Opinion ID: 1907232
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Prosecutorial Immunity In This Case

Text: Joyce acknowledges that prosecutorial immunity applies when a prosecutor, while representing the State in a criminal case, acts within the scope of his or her power as a prosecutor and performs a duty intimately related to the State's case. She argues against the extension of absolute immunity here on the grounds that (1) the paternity action was a civil, not a criminal case, (2) the prosecutors were representing her, not the State, (3) in dismissing the action with prejudice, they were not acting within the scope of their authority as counsel for her, and (4) their conduct, in foreclosing any future effort by her or Jessica to collect support and forcing them to seek assistance from social services, was so outrageous that immunity should not apply. To some extent, these grounds overlap and coalesce. To the extent that they rest on the premise that appellees were acting as counsel for Joyce, rather than for the State, we note, preliminarily, that, by virtue of a 1997 statute, the Legislature has made clear that attorneys who provide representation under §§ 5-1011 and 10-115 represent only the Child Support Enforcement Administration and that no attorney-client relationship is created between that attorney and any other person. See 1997 Md. Laws, ch. 646, amending § 10-115. As this case is based on facts occurring in 1988, however, we need to consider the law as it existed then. The end result is the same. There can be little doubt from the principles discussed above that the decision to terminate a prosecution, with or without prejudice, is a quasi-judicial function and, at least in a criminal context, is therefore within the ambit of absolute prosecutorial immunity. Whether that decision is right, wrong, malicious, or non-malicious, it necessarily is part of the prosecution process and stands on the same footing as a decision whether to commence a particular prosecution, whether to charge one offense rather than another, what evidence to produce, and what arguments to make. All are part of the judicial process that serves as the essential underpinning of prosecutorial immunity. The true issue here is whether, because the paternity action filed in this case under title 5, subtitle 10 of the Family Law Article was a civil proceeding to which Joyce was a party, the prosecutors, acting pursuant to §§ 5-1011 and 10-115, were clothed with the same immunity they enjoy when prosecuting criminal cases. State's Attorneys are provided for in the Maryland Constitution, Article V, § 7, but they have no explicit Constitutional duties. Article V, § 9 of the Constitution states that they shall perform such duties ... as shall be prescribed by the General Assembly. Article 10, § 2 (formerly § 34) of the Code provides, generally, that the State's Attorney shall prosecute and defend, on the part of the State, all cases in which the State may be interested, but additional, more specific duties are spread throughout the Code. Most of those duties involve criminal prosecutions, but the State's Attorneys have been given authority in a variety of civil matters as well. They are authorized, for example, to prosecute juvenile delinquency cases, which are civil in nature (§ 3-810 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article); they often represent the State in probation revocation hearings, which are also civil in nature ( Chase v. State, 309 Md. 224, 522 A.2d 1348 (1987)); they are authorized, upon request, to assist the Attorney General in the civil enforcement of the State Anti-Trust law (§ 11-209 of the Commercial Law Article); they are authorized to prosecute civil forfeiture actions under Article 27, § 297; and, as noted, they are authorized to represent the Child Support Enforcement Administration and persons approved by that Administration for child support services in paternity actions. Maryland's current paternity law grew out of the old bastardy and fornication laws, which came to us from England. Under statutes enacted during the reigns of Elizabeth I. and James I., the parents of a child born out of wedlock were subject to criminal penalties if the child became a public charge. See IV WILLIAM BLACKSTONE, COMMENTARIES ON THE LAWS OF ENGLAND 65, citing 18 Eliz. c. 3, and 7 Jac I. c. 4. The principal concern, however, was then, as it is now, not in punishing the parents criminally but in assuring parental support for the child. Blackstone noted that the criminal penalty, which he assumed to be a corporal punishment, can only be inflicted, if the bastard becomes chargeable to the parish: for otherwise the very maintenance of the child is considered as a degree of punishment. Id. In Book I, at 458, he describes the process for assuring parental support: When a woman is delivered, or declares herself with child, of a bastard, and will by oath before a justice of peace charge any person as having got her with child, the justice shall cause such person to be apprehended, and commit him till he gives security, either to maintain the child, or appear at the next quarter-sessions to dispute and try the fact. That procedure was adopted by statute in Maryland as well, at least as early as 1781. See 1781 Md. Laws, ch. 13. Although the law was amended from time to time, until 1963, the practice was for the mother to be brought before a justice of the peace and either name the father or post a bond conditioned on her supporting the child. The man named by her as the father was then apprehended on warrant and, unless he agreed to support the child and posted a bond to secure that obligation, upon the birth of the child he was tried in criminal court to determine whether he was the father. If found guilty, the father was to give bond conditioned on his supporting the child. See Maryland Code (1957), article 12. Only if he refused to post the bond was he subject to criminal penaltyincarceration for up to two years. Although it was perhaps implicit from the fact that the proceedings in court were to be had as in other criminal cases (1912 Md. Laws, ch. 163) that the State's Attorneys prosecuted them, not until 1939 was the role of the State's Attorney articulated in the law. See 1939 Md. Laws, ch. 182. That role was both investigatory and prosecutorial in nature. Upon the filing of an oath by the mother, the State's Attorney was authorized to present the case to a grand jury, but the preferred route seemed to be to proceed by way of criminal information. To that end, the State's Attorney was empowered to summons witnesses to testify under oath before him and to require the production of documents, in aid of determining whether to file a criminal information. Maryland Code (1957), Article 12, §§ 5, 6, and 7; current § 5-1019 of the Family Law Article. Notwithstanding the involvement of the State's Attorneys as prosecutors and the commencement of judicial proceedings by way of indictment or criminal information, the proceeding to determine paternity and set an order of support, even under the pre-1963 regime, embodied elements of both criminal and civil proceedings. As in Blackstone's time, the real objective was not to punish either the father or the motherno criminal penalty being attached directly to the conception or the delivery of the childbut rather to prevent the child from becoming a public charge. In Kennard v. State, 177 Md. 549, 553, 10 A.2d 710, 712 (1940), we regarded a bastardy proceeding as [t]echnically... not a criminal proceeding but one which nevertheless has many of the incidents and elements of such a proceeding. In Fiege v. Boehm, 210 Md. 352, 359, 123 A.2d 316, 321 (1956), we put a slightly different slant on it, concluding that [p]rosecutions for bastardy are treated in Maryland as criminal proceedings, but they are actually civil in purpose. We confirmed in Fiege that [w]hile the prime object of the Maryland Bastardy Act is to protect the public from the burden of maintaining illegitimate children, it is so distinctly in the interest of the mother that she becomes the beneficiary of it. Id. By 1961, an anomaly was recognizedthat the criminal aspects of the bastardy proceeding were, in fact, inhibiting the achievement of its predominant civil purpose. The Commission to Study Problems of Illegitimacy noted in its 1961 Report to the General Assembly: To establish paternity and provide for the child's support, the state must `beyond a reasonable doubt', prove the man's `guilt'; and in so doing it is restricted by technicalities of the criminal law as to time limitations, situs of the act of fornication, and inadmissibility of a married woman's testimony as to any bastard born to her. Not only do many men now escape any responsibility for the maintenance of their illegitimate children, but the present law is also inadequate from the Commission's viewpoint because it neither makes provision for inquiry into the child's custody and welfare, nor provides for a determination of the mother's obligation to support. Final Report of the Commission to Study Problems of Illegitimacy (December, 1961) at 22. The Commission made a number of recommendations for legislative change designed to curtail the incidence of children being born out of wedlock and to better protect the rights of those children who were born in that circumstance. [6] One of those recommendations was to convert the existing bastardy law, with its criminal or quasi-criminal base, into a purely civil proceeding to determine paternity and establish custody, guardianship, and support. In 1963, the Legislature adopted many of the Commission's recommendations, including a rewriting of the bastardy law. That law was repealed in its entirety and new provisions were inserted into the article dealing with equity proceedings. The purpose of the new law was expressed in the statute itself. As now contained in Family Law Article, § 5-1002(b), it is: (1) to promote the general welfare and best interests of children born out of wedlock by securing for them, as nearly as practicable, the same rights to support, care, and education as children born in wedlock; (2) to impose on the mothers and fathers of children born out of wedlock the basic obligations and responsibilities of parenthood; and (3) to simplify the procedures for determining paternity, custody, guardianship, and responsibility for the support of children born out of wedlock. It is telling that § 5-1002 speaks to the public interest and the welfare of the children, not to the individual rights of the mother of the child. Indeed, the only reference to the mother in § 5-1002 is with respect to assuring that she too discharges the responsibilities of parenthood. The substance of the statute was, and is, in conformance with that view. The mother of the child has never been a necessary plaintiff. Without the consent of the State's Attorney or the court, she may not file a paternity complaint on her own. § 5-1010. The only reference to the mother being a complainant is in §§ 5-1011 and 10-115, which provide that the complainant shall be represented by the Attorney General, the State's Attorney, or a qualified lawyer representing the Administration appointed by the Attorney General if the complainant either is the Administration or a person approved for child support services by the Administration. [7] Once a complaint has been filed, the proceeding may not be dismissed voluntarily except by order of court for good cause or with the consent of the State's Attorney. The mother's consent is not required; nor may she dismiss the complaint on her own. On the other hand, a settlement may not be effected unless the complainant, if competent, agrees to accept it. § 5-1016(b). Unquestionably, a mother who intends to retain custody of and raise the child [8] has, and always had, an important interest in a paternity proceeding. We recognized that interest in Fiege v. Boehm, supra, 210 Md. 352, 123 A.2d 316, and, until the 1997 amendment to § 10-115 noted above, it was not entirely clear what the relationship was between her and the State's Attorney. The immunity question cannot depend, however, on whether, for other purposes, an attorney-client relationship existed between them, or, indeed, that the action was a civil, rather than criminal, one. Although the law underwent significant change in 1963, the role of the State's Attorney has remained essentially what it was from the beginningto represent the public interest in assuring that children born out of wedlock are given proper support by their parents and do not become public charges. We need not decide here whether, in performing an investigatory role under § 5-1019 of the Family Law Article, the successor to Article 12, §§ 5, 6, and 7, the State's Attorney possesses only the qualified immunity applicable to investigatory functions. It is clear, however, that once the decision is made to proceed against a particular individual, the function becomes a quasi-judicial one. Whether the proceeding was criminal, civil, or, as we previously observed, some mix of the two, the State's Attorney has always appeared, and continues to appear, in a public, not a private capacity, in accordance with a legislative mandate. Functionally, appellees were performing the same kind of service they perform when prosecuting criminal actions: representing the public interest through a judicial proceeding. The public policy considerations that justify the extension of absolute prosecutorial immunity with respect to criminal actions apply equally to these actions as well. This conclusion, mandated by reference to Maryland law, is in conformance with the law generally throughout the country. In Hanson v. Flores, 486 N.W.2d 294 (Iowa 1992), a case almost directly on point, a prosecutor filed a paternity action against a putative father to collect sums paid by the State with respect to the birth of a child out of wedlock. The father acknowledged paternity and agreed to reimburse the State. In a second paternity action, to collect ongoing support, the defendant denied paternity. The prosecutor entered into a stipulation that, (1) if a blood test showed a greater than 90% probability of paternity, the defendant would admit paternity and agree to pay support, (2) if the test excluded the defendant by 90% or more, the action would be dismissed, and (3) if the test result fell within neither category, the case would proceed and the result would be admitted for whatever value it might have. When the test absolutely excluded the defendantshowed a 0% chance of paternitythe prosecutor dismissed the action, in accordance with the stipulation. After a third action filed by the mother privately was dismissed on res judicata grounds, the mother sued the prosecutor for negligence in permitting the putative father to contest paternity in the second suit after having acknowledged it in the first. She argued, as Joyce does, that prosecutorial immunity should not apply because the paternity action was a civil one in which the prosecutor represented her. Affirming the dismissal of her complaint, the Iowa Supreme Court, at 296, concluded: We believe that the rationale underlying prosecutorial immunity supports its adoption in this case. The state obviously has a strong interest in collecting child support, just as it has in the zealous enforcement of its criminal laws. A county attorney must be permitted to pursue support claims with the confidence that he or she will not be the subject of a suit by a disgruntled litigant, on either side, in the support case. Similar results have been reached in other cases. In Origel v. Washtenaw County, 549 F.Supp. 792 (E.D.Mich.1982), the mother of a child born out of wedlock sued the prosecutor who had filed a paternity action that was later dismissed for lack of prosecution. The action was brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Based on Imbler v. Pachtman, supra, 424 U.S. 409, 96 S.Ct. 984, 47 L.Ed.2d 128, the court held that the defendant was protected by absolute prosecutorial immunity and dismissed the complaint. See also Johnson v. Granholm, 662 F.2d 449 (6th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 457 U.S. 1120, 102 S.Ct. 2933, 73 L.Ed.2d 1332 (1982); Duerscherl v. Foley, 681 F.Supp. 1364 (D.Minn.1987), aff'd, 845 F.2d 1027 (8th Cir.1988). The same immunity has also been applied in suits against prosecutors by putative fathers and their families based on allegations that the prosecutors' conduct was too aggressive or otherwise inappropriate. See Kaplan v. LaBarbera, 58 Cal.App.4th 175, 67 Cal.Rptr.2d 903 (Cal.App.1997); Clifford v. Marion County Pros. Atty., 654 N.E.2d 805 (Ind.App.1995). For the reasons noted, we hold that the circuit court correctly applied absolute immunity and dismissed Joyce's complaint. JUDGMENT AFFIRMED; APPELLANT TO PAY THE COSTS.