Opinion ID: 739142
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Local Government Liability

Text: 36 We next evaluate the district court's conclusion that McCurtain County, through its representative Sheriff McPeak, was not liable for any constitutional injury to Ms. Hollingsworth under Monell v. Department of Soc. Servs., 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978). Under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a local government may be held liable for the constitutional violation of its employees only when employee action pursuant to official municipal policy ... caused a constitutional tort. Monell, 436 U.S. at 691, 98 S.Ct. at 2036. Therefore, to establish municipal liability a plaintiff must show (1) the existence of a municipal custom or policy and (2) a direct causal link between the custom or policy and the violation alleged. Jenkins v. Wood, 81 F.3d 988, 993-94 (10th Cir.1996) (citing City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378, 385, 109 S.Ct. 1197, 1202, 103 L.Ed.2d 412 (1989) and Hinton v. City of Elwood, 997 F.2d 774, 782 (10th Cir.1993)). In this case, municipal liability refers to the potential local government liability of McCurtain County through its representative Sheriff McPeak. 37 Ms. Hollingsworth asserts three separate bases for her argument that McCurtain County is liable. First, she asserts that the decision to remove her children from her custody was an official policy of McCurtain County that resulted in the deprivation of her due process rights. Second, she contends that Sheriff McPeak's custom of seeking legal advice from the McCurtain County District Attorney caused the violation of her rights. Third, she maintains that Sheriff McPeak's failure to adopt a policy applicable to the circumstances demonstrated deliberate indifference to her constitutional rights. We address each contention in turn. 38
39 Ms. Hollingsworth argues that the decision to remove her children was the official policy of McCurtain County. Where a plaintiff seeks to impose municipal liability on the basis of a single incident, the plaintiff must show that the particular illegal course of action was taken pursuant to a decision made by a person with authority to make policy decisions on behalf of the entity being sued. Jenkins, 81 F.3d at 994 (citing Pembaur v. City of Cincinnati, 475 U.S. 469, 483-85, 106 S.Ct. 1292, 1299-1301, 89 L.Ed.2d 452 (1986)). Ms. Hollingsworth does not argue that Deputy Hill was authorized to make Sheriff's Department policy. Neither does she maintain that Sheriff McPeak directed the removal of her children or ratified Deputy Hill's decision to remove them. Rather, Hollingsworth identifies Assistant District Attorney Driesel as the final policymaker relevant to the decision to remove her children in violation of her due process rights. 40 Whether an individual possesses final policymaking authority is a legal issue to be determined by the court based on state and local law. Randle v. City of Aurora, 69 F.3d 441, 447 (10th Cir.1995). Under Pembaur and its progeny, Driesel could become the County's final policymaker with respect to the events at issue in two ways. First, Driesel could possess explicit final policymaking authority pursuant to Oklahoma statutory or local government law. See Randle, 69 F.3d at 447 (citing City of St. Louis v. Praprotnik, 485 U.S. 112, 124, 108 S.Ct. 915, 924-25, 99 L.Ed.2d 107 (1988)); Jantz v. Muci, 976 F.2d 623, 630 (10th Cir.1992). Second, Sheriff McPeak could delegate final policymaking authority to Driesel. See Randle, 69 F.3d at 448; Ware v. Unified Sch. Dist., 902 F.2d 815, 818 (10th Cir.1990). 41 Assistant District Attorneys in Oklahoma possess explicit statutory authority to render legal advice to county officers such as sheriffs: 42 The District Attorney or his assistants shall give opinion and advice to ... civil officers of his counties when requested by such officers ... upon all matters in which any of the counties of his district are interested, or relating to the duties of such ... officers in which the state or counties may have an interest. 43 Okla.Stat. tit. 19, § 215.5. This language is similar to the relevant Ohio statutory language discussed in Pembaur. 4 Ms. Hollingsworth's reliance upon this similarity, however, is misplaced. In Oklahoma, the Assistant District Attorney is not a county officer like the Ohio County Prosecutor in Pembaur. The statutory authority of the Assistant District Attorney does not encompass the right to instruct[ ] sheriff's deputies how to accomplish their task, but only to render advice and opinion. Pembaur, 475 U.S. at 485, 106 S.Ct. at 1301. Assistant District Attorney Driesel is an officer of the State, Laidley v. McClain, 914 F.2d 1386, 1389 (10th Cir.1990), and is not vested with authority over the conduct of McCurtain County sheriff's deputies or the service and execution of protective orders issued by Oklahoma courts. Rather, Sheriff McPeak is vested with the final policymaking authority over the Sheriff's Department, including the conduct of deputy sheriffs and the service and execution of orders issued by Oklahoma courts. Okla.Stat. tit. 19, §§ 514, 516, 547(A). Thus, we must determine whether Sheriff McPeak, as part of his standing policy to request legal opinion and advice from the District Attorney, delegated his authority over the service and execution of court orders to Driesel. 44 Ms. Hollingsworth bases her contention that Sheriff McPeak delegated his final policymaking authority to Driesel on the similar, but distinguishable, reliance of the Pembaur defendants on the Ohio County Prosecutor for legal direction. Whether a policymaker has delegated his authority depends upon (1) whether the official is meaningfully constrained 'by policies not of that official's own making'[, and] (2) whether the official's decision[s] are final--i.e., are they subject to any meaningful review. Randle, 69 F.3d at 448 (citing Praprotnik, 485 U.S. at 127, 108 S.Ct. at 926 and Ware, 902 F.2d at 818 (Delegation does not occur when a subordinate's decisions are constrained by policies not of his making or when those decisions are subject to review by the authorized policymaker.)). 45 In Pembaur, the Sheriff's Office had a policy of referring legal questions to the County Prosecutor and strictly following his advice. There, the deputies' supervisor told them to call Assistant Prosecutor Whalen and to follow his instructions. Pembaur, 475 U.S. at 473, 106 S.Ct. at 1295 (emphasis added). The Sheriff directed his deputies to seek and follow the instructions of the County Prosecutor, transforming the County Prosecutor's advice into a clear command that constituted county policy. Id. at 485, 106 S.Ct. at 1301. 46 In the case at bar, undisputed facts establish that Sheriff McPeak and his deputies usually followed the advice of the District Attorney. This necessarily implies that the Sheriff's Department sometimes did not follow the advice of the District Attorney. No evidence, however, supports the inference that the Sheriff required his deputies to follow that advice. Sheriff McPeak and his deputies retained the authority and discretion to reject the advice of the District Attorney--that is, they retained the authority to conduct a meaningful review of the District Attorney's opinion. The record contains no evidence that would allow a reasonable jury to infer that Sheriff McPeak delegated to Driesel the decision of whether or not to remove Ms. Hollingsworth's children from her custody. 47 Thus, neither Driesel nor Sheriff McPeak was responsible for the policy decision to remove Ms. Hollingsworth's children without notice and a hearing. Further, although Deputy Hill was responsible for the decision, he is not a final policymaker for the purposes of local government liability. The authority to make policy and the decision to act did not reside with Driesel, McPeak, or Hill at any one time. Therefore, Ms. Hollingsworth may not base her claim of local government liability upon the decision to remove her children as an official policy of McCurtain County.
48 Next, Ms. Hollingsworth contends that the County is liable because Sheriff McPeak's custom of seeking legal advice and opinion from the District Attorney caused the violation of her constitutional right to due process. Plaintiff must show that there is a direct causal link between the official policy and the injury alleged. Jenkins, 81 F.3d at 993-94 (citing Harris, 489 U.S. at 385, 109 S.Ct. at 1202-03). [T]he official policy must be the moving force for the constitutional violation in order to establish local government liability. Haines v. Fisher, 82 F.3d 1503, 1507 (10th Cir.1996) (citing Monell, 436 U.S. at 694, 98 S.Ct. at 2037-38). Therefore, [i]t is only when the execution of the government's policy or custom ... inflicts the injury that the municipality may be held liable under § 1983. Harris, 489 U.S. at 385, 109 S.Ct. at 1203 (quoting Springfield v. Kibbe, 480 U.S. 257, 267, 107 S.Ct. 1114, 1119, 94 L.Ed.2d 293 (1987) (O'Connor, J., dissenting)) (internal quotations omitted) (omission in original). 49 In this case, the record contains no evidence to indicate a direct causal link between the Sheriff's Department custom of seeking legal advice from the District Attorney and the unconstitutional removal of Ms. Hollingsworth's children. The execution of the custom itself did not inflict Hollingsworth's injury. Deputy Hill's decision to seek Driesel's opinion caused injury to no one. Rather, Hill's independent decision to remove Ms. Hollingsworth's children inflicted her injury. [M]unicipal liability is limited to 'acts that are, properly speaking, acts of the municipality--that is, acts which the municipality has officially sanctioned or ordered.'  Starrett v. Wadley, 876 F.2d 808, 818 (10th Cir.1989) (quoting Pembaur, 475 U.S. at 480, 106 S.Ct. at 1298). McCurtain County did not officially sanction the decision to remove Ms. Hollingsworth's children through the Sheriff's Department custom of seeking legal advice from the District Attorney. Therefore, Hollingsworth may not base her claim of local government liability upon that custom. 50
51 Finally, Ms. Hollingsworth argues that Sheriff McPeak's failure to adopt a policy applicable to the circumstances presented in this case demonstrated deliberate indifference to Ms. Hollingsworth's constitutional rights. Where the official policy that forms the basis of a local government liability claim consists of a failure to act, the plaintiff must demonstrate that the municipality's inaction was the result of deliberate indifference to the rights of its inhabitants. Hinton v. City of Elwood, 997 F.2d 774, 782 (10th Cir.1993) (internal quotations and citations omitted). A local government acts with deliberate indifference when the need to act is so obvious, and the inadequacy [of existing policy or custom] so likely to result in the violation of constitutional rights, that the policymakers ... can reasonably be said to have been deliberately indifferent to the need. Harris, 489 U.S. at 390, 109 S.Ct. at 1205. Thus, a local government policymaker is deliberately indifferent when he deliberately or consciously fails to act when presented with an obvious risk of constitutional harm which will almost inevitably result in constitutional injury of the type experienced by the plaintiff. Id. at 389-90, 109 S.Ct. at 1205-06. 52 Ms. Hollingsworth argues that the McCurtain County Sheriff's Department failed to craft policies concerning the service of protective orders or the removal of juveniles from the custody and care of their parents. She contends that Sheriff McPeak admitted that the Department had no such policies. On the contrary, Sheriff McPeak testified merely that the Sheriff's Department manual of policies and procedures did not contain such policies. This fact alone, however, does not mean that the Sheriff's Department failed to craft any policy. 53 Sheriff McPeak testified that the Sheriff's Department had multiple policies applicable in circumstances similar to those faced by Deputy Hill. He testified that, in instances of child abuse or neglect, members of his department followed the process set out in Oklahoma law concerning dependent and neglected children. See Okla.Stat. tit. 10, §§ 1101-1149. In addition, Sheriff McPeak testified that he had ordered his deputies to make certain that they notified proper authorities in circumstances involving any court process that has a statutory hearing attached to it. Finally, Department policy required sheriff's deputies to seek legal advice from the District Attorney when the Department received a facially defective or otherwise questionable order or warrant. 54 Although these policies failed to prevent constitutional injury to Ms. Hollingsworth, no reasonable jury could conclude that the McCurtain County Sheriff was deliberately indifferent to her rights because of his failure to act. The policies in place were designed to ensure that sheriff's deputies followed relevant federal constitutional and Oklahoma state law. 55 In addition, the injury experienced by Ms. Hollingsworth did not result from an obvious risk of which Sheriff McPeak knew or should have known. In Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. at 390 n. 10, 109 S.Ct. at 1205-06 n. 10, the Supreme Court gave an example of the type of risk necessary to give rise to deliberate indifference. Hypothetical city policymakers who provide their police officers firearms to allow them to apprehend fleeing felons would exhibit deliberate indifference either by (1) failing to teach officers the constitutional limitations on the use of deadly force, or (2) ignoring the frequent excessive use of force by its officers. Id. In both cases, the policymakers either knew or should have known that their officers were or would be presented with the deadly force issue, and that some officers inevitably would exercise excessive force. Id. 56 In this case, however, the risk of constitutional harm which resulted in Ms. Hollingsworth's injury was not an obvious risk that inevitably led to the harm she suffered. In many years of experience, neither Sheriff McPeak nor Deputy Hill had ever encountered an internally inconsistent Emergency Protective Order in which the plaintiffs were children in the defendant-parent's custody. Given the Sheriff's Department policies in place, the risk of constitutional harm was not obvious and Ms. Hollingsworth's injury was not inevitable. The circumstances faced by Deputy Hill did not present an obvious risk of harm that the Sheriff's Department should have anticipated through a policy specifically designed to avoid the harm inflicted upon Ms. Hollingsworth. 57 Drawing all reasonable inferences in favor of Ms. Hollingsworth, no rational trier of fact could conclude that Sheriff McPeak's lack of policy constituted deliberate indifference to Ms. Hollingsworth's right to procedural due process. We affirm the district court's decision granting Sheriff McPeak summary judgment.