Opinion ID: 689136
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Claims Against the Englishtown-Manalapan First Aid Squad and its Members

Text: 28 We turn now to plaintiffs' claims against defendants Englishtown-Manalapan First Aid Squad and squad members Edward T. Moriarty, Tracie Zachary, James Paulser, and Joseph Bokenko 14 for conspiracy to violate constitutional rights and for failure to provide necessary medical treatment. The first aid squad's involvement in the alleged conduct forming the basis of these claims was minimal. 29 The first aid squad attempted to treat Groman at his house and later at the police station. Both times the police caused the squad to be dispatched. It is uncontroverted that Groman adamantly refused the squad members' medical attention, although at the police station one squad member was able to take Groman's blood pressure. Groman repeatedly and insistently called the squad members incompetent and rejected their medical attention at the police station even after they informed him he could go to the hospital even though he had been arrested. 30 As we have noted, a suit under Sec. 1983 requires the wrongdoers to have violated federal rights of the plaintiff, and that they did so while acting under color of state law. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. As the under color of state law requirement is part of the prima facie case for Sec. 1983, the plaintiff bears the burden of proof on that issue. West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42, 48, 108 S.Ct. 2250, 2254, 101 L.Ed.2d 40 (1988). The color of state law element is a threshold issue; there is no liability under Sec. 1983 for those not acting under color of law. Versarge v. Township of Clinton, N.J., 984 F.2d 1359, 1363 (3d Cir.1993). 31 Where the actors are not state or municipal officials, but are private individuals or associations, we still must address whether their activity can nevertheless be deemed to be under color of law. The inquiry is fact-specific. Lugar v. Edmondson Oil Co., 457 U.S. 922, 939, 102 S.Ct. 2744, 2754, 73 L.Ed.2d 482 (1982); Krynicky v. University of Pittsburgh, 742 F.2d 94, 97-98 (3d Cir.1984), cert. denied, 471 U.S. 1015, 105 S.Ct. 2018, 85 L.Ed.2d 300 (1985). The first aid squad's relationship to the Township therefore is crucial to our analysis under Sec. 1983. The first aid squad members here were not employed by the Township. They were volunteers, and the squad itself was a private organization. The first aid squad received at least $25,000 annually from the Township, but it is not clear how much of the squad's total budget this amount comprised, nor what, if any, oversight the Township exercised over the squad's operations. Defendants' unrebutted assertion is that the first aid squad received no health benefits or insurance coverage from either Manalapan or Englishtown and that the squad was not under the formal direction or control of either municipality. 32 The color of state law 15 analysis can be difficult, but is grounded in a basic and clear requirement, that the defendant in a Sec. 1983 action have exercised power 'possessed by virtue of state law and made possible only because the wrongdoer is clothed with the authority of state law.'  West, 487 U.S. at 49, 108 S.Ct. at 2255 (quoting United States v. Classic, 313 U.S. 299, 326, 61 S.Ct. 1031, 1043, 85 L.Ed. 1368 (1941)). A private action is not converted into one under color of state law merely by some tenuous connection to state action. The issue is not whether the state was involved in some way in the relevant events, but whether the action taken can be fairly attributed to the state itself. Jackson v. Metropolitan Edison Co., 419 U.S. 345, 351, 95 S.Ct. 449, 453, 42 L.Ed.2d 477 (1974). As the Supreme Court has stated: we ask whether the State provided a mantle of authority that enhanced the power of the harm-causing individual actor. NCAA v. Tarkanian, 488 U.S. 179, 192, 109 S.Ct. 454, 462, 102 L.Ed.2d 469 (1988). 33 Supreme Court jurisprudence outlines several approaches or discrete tests for detecting the presence of action under color of state law. 16 The tests have included the exclusive government function approach, see Flagg Bros., Inc. v. Brooks, 436 U.S. 149, 157-58, 98 S.Ct. 1729, 1733-34, 56 L.Ed.2d 185 (1978), the joint participation or symbiotic relationship approach, see Rendell-Baker v. Kohn, 457 U.S. 830, 842, 102 S.Ct. 2764, 2771, 73 L.Ed.2d 418 (1982); Blum v. Yaretsky, 457 U.S. 991, 1010-11, 102 S.Ct. 2777, 2789-89, 73 L.Ed.2d 534 (1982), and the nexus approach, see Jackson, 419 U.S. at 351, 95 S.Ct. at 453. 17 34 Plaintiffs assert the first aid squad was performing an exclusive government function in its treatment of Groman. The Supreme Court has made clear that the scope of exclusive government functions is limited, reaching only those activities that have been traditionally the exclusive prerogative of the State. Rendell-Baker, 457 U.S. at 842, 102 S.Ct. at 2771 (quoting Jackson, 419 U.S. at 353, 95 S.Ct. at 454). See also Flagg Bros., 436 U.S. at 158, 98 S.Ct. at 1734 (stating [w]hile many functions have been traditionally performed by governments, very few have been 'exclusively reserved to the State' ); cf. Evans v. Newton, 382 U.S. 296, 299, 86 S.Ct. 486, 488, 15 L.Ed.2d 373 (1966) (holding when private individuals or groups are endowed by the State with powers or functions governmental in nature, they become agencies or instrumentalities of the State and subject to its constitutional limitations). 18 35 In the course of enunciating the contours of what constitutes an exclusive government function, the Supreme Court has held that receipt of public funds and the performance of a function serving the public alone are not enough to make a private entity a state actor. Rendell-Baker, 457 U.S. at 840, 842, 102 S.Ct. at 2770, 2771. Our decision in Black by Black v. Indiana Area School District, 985 F.2d 707, 710-11 (3d Cir.1993), follows Rendell-Baker and holds a school bus driver is not performing an exclusive government function even though paid by the state and performing a service for the public. Plaintiffs' reliance then on two factors--public funding and service to the public--is by itself insufficient, and plaintiffs have presented no other evidence which might persuade us that the first aid squad here was performing an exclusive government function. 36 Plaintiffs also urge us to follow by analogy a decision from the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that held a volunteer fire company to be an exclusive government actor. Janusaitis v. Middlebury Volunteer Fire Dep't, 607 F.2d 17 (2d Cir.1979). But Janusaitis predates the seminal cases Rendell-Baker and Blum, and its holding is ambiguously grounded in both the exclusive government function and the symbiotic relationship tests. Janusaitis, 607 F.2d at 23. Recently, the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reached a contrary result to Janusaitis in Yeager v. City of McGregor, 980 F.2d 337, 343 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 79, 126 L.Ed.2d 47 (1993). The Yeager court found the volunteer fire company did not serve an exclusive government function on two grounds: first, since Texas law allowed but did not compel the city to establish a fire department it could hardly be called an exclusive government function; and second, it took judicial notice of the fact that there are a variety of private sector fire fighting alternatives; and fire fighting is not generally an exclusive government function. Id. at 340-41 (footnotes omitted). The court also observed that the state action determination was important to the extent it helps protect voluntary organizations from needless lawsuits. Id. at 339. 37 While there are similarities between volunteer fire departments and volunteer first aid squads, there are sufficient differences that may counsel against adopting this analogy. First aid squads perform different functions from fire departments. 19 To the extent we do find similarities, we find the court's analysis in Yeager more persuasive than the court's in Janusaitis and more consonant with controlling precedent, although we do not explicitly adopt the analysis in Yeager. We must keep in mind the Supreme Court's admonition to pay close attention to the facts of each case while conducting the state action inquiry. Lugar, 457 U.S. at 939, 102 S.Ct. at 2754. Accordingly, we cannot accept Groman's contention that a volunteer first aid squad would be deemed to perform an exclusive government function merely because a volunteer fire department had been held to perform one. We find plaintiffs have failed to meet their burden of demonstrating the first aid squad here was performing an exclusive government function. 38 Plaintiffs' other theories to ground a finding of state action can be analyzed under a general conceptual inquiry, in which we seek to ascertain the degree to which the state and the [private] entity exist in a 'symbiotic relationship' or under circumstances where the conduct of the private actor can be fairly imputed as that of the state. Yeager, 980 F.2d at 342 (citing Jackson, 419 U.S. at 351, 95 S.Ct. at 953; San Francisco Arts & Athletics, Inc. v. United States Olympic Comm., 483 U.S. 522, 556, 107 S.Ct. 2971, 2991, 97 L.Ed.2d 427 (1987)). The Supreme Court has frequently discussed the boundaries of this branch of the state action doctrine. In Rendell-Baker, the Supreme Court held a private school which was carrying out a state-sponsored program and which received at least ninety percent of its funds from the state was nevertheless not a state actor. 457 U.S. at 840-43, 102 S.Ct. at 2770-73. In Blum, the Court held private nursing homes were not state actors even though they were extensively funded and regulated by the state. 457 U.S. at 1011-12, 102 S.Ct. at 2789-90. While the exact contours of this state action inquiry are difficult to delineate, the interdependence between the state and private actor must be pronounced before the law will transform the private actor into a state actor. See id. at 1004, 102 S.Ct. at 2785; Boyle v. Governor's Veterans Outreach & Assistance Ctr., 925 F.2d 71, 76 (3d Cir.1991). The first aid squad, though financially assisted by the Township and (we assume here) functioning as support to the police, nevertheless did not have its professional decisions dictated or guided by the state. There is no evidence that the Township controlled the first aid squad's professional conduct. See Polk County v. Dodson, 454 U.S. 312, 324-25, 102 S.Ct. 445, 453-54, 70 L.Ed.2d 509 (1981). 39 Given the relationship between the first aid squad and the Township here, we find no symbiotic relationship, joint participation, or other connection sufficient to demonstrate the first aid squad was acting under color of state law. Neither the squad's receipt of public funds, nor the police's request for the first aid squad, nor Groman's status as a person in custody at the time of the squad's second response is enough to create state action on the part of the first aid squad. Even if the events created an affirmative obligation under the Due Process Clause for the police to provide medical care, City of Revere v. Massachusetts Gen. Hosp., 463 U.S. 239, 244-45, 103 S.Ct. 2979, 2983-84, 77 L.Ed.2d 605 (1983), this obligation did not transform the first aid squad into a state actor. As we have held, the police fulfilled their constitutional obligation by calling the first aid squad, and the first aid squad's actions do not make them state actors for purposes of Sec. 1983. 40 Accordingly, we will affirm the district court's grant of summary judgment on plaintiffs' claims against the Englishtown-Manalapan First Aid Squad, Edward T. Moriarty, Tracie Zachary, James Paulser, and Joseph Bokenko. Although our disposition of the color of state law requirement makes it unnecessary for us to reach the issue of whether plaintiffs have a colorable claim of a violation of federal rights by the first aid squad and its members, we are compelled to note that the record contains no evidence of a valid claim.