Opinion ID: 2583901
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Brewster and Bishop decisions

Text: As indicated above, the Court of Appeal in this case relied on federal Ninth Circuit cases that had reached conclusions seemingly contrary to Pitts and Peters. ( Bishop, supra, 291 F.3d at p. 566; Brewster, supra, 275 F.3d at pp. 807-808.) These cases, while purporting to defer to state law as required by McMillian, supra, 520 U.S. at page 786, 117 S.Ct. 1734, nonetheless ultimately took the position that questions regarding section 1983 liability implicate federal law and accordingly were not necessarily controlled by Pitts or Peters. (See Bishop, supra, 291 F.3d at pp. 562, 564-565 [ Pitts factually distinguishable]; Brewster, supra, 275 F.3d at pp. 807, 811 [expressly declining to follow Peters ].) Lower federal decisions such as Brewster and Bishop may be entitled to great weight but they are not binding on this court. (E.g., People v. Avena (1996) 13 Cal.4th 394, 431, 53 Cal.Rptr.2d 301, 916 P.2d 1000; People v. Bradley (1969) 1 Cal.3d 80, 86, 81 Cal.Rptr. 457, 460 P.2d 129.) In any event, having reviewed those federal decisions, we conclude that they erred in failing to follow the guidance given by McMillian, Pitts, and Peters. 1. Brewster โ In Brewster, Shasta County and its sheriff's department allegedly violated the plaintiff's civil rights during a murder investigation by manipulating a witness into making a false identification, failing to test physical evidence, and ignoring exculpatory evidence. ( Brewster, supra, 275 F.3d at p. 805.) Brewster concluded that the sheriff was acting as a county agent during the investigation. The court concentrated on such factors as (1) inclusion of sheriffs as county officers in the state Constitution, article XI, section 1, subdivision (b), and Government Code section 24000, and (2) county supervision of sheriffs' activities under Government Code section 25303. ( Brewster, supra, 275 F.3d at pp. 806-808.) Yet, as we noted above, Pitts and Peters found these factors insufficient to establish a county agency relationship with, respectively, district attorneys and sheriffs when performing law enforcement functions. ( Pitts, supra, 17 Cal.4th at pp. 360-362, 70 Cal.Rptr.2d 823, 949 P.2d 920; Peters, supra, 68 Cal.App.4th at p. 1176, 80 Cal.Rptr.2d 860.) Brewster, like Justice Werdegar's concurring and dissenting opinion herein, also deemed significant the fact that monetary damages assessed against sheriffs for section 1983 claims would be paid by the counties, not the state. ( Brewster, supra, 275 F.3d at pp. 807-808, citing Gov.Code, ง 815.2, subd. (a) [vicarious liability of government agencies for employee's torts].) Section 815.2, subdivision (a), applies, however, to both the state and counties ( Pitts, supra, 17 Cal.4th at p. 360, fn. 7, 70 Cal.Rptr.2d 823, 949 P.2d 920), and although it may provide a general basis for vicarious public liability, significantly subdivision (b) of the section immunizes both the state and county from torts that are committed by employees who are themselves immune. So, we dispute the present relevance of section 815.2, as it fails to answer the questions whether the sheriff was indeed acting as a county, not state, employee during the events in question, and whether he lacked immunity from federal civil rights actions โ the very questions we are attempting to answer here. In addition, we think the Brewster analysis is faulty for other reasons. As Brewster earlier acknowledged, if sheriffs indeed are acting as state agents in crime investigations, they would be immune from liability under section 1983 if sued in their official capacity, and their counties would not be liable for their actions. ( Brewster, supra, 275 F.3d at p. 805 [if [the sheriff] is a policy maker for the state, then the county cannot be liable for his actions].) To the extent Brewster was referring to a sheriff's liability when sued in his personal capacity, we have no occasion here to consider whether the Los Angeles County Sheriff is personally immune under any California statute. We note, however, that apart from the immunity sheriffs would enjoy while acting as state agents, sheriffs enjoy additional immunities under Government Code sections 820.2 (discretionary acts) or 820.4 (executing or enforcing laws). Significantly, Pitts discarded a similar argument under section 815.2, subdivision (a), because of the immunity of the district attorney under section 821.6 (instituting or prosecuting an action). (See Pitts, supra, 17 Cal.4th at p. 360, fn. 7, 70 Cal.Rptr.2d 823, 949 P.2d 920.) In any event, even assuming California sheriffs lack such immunity, the fact that their counties may be called on to pay any tort damage judgment rendered against their sheriffs sued in their personal capacity is only one of the many factors McMillian requires us to consider. That single factor, if it truly exists, is outweighed by the constitutional and statutory provisions discussed above, demonstrating that a sheriff represents the state, not the county, when performing law enforcement duties in his official capacity. The concurring and dissenting opinion of Justice Werdegar suggests that the high court in McMillian found the vicarious liability point critical to its holding, but we read the case differently. What the high court found critical was the fact that the Alabama Supreme Court had determined that the framers of the Alabama Constitution took steps to ensure that its sheriffs would be considered executive officers of the state. ( McMillian, supra, 520 U.S. at pp. 788-789, 117 S.Ct. 1734.) Based on these critical factors, Alabama cases later concluded that sheriffs are state officers so that tort claims against them are deemed suits against the state. ( Id. at p. 789, 117 S.Ct. 1734.) The analysis in this opinion is consistent with McMillian, for our review of our state's Constitution and statutes similarly convinces us that sheriffs while performing law enforcement duties are state agents, so that the present suits should be deemed suits against the State of California. Justice Werdegar relies in part on Hess v. Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corporation (1994) 513 U.S. 30, 48, 115 S.Ct. 394, 130 L.Ed.2d 245, as emphasizing the importance of the vulnerability of the State's purse (conc. & dis. opn., post, at 11 Cal.Rptr.3d p. 718, 87 P.3d at p. 23), but that case did not involve a section 1983 claim but was an action brought under the Federal Employers Liability Act against a multi-state port authority, which unsuccessfully sought Eleventh Amendment immunity as a state agent. Interestingly, Justice Ginsburg wrote Hess, and several years later, she wrote the dissent in McMillian, joined by three other justices. In the latter case, as Justice Werdegar observes, the majority noted that the state would be liable for tort judgments against an Alabama sheriff. However, in her dissent in McMillian arguing that sheriffs are county, not state officers, Justice Ginsburg fails even to mention this factor. Rather, she cites such factors as the inclusion of Alabama sheriffs in the executive department, and impeachment of sheriffs by state officers, and says, these measures are the strongest supports for the Court's classification of county sheriffs as state actors. ( McMillian, supra, 520 U.S. at p. 798, 117 S.Ct. 1734.) Surely, if payment of tort judgments were indeed the critical factor in determining whether a sheriff was a state officer, Justice Ginsburg, who authored Hess, would have at least mentioned that factor, and indeed would have been required to distinguish it, in her subsequent dissent in McMillian. Thus, it appears that we are instead instructed by both the majority and the dissenting opinions in McMillian to consider a variety of factors, not simply one, under state law in reaching an understanding of the actual function of a governmental official, in a particular area. ( McMillian, supra, 520 U.S. at p. 786, 117 S.Ct. 1734.) Justice Werdegar's opinion also asserts that unquestionably a California sheriff is a county employee for purposes of Government Code section 815.2, citing Sullivan v. County of Los Angeles (1974) 12 Cal.3d 710, 717, 117 Cal.Rptr. 241, 527 P.2d 865. But Sullivan was not faced with the question whether such a sheriff might be deemed a state agent for purposes of federal section 1983 civil rights liability, or indeed for any other purpose. The question simply was not before us in that case. Thus, section 815.2 seemingly adds nothing helpful to the resolution of the question whether sheriffs are state or county agents. 2. Bishop โ In Bishop, supra, 291 F.3d 549, a Native American tribe and its wholly owned gaming corporation sued the County of Inyo, its district attorney, and its sheriff, seeking equitable and monetary relief and alleging these defendants conducted an unlawful records search on tribal property. The federal appeals court in its now vacated opinion in Bishop, concluded that both the district attorney and sheriff were acting as county officers in obtaining and executing an invalid search warrant aimed at uncovering welfare fraud. ( Bishop, supra, 291 F.3d at pp. 562-566.) As in Brewster, supra, 275 F.3d at pages 806-808, the Bishop court relied on such factors as (1) inclusion of district attorneys and sheriffs as county officers in the state Constitution, article XI, section 1, subdivision (b), and Government Code section 24000, and (2) county supervision of the district attorney and sheriff activities under Government Code section 25303. ( Bishop, supra, at pp. 563-564.) As we noted above, Pitts and Peters deemed these factors insufficient to establish a county agency relationship with, respectively, district attorneys and sheriffs when performing law enforcement activities. ( Pitts, supra, 17 Cal.4th at pp. 360-362, 70 Cal.Rptr.2d 823, 949 P.2d 920; Peters, supra, 68 Cal.App.4th at p. 1176, 80 Cal.Rptr.2d 860.) Acknowledging the constitutional and statutory supervisory authority of the state Attorney General over district attorneys and sheriffs in their law enforcement functions, bishop nonetheless expressed concern that to allow the Attorney General's supervisory role to be dispositive ... would prove too much, for if taken to its logical extreme, all local law enforcement agencies in California would be immune from prosecution for civil rights violation, contrary to Monell's holding ( Monell, supra, 436 U.S. at pp. 690-692, 98 S.Ct. 2018) preserving section 1983 actions against local agencies. ( Bishop, supra, 291 F.3d at p. 564.) To the contrary, merely because the sheriff is a state officer, as demonstrated by the foregoing constitutional and statutory provisions, does not mean that all local law enforcement officers are also to be deemed state officers. Pitts and Peters are clearly confined, respectively, to situations in which district attorneys and sheriffs are actually engaged in performing law enforcement duties, such as investigating and prosecuting crime, or training staff and developing policy involving such matters. (See Pitts, supra, 17 Cal.4th at p. 366, 70 Cal.Rptr.2d 823, 949 P.2d 920; Peters, supra, 68 Cal.App.4th at p. 1172, 80 Cal.Rptr.2d 860.) Immunizing these persons when actually engaged in such activities would not violate Monell's broad refusal to find all local agencies immune from suit under section 1983. Other torts or civil rights violations by these and other local officers might well be deemed acts committed by county agents, for which they and their counties could be responsible. As Peters states, This determination does not require an `all-or-nothing' categorization applying to every type of conduct in which the official may engage. Rather, the issue is whether the official is a local policymaker with regard to the particular action alleged to have deprived the plaintiff of civil rights. [Citations.] ( Peters, supra, at p. 1172, 80 Cal.Rptr.2d 860.) Moreover, Bishop's analysis appears to express a policy concern (overly broad immunity from suit) that is extraneous to the high court's factor-balancing test employed in McMillian, supra, 520 U.S. at pages 786, 790-791, 117 S.Ct. 1734, a test that, as Brewster acknowledged, requires a weighing of the state's Constitution, statutes, and case law. ( Brewster, supra, 275 F.3d at p. 806.) Bishop also stressed the fact that the search warrant at issue there sought to disclose evidence of welfare fraud, a matter falling within the jurisdiction of the county's health and human services department. ( Bishop, supra, 291 F.3d at p. 565.) The fact remains, however, that welfare fraud is a state offense (e.g., Welf. & Inst.Code, งง 11482-11483). Attempting to distinguish Pitts, supra, 17 Cal.4th 340, 70 Cal.Rptr.2d 823, 949 P.2d 920, the Bishop court observed that Pitts involved prosecutorial conduct, whereas Bishop concerned investigating possible welfare fraud in advance of prosecution. ( Bishop, supra, at pp. 564-565.) But nothing in Pitts supports such a fine distinction. Indeed, Pitts's precise holding was that a district attorney is a state official when preparing to prosecute and when prosecuting criminal violations of state law. ( Pitts, supra, at p. 360, 70 Cal.Rptr.2d 823, 949 P.2d 920, italics added.) It is noteworthy that the plaintiffs in Pitts had alleged misconduct (procuring false witness statements and failing to provide adequate training procedures) squarely falling in the pre-prosecution category. ( Id. at p. 352, 70 Cal.Rptr.2d 823, 949 P.2d 920.) 3. Conclusion โ In short, we are unconvinced that either Brewster or Bishop affords cogent reasons for ruling that in California, sheriffs act as county officers in performing their law enforcement activities. We conclude that, following the analysis prescribed in McMillian, Pitts and Peters, California sheriffs act as state officers while performing state law enforcement duties such as investigating possible criminal activity. Plaintiffs assert that even if the sheriff acted as a state agent in this case, County's other agents and employees played such a significant role in the events as to justify its liability. The limited issue before us, however, involves the potential liability of the County for the acts of its sheriff. The question of the County's liability for the acts of other persons is not before us. We conclude the trial court properly sustained the demurrers of County, its sheriff's department, and sheriff to plaintiffs' civil rights action under section 1983.