Opinion ID: 74409
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: excessive force during an illegal stop

Text: As their first theory, Plaintiffs assert that because there was no basis for the stop and no governmental interest at stake, any use of force, however minimal, was more than reasonably necessary and excessive. Under this Circuit's law, however, a claim that any force in an illegal stop or arrest is excessive 18 This Circuit evaluates whether an officer's use of force is objectively reasonable by considering myriad factors, such as (1) the need for the application of force, (2) the relationship between the need and the amount of force used, (3) the extent of the injury inflicted and, (4) whether the force was applied in good faith or maliciously and sadistically. Moore v. Gwinnett County, 967 F.2d 1495, 1498 (11th Cir.1992) (quoting Leslie v. Ingram, 786 F.2d 1533, 1536 (11th Cir.1986)). Furthermore, [i]n making this objective assessment, a court may consider in addition to physical injury 'other relevant factors including the possibility that the persons subject to the police action are themselves violent or dangerous, the duration of the action, whether the action takes place in the context of effecting an arrest, the possibility that the suspect may be armed, and the number of persons with whom the police officers must contend at one time.'  Crosby v. Paulk, 187 F.3d 1339, 1351 (11th Cir.1999) (quoting Sharrar v. Felsing, 128 F.3d 810, 822 (3d Cir.1997)). A court may also factor in the severity of the crime, whether the suspect posed an immediate threat, and whether the suspect was resisting or fleeing. Gold v. City of Miami, 121 F.3d 1442, 1446 (11th Cir.1997) (quoting Post, 7 F.3d at 1559). 19 is subsumed in the illegal stop or arrest claim and is not a discrete excessive force claim. See Williamson v. Mills, 65 F.3d 155, 158-59 (11th Cir.1995) (holding that a claim that any force during a false arrest is excessive is subsumed in the false arrest claim itself because damages for false arrest include damages for use of force to effect that false arrest).19 However, as outlined below, a claim for excessive force during a legal stop or arrest is a discrete claim. Williamson 's rule makes sense because if a stop or arrest is illegal, then there is no basis for any threat or any use of force, and an excessive force claim would always arise but only collaterally from the illegal stop or arrest claim. The correct analysis is that the excessive force claim is subsumed in the illegal stop or arrest claim, as recognized in Williamson, where a plaintiff contends the force was excessive because there was no basis for any force.20 19 In Williamson, the defendant officer arrested the plaintiff without probable cause and the plaintiff claimed that there was no need for any force as the force was used to accomplish an unlawful arrest. Id. at 158. This Court held that the damages recoverable on [plaintiff's] false arrest claim include damages suffered because of the use of force in effecting the arrest, that [u]nder these circumstances, [plaintiff's] excessive force claim is subsumed in his false arrest claim, and thus there was no reversible error in the district court's grant of summary judgment on the excessive force claim as a discrete claim. Id. at 158-59. This Court further pointed out that the plaintiff did not argue that the force used was more than that reasonably necessary to effect a valid arrest. Id. at 158. Accord Motes v. Myers, 810 F.2d 1055, 1059 (11th Cir.1987) (stating that [i]t is obvious that if the jury finds the arrest unconstitutional, the use of force and the search were unconstitutional and they become elements of damages for the § 1983 violation). 20 In Smith v. Mattox, 127 F.3d 1416, 1418-19 (11th Cir.1997), the plaintiff contended that a search and an arrest were unconstitutional and thus any use of force was excessive. This Court held that plaintiff's contention failed at the outset because [the plaintiff] has not alleged, or even hinted, in his amended complaint that ... [either] the entry into [the plaintiff's] mother's yard or the arrest itself [was] unconstitutional. Mattox, 127 F.3d at 1418. Since there was no illegal search or arrest, the Court did not address the precise issue here but did cite Williamson in a footnote. However, in Thornton v. City of Macon, 132 F.3d 1395 (11th Cir.1998), this Court did find that the arrest lacked probable cause and stated that [u]nder the circumstances, the officers were not justified in using any force, and a reasonable officer thus would have recognized that the force used was excessive. Thornton, 132 F.3d at 1400. It is unclear whether the excessive force claim survived in Thornton because the actual force used was in fact excessive for the particular arrest or because any force was deemed excessive. Thornton does not discuss the precise issue here, and, in any event, we must follow the earlier decision in Williamson. See United States v. Hogan, 986 F.2d 1364, 1369 (11th Cir.1993) ([I]t is the firmly established rule of this Circuit that each succeeding panel is bound by the holding of the first panel to address an issue of law, unless and until that holding is overruled en banc, or by the Supreme Court.). 20