Opinion ID: 65780
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Municipal Monell Liability

Text: Plaintiffs next assert that the district court erred in granting summary judgment to the Village of Turkey Creek on their § 1983 claims. We disagree and thus affirm the district court on this issue. Plaintiffs have argued that the Village of Turkey Creek is liable for its deliberately indifferent failure to adequately train and supervise Marcantel and Tarver. Respondeat superior does not apply to municipalities for claims under § 1983. Monell v. Dep't of Social Servs., 436 U.S. 658, 691, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978). Rather, a municipality is liable under § 1983 only if its 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. Id. at 694, 98 S.Ct. 2018. The plaintiff can prove the existence of a municipal policy through, inter alia, the actions of the municipality's legislative body or an individual with final decisionmaking authority. Pembaur v. City of Cincinnati, 475 U.S. 469, 480, 483-84, 106 S.Ct. 1292, 89 L.Ed.2d 452 (1986). The plaintiff can also prove the existence of a municipal custom by pointing to a persistent, widespread practice of city officials or employees, which, although not authorized by officially adopted and promulgated policy, is so common and well settled as to constitute a custom that fairly represents municipal policy. Bennett v. City of Slidell, 735 F.2d 861, 862 (5th Cir.1984) (en banc). In City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378, 109 S.Ct. 1197, 103 L.Ed.2d 412 (1989), a case specifically involving the training of police officers, the Court held that a municipality can be liable under § 1983 for failing to train its employees. Id. at 387, 109 S.Ct. 1197. However, the inadequacy of police training may serve as the basis for § 1983 liability only where the failure to train amounts to deliberate indifference to the rights of persons with whom the police come into contact. Id. at 388, 109 S.Ct. 1197. The Court further elaborated that [o]nly where a failure to train reflects a `deliberate' or `conscious' choice by a municipality  a `policy' as defined by our prior cases  can a city be liable for such a failure under § 1983. Id. at 389, 109 S.Ct. 1197. We have extended City of Canton to cover a plaintiff's allegations that the municipality failed to properly discipline its employees. See Piotrowski v. City of Houston, 237 F.3d 567, 581 (5th Cir.2001) (Self-evidently, a City policy of inadequate officer discipline could be unconstitutional if it was pursued with deliberate indifference toward the constitutional rights of citizens.). First, the evidence shows that Tarver has had only one other excessive force complaint against him (the unrelated excessive force complaint that led to his resignation from his position as a sheriff's deputy), which was filed after the Deville incident. The district attorney asked him to resign his position as a Turkey Creek officer for making a false charge after the Deville incident as well. Deputy Adam Fruge of the Evangeline Parish Sheriff's Department knew Tarver as a former colleague with the Sheriff's Department and through Fruge's interaction with Turkey Creek officers. He testified that Tarver was hard to work with because he had a quick temper and used force on a couple of occasions when Fruge would have taken different action. Fruge also noted that Tarver may have been untruthful while testifying in court on a prior occasion. However, there is no indication in Fruge's testimony that anyone other than Fruge knew of these problems, or that the Village or the relevant policymakers knew about them. Finally, as to Marcantel, Marcantel testified that he was once the subject of an anonymous complaint, filed with the state troopers, that he smelled of alcohol on a traffic stop. According to Marcantel, the troopers investigated immediately and found that he had not been drinking. At bottom, plaintiffs have not introduced evidence that would permit a jury to find that the Village of Turkey Creek acted with deliberate indifference towards Deville's constitutional rights in failing to discipline these officers. There is no evidence that formal complaints were filed against them before the Deville incident, despite Fruge's concerns about Tarver's performance, and there is no evidence that the village or the relevant decisionmakers knew about those problems. Thus, plaintiffs have not shown that the Village's alleged failure to discipline the officers was undertaken with deliberate indifference to the `known or obvious consequences' that constitutional violations would result. Piotrowski, 237 F.3d at 579, 581 (quoting Bd. of County Comm'rs of Bryan County v. Brown, 520 U.S. 397, 407, 117 S.Ct. 1382, 137 L.Ed.2d 626 (1997)); see also Scott v. Moore, 114 F.3d 51, 54-55 (5th Cir.1997) (en banc) (finding no genuine issue regarding city's alleged deliberate indifference when there was no showing that the city had actual knowledge that its actions created a risk of harm to the plaintiff and had received no prior complaints regarding the tortfeasor-employee). Accordingly, the district court did not err in granting summary judgment to the Village of Turkey Creek on plaintiffs' § 1983 claims.