Opinion ID: 785861
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Officers Slater, Farallo and O'Donnell and EMTs Garcia and Rodriguez

Text: 36 The Rivas family has also moved to dismiss the appeals of Officers Farallo and O'Donnell and the appeals of EMTs Garcia and Rodriguez on the ground that the issues raised in their written briefs are evidentiary, and as such are not eligible for interlocutory review. In addition, the Rivas family moved to dismiss a portion of Officer Slater's appeal for the same alleged problem. 37 As a general rule, federal appellate courts have jurisdiction to hear appeals only from final decisions of the district courts. See 28 U.S.C. § 1291. Accordingly, we normally do not entertain appeals from a district court order denying a motion for summary judgment because such orders do not put an end to the litigation. See, e.g., McNasby v. Crown Cork & Seal Co., 832 F.2d 47, 49 (3d Cir.1987). The United States Supreme Court has explained, however, that certain collateral orders amount to final decisions for purposes of taking an appeal even though the district court may have entered those orders before the case has ended. See Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 546-47, 69 S.Ct. 1221, 93 L.Ed. 1528 (1949). These collateral orders are those orders that (i) conclusively determine the disputed issue, (ii) resolve an important issue entirely separate from the merits of the lawsuit, and (iii) cannot be effectively reviewed on appeal from a final judgment. See id. at 546, 69 S.Ct. 1221; see also Coopers & Lybrand v. Livesay, 437 U.S. 463, 468, 98 S.Ct. 2454, 57 L.Ed.2d 351 (1978). 38 Under certain circumstances, orders denying a motion for summary judgment fall within the scope of the collateral order doctrine. In Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985), the Supreme Court explained that an order denying a defendant's motion for summary judgment can be immediately appealed so long as: (1) the defendant is a public official asserting a qualified immunity defense; and (2) the issue on appeal is whether the facts alleged by the plaintiff demonstrate a violation of clearly established federal law, not which facts the plaintiff might be able to prove at trial. Id. at 528, 105 S.Ct. 2806. The Supreme Court explained in Mitchell that this kind of summary judgment order could not await an appeal following trial because a vital importance of a qualified immunity defense is to protect public officials from having to stand trial-a right which cannot be effectively vindicated following trial. Id. at 526, 105 S.Ct. 2806. 39 The Mitchell Court found more difficult the separability question, that is, whether the issue of qualified immunity is completely separate from the merits of an underlying lawsuit. The Court concluded, however, that: it follows from the recognition that qualified immunity is in part an entitlement not to be forced to litigate the consequences of official conduct that a claim of immunity is conceptually distinct from the merits of the plaintiff's claim that his rights have been violated. Id. at 527-28, 105 S.Ct. 2806. The Court felt that this conceptual distinctness made the immediately appealable issue separate from the merits of the plaintiff's claim, in part because an: 40 appellate court reviewing the denial of the defendant's claim of immunity need not consider the correctness of the plaintiff's version of the facts, nor even determine whether the plaintiff's allegations actually state a claim. All it need determine is a question of law: whether the legal norms allegedly violated by the defendant were clearly established at the time of the challenged actions or, in cases where the district court has denied summary judgment for the defendant on the ground that even under the defendant's version of the facts the defendant's conduct violated clearly established law, whether the law clearly proscribed the actions the defendant claims he took. 41 Id. at 528, 105 S.Ct. 2806 (footnote omitted). 42 In Johnson v. Jones, 515 U.S. 304, 115 S.Ct. 2151, 132 L.Ed.2d 238 (1995), the Supreme Court made clear what it had suggested in Mitchell, namely, that the collateral order doctrine does not permit an appeal from an order denying a motion for summary judgment if the issue raised on appeal is whether or not the evidence in the pretrial record [is] sufficient to show a genuine issue of fact for trial. Id. at 307, 115 S.Ct. 2151. 43 Johnson involved a Section 1983 claim against five police officers for use of excessive force in making an arrest. Three of the officers moved for summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds, arguing that there was insufficient evidence in the record to permit a reasonable juror to find the officers were present when the plaintiff was beaten. The district court denied the motion, concluding that there was enough evidence to defeat summary judgment, and the officers appealed invoking the collateral order doctrine. The Supreme Court unanimously held that appellate jurisdiction was lacking, explaining that Mitchell did not permit an appeal from an order denying summary judgment if the order, though entered in a `qualified immunity' case, determines only a question of `evidence sufficiency,' i.e., which facts a party may, or may not, be able to prove at trial. Id. at 313, 115 S.Ct. 2151. 44 We recently announced that we understood Johnson to mean that, if a defendant in a constitutional tort case moves for summary judgment based on qualified immunity and the district court denies the motion, we lack jurisdiction to consider whether the district court correctly identified the set of facts that the summary judgment record is sufficient to prove; but we possess jurisdiction to review whether the set of facts identified by the district court is sufficient to establish a violation of a clearly established constitutional right. Ziccardi v. City of Philadelphia, 288 F.3d 57, 61 (3d Cir.2002) (footnote omitted). 45 Against this background, we turn to the instant appeals. As noted above, the Rivas family contends that Officers Farallo, Slater and O'Donnell and EMTs Garcia and Rodriguez have improperly raised evidentiary issues on appeal. After carefully reviewing the written briefs, we have decided not to dismiss in their entirety any of the appeals. We find, however, that a number of the issues raised in the briefs are not properly before us. For example, we do not have jurisdiction to review the District Court's denial of qualified immunity to the defendants on the pendent state law claims. While we have recognized that such claims are immediately appealable if the state has conferred an underlying substantive immunity from suits arising from the performance of official duties, we have also determined that the State of New Jersey confers no such right. See Brown v. Grabowski, 922 F.2d 1097, 1107, 1109 (3d Cir.1990). 5 Consequently, we lack jurisdiction to consider Officers Farallo's and O'Donnell's arguments that the District Court erred in denying their defense of qualified immunity under New Jersey's Tort Claims Act. 46 We also dismiss so much of the appeals of Officers Slater and EMTs Garcia and Rodriguez to the extent they raise issues of causation. Officer Slater argues that he cannot be held liable because Mr. Rivas allegedly had an enlarged heart and therefore died from natural causes. In a similar vein, Garcia and Rodriguez contend that none of their actions, omissions, or inactions proximately caused Mr. Rivas's death. While we are aware that a Section 1983 plaintiff must demonstrate that the defendant's actions were the proximate cause of the violation of his federally protected right, see Martinez v. California, 444 U.S. 277, 284-85, 100 S.Ct. 553, 62 L.Ed.2d 481 (1980), the presence of the requisite causation is normally a question of fact for the jury. See Estate of Bailey v. County of York, 768 F.2d 503, 511 (3d Cir.1985), overruled on other grounds by DeShaney v. Winnebago County Dep't of Social Servs., 489 U.S. 189, 109 S.Ct. 998, 103 L.Ed.2d 249 (1989). As such, evidentiary issues bearing on the merits of the counts do not qualify under Mitchell for interlocutory review. 47 We find that the remaining issues, which we address below, raise legal questions and therefore are properly raised on appeal.