Opinion ID: 4448517
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Screened-In Porch

Text: That leaves K.C.R.’s final contention, which is that the district court made two errors involving the screened-in porch that entitle her to a new trial or to judgment as a matter of law. First, she argues that the jury’s verdict went against the great weight of the evidence because there was insufficient evidence for the jury to conclude that McKinney had permission to enter the screened-in porch, regardless of whether he later had permission to enter the house proper. And second, she argues that the court prejudiced her right to a fair trial by answering the jury’s question about that porch (“By law, is the screened-in front porch considered part of the house?”) with what she describes as a factual determination (“For purposes of this case, no.”). 6 K.C.R. also challenges the grant of summary judgment against her on her official capacity claim against Sheriff Judd alleging that his office had a policy sanctioning warrantless arrests in homes. “If a person has suffered no constitutional injury at the hands of the individual police officer, the fact that the departmental regulations might have authorized [a constitutionally suspect act] is quite beside the point.” City of Los Angeles v. Heller, 475 U.S. 796, 799 (1986). Because K.C.R.’s claim against McKinney fails, her policy claim against the sheriff in his official capacity necessarily fails. 40 Case: 17-14525 Date Filed: 10/21/2019 Page: 41 of 48 We review only for an abuse of discretion the denial of K.C.R.’s motions for a new trial and a mistrial. See United States v. Osmakac, 868 F.3d 937, 957 (11th Cir. 2017). 1. Motion for New Trial Based on Insufficient Evidence According to K.C.R., McKinney violated her constitutional rights by opening the door to the screened-in porch and walking through it to knock on the front door of the house. The way she sees it, that porch is considered curtilage, which means that McKinney needed a warrant or an exception to the warrant requirement to enter it. And, she argues, the district court should have granted her a new trial because “there was not even a scintilla of evidence which rebutted the presumption that McKinney’s conduct violated the Fourth Amendment.” There’s a simple reason K.C.R. can’t find a “scintilla of evidence” in the record about whether the screened-in porch constituted part of the house and whether McKinney could walk through it. She didn’t raise the issue. It’s not in her complaint, it’s not in any of her pre-trial motions, and it’s not in her proposed jury instructions.7 And as the district court found in denying her motion for a new 7 There is no mention of the “screened-in” porch or of the word “curtilage” in the amended complaint or in any of the pre-trial motions. In her response to McKinney’s motion for summary judgment, K.C.R. did not mention that McKinney and the other officers had to go through the screened-in porch to get to the front door. Instead, she started her story about the warrantless entry with the deputies already at the front door: “The deputies knocked hard on the door to KCR’s home at nighttime.” Her description of the case in the parties’ Joint Pretrial Statement also left out any mention of the screened-in porch. 41 Case: 17-14525 Date Filed: 10/21/2019 Page: 42 of 48 trial, K.C.R. didn’t raise the issue in any way at any point anywhere in the case before the jury returned its verdict. The first mention of the screened-in porch was during Lieutenant Rudd’s testimony. K.C.R. asked Rudd whether McKinney was already in the house when he arrived on the scene, and Rudd answered that the other deputies “were not in the house,” but instead were in “a screened-in room that was in the front of the home.” K.C.R. continued her questioning without asking any more questions about the screened-in porch. After K.C.R. was done, the court asked Rudd some questions, including whether the deputies knocked or should have knocked on the screen door before they entered the porch and proceeded to the main door of the house. Rudd responded that he “believe[d] that there would be an opportunity that you would have to knock on that front door [of the screened-in porch] to gain the attention of the homeowners,” but he wasn’t sure whether the other deputies had done that. The next time the issue surfaced was during the testimony of Hamilton. During her cross-examination of Hamilton, K.C.R. asked whether Hamilton had opened the screen door. Hamilton said that McKinney had opened it. K.C.R. then asked whether McKinney had authorization to go “into their porch, screened porch area.” McKinney objected to the question on relevance grounds, the district court sustained the objection without any argument from K.C.R., and K.C.R. moved on to a different line of questioning. 42 Case: 17-14525 Date Filed: 10/21/2019 Page: 43 of 48 The issue did not come up again until the jury sent its note asking whether “[b]y law” the screened-in porch was considered part of the house. (More about that later.) But even after the jury asked that, it was not until K.C.R.’s post-verdict motions for a new trial and judgment as a matter of law that she argued the screened-in porch was relevant to the case. Of course, that was too late for her Rule 50 motion. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50(b) talks of “renewing” an earlier Rule 50(a) motion for judgment as a matter of law, meaning that “a district court can grant a Rule 50(b) motion only on grounds advanced in the pre-verdict Rule 50(a) motion.” McGinnis v. Am. Home Mortg. Servicing, Inc., 817 F.3d 1241, 1260 (11th Cir. 2016) (quotation marks and alterations omitted). Because K.C.R. did not make her curtilage argument in her pre-verdict motion, she could not make it in her post-verdict motion. K.C.R. does not take issue with that. Instead she points out that her motion for a new trial, unlike her motion for judgment as a matter of law, did not require a pre-verdict counterpart. True enough. See Urti v. Transp. Commercial Corp., 479 F.2d 766, 769 (5th Cir. 1973) (“We have previously held that motions [for judgment as a matter of law] are not prerequisites to a motion for a new trial.”). But that does not mean a plaintiff can proceed on one theory of the case throughout the trial and then be entitled to a do-over under a different theory. See Del Rio Distrib. Inc. v. Adolph Coors Co., 589 F.2d 176, 178–79 (5th Cir. 1979). As the 43 Case: 17-14525 Date Filed: 10/21/2019 Page: 44 of 48 party alleging that her constitutional rights were violated, it was K.C.R.’s burden to “demonstrate that a seizure occurred and that it was unreasonable.” Evans, 117 F.3d at 1320 (emphasis added). K.C.R. objects to that characterization, relying on Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(b)(2) for cover. It provides: “When an issue not raised by the pleadings is tried by the parties’ express or implied consent, it must be treated in all respects as if raised in the pleadings.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(b)(2). K.C.R. says that’s what happened here because the deputies’ testimony about the screened-in porch “must have been sufficient to raise the issue by implication since the jury itself took note of the evidence enough to ask the District Court questions about its relevance during deliberations.” But here again, a look at the record shows that K.C.R. rejected whatever lifeline the jury’s question might have thrown her way (and we don’t think it was a stout line to begin with). Upon receiving the jury’s note, the court told the attorneys that it was going to inform the jury that the screened-in porch was not part of the house. K.C.R.’s attorney objected — but only because he did not consider the issue to be relevant to the claim. Here’s the exchange: THE COURT: All right. There’s been no allegation in the case or argument in the course of the trial that opening of the screen door was in any way a violation of the plaintiff’s rights, so I’m going to tell the jury “no” as relates to the question about is the screen door part of the house, because even if it is, there’s been no argument, and there is specific case law to establish whether a porch is or isn’t subject to 44 Case: 17-14525 Date Filed: 10/21/2019 Page: 45 of 48 Fourth Amendment protection, but it requires some evidence as to the content of the porch, the use of the porch, the appearance of the porch, none of which has been introduced into evidence in this case. So if it was your intention to raise something about the porch, then it has failed for lack of evidence. [K.C.R.’s attorney]: Let me -- for the record, Your Honor, we asked them questions, it was a screened-in porch, and they went through a screen door, and, you know, for the record, we didn’t allege in the Complaint the front door, we alleged they didn’t have consent to enter the premises or the house, period, whether it was screen door, back door or side door. . . . I’d also request that [the jurors] be brought in and asked if they did any research last night, if anybody got on the computer, because you gave them explicit jury instructions on what the single issue of this case is, and we’re getting questions unrelated to what the jury instructions are. . . . I just think it’s irrelevant to their determination here ultimately, but -- I think you’re telling them something that, you know, hasn’t been briefed and, you know, I’m pretty sure a screened porch with a door on it is -- in an enclosed area is part of the house. THE COURT: And you are pretty sure to be wrong about that unless there’s certain clear indicia that this is part of the living space of the house, and there’s been no evidence of it, so for purposes -- [K.C.R.’s attorney]: I understand that, Your Honor, so you can’t say yes or no, it’s just irrelevant to the issue of this case. . . . [T]he issue relating to consent to enter and go into the home to arrest is unrelated to the screen door, unrelated to the front door really, either they could come in or they couldn’t come in, and they did, and so it’s just not something for them to consider, not that it’s no. THE COURT: So what do you want me to say? [K.C.R.’s attorney]: That it’s not relevant to the issues in this case and follow the jury instructions. 45 Case: 17-14525 Date Filed: 10/21/2019 Page: 46 of 48 (Emphasis added.) In short, through her attorney K.C.R. told the court that the question of whether the screened-in porch was part of the house was “irrelevant” — that the answer to the question had no bearing on the jury’s determination of whether McKinney had consent to enter the house. K.C.R. cannot now argue that it was reversible error for the court to take her attorney at his word. See United States v. Carpenter, 803 F.3d 1224, 1236 (11th Cir. 2015) (“It is by now a cardinal rule of appellate review that a party may not challenge as error a ruling or other trial proceeding invited by that party.”) (quotation marks omitted); United States v. Dennis, 786 F.2d 1029, 1042 (11th Cir. 1986) (“To preserve an issue at trial for later consideration by an appellate court, one must raise an objection that is sufficient to apprise the trial court and the opposing party of the particular grounds upon which appellate relief will later be sought. A general objection or an objection on other grounds will not suffice.”). The district court did not abuse its discretion by denying K.C.R.’s motion for a new trial based on her belated curtilage argument, which was not presented to the jury. 2. Motion for a New Trial Based on the District Court’s Response to the Jury’s Question K.C.R. also argues that she is entitled to a new trial because of the district court’s response to the jury’s question about the screened-in porch. We will reverse a district court’s supplemental instructions only “when we are left with a 46 Case: 17-14525 Date Filed: 10/21/2019 Page: 47 of 48 substantial and ineradicable doubt as to whether the jury was properly guided in its deliberations.” United States v. Grigsby, 111 F.3d 806, 814 (11th Cir. 1997) (quotation marks omitted); see United States v. Lopez, 590 F.3d 1238, 1247–48 (11th Cir. 2009) (“While the district court has considerable discretion regarding the extent and character of supplemental jury instructions, it does not have discretion to misstate the law or confuse the jury.”). When the jury asked whether, “[b]y law[,] is the screened-in front porch considered a part of the house?” the judge answered: “For purposes of this case, no.” K.C.R. says that answer was not only legally wrong but also instructed the jury how to answer the fact question of whether McKinney had consent to enter the house. Appellant’s Br. 41. According to her, the court’s response “indicated to the Jury that McKinney’s actions in approaching the door were lawful, and suggested that any consent he thereafter obtained would likewise be lawful.” Id. at 43. We disagree. K.C.R.’s attorney objected to the exact wording of the answer. But the alternative answer he proposed conveyed the same sentiment as the one the court gave. When the court asked, “So what do you want me to say” to the jury about whether the porch was part of the house, the attorney stated: “That it’s not relevant to the issues in this case and follow the jury instructions.” That is essentially what the court told the jury. And K.C.R.’s attorney had made the porch irrelevant, by leaving it out of the case and by insisting that it was irrelevant to the 47 Case: 17-14525 Date Filed: 10/21/2019 Page: 48 of 48 only issue before the jury. K.C.R. cannot now argue that the porch issue was not only relevant but was so much so that we should reverse the district court’s judgment. AFFIRMED. 48