Court Opinion

ID: 9946081
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-02-29 01:00:52.004254+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:25:25.015984
License: Public Domain

Case: 22-30662            Document: 56-1         Page: 1      Date Filed: 02/28/2024

           United States Court of Appeals
                for the Fifth Circuit                                          United States Court of Appeals
                                                                                        Fifth Circuit

                                   ____________                                       FILED
                                                                              February 28, 2024
                                    No. 22-30662
                                                                                   Lyle W. Cayce
                                   ____________                                         Clerk

Deanna Thomas,

                                                                  Plaintiff—Appellant,

                                          versus

Robert Tewis, Officer; Kirt Arnold, Officer,

                                            Defendants—Appellees.
                   ______________________________

                   Appeal from the United States District Court
                      for the Eastern District of Louisiana
                             USDC No. 2:21-CV-698
                   ______________________________

Before Dennis, Engelhardt, and Oldham, Circuit Judges.
Per Curiam:*
       Deanna Thomas erected a tent in Laketown Park in Kenner,
Louisiana. On April 6, 2020, two officers from the East Jefferson Levee
District Police Department—Officer Tewis and Lieutenant Arnold—
approached Thomas, explained that she was unlawfully occupying a public
space, and told her to leave. Thomas did not immediately comply, so the
officers arrested her. One of the officers also directed a District employee to

       _____________________
       *
           This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5.
 Case: 22-30662         Document: 56-1        Page: 2      Date Filed: 02/28/2024

                                    No. 22-30662

dispose of her property. Thomas alleges Tewis handcuffed her and then,
while she was not resisting arrest, “body slammed” her into the ground in a
manner that caused Thomas physical and emotional injuries.
       After the arrest, Thomas sued the officers for violating the Fourth
Amendment by using excessive force and unlawfully seizing her property.
The district court held the officers were entitled to qualified immunity and
entered summary judgment in their favor. Thomas appealed. Our review is
de novo. Morrow v. Meachum, 917 F.3d 870, 874 (5th Cir. 2019).
       Thomas failed to carry her burden of presenting clearly established
law demonstrating the unlawfulness of the officers’ alleged seizure in the dis-
trict court. So she forfeited the argument, and we decline to exercise our dis-
cretion to consider it for the first time on appeal. See Thomas v. Ameritas Life
Ins. Corp., 34 F.4th 395, 402 n.2 (5th Cir. 2022). We therefore affirm the dis-
trict court’s grant of summary judgment to the officers on Thomas’s unrea-
sonable seizure claim.
       But Thomas did produce evidence to support her claim that Tewis
used excessive force, in violation of clearly established law, by throwing her
to the ground while she was restrained and subdued. See Carroll v. Ellington,
800 F.3d 154, 177 (5th Cir. 2015). And while the extent of Thomas’s damages
is unclear, she also produced some evidence suggesting the officers’ actions
resulted in an injury that is more than de minimis under our precedents. See
Alexander v. City of Round Rock, 854 F.3d 298, 309 (5th Cir. 2017). A jury very
well might find Thomas’s evidence incredible,1 but at the summary judgment
stage we are bound to conclude Thomas created a genuine dispute of material

       _____________________
       1
          Qualified immunity remains a possible defense and a question to be determined
by the jury. See Fifth Circuit Pattern Jury Instructions (Civil Cases)
§ 10.3 (2020).

                                          2
Case: 22-30662         Document: 56-1       Page: 3   Date Filed: 02/28/2024

                                No. 22-30662

fact. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a); see also Waste Mgmt. of Louisiana, LLC v.
River Birch, Inc., 920 F.3d 958, 964 (5th Cir. 2019) (noting a “non-movants’
summary judgment evidence must be taken as true”) (citation omitted). So
we must reverse the district court’s grant of summary judgment on
Thomas’s excessive force claim.
       The district court dismissed Thomas’s bystander liability claim
against Arnold and her related state law claims solely on the ground that
Tewis was entitled to qualified immunity with respect to Thomas’s excessive
force claim. Accordingly, we vacate the dismissal of those claims and remand
for reconsideration.
       Affirmed in Part, Reversed in Part, Vacated in
Part, and Remanded.

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