Opinion ID: 437247
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Claim Against the Borough

Text: 28 A local government may be sued under Sec. 1983 only for acts implementing an official policy, practice or custom. Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 690-91, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 2035-36, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978). As the Monell Court made clear, there can be no Sec. 1983 liability under a respondeat superior theory: Instead, it is when execution of a government's policy or custom, whether made by its lawmakers or by those whose edicts or acts may fairly be said to represent official policy, inflicts the injury that the government as an entity is responsible under Sec. 1983. Id. at 694, 98 S.Ct. at 2037. See also Black v. Stephens, 662 F.2d 181, 191 (3d Cir.1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 1008, 102 S.Ct. 1646, 71 L.Ed.2d 876 (1982); Hampton v. Holmesburg Prison Officials, 546 F.2d 1077, 1082 (3d Cir.1976); cf. General Building Contractors Association v. Pennsylvania, 458 U.S. 375, 391-95, 102 S.Ct. 3141, 3150-3152, 73 L.Ed.2d 835 (1982) (Sec. 1981). A plaintiff must identify the challenged policy, attribute it to the city itself, and show a causal link between execution of the policy and the injury suffered. Bennett v. City of Slidell, 728 F.2d 762, 767 (5th Cir.1984). 29 There is no evidence here of any policy or practice of the Borough of Parkesburg operating against the appellant. Appellant seeks to impose liability on the Borough on two bases. He argues first that Chief Thomas, one of the defendants, was a de facto policy making official and that therefore his actions represented official city policy, and, second that the Borough's official policy not to hire trained individuals, or to properly train them led to the issuance of the improper complaint. As to the first basis, we are not persuaded that Thomas' action in connection with the filing of the criminal charges against Losch is sufficient to constitute a municipal policy within the meaning of Monell. A policy cannot ordinarily be inferred from a single instance of illegality such as a first arrest without probable cause. Walters v. City of Ocean Springs, 626 F.2d 1317, 1323 (5th Cir.1980); Turpin v. Mailet, 619 F.2d 196, 202 (2d Cir.1980), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 1016, 101 S.Ct. 577, 66 L.Ed.2d 475 (1982). 30 The facts in this record are unlike those before us in Black v. Stephens, where we sustained the City's liability because the police chief wrote and implemented an official police regulation [delaying any disciplinary investigation of a police officer's conduct until the underlying arrest was resolved] which the jury found proximately caused ... [the] fil[ing of] unwarranted charges against [plaintiff]. 662 F.2d at 191. In this case even if Thomas were the final authority with regard to police activities, which the Borough disputes, there is no regulation or evidence of any repeated action by Thomas with regard to filing of charges that can transmute his actions in the Losch incident into a general Borough policy. 31 Losch also claims that the Borough followed a practice of employing untrained officers and giving them unbridled arrest powers. However, he produced no evidence that the Borough's general employment practices are deficient, or that defendants were inexperienced. The parties stipulated that Officer Wilson was certified under the Pennsylvania Municipal Police Officers' Education and Training Act. Wilson had one year's experience with the Chester County Sheriff's Department when he was hired by Parkesburg. Chief Thomas began his law-enforcement career in 1969 and was Chief of Police in Atglen, Pennsylvania, for seven years before assuming the same post in Parkesburg. 32 Further, assuming arguendo that plaintiff could recover under Sec. 1983 for negligent supervision, 3 a question we do not reach here, the district court found, and we agree, that plaintiff has failed to show a causal link between his injury and the Borough's allegedly negligent practices. 33 We therefore affirm the grant of summary judgment for the Borough of Parkesburg.