Opinion ID: 399114
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Liability of the City Council

Text: 14 The plaintiffs urge that the City Council members are liable for the transfer of Lt. Oswalt in May 1979 because, although it is stipulated that the Chief of Police acted alone in May, the City Council ratified the action in August 1979. Also, the plaintiff asserts that the City Councilmen are liable for the Chief's decision not to promote anyone during the pendency of the litigation because several testified at trial that, although they did not know of the decision, they would approve it. 15 The trial court, finding no constitutional violations, did not reach these issues. Our remand renders it unnecessary for us to decide them finally now. Nonetheless, we think it appropriate to sketch out the considerations that may arise on remand. See Schneider v. City of Atlanta, 5 Cir. 1980, 628 F.2d 915, 920. 16 As we have discussed, we affirm the trial court's holding here that the request for a hearing was not a substantial factor in the decision of the City Council to ratify the transfer. Even if Chief of Police Watkins is held liable for the transfer under the Mt. Healthy test, the City Councilmen cannot be held liable for his tortious action solely on the basis of respondeat superior. 13 See Monell v. Department of Social Services, 1978, 436 U.S. 658, 690-95, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 2035-2038, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (dictum); e.g., Watson v. Interstate Fire & Casualty Co., 5 Cir. 1980, 611 F.2d 120, 123; Baskin v. Parker, 5 Cir. 1979, 602 F.2d 1205, 1208 (on rehearing) (per curiam); L. Tribe, American Constitutional Law 6 (Supp.1979); Developments in the Law-Section 1983 and Federalism, 90 Harv.L.Rev. 1133, 1207 (1977). Although supervisory officials cannot be held liable solely on the basis of their employer-employee relationship with a tortfeasor, they may be liable when their own action or inaction, including a failure to supervise that amounts to gross negligence or deliberate indifference, is a proximate cause of the constitutional violation. See, e.g., Owens v. Haas, 2 Cir. 1979, 601 F.2d 1242, 1246, cert. denied, 444 U.S. 980, 100 S.Ct. 483, 62 L.Ed.2d 407; Redmond v. Baxley, E.D.Mich.1979, 475 F.Supp. 1111, 1116; Cook v. City of Miami, S.D.Fla.1979, 464 F.Supp. 737; see also Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. at 694 n.58, 98 S.Ct. at 2037. The Tenth Circuit drew the distinction well in McClelland v. Facteau : 17 Respondeat superior is a doctrine of vicarious liability based upon public policy-the notion that the person who benefits by the acts of the servant must pay for wrongs committed by the servant; the one held liable as master need not be at fault in any way. (Citation omitted.) Under direct liability, plaintiff must show the supervisor breached a duty to plaintiff which was the proximate cause of the injury. The law clearly allows actions against supervisors under section 1983 as long as a sufficient causal connection is present.... 18 10 Cir. 1979, 610 F.2d 693, 695. 19 The City Councilmen would not be liable if they delegated their authority to the Chief of Police and he committed a constitutional tort, unless the delegation itself caused the tort. Thus, in Watson v. Interstate Fire & Casualty Co., 5 Cir. 1980, 611 F.2d 120, this court held that a sheriff who delegated responsibility to his subordinates and was not aware of an allegedly illegal incarceration and commitment until after the fact was not liable to the injured party where he did not fail to supervise properly. Accordingly, we conclude that, to impose liability on a supervisory official, section 1983 requires more than a simple ratification of an impermissible act when the ratification is based on independent legitimate reasons. To prevail against the City Councilmen, the plaintiffs must show a failure to supervise properly that caused the harm. See Sims v. Adams, 5 Cir. 1976, 537 F.2d 829. Usually, a failure to supervise gives rise to section 1983 liability only in those situations in which there is a history of widespread abuse. Then knowledge may be imputed to the supervisory official, and he can be found to have caused the later violation by his failure to prevent it. Developments in the Law-Section 1983 and Federalism, 90 Harv.L.Rev. 1133, 1207 (1977); see, e.g., Henzel v. Gerstein, 5 Cir. 1979, 608 F.2d 654, 658 & n.5; McClelland v. Facteau, 10 Cir. 1979, 610 F.2d 693, 697; Schramm v. Krischell, D.Conn.1979, 84 F.R.D. 294, 296; cf. Knight v. Colorado, D.Colo.1980, 496 F.Supp. 779 (no liability in spite of history of abuses because supervisor took action to prevent further abuses); see generally Note, Municipal Liability under Section 1983: The Meaning of Policy or Custom, 79 Colum.L.Rev. 304, 316-18 (1979). In some cases, though, the courts have viewed a single abuse as so flagrant that it gives rise to an inference that the supervisory official must have breached his duty of proper supervision. Owens v. Haas, 2 Cir. 1979, 601 F.2d 1242, cert. denied, 444 U.S. 980, 100 S.Ct. 483, 62 L.Ed.2d 407; see Redmond v. Baxley, E.D.Mich.1979, 475 F.Supp. 1111, 1117 (import of pervasive abuse is as basis for inferring knowledge on part of supervisor). The simple act of ratification did not cause the violation in this case; only if the trial judge finds that Watkins's actions were so blatantly abusive that one can infer a failure to supervise properly can the City Council be liable for the initial transfer. 14 Then, and only then, the ratification might become relevant as a failure to act to prevent future constitutional violations, which might include the decision not to promote during the pendency of the litigation.