily conclude, viewing the evidence presently in the record in the light most favorable to the Wallises, that the moving force behind the removal of the children from the parents' custody was the policy of accepting telephonic representations from CPS without any procedure for checking on the accuracy or validity of the supposed orders. See McMurray v. Sheahan, 927 F. Supp. 1082, 1090 (N.D. Ill. 1996) (holding county liable for false arrests when it has no system to check validity of warrants on computer system). That would be true whether a CPS employee had erroneously told the police that a pick-up order existed or whether the police mistakenly believed that a CPS employee had made such a statement. Similarly, a reasonable jury could conclude that the investigatory vaginal and anal examinations were performed on the children pursuant to a Police Department custom and practice of instigating body cavity examinations without first notifying the parents and without seeking prior court authorization whenever its officers place children in protective custody. 15 44 The district court incorrectly held that even if the City did have policies that caused the deprivations, it was not liable because any absolute and qualified immunities possessed by the individual officers were somehow transferred to the city itself. There are, however, no personal immunities available vicariously or otherwise to municipal actors under S 1983. Leatherman v. Tarrant County Narcotics Unit, 507 U.S. 163, 166 (1993). It appears that the district court also applied state statutory immunities for child abuse investigations to the federal constitutional claims and concluded that the City is immune from a S 1983 action under a state immunity statute. Again, the district court erred. Immunity under S 1983 is governed by federal law; state law cannot provide immunity from suit for federal civil rights violations. Martinez v. California, 444 U.S. 277, 284 (1980); Good v. Dauphin County Social Serv., 981 F.2d 1087, 1090-91 (3d Cir. 1989) (holding that state law providing immunity from suit for child abuse investigators has no application to suits under S 1983). In sum, the City of Escondido has the benefit of neither federal nor state immunity from liability under S 1983 for the alleged violations of the Wallises' constitutional rights. 45 Appellants' evidence regarding municipal custom and practice is sufficient to permit them to survive summary judgment on the Monell issue. Accordingly, we reverse the district court's grant of summary judgment to the City of Escondido with respect to the Wallises' S 1983 claims.