Court Opinion

ID: 9489006
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:02:14.268624+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:53:14.708528
License: Public Domain

OAKES, Senior Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the judgment of the court but write to express caveats concerning (1) the interpretation of § 1983 and (2) the choice of malicious prosecution as the most analogous common-law tort to Doehr’s action.
My first reservation concerns the majority’s proposition that when interpreting 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a court is bound to look to the common law as it existed in 1871 when the Civil Rights Act was passed. I acknowledge that the Supreme Court has employed such analysis in its line of eases involving the immunity of state officials. See, e.g., Pierson v. Ray, 386 U.S. 547, 555-57, 87 S.Ct. 1213, 1218-19, 18 L.Ed.2d 288 (1967); Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. 232, 239-49, 94 S.Ct. 1683, 1687-93, 40 L.Ed.2d 90 (1974); Wood v. Strickland, 420 U.S. 308, 318-21, 95 S.Ct. 992, 999-1000, 43 L.Ed.2d 214 (1975); Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 420-24, 96 S.Ct. 984, 990-92, 47 L.Ed.2d 128 (1976); Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 806-08, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2732-33, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982); Tower v. Glover, 467 U.S. 914, 920-23, 104 S.Ct. 2820, 2824-26, 81 L.Ed.2d 758 (1984); Wyatt v. Cole, 504 U.S. 158, 163-69, 112 S.Ct. 1827, 1830-34, 118 L.Ed.2d 504 (1992). In these cases, I agree with the Court that reference to historic common law may be appropriate because the issue of the breadth of liability of government officials was purposefully left vague under the Act.
I am unconvinced, however, that we must define the whole law of constitutional torts by reference to the common law as it existed in 1871. Though the Supreme Court appeared to endorse such an approach in Wyatt when it discussed the torts of malicious prosecution and abuse of process, an alternative reading of Wyatt would limit such historical analysis to the immunity context. Indeed, in Golden State Transit Corp. v. Los Angeles, 493 U.S. 103, 110 S.Ct. 444, 107 L.Ed.2d 420 (1989), the Court, holding that the NLRA creates rights redressable under § 1983, seemed to change the focus of § 1983 analysis from an historical inquiry toward a functional interpretation, though it did not, as one commentator has noted, “eomplete[ ] the process of divorcing section 1983 from its historical roots.” Note, The Supreme Court, Leading Cases, 104 Harv. L.Rev. 129, 340 (1990). I see no reason why, when analyzing the elements of a constitutional tort under § 1983 as opposed to the scope of immunity or immunity-like defenses, courts should not look to current common law. I have found nothing in the legislative history of the Civil Rights Act of 1871 to the contrary. In fact, *315considering the broad language of the Act itself, I believe an evolving interpretation should be required.
My second caveat is shorter and perhaps more to the point. Neither the Court in Wyatt nor the majority here consider the full range of historical common law torts that are analogous to § 1983 actions. Rather than comparing this case to malicious prosecution or abuse of process, I would find it most analogous to an action for unjustifiable ancillary proceedings, cognizable in a number of jurisdictions in 1871. In such a cause of action, it is necessary only that the ancillary attachment proceeding terminate favorably, and it is immaterial whether the principal proceeding (here, the action for assault and battery) has been in any way improper. See Fowler V. Harper, et al., The Law of Torts (3d ed.1986) § 4.8 at 4:63; Restatement (Second) of Torts (1977) § 674 cmt. f. As Harper, et al., point out:
Some jurisdictions permit an action, either at common law or by statute, for wrongful attachment, apart from the tort of malicious prosecution.... It has been held in such jurisdictions that for ‘actual damages’ sustained as a result of the wrongful attachment there is no requirement that the attachment defendant show impropriety of purpose, lack of probable cause, or termination of the attachment proceedings.
§ 4.8 n. 5 at 4:63-:64 (citing Sherwin-Williams Co. v. Crovetto, 388 So.2d 109 (La.Ct.App.1980); Pourney v. Seabaugh, 604 S.W.2d 646 (Mo.Ct.App.1980); Seay v. Greenwood, 21 Ala. 491 (1852); Donnell v. Jones, 13 Ala. 490 (1848); McLaughlin v. Davis, 14 Kan. 168 (1875); Talbot v. Great Western Plaster Co., 167 Mo.App. 542, 152 S.W. 377 (1912); Reliable Mut. Hail Ins. Co. v. Rogers, 61 Okl. 226, 160 P. 914 (1916); Fred Mercer Dry Goods Co. v. Fikes, 211 S.W. 830 (Tex.Civ.App.1919); Fisher v. Scherer, 169 S.W. 1133 (Tex.Civ.App.1914)).
It seems to me that the case at hand fits at least as well into an unjustifiable ancillary proceeding analysis as into a malicious prosecution analysis, though I realize Wyatt points us toward the latter tort. Were I writing on a clean slate, I would define the instant action in terms of unjustifiable ancillary proceeding and remand accordingly,