Opinion ID: 76264
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: County Authority and Policy Required

Text: 12 The Supreme Court has placed strict limitations on municipal liability under § 1983. A county's liability under § 1983 may not be based on the doctrine of respondeat superior. City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378, 385, 109 S.Ct. 1197, 103 L.Ed.2d 412 (1989); Monell v. Dep't of Soc. Servs., 436 U.S. 658, 694, 98 S.Ct. 2018. (1978). A county is liable under section 1983 only for acts for which [the county] is actually responsible. Marsh v. Butler County, 268 F.3d 1014, 1027 (11th Cir.2001) ( en banc ). Indeed, a county is liable only when the county's official policy causes a constitutional violation. Monell, 436 U.S. at 694, 98 S.Ct. 2018. Thus, Grech must identify a municipal `policy' or `custom' that caused [his] injury. Gold v. City of Miami, 151 F.3d 1346, 1350 (11th Cir.1998) (quotation marks omitted) (alteration in original) (citing Bd. of County Comm'rs v. Brown, 520 U.S. 397, 403, 117 S.Ct. 1382, 137 L.Ed.2d 626 (1997)). 5 13 A plaintiff, like Grech, has two methods by which to establish a county's policy: identify either (1) an officially promulgated county policy or (2) an unofficial custom or practice of the county shown through the repeated acts of a final policymaker for the county. Monell, 436 U.S. at 690-91, 694, 98 S.Ct. 2018; Brown v. Neumann, 188 F.3d 1289, 1290 (11th Cir.1999) (citing City of St. Louis v. Praprotnik, 485 U.S. 112, 121, 108 S.Ct. 915, 99 L.Ed.2d 107 (1988)). Because a county rarely will have an officially-adopted policy of permitting a particular constitutional violation, most plaintiffs, and Grech, must show that the county has a custom or practice of permitting it and that the county's custom or practice is the `moving force [behind] the constitutional violation.' 6 City of Canton, 489 U.S. at 389, 109 S.Ct. 1197 (alteration in original) (citing Monell, 436 U.S. at 694, 98 S.Ct. 2018 and Polk County v. Dodson, 454 U.S. 312, 326, 102 S.Ct. 445, 70 L.Ed.2d 509 (1981)). 14 Under either avenue, a plaintiff (1) must show that the local governmental entity, here the county, has authority and responsibility over the governmental function in issue and (2) must identify those officials who speak with final policymaking authority for that local governmental entity concerning the act alleged to have caused the particular constitutional violation in issue. Jett v. Dallas Indep. Sch. Dist., 491 U.S. 701, 737, 109 S.Ct. 2702, 105 L.Ed.2d 598 (1989); Hill v. Clifton, 74 F.3d 1150, 1152 (11th Cir.1996) (citing Pembaur v. City of Cincinnati, 475 U.S. 469, 106 S.Ct. 1292, 89 L.Ed.2d 452 (1986)). 15 In this case, the parties do not dispute that a Georgia sheriff acts as a policymaker; instead, their dispute is over whether the Sheriff here acts as a policymaker for the defendant Clayton County. We thus review several recent decisions which instruct us how to determine whether a sheriff acts as county policymaker for purposes of § 1983.