Opinion ID: 573067
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Claim Against Dr. Falkoff

Text: 39 In order to state a claim under § 1983, appellant must show that the alleged deprivation of her constitutional rights was committed by a person acting under color of state law. 42 U.S.C. § 1983. State action may be found in the exercise by a private individual of powers traditionally exclusively reserved to the State. Jackson v. Metropolitan Edison, Co., 419 U.S. 345, 352, 95 S.Ct. 449, 454, 42 L.Ed.2d 477 (1974). Whether Dr. Falkoff acted under color of state law in executing the search warrant depends upon whether there is a sufficiently close nexus between the State and the challenged action [of Dr. Falkoff] so that the action of the latter may fairly be treated as that of the State itself. Id. at 351, 95 S.Ct. at 453; see West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42, 56, 108 S.Ct. 2250, 2259, 101 L.Ed.2d 40 (1988) (In determining whether action taken by a private individual is under color of state law, The dispositive issue concerns the relationship between the State, the physician and [appellant].) 40 Dr. Falkoff functioned as a state actor when performing the vaginal search of appellant. The scope and motivation for the search were established solely by the state's investigatory goals and justified solely by the search warrant. Dr. Falkoff's role in the search was purely that of an auxiliary to normal police search procedures. He exercised the power of search traditionally reserved exclusively to the State, see Jackson, 419 U.S. at 352, 95 S.Ct. at 454, because of the coercive power and significant encouragement represented by the search warrant. See, e.g., Blum v. Yaretsky, 457 U.S. 991, 1004, 102 S.Ct. 2777, 2786, 73 L.Ed.2d 534 (1982) (State normally can be held responsible for a private decision only when it has exercised coercive power or has provided such significant encouragement, either overt or covert, that the choice must in law be deemed that of the State.) 41 The issue remains, however, whether Dr. Falkoff is entitled to qualified immunity, both as a matter of law and under the specific facts of this case. 42 Whether qualified immunity exists for private individuals acting under color of state law has never been decided by the Supreme Court. The Court has intimated that qualified immunity may be appropriate for private individuals in certain instances. See Lugar v. Edmondson Oil Co., 457 U.S. 922, 942 n. 23, 102 S.Ct. 2744, 2756 n. 23, 73 L.Ed.2d 482 (1982). 10 Several Appellate Courts have ruled that the qualified immunity defense exists for private individuals in suits premised on the private individual's use of unconstitutional attachment statutes. See Jones v. Preuit & Mauldin, 851 F.2d 1321 (11th Cir.1988) (en banc), vacated on other grounds, 489 U.S. 1002, 109 S.Ct. 1105, 103 L.Ed.2d 170 (1989); Buller v. Buechler, 706 F.2d 844 (8th Cir.1983); Folsom Investment Co. v. Moore, 681 F.2d 1032 (5th Cir.1982). 11 43 One Circuit Court has concluded that private individuals are not entitled to qualified immunity in § 1983 actions, and the reasoning behind that opinion gives us insight as to why Dr. Falkoff should be afforded the qualified immunity defense in this case. In Duncan v. Peck, 844 F.2d 1261 (6th Cir.1988), the Sixth Circuit stated that private individuals threatened with monetary liability under § 1983 are not entitled to qualified immunity. The opinion was based on the court's reasoning that private individuals do not face the dilemma of being required by law to use their discretion in a way that might unfairly expose them to lawsuits, nor is a private individual's discretion undesirable chilled because a private party is governed only by self-interest and is not invested with the responsibility of executing the duties of a public official in the public interest. Duncan, 844 F.2d at 1264. 44 Duncan and Sawtelle are both situations where a private actor initiated action and then sought to employ a state apparatus to carry out that action. The present situation is quite different. Here, state officials were the initiating parties and they pressed a private citizen into assisting their efforts. 45 Dr. Falkoff is entitled to the defense of qualified immunity in this situation. His liability is asserted upon the fact that he operated as a state actor in conducting a search procedure traditionally within the power of the State. Yet Dr. Falkoff did not act on his own initiative, he was pressed into service by the State. He was uniquely qualified to carry out this search in a safe and hygienic manner. Where a private physician agrees to assist police in search procedures which police cannot reasonably, hygienically or safely perform, the physician is entitled to no less protection than the police would be if they could reasonably perform the search. Nor is there any allegation that Dr. Falkoff was acting out of self interest in conducting the search. 46 Furthermore, public policy is well served by extending Dr. Falkoff qualified immunity in this case. A physician presented with a warrant authorizing a body cavity search is not in a situation analogous to a private party utilizing an unconstitutional statute for selfish means. See Duncan, 844 F.2d at 1264. Rather, the physician is invested with [and has accepted] the responsibilities of a public official in the public interest. Id. Extending qualified immunity to physicians under the circumstances of this case not only benefits society by effectuating acceptable means to execute body cavity searches pursuant to a warrant issued on probable cause, it also benefits the party being searched by providing a safe means of conducting the search in a medically approved manner. Under the circumstances of this case, exposing private physicians to § 1983 liability without the shield of qualified immunity would be not only be unfair, it could deter them from assisting in the execution of valid warrants. A reluctance on the part of physicians to perform body cavity searches could well signal a loss to society of a valuable crime detection procedure or result in these procedures having to be carried out by nonprofessionals, a situation which would be even more intrusive of the subject's privacy. 47 We must next decide what criteria determines whether a physician in these circumstances is entitled to the defense of qualified immunity. That the warrant was facially valid and reasonable entitles Dr. Falkoff to the defense of qualified immunity. We will not require a private physician to look behind an objectively reasonable and facially valid warrant to determine whether it is based upon probable cause. There is no duty imposed upon the physician to make inquiry of the officer regarding his basis for probable cause where the warrant is objectively facially valid. See, e.g., United States v. Velasquez, 469 F.2d 264, 266 (9th Cir.1972), cert. denied, 410 U.S. 945, 93 S.Ct. 1399, 35 L.Ed.2d 612 (1973) (Since the physician is required to have no knowledge of the law of search and seizure to practice his profession, any such enumeration of the facts to the doctor would be a meaningless ritual ... comparable to requiring the police to recite to a locksmith the basis for their probable cause before he could legally open a lock for them. We cannot see how such a recitation would serve to strengthen the guarantees of the Fourth Amendment.) It is a necessary though substantial imposition upon the physician to require him or her to learn the constitutional requirements of invasive body searches. We will not add to that imposition by requiring them to examine the boundaries of probable cause. 12 48 A reasonable physician operating in the same circumstances as Dr. Falkoff could have believed the warrant was facially valid. Based on this conclusion, and no more, Dr. Falkoff is immunized from liability for the mere fact of performing the search under the qualified immunity standard. 13 Accordingly, we AFFIRM the granting of summary judgment as to him. 49