Opinion ID: 793539
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Jurisdiction over Qualified Immunity Claims on Interlocutory Appeal

Text: 14 In response to Shields's interlocutory appeal, Kennedy argues first that this court lacks jurisdiction. We disagree, and conclude we have jurisdiction to determine whether the trial court erred in holding Shields was not entitled to qualified immunity. 15 As a general rule, interlocutory appeals from determinations of qualified immunity are permissible. In Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 530, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985), the Supreme Court held the denial of a defendant's motion for summary judgment is immediately appealable where the defendant is a public official asserting the defense of qualified immunity, and the issue appealed concerns whether the facts demonstrated a violation of clearly established law. 16 Kennedy correctly notes that the Court created an exception to this general rule in Johnson v. Jones, 515 U.S. 304, 115 S.Ct. 2151, 132 L.Ed.2d 238 (1995). There, the Court held that a defendant, entitled to invoke a qualified immunity defense, may not appeal a district court's summary judgment order insofar as that order determines whether or not the pretrial record sets forth a `genuine' issue of fact for trial. Id. at 319-20, 115 S.Ct. 2151. In ruling against Shields's motion for summary judgment based on his claim of qualified immunity, the district court stated: 17 Viewed in a light most favorable to plaintiffs, a jury could find that Officer Shields unreasonably created a false sense of security in plaintiffs by agreeing to give plaintiffs advance notice of advising the Burns family of the allegation that Michael Burns had sexually molested [Kennedy's daughter], and assuring the plaintiffs of a neighborhood patrol.... In essence there is a question of fact as to whether or not there was justifiable reliance by plaintiffs on the alleged promises by Shields. 18 Order, at 4-5. Thus, the district court's order observes that issues of fact remain. 19 However, this does not suffice to deprive us of jurisdiction under Johnson. In a subsequent case, the Supreme Court explained: 20 Denial of summary judgment often includes a determination that there are controverted issues of material fact, see Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 56, and Johnson surely does not mean that every such denial of summary judgment is nonappealable. Johnson held, simply, that determinations of evidentiary sufficiency at summary judgment are not immediately appealable merely because they happen to arise in a qualified immunity case. . . . Johnson reaffirmed that summary judgment determinations are appealable when they resolve a dispute concerning an `abstract issu[e] of law' relating to qualified immunity . . . typically, the issue whether the federal right allegedly infringed was `clearly established.' 21 Behrens v. Pelletier, 516 U.S. 299, 312-13, 116 S.Ct. 834, 133 L.Ed.2d 773 (1996); see also Knox v. Southwest Airlines, 124 F.3d 1103, 1107 (9th Cir.1997) ([W]e have jurisdiction over an interlocutory appeal from the denial of qualified immunity where the appeal focuses on whether the defendants violated a clearly established law given the undisputed facts, while we do not have jurisdiction over an interlocutory appeal that focuses on whether there is a genuine dispute about the underlying facts.). 22 Unlike the appeal in Johnson, we are neither asked nor required to look at the sufficiency of the evidence in support of the factual claims made by the parties, i.e., Shields's contention that he did not create a false sense of security, and Kennedy's insistence that he did. See Johnson, 515 U.S. at 313, 115 S.Ct. 2151 (holding that some orders denying summary judgment, though entered in a `qualified immunity' case, determine[ ] only a question of `evidence sufficiency,' i.e., which facts a party may, or may not, be able to prove at trial. This kind of order, we conclude, is not appealable.). 23 While the district court concluded that issues of fact remain, those disputed facts are not the basis of Shields's interlocutory appeal before this court. Rather, Shields contends that, even after resolving the issues of fact in Kennedy's favor, Kennedy will not have demonstrated that Shields violated her clearly established, constitutional right. Because this question represents an abstract issue of law relating to qualified immunity, it falls within our jurisdiction on interlocutory appeal. 24 Assuming as true the facts adduced by Kennedy, then, we must determine whether Shields violated her constitutional rights and whether those rights were clearly established. Officer Shields is entitled to qualified immunity unless we resolve both issues in the affirmative. We now turn to those questions. 25