Opinion ID: 198661
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: iacobucci's appeal

Text: 50 Although voicing doubts about whether a satisfactory foundation for punitive damages had been laid, the district court prudently reserved judgment on that question and sent it to the jury. After the jurors awarded Iacobucci $75,000 in compensatory damages and $135,000 in punitive damages, Boulter moved for relief. Concluding that the evidence failed to warrant punitive damages, the district court struck that portion of the award (albeit leaving intact the compensatory damages). Iacobucci contests this ruling. We review the lower court's decision de novo, taking the facts and the reasonable inferences therefrom in the light most congenial to the jury's verdict. See Correa v. Hospital San Francisco, 69 F.3d 1184, 1188 (1st Cir. 1995). 51 The district court's approach accurately foretold that taken by the Supreme Court a few months later in Kolstad v. American Dental Ass'n, 119 S. Ct. 2118 (1999). 7 Punitive damages become a discretionary matter for the jury in a section 1983 action only if the plaintiff makes an adequate threshold showing. A plaintiff reaches that threshold when the defendant's conduct is shown to be motivated by evil motive or intent, or when it involves reckless or callous indifference to the federally protected rights of others. Smith v. Wade, 461 U.S. 30, 56 (1983). 52 Kolstad sheds considerable light on Smith and the circumstances under which a judge may permit a jury to consider a request for punitive damages in a civil rights case. The Smith standard, visualized through the Kolstad lens, confirms that there is a different focus for compensatory as opposed to punitive damages. See Kolstad, 119 S. Ct. at 2124. The special showing needed to trigger eligibility for punitive damages, which the Smith Court called evil motive or reckless or callous indifference, Smith, 461 U.S. at 56, pertains to the defendant's knowledge that [he] may be acting in violation of federal law, not [his] awareness that [he] is engaging in discrimination, Kolstad, 119 S. Ct. at 2124. Thus, the standard requires proof that the defendant acted in the face of a perceived risk that [his] actions [would] violate federal law. Id. at 2125. While egregious or outrageous acts may serve as evidence supporting an inference of the requisite 'evil motive,' the presence (or absence) of such acts does not in itself determine the propriety (or lack of propriety) of punitive damages in a given case. Id. at 2126. 53 To make out a jury question on punitive damages under this subjectively oriented test, Iacobucci needed to adduce evidence sufficient to prove that Boulter arrested him in the face of a perceived risk that doing so would violate Iacobucci's federally assured rights. More specifically, Iacobucci needed to adduce evidence sufficient to show that Boulter determined to effectuate the arrest knowing that he lacked probable cause to do so, or, at least, with conscious indifference to the possibility that he lacked probable cause. 8 54 We realize that the district court instructed the jury to determine whether Boulter had acted intentionally or recklessly in arresting Iacobucci, and that the jury, by returning a plaintiff's verdict on the section 1983 false arrest claim, necessarily found that Boulter's conduct fit into that proscribed category. This mens rea finding, however, does not clear the way for punitive damages. The state of mind required to make out a cognizable section 1983 claim (at least one grounded in false arrest) differs importantly from that required to justify punitive damages. See Kolstad, 119 S. Ct. at 2124. The former requirement relates only to the conduct, not to the consequence; that is, it entails an intent to do the act, not to effect a civil rights violation. See id. 55 On this issue, the district court concluded that although Boulter made an objectively unreasonable split-second decision when he arrested Iacobucci, no evidence suggested that he harbored any malice or acted with reckless indifference to Iacobucci's constitutional rights. After carefully scrutinizing the record, we agree with this assessment. Viewed most favorably to Iacobucci, the evidence reveals that when apprised of the contretemps, Boulter called a selectman to get a better sense of the Open Meeting Law. Upon his arrival, he attempted to piece together a complete picture of the evening's events. He then made several attempts to defuse a contentious situation. Only after his attempted intercessions were rebuffed did he effect an arrest. This constellation of facts does not lend itself to the inference that Boulter acted with an evil motive or a conscious awareness that the arrest might violate Iacobucci's civil rights. Where, as here, the evidence shows no more than that an exasperated police officer, acting in the heat of the moment, made an objectively unreasonable mistake, punitive damages will not lie. 56 Laboring to close this gap, Iacobucci suggests that the partially erased videotape contains evidence indicative of a state of mind conducive to punitive damages. He points to a statement contained therein from which (he says) the jury could have inferred that the videotape had been erased to provide cover against a potential excessive force claim. The jury, however, found for Boulter on the section 1983 excessive force count -- and the videotape contains nothing that bears on Boulter's motives in connection with the arrest. We conclude, therefore, that this evidence fails to lift the punitive damages issue into the realm of the jury's discretion. 57 To summarize, the district court acted appropriately in defenestrating the punitive damages award. The dearth of record evidence, direct or circumstantial, as to Boulter's evil motive and/or subjective awareness that he lacked probable cause to arrest Iacobucci suffices to defeat the claim for punitive damages as a matter of law. 58 We add a coda. Precedent in this circuit had interpreted Smith to mean that in civil rights cases requiring proof of intentional wrongdoing, the state of mind necessary to trigger liability for the wrong is at least as culpable as that required to make punitive damages applicable. Rowlett v. Anheuser-Busch, Inc., 832 F.2d 194, 205 (1st Cir. 1987). Kolstad plainly rejects that interpretation. To the extent that Rowlett fails to draw a distinction between the state of mind requirement anent the actor's conduct and the state of mind requirement anent the effects of that conduct, it is no longer good law, and we disavow it.