Opinion ID: 746904
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure to Plead an Evidence-Tampering Theory

Text: 65 However, Stemler did not allege this alternative theory in her complaint. The closest she comes to making such an allegation is at paragraph 48 of her amended complaint: The Defendants, Officers Wince, Dolan, Dusing and City of Florence, instituted and continued the original criminal judicial proceeding against the Plaintiff by insisting upon her prosecution and conviction despite their personal knowledge Plaintiff should not be so prosecuted. This allegation cannot fairly be read to give notice that she seeks to assert an evidence-tampering claim. The record reflects that the evidence-tampering claim first arose on May 7, 1996, in Stemler's response to the city's motion for summary judgment, after the individual officers were dismissed from the suit. 66 It is well-settled that the parties may constructively amend the complaint by agreeing, even implicitly, to litigate fully an issue not raised in the original pleadings. See 6A C. WRIGHT, A. MILLER & M. KANE, FEDERAL PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE § 1493 at 19 (2d ed.1990). However, such a constructive amendment can have no effect upon a party who has been dismissed from the action, and who is not given notice that a new claim of liability has been asserted against him. Stemler, of course, was free to seek leave to amend her complaint again to raise her new theory of falsification of evidence, or to file a new complaint against Wince explicitly raising that claim. She did not do so. The district court did not err in dismissing Stemler's complaint by failing to consider a cause of action that she had not yet alleged. Consequently, this court is powerless to engage in any further review of her allegation that Wince falsified evidence against her in her criminal trial.