Opinion ID: 793418
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Unlawful Arrest or Unlawful Investigative Detention

Text: 48 Assuming for the sake of argument that Rick Cortez was subjected to either an otherwise unreasonable arrest or an otherwise unreasonable investigative detention— that is, an arrest unsupported by probable cause or an investigative detention unsupported by reasonable suspicion— Plaintiffs' claim that Defendants used excessive force against Rick Cortez should not survive Defendants' summary judgment motion because Plaintiffs could not recover separately on an excessive force claim. Thus, it appears that the district court erred by denying Defendants' summary judgment on these grounds. See (Aplt.App.190.) (If there was no legal justification to detain Plaintiffs in the first place . . . the County Defendants cannot rely on . . . authorities [stating that officers may use force to effect a legal arrest or investigative detention] to justify their use of force in effecting that detention.). 49 The district court is not the only court to have suggested that any force used in effecting an unlawful seizure is per se excessive. See Schiller v. Strangis, 540 F.Supp. 605, 617 (D.Mass.1982) ([T]he use of force occurred during commission of other constitutional violations, including an unlawful arrest, an unlawful entry into the home, and unlawful searches of plaintiff's person, wallet, and car. In the circumstances of this case, the use of any force by [the law enforcement officer] was excessive since the arrest and the searches were themselves unlawful.). 50 The Eleventh Circuit, however, has taken a different approach, noting that a claim that any force in an illegal stop or arrest is excessive is subsumed in the illegal stop or arrest claim and is not a discrete excessive force claim. Jackson v. Sauls, 206 F.3d 1156, 1171 (11th Cir.2000). This is 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. Id.; see also Williamson v. Mills, 65 F.3d 155, 158-59 (11th Cir.1995) (per curiam). 14 51 Under the Eleventh Circuit's approach, a plaintiff may not recover on an independent excessive force claim merely because force was applied during an unlawful seizure. See 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). If force was applied during a lawful seizure, however, a plaintiff may recover on an independent excessive force claim. See Lee v. Ferraro, 284 F.3d 1188, 1197 (11th Cir.2002) (Once summary judgment is granted in [the officer]'s favor on the wrongful arrest claim, [the plaintiff]'s claim that the officer used excessive force must be analyzed independently.). 52 We find the Eleventh Circuit's approach persuasive. Any force that law enforcement officers apply in order to effect a seizure is, by definition, excessive if the seizure is unlawful. Therefore, when an excessive force claim rests solely on an allegation that the force was excessive because the underlying seizure itself was unlawful the excessive force claim is derivative: it necessarily exists as a result of the unlawful seizure, and does not constitute a separate claim for relief. To permit a jury to award damages on both claims individually would allow a plaintiff to receive double the award for essentially the same claims. Moreover, it would be nearly impossible for a jury to apportion damages between an unlawful seizure claim and an excessive force claim, when the excessive force claim is based solely on the unlawfulness of the seizure. Therefore, it is most proper to allow no more than one recovery under such circumstances, with the level of force used in effecting the unlawful seizure playing a role in the calculation of damages for that seizure. 53 Thus, in this case, if Rick Cortez was subjected to an unlawful arrest or an unlawful investigative detention, Plaintiffs' claim that Defendants used excessive force against Rick Cortez should not survive Defendants' summary judgment motion because Plaintiffs could not independently recover on that excessive force claim.