Opinion ID: 754797
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Chief Samuels and Officer Chew's qualified immunity claims.

Text: 11 We have jurisdiction to review a district court's order denying summary judgment on a qualified immunity defense under the collateral order doctrine. Armendariz v. Penman, 75 F.3d 1311, 1316 (9th Cir.1996). However, our jurisdiction is limited to purely legal issues. The collateral order doctrine does not sanction review of a district court's order denying the defendant's motion for summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds when the basis for the defendant's motion is that the evidence in the pretrial record is insufficient to create a genuine issue of fact for trial. Id. at 1317 (citing Johnson v. Jones, 515 U.S. 304, 313-19, 115 S.Ct. 2151, 132 L.Ed.2d 238 (1995)). Since the district court found genuine issues of fact concerning the reasonableness of Officer Chew's actions, our review is limited to determining whether clearly established law existed at the time of the incident that Officer Chew's actions could have violated. Johnson, 515 U.S. at 317, 115 S.Ct. 2151 (limiting interlocutory appeals of 'qualified immunity' matters to cases presenting more abstract issues of law). 12 For purposes of the appeal of the denial of immunity, we must take, as given, the facts that the district court assumed when it denied summary judgment for [a] (purely legal) reason. Id. at 319, 115 S.Ct. 2151. In cases like this one where the district court does not explicitly set out the facts that it relied upon, we undertake a review of the pretrial record only to the extent necessary to determine what facts the district court, in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, likely assumed. Id. We review the district court's denial of qualified immunity to Chief Samuels and Officer Chew under those constraints. 13