Opinion ID: 3012110
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: City of Philadelphia

Text: Appellants also allege that the City of Philadelphia violated Shacquiel’s constitutional rights under thepolicy or custom theory of S 1983 municipal liability. A municipality may be held liable if a constitutional violation was caused by action taken pursuant to a municipal policy or custom. Monell v. Dep’t of Soc. Servs. of the City of New York, 436 U.S. 658, 691 (1978). But a municipality cannot be liable solely as an employer because there is no respondeat superior theory of municipal liability in S 1983 actions. Id. Instead, it is when execution of a government’s policy or custom, whether made by its lawmakers or by those whose edicts or acts may fairly be said to represent official policy, inflicts the injury that the government as an entity is responsible under S 1983. Id. at 694. 11 The Supreme Court has recognized that under certain circumstances a municipality may be liable underS 1983 for a failure to adequately train its police officers. City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378, 380 (1989). The first question in any case alleging municipal liability for a failure to train is whether there is a direct causal link between a municipal policy or custom and the alleged constitutional deprivation. Id. at 385. Furthermorethe inadequacy of police training may serve as the basis for S 1983 liability only where the failure to train amounts to deliberate indifference to the rights of persons with whom the police come into contact. Id. at 388. We have held it is possible for a municipality to be held independently liable for a substantive due process violation even in situations where none of its employees are liable. Fagan v. City of Vineland, 22 F.3d 1283 (3d Cir. 1994).3 In Fagan we held that a municipality can be liable under section 1983 and the Fourteenth Amendment for a failure to train its police officers with respect to high-speed automobile chases, even if no individual officer participating in the chase violated the Constitution. Id. at 1294. However, for there to be municipal liability, there still must be a violation of the plaintiff ’s constitutional rights. Collins v. City of Harker Heights, 503 U.S. 115, 122 (1992) (emphasizing the separate character of the inquiry into the question of municipal responsibility and the question whether a constitutional violation occurred.). It is not enough that a municipality adopted with deliberate indifference a policy of inadequately training its officers. _________________________________________________________________ 3. We note that there is a split among the courts of appeals on this issue. Some courts have explicitly rejected our holding in Fagan. See Trigalet v. City of Tulsa, 239 F.3d 1150, 1154-55 (10th Cir. 2001), cert. denied, 122 S. Ct. 40 (2001); Young v. City of Mount Ranier, 238 F.3d 567, 579 n.9 (4th Cir. 2001); Evans v. Avery, 100 F.3d 1033, 1040 (1st Cir. 1996); Thompson v. Boggs, 33 F.3d 847, 859 n.11 (7th Cir. 1994). One panel of this court has even questioned the panel opinion in Fagan. See Mark v. Borough of Hatboro, 51 F.3d 1137, 1153 n.13 (3d Cir. 1995). But other courts have agreed with our opinion in Fagan. See Fairley v. Luman, 281 F.3d 913 (9th Cir. 2002), petition for cert. filed, 71 U.S.L.W. 3021 (U.S. June 24, 2002) (No. 01-1882). This debate has no bearing upon the present case, however, because we find no constitutional violation by either the City or its employees. 12 There must be a direct causal link between the policy and a constitutional violation. Canton, 489 U.S. at 385. This is where Appellants’ municipal liability claim fails. They allege that the City of Philadelphia had a number of policies involving EMTs which were enacted with deliberate indifference and which caused harm to them and their son. Even if we accept everything Appellants allege as true, they will have still failed to establish that the City’s policies caused constitutional harm. The City was under no constitutional obligation to provide competent rescue services. The failure of the City and its EMTs to rescue Shacquiel Douglas from privately-caused harm was not an infringement of Appellants’ constitutional rights. 4 There has been no constitutional harm alleged. There can be no municipal liability under S 1983.