Opinion ID: 628036
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Qualified Immunity and the Individual-Capacity Claim

Text: 75 In a Sec. 1983 action, qualified immunity shields a defendant official sued in his individual capacity from liability for civil damages insofar as [his] conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known, Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2738, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982), or, even where the rights were clearly established, if it was objectively reasonable for the official to believe that his acts did not violate those rights, see Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 638, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 3038, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987); Robison v. Via, 821 F.2d 913, 921 (2d Cir.1987). In order to determine whether a particular right was clearly established at the time a defendant acted, a court should consider: 76 (1) whether the right in question was defined with reasonable specificity; (2) whether the decisional law of the Supreme Court and the applicable circuit court support the existence of the right in question; and (3) whether under preexisting law a reasonable defendant official would have understood that his or her acts were unlawful. 77 Jermosen v. Smith, 945 F.2d 547, 550 (2d Cir.1991), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 1565, 118 L.Ed.2d 211 (1992); see also Benitez v. Wolff, 985 F.2d 662, 666 (2d Cir.1993). Such immunity does not attach where the contours of the right were sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right. Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. at 640, 107 S.Ct. at 3039; see, e.g., Piesco v. City of New York, 933 F.2d 1149, 1160 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 331, 116 L.Ed.2d 272 (1991); Vasbinder v. Ambach, 926 F.2d 1333, 1341 (2d Cir.1991). 78 Absent extraordinary circumstances, if the law was clearly established, the defendant official is not entitled to summary judgment on his immunity defense since a reasonably competent public official should know the law governing his conduct. Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. at 819, 102 S.Ct. at 2738. Nonetheless, even where the contours of the plaintiff's federal rights and the official's permissible actions were clearly delineated at the time of the acts complained of, the defendant may enjoy qualified immunity if it was objectively reasonable for him to believe that his acts did not violate those rights. See, e.g., Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 345-46, 106 S.Ct. 1092, 1098-99, 89 L.Ed.2d 271 (1986); Robison v. Via, 821 F.2d at 921. In such a case, the defense will turn on the particular facts, and summary judgment will be appropriate only if the defendant adduce[s] sufficient facts [such] that no reasonable jury, looking at the evidence in the light most favorable to, and drawing all inferences most favorable to, the plaintiffs, could conclude that it was objectively unreasonable for the defendant[ ] to believe that he was acting in a fashion that did not clearly violate an established federally protected right. Halperin v. Kissinger, 807 F.2d 180, 189 (D.C.Cir.1986) (Scalia, J., sitting by designation); Robison v. Via, 821 F.2d at 921. 79
80 With respect to the claim asserted by Frank, it was established prior to 1985 that government employees had a right under the First Amendment, though not an unlimited right, to speak on matters of public concern. See, e.g., Connick v. Myers, 461 U.S. 138, 146, 103 S.Ct. 1684, 1689-90, 75 L.Ed.2d 708 (1983); Pickering v. Board of Education, 391 U.S. 563, 568, 88 S.Ct. 1731, 1734-35, 20 L.Ed.2d 811 (1968). Where a government employer discharges an employee on account of the employee's speech, the determination of whether the public employer has properly discharged the employee for engaging in speech requires a balance between the interests of the [employee], as a citizen, in commenting upon matters of public concern and the interest of the [government], as an employer, in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs through its employees. Id.; see also Rankin v. McPherson, 483 U.S. 378, 384, 107 S.Ct. 2891, 2897, 97 L.Ed.2d 315 (1987). 81 To make out a prima facie case on such a claim, the employee must establish first that her speech can be  'fairly characterized as constituting speech on a matter of public concern,'  id. (quoting Connick v. Myers, 461 U.S. at 146, 103 S.Ct. at 1690), and second that that speech was at least a 'substantial' or 'motivating' factor in the discharge, White Plains Towing Corp. v. Patterson, 991 F.2d 1049, 1058 (2d Cir.1993) (quoting Mt. Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle, 429 U.S. 274, 287, 97 S.Ct. 568, 50 L.Ed.2d 471 (1977)). The first element is a question of law, the second a question of fact. 82 If the plaintiff establishes both elements, the employer may nonetheless escape liability in either of two ways. It may prevail if it can show that it would have made the same decision in the absence of the protected conduct, see Mt. Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle, 429 U.S. at 286, 97 S.Ct. at 575, or if it can show that the employee's conduct interfered with its effective and efficient fulfillment of its responsibilities to the public, Connick v. Myers, 461 U.S. at 150, 103 S.Ct. at 1692. With respect to the latter defense, the [government]'s burden in justifying a particular discharge varies depending upon the nature of the employee's expression. Id.
83 The record in the present case did not permit summary judgment in favor of Relin on his qualified immunity defense for two reasons. First, Frank's speech plainly centered on a matter of societal importance, i.e., assuring that relevant, material evidence [wa]s fully developed and made available to the prosecution and the defense to guarantee that defendants obtain[ed] a fair trial, 1989 Decision, 719 F.Supp. at 142. Second, there are questions of fact as to the reasons Relin fired Frank, and those questions affect both the merits and the qualified immunity defense. 84 As to the nature of Frank's speech, we reject the district court's 1992 view that that speech did not concern possible wrongdoing in the DA's office but at most, ... concerned a dispute over the proper interpretation of the Brady doctrine, a legal issue over which reasonable minds could differ, and that Relin could reasonably have believed that this was merely an opinion on a legal matter that was entitled to little weight in the Pickering balancing-of-interests analysis. 1992 Decision at 15-16. In reaching this conclusion, the district court likened Frank's concerns to those of the attorney-plaintiff in Giacalone v. Abrams, 850 F.2d 79, 87-88 (2d Cir.1988). The two cases are not parallel. 85 In Giacalone, the plaintiff disagreed with his superiors as to the proper interpretation of certain provisions of the federal tax laws and hence as to the appropriate steps to be taken with respect to certain administrative matters. Giacalone sought to make his own views known to members of the public and to belabor them within the office. Prior to being fired, he made no accusations as to any serious matters of potential impropriety. 86 In the present case, there is no indication in the record that Frank, a nonlawyer, sought to contest the meaning of Brady. Indeed, when she first questioned Pilato as to what information the ADAs wanted or did not want to receive, Frank did not even know what the Brady doctrine was. She merely understood (1) that she had certain information that had logical relevance (an understanding not dependent on legal training); (2) that both A and B told her they did not want the information prior to trial; and (3) that A told her he did not want it because it would be helpful to the defendant. But whether or not Frank was aware of Brady, she, unlike the plaintiff in Giacalone, was plainly raising questions of serious public concern. See, e.g., Connick v. Myers, 461 U.S. at 148, 103 S.Ct. at 1691 (question of actual or potential wrongdoing ... on the part of the district attorney's staff is a matter of serious public concern); see also Dobosz v. Walsh, 892 F.2d 1135, 1141-42 (2d Cir.1989) (same re police officer's cooperation with Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and testimony against fellow officer as to possible planting of gun on person shot by latter officer); Vasbinder v. Ambach, 926 F.2d at 1341 (same re plaintiff's report to FBI of his suspicions of overbilling in federally funded program overseen by his agency); Rookard v. Health & Hospitals Corp., 710 F.2d 41, 46-47 (2d Cir.1983) (same re government employee's private report of allegations of corrupt and wasteful practices outside chain of command to agency's inspector general). In sum, as a matter of law, the district court erred in characterizing Frank's conversations with Pilato as touching only insignificantly on a matter of public concern. 87 Nor could Relin reasonably have viewed Frank's statements as not touching on a matter of public concern. Even if Relin were, on his own, inclined to view the matter as not significant, as the district court did in its 1992 Decision, the very fact that a New York Supreme Court Justice summoned him to chambers to broach the matter would have made it clear to any objectively reasonable official that the substance of Frank's statements was a matter of serious public concern and hence could not be weighed lightly in the Pickering balancing-of-interests analysis. 88 Further, the issue of Relin's motivation in firing Frank was one that clearly involved disputed questions of fact. The record would permit a rational factfinder to infer that Frank was fired because of the content of her speech, i.e., because she disclosed actual or potential wrongdoing by A and B. The district court found instead that Relin fired Frank because the ADAs he consulted felt Frank could no longer be trusted and Relin believed her continued presence would therefore be detrimental to the office's interest of efficiency, and that such a belief provided him with qualified immunity even if the ADAs' views were misguided. This conclusion would be questionable even were there no issue of fact as to Relin's motivation. Prosecutorial efficiency cannot outweigh the right of an employee to raise with a supervising attorney the question of nondisclosure of Brady material, especially when the main champions of that countervailing efficiency are those implicated in the suggestion of Brady derelictions. If the reason for the ADAs' desire to be rid of Frank were a lack of trust in her ability or willingness to remain silent about Brady violations, office efficiency or morale grounded on such considerations could not outweigh Frank's speech, and a competent public official could not reasonably believe that it would. 89 In any event, the court's attribution of Frank's firing to a desire to maintain office efficiency constitutes a finding of fact as to Relin's motivation. On a motion for summary judgment, the district court's function is to identify questions of fact, not to decide them. Nor may the court make credibility assessments; those assessments are to be made by the finder of fact. As the district court seemed to recognize in its 1989 Decision, the question of Relin's motivation could not be decided as a matter of law. Indeed, we note that Relin's positions in this litigation have presented something of a moving target. His initial answer to the complaint took the position that Frank had not been fired but had resigned voluntarily. At the February 13, 1989 hearing, he suggested that Frank had been fired because her conversations with Pilato had impaired the workings of the office and the functionings of the office. (Feb. 13 Tr. at 56.) In a 1992 affidavit, he stated that he had fired Frank because she had not brought her Brady concerns to him or Sofia, and not because she had spoken to Pilato. And one of Relin's 1992 memoranda in support of summary judgment went so far as to intimate that Frank had been fired because, by asking Pilato not to take any action with respect to the actions of A and B without first informing her, she had in fact sought to conceal the Brady derelictions. An assessment of the credibility of Relin's denial that he fired Frank because of the content of her disclosures to Pilato may well be affected by the variety of positions he has taken. 90 Relin's contention that Frank's conduct had impaired office relationships was supported by Sofia's testimony that the top ADAs felt Frank could not be trusted. That testimony itself, however, assuming it were credited in the face of the glowing posttermination letters of recommendation written for Frank by Sofia, Relin, and A, raises questions as to the focus of the mistrust. A rational factfinder could conclude that a mistrust based on Frank's action in taking her Brady concerns to a senior, experienced assistant DA who served in a supervisory capacity, 1989 Decision, 719 F.Supp. at 142, was no more than an antipathy for the content of Frank's statements, i.e., that the ADAs felt that they could not trust Frank not to disclose Brady violations. And the credibility of Relin's suggestion that he fired Frank solely because she did not come to him with her Brady concerns, in order to permit Relin to investigate them, is suspect in light of the fact that his administrative response was to consult, as to whether Frank should be fired, with the very ADAs who may have been committing the Brady infractions. 91 Finally, the court could not properly uphold Relin's qualified immunity defense as a matter of law on the premise that he was entitled to believe that Frank's First Amendment rights did not outweigh the countervailing interests, for the factual question as to Relin's motivation in firing Frank raises a factual question of precisely what interests Relin was weighing against Frank's First Amendment right. If Relin fired Frank because she blew the whistle on Brady violations, that consideration could not outweigh her First Amendment right to speak up about those violations, no matter how piercing the whistle to the ears of the ADAs.