Opinion ID: 567581
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Against the Police Officer

Text: 30 Hunter's claim against the individual police officer for using excessive force in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights is not so clearly deficient. The complaint alleges that on a certain date he was arrested by two police officers in connection with a motor vehicle accident; it continues 31 After he had been arrested, and while he was handcuffed, [they] did forecably [sic] hit and strike [him] in and about his head and face and body.... As a direct and proximate result of the intentional, malicious and negligent conduct of the [officers, he] was caused to sustain severe, painful permanent injuries to various parts of his body and to suffer serious and permanent mental distress and anguish and psychological injuries, and loss of income, pain and suffering and public humiliations. Permanent damage and disfigurement to his ear as well as acute emotional and psychological damage. [sic] 32 As part of a separate count apparently attempting to allege assault and battery, Hunter also stated that the actions of the defendants were without legal or just cause, provocation. 33 Hunter's complaint against the officer must meet three related requirements. First, because Hunter seeks to hold a government official liable for his performance of a discretionary function, the complaint must be sufficiently detailed to enable the district court to decide at the outset whether his action may proceed to discovery and trial. Second, the pleaded facts must show that the officer's alleged use of force violated Hunter's Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable seizures. See Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 109 S.Ct. 1865, 104 L.Ed.2d 443 (1989). Third, because the officer may have a qualified immunity from liability for his conduct in making the arrest, the complaint must demonstrate that the officer's conduct violated a constitutional right of Hunter's that was clearly established at the time of the alleged beating in 1986. 34 First. Police officers making an arrest, like other government officials performing discretionary functions, generally are shielded from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established ... rights of which a reasonable person would have known. Martin v. Malhoyt, 830 F.2d 237, 252-53 (D.C.Cir.1987) (quoting Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2738, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982)); see also Harris v. District of Columbia, 932 F.2d 10, 13 (D.C.Cir.1991). In order that an official also be spared the burdens of discovery and trial upon the basis of allegations that will not ultimately support a judgment against him, see Whitacre v. Davey, 890 F.2d 1168, 1170-71 (D.C.Cir.1989), we require that a complaint alleging conduct by a government official performing a discretionary function meet a heightened pleading standard. That is, it must provide a greater degree of factual specificity than is ordinarily necessary under the notice pleading approach of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. See, e.g., Martin, 830 F.2d at 254 & nn. 40-41, 256-67. 35 We recognize that some of our previous opinions could be read to suggest that the heightened pleading requirement is applicable only if the defendant has a qualified immunity defense to a charge that he acted unconstitutionally. See id. at 254. We now make it clear that the heightened pleading requirement is not contingent upon the existence of a substantively distinct qualified immunity defense, (at least where, as with the excessive force claim presented here, there are specific facts to which the plaintiff himself has access that could show whether the defendant may have acted unreasonably in the circumstances). Rather, it is the social cost of distracting government officials with litigation that gives rise both to the qualified immunity defense and to the heightened pleading requirement. In other words, it is the propriety of the qualified immunity analysis, rather than recognition of a substantively [291 U.S.App.D.C. 362] distinct qualified immunity defense, that underpins the heightened pleading requirement. See id. at 256-57. That the question whether the degree of force used was reasonable or excessive may be determined as part of a plaintiff's cause of action, rather than as part of the officer's separate defense, see below, hardly justifies releasing the plaintiff from the obligation to plead specific facts. 36 While we recognize that a plaintiff does need to be more careful and complete in order to draft a complaint that meets the heightened pleading standard, we do not believe than an undue burden is involved where the alleged victim of excessive force is able to recount the facts. The pleading standard requires no more than that the plaintiff tell his story, relating the pertinent information that is already in his possession. Cf. Siegert v. Gilley, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 1789, 1800-01, 114 L.Ed.2d 277 (1991) (Marshall, J., dissenting) (heightened pleading standard should not require plaintiff to assert facts evidence of which is peculiarly within the control of the defendant). The Supreme Court has consistently emphasized that the qualified immunity question should be resolved at the earliest possible stage of a litigation. Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 646 n. 6, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 3042, n. 6, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987). There is no reason to excuse the plaintiff from pleading the facts to which he has access, when that might enable the court to determine at the pleading stage that the defendant acted reasonably (i.e., that the jury could not determine that the defendant acted unreasonably based upon the plaintiff's version of the events). 37 Second. When a plaintiff alleges a violation of his constitutional right by a government official whose actions may be qualifiedly immune from liability, the complaint must establish both (1) that the plaintiff was deprived of a constitutional right, and (2) that the right in question was clearly established at the time the defendant acted. See Siegert, 111 S.Ct. at 1793-94 (mandating the order of the two-part analysis and therefore affirming the judgment of this court on the ground that the plaintiff suffered no unconstitutional injury). We consider first the current constitutional standard for use of excessive force during arrest. 38 Since the 1989 decision in Graham, 490 U.S. 386, 109 S.Ct. 1865, whether an officer used excessive non-deadly force during an arrest has been governed by the objective reasonableness standard of the Fourth Amendment. In Graham the Court explained that it was mak[ing] explicit what was implicit in Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1, 7-9, 11, 105 S.Ct. 1694, 1699-700, 1701, 85 L.Ed.2d 1 (1985), a case in which the Court had applied the totality of the circumstances test of the Fourth Amendment to a claim of deadly force used against a fleeing felon. 490 U.S. at 395, 109 S.Ct. at 1871. The Court went on to hold that all claims that law enforcement officers have used excessive force--deadly or not--in the course of an arrest ... should be analyzed under the Fourth Amendment and its 'reasonableness' standard, id. (emphasis in original), rather than under any of the more demanding substantive due process tests that most of the courts of appeals had previously applied, see Comment: Rethinking Excessive Force, 1987 Duke L.J. 693, 693-94 (Sept.1987). The objective reasonableness standard is not capable of precise definition or mechanical application. 490 U.S. at 396, 109 S.Ct. at 1871. Rather, the court must consider all of the facts and circumstances of each case, including the severity of the crime occasioning the arrest, whether the suspect posed an immediate threat to the safety of the officer or of anyone else, and whether he actively resisted or attempted to flee. Id. While the court should avoid reliance upon hindsight and should take into account the officer's need to make split-second judgments at the time he acted, the test is, in the end, still the objective reasonableness of his conduct. Id. at 396, 388, 109 S.Ct. at 1871, 1867. 39 When a plaintiff claims that an officer used excessive force, the heightened pleading standard demands that he make nonconclusory allegations of evidence sufficient to demonstrate that the force [291 U.S.App.D.C. 363] usedactually was unreasonable. See Martin, 830 F.2d at 257, quotingHobson v. Wilson, 737 F.2d 1, 29 (D.C.Cir.1984). A bare assertion that force was used is insufficient, as is a conclusory description of that force as excessive. Many factors may be relevant to the ultimate conclusion as to whether the force used was reasonable, and like the Supreme Court in Graham, 490 U.S. at 396, 109 S.Ct. at 1871, we do not attempt here to give an exhaustive list. We note only that in drafting a complaint, counsel may consider, in addition to the factors mentioned by the Supreme Court inGraham, those itemized by the Fifth Circuit in Brown v. Glossip, 878 F.2d 871, 874 (5th Cir.1989) (whether officer harbored ill-will toward the plaintiff, whether a warrant was used, whether the plaintiff resisted arrest or was armed, whether more than one arrestee or officer was involved, whether the plaintiff was sober, whether other dangerous or exigent circumstances existed at the time of the arrest, and what the arrest charges were). 40 Third. Because the district court may have to determine on remand whether Hunter's amended complaint contains nonconclusory allegations of fact sufficient both to demonstrate that the force used was actually excessive and to defeat any potential qualified immunity defense, we also consider the substantive content of any qualified immunity defense the officer may have to Hunter's claim. We note again that whether an official protected by qualified immunity may be held personally liable for an allegedly unlawful official action generally turns on the 'objective legal reasonableness' of the action, Harlow, 457 U.S., at 819 [102 S.Ct., at 2738], assessed in light of the legal rules that were 'clearly established' at the time it was taken, id., at 818 [102 S.Ct. at 2738]. Anderson, 483 U.S. at 639, 107 S.Ct. at 3038. 41 Several courts have concluded that qualified immunity principles provide no substantively distinct defense to a charge that a police officer used excessive force during an arrest made after the Supreme Court established in Graham that the Fourth Amendment objective reasonableness test governs. See Jackson v. Hoylman, 933 F.2d 401, 402-03 (6th Cir.1991); Street v. Parham, 929 F.2d 537, 540-41 & n. 2 (10th Cir.1991); Dixon v. Richer, 922 F.2d 1456, 1463 (10th Cir.1991); see also Urbonya, Problematic Standards of Reasonableness: Qualified Immunity in Section 1983 Actions for Police Officer's Use of Excessive Force, 62 Temple L.Rev. 61, 67 (1989). But see Slattery v. Rizzo, 939 F.2d 213, 215-17 (4th Cir.1991) (probable cause to use deadly force); Finnegan v. Fountain, 915 F.2d 817, 823 & n. 11 (2d Cir.1990); Brown v. Glossip, 878 F.2d 871, 874-75 (5th Cir.1989). Once it is determined that the officer acted unreasonably in using a certain amount of force, these courts note, it will not be open to him to argue that a reasonable officer would not have believed that his conduct violated the Constitution. Any qualified immunity defense would be redundant, its substance having been incorporated into the cause of action itself. 42 We too doubt whether a substantively distinct qualified immunity defense would be available to an officer acting after Graham, but we need not resolve that question here. See Graham, 490 U.S. at 399 n. 12, 109 S.Ct. at 1873 n. 12 (leaving open question of proper application of qualified immunity in excessive force cases arising under the Fourth Amendment); Graham v. Davis, 880 F.2d 1414, 1419 (D.C.Cir.1989) (same). The officer's conduct in this case occurred in 1986, three years before Graham was decided. The reasonableness test made applicable in that case is a shift away from the three- and four-part due process tests that the courts of appeals had previously applied in cases alleging excessive force, see Comment: Rethinking Excessive Force, 1987 Duke L.J. at 693-94; and those tests did not clearly establish a constitutional right to be free from all force defined as excessive under Graham. A typical four-part test required the court to consider the need for application of force, the relationship between the need and the amount of force that was used, the extent of injury inflicted, and whether force was applied in a good faith effort to [291 U.S.App.D.C. 364] maintain or restore discipline or maliciously and sadistically for the very purpose of causing harm. Johnson v. Glick, 481 F.2d 1028, 1033 (2d Cir.1973) (Friendly, J.). See also Chathas v. Smith, 884 F.2d 980, 988 (7th Cir.1989) (three-part test). 43 Because Graham broadened the scope of the constitutional right to be free from the use of official force, other courts have given content to an independent qualified immunity defense by applying the Graham standard as current constitutional doctrine on excessiveness, but continuing to apply their own pre-Graham due process tests in order to determine the contours of the clearly established right of which a reasonable officer should have been aware prior to Graham--and thus ultimately to determine liability for behavior occurring prior to Graham. See Mouille v. Live Oak, 918 F.2d 548, 551 (5th Cir.1990); Finnegan v. Fountain, 915 F.2d 817, 824 n. 10 (2d Cir.1990); Chathas v. Smith, 884 F.2d 980, 989 (7th Cir.1989); see also Hannula v. Lakewood, 907 F.2d 129, 131-32 (10th Cir.1990) (excessive force determined per Graham, but as applied to pre-Graham conduct, scope of qualified immunity defense governed by more demanding due process test). But see Dixon v. Richer, 922 F.2d 1456, 1461-63 (10th Cir.1991) (apparently limiting Hannula to cases in which plaintiff did not expressly rely upon Fourth Amendment and asserting that even prior to Graham, Garner and Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968) had established principle that seizure must be objectively reasonable). 44 At the time of the defendant's actions in this case, this circuit had not expressly adopted either a due process standard or the Fourth Amendment standard for cases charging use of excessive force incident to an arrest. In Carter v. Carlson, 447 F.2d 358, 361 (D.C.Cir.1971), rev'd on other grounds, 409 U.S. 418, 93 S.Ct. 602, 34 L.Ed.2d 613 (1973), we stated in passing that excessive force violates the right to be free from unreasonable seizure; but that single statement does not amount to clearly established law, especially in view of the nearly unanimous adoption of a due process test in the other circuits. We did not clearly adopt the Fourth Amendment objective reasonableness standard for the use of force during an arrest until Martin, 830 F.2d at 261 & n. 76 (Sept. 29, 1987)--nearly a year after the officer's conduct in this case. 45 The due process test adopted in Norris v. District of Columbia, 737 F.2d 1148 (D.C.Cir.1984), for the use of force during pretrial detention establishes a minimum standard that can be applied to pre-Martin conduct. In Norris, after quoting the four-part due process test laid down by Judge Friendly in Johnson v. Glick, we reversed the trial court's dismissal of a complaint alleging that the plaintiff had been beaten. In accord with numerous other courts, we [held] that the amount of force required to state a constitutional claim for prison officer battery varies with the justification for that force. Id. at 1152. In applying this test, we differentiated two situations. Where gratuitous brutalization is involved, less force oriented towards that end is needed to shock the judicial conscience. Id. Where some force is justified, the Constitution may be offended if the force used grossly exceeds that warranted by the circumstances. Id. at 1152 n. 8. 46 In summary, we hold that complaints alleging excessive force must contain nonconclusory allegations of fact sufficient to demonstrate that the force used was actually excessive--whether the use of force occurred before or after Martin. We also hold that the scope of the right to be free from excessive non-deadly force that was clearly established in this circuit prior to Martin (Sept. 29, 1987) was defined by Norris (June 22, 1984). Because Hunter's complaint alleges conduct coming between Norris and Martin, his claim is subject to the officer's substantively distinct qualified immunity defense that arises from the change in the clearly established right to be free from the use of force, and the substantive adequacy of his complaint must be judged using the Norris standard.