Opinion ID: 781653
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: DeShaney and the Question of State Action

Text: 15 The Bukowskis seek to hold government officials responsible for the acts of private violence Bukowski suffered at the hands of Hall, who was convicted of his crimes and imprisoned by the State. Generally, however, the Due Process Clause does not impose liability on the State for injuries inflicted by private acts of violence. Ewolski, 287 F.3d at 509. 16 The Supreme Court addressed the state-action requirement in this context in DeShaney v. Winnebago County Dep't of Social Servs., 489 U.S. 189, 109 S.Ct. 998, 103 L.Ed.2d 249 (1989). In DeShaney, the Court held that the Winnebago County Department of Social Services could not be held liable for the injuries inflicted on a young child by his father, even though it was the Department's general responsibility to prevent child abuse and the Department had, in fact, returned the child to his father's house after having taken temporary custody of him. While the Court in DeShaney denied relief, it took care to explain that it was not considering a case where a person suffered injuries either while in state custody or because of state acts that made him more vulnerable to private violence. Id. at 201, 109 S.Ct. 998. Instead, DeShaney involved a situation where the state's involvement placed the ultimate victim in no worse position than that in which he would have been had it not acted at all. Id. 17 This court has recognized both of the above exceptions to DeShaney's general rule. We have held that the Due Process Clause makes an injury suffered in state custody constitutionally cognizable. See Stemler v. City of Florence, 126 F.3d 856, 867-68 (6th Cir.1997), cert. denied, 523 U.S. 1118, 118 S.Ct. 1796, 140 L.Ed.2d 936 (1998). We have also recognized that liability under the Due Process Clause can be predicated on affirmative acts by the state which either create or increase the risk that an individual will be exposed to private acts of violence. Kallstrom v. City of Columbus, 136 F.3d 1055, 1066 (6th Cir.1998); see also Ewolski, 287 F.3d at 509 (requiring an act that directly increase[s] the vulnerability of citizens to danger). The question here is whether the Bukowskis can come within the exception, elucidated in Kallstrom, for state-created (or state-heightened) dangers. 1 18 It seems difficult to characterize the actions of the officials as affirmative acts within the meaning of DeShaney. The officials arguably did nothing to increase Bukowski's vulnerability to danger. They merely returned her at her request to Hall's residence, where they originally had found her. The Bukowskis argue that the police did not merely refuse to act: instead of simply allowing her to leave the police station, they affirmatively acted by returning her to Hall's residence. 19 Whether or not the defendants acted may be a difficult question in the abstract, but DeShaney makes clear that the acts of the officials here clearly fall on the inaction side of the line. Although in DeShaney the state returned Joshua to the ultimate aggressor, the DeShaney Court explicitly rejected the idea that such acts met the state-action requirement. See DeShaney, 489 U.S. at 201, 109 S.Ct. 998 (That the State once took temporary custody of Joshua does not alter the analysis, for when it returned him to his father's custody, it placed him in no worse position than that in which he would have been had it not acted at all.). The Court in DeShaney was not merely assuming that state actors did not contribute to the hazards faced by Joshua, but it was also holding that the act of returning someone to the same dangers that existed status quo ante does not satisfy the state-action requirement. 20 Examining the quality of governmental involvement here, it is apparent that the government was no more involved in making Bukowski more vulnerable to private violence than it was in DeShaney — in both cases, the government was merely returning a person to a situation with a preexisting danger. The plaintiffs' argument that the officials encouraged Hall by their act of returning Bukowski is really the same as the argument that the officials encouraged Hall by their refusal to get involved. 21 In reality, the facts in DeShaney compare favorably to those the plaintiffs allege in this case. DeShaney involved a transfer of custody of a child by state actors who may have had actual knowledge of the danger faced by the child. This case, in contrast, involves an (admittedly mentally disabled) adult and governmental officials who did not have any knowledge of the dangers facing her. Additionally, while Joshua was forcibly transferred to his father's care by act of law, Bukowski was transported to Hall's residence because the officials were accommodating Bukowski's own wishes. Any attempts to distinguish DeShaney inevitably favor the defendants, not the plaintiffs. 22