Opinion ID: 557349
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Whether the district court erred in denying defendants'

Text: 15 motion to sever. 16 Defendants-appellants (collectively Mason County) argue that the district court erred in denying their motion to sever. This argument is based on two theories. First, they contend that the requirements for permissive joinder were not met. Second, they maintain that even if the requirements for permissive joinder were met, the motion to sever the plaintiffs' claims should have been granted because not doing so resulted in prejudice to the individual defendants. 17 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 42(b) gives a district court broad discretion to order separate trials. A district court's decision regarding severance may be set aside only for abuse of discretion. United States v. Sanchez-Lopez, 879 F.2d 541, 551 (9th Cir.1989). Under the abuse of discretion standard, a reviewing court cannot reverse unless it has a definite and firm conviction that the district court made a clear error of judgment in its conclusion. Abatti v. Commissioner, 859 F.2d 115, 117 (9th Cir.1988).
18 Mason County did not raise the issue of whether the requirements for permissive joinder were met below. They are thus precluded from raising it now. This court will not review an issue not raised below unless necessary to prevent manifest injustice. International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftsman Local Union No. 20 v. Martin Jaska, Inc., 752 F.2d 1401, 1404 (9th Cir.1985). This court will address the issue only if the proponent can point to exceptional circumstances why the issue was not raised below. Id. (quoting Taylor v. Sentry Life Ins. Co., 729 F.2d 652, 655-56 (9th Cir.1984) (per curiam)). Because Mason County does not show any reasons why they failed to raise the issue below, this court will not consider the issue.
19 Mason County moved before trial to sever the claims of the plaintiffs because, they argued, joinder would result in prejudice to the individual defendants. It is true that by trying the claims against the individual defendants with the claims against Mason County and the Sheriff's Department, evidence of the series of incidents of excessive force involving different police officers which would have been inadmissible against individual defendants not involved in the particular episode, were admissible against the County and the Sheriff's Department in order to show a pattern of misconduct. 20 Yet, while severing the defendants would have surely eliminated this prejudice, severing the plaintiffs would not have solved the problem. Even if each plaintiff had a separate trial, evidence of a pattern of misconduct would still have been admitted because each plaintiff (except Taylor who did not sue Mason County) presented a claim against at least one defendant and against the County. Since defendants requested severance of the plaintiffs' claims, the court below did not abuse its discretion in rejecting the motion. 21