Opinion ID: 484980
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Claims Against Wall and Fiser

Text: 59 Essentially for the reasons stated in some detail in considering whether plaintiffs have stated a constitutional claim against Dickson County, we do not believe that a cause of action has been stated against Sheriff Wall. He also stands in the position of the employer of deputy Fiser and would not be liable under Sec. 1983 on the basis of respondeat superior. He could be liable only for his own personal involvement, if any, in the alleged deprivation of Kathy Nishiyama's constitutional rights. Wall is sued in his official capacity and thus stands in the same posture as the county. Brandon v. Holt, 469 U.S. at 472, 105 S.Ct. at 879. 60 Conceding, as alleged in the complaint, that Sheriff Wall knew and followed a course of conduct that permitted trusty Hartman unsupervised use of county patrol cars, the reasoning of Martinez and Janan (and the cases cited therein) preclude a determination of liability against him. No special relationship was alleged. 61 Plaintiffs raised no allegation of any intended consequence of defendant Wall's actions directed against Kathy Nishiyama in particular. She was not in any way subject to state control, nor in Wall's custody at the time she was murdered. We would therefore affirm the judgment for Sheriff Wall despite giving plaintiffs the full benefit of the allegations of the complaint against him.B. Fiser 62 Unlike the other defendants, Fiser is charged with actually turning over the unsupervised use of the patrol car to Hartman knowing his background and propensity. We must, therefore, assume for purposes of this motion that he intentionally gave over the car to one in his personal custody while acting under color of state law. The intentional act of turning over a highway patrol car to an inmate trusty pursuant to an alleged grossly negligent policy of the sheriff's office does not indicate that any defendant, including Fiser, had any intention nor any malicious attitude towards Nishiyama, who in turn bore no special relationship to any defendant nor to Hartman the offender. Wilson v. Beebe concluded that conduct characterized as reckless, but which was not intentionally directed towards a victim in custody, was insufficient to establish a constitutional due process claim. 770 F.2d at 586. Courts have historically required deliberate conduct to subject a state actor to a substantive due process claim under Sec. 1983 for deprivation of life. Daniels v. Williams, 106 S.Ct. at 665. The reference in Daniels to Rochin v. California, 342 U.S. 165, 72 S.Ct. 205, 96 L.Ed. 183 (1952), and to Murray's Lessee v. Hoboken Land & Improvement Co., 18 How. (59 U.S.) 272 (1856), refers to situations in which law enforcement personnel take direct and deliberate action against a specifically targeted individual resulting in loss of life, liberty, or property. That kind of action is not at issue, even with respect to defendant Fiser, with regard to the claims of a constitutional right to protection from random criminal conduct by one not acting under color of law. There is simply no authority recognizing that a claim of the kind asserted by plaintiffs here represents a cognizable constitutional cause of action, 8 or a Sec. 1983 claim against Fiser despite the egregiously thoughtless character of his action. 63 We would therefore affirm the action of the district court as to all defendants.