Court Opinion

ID: 9467990
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:01:22.147554+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:37.513325
License: Public Domain

JOHN R. BROWN, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur fully in sections I through IV of the Court’s opinion, but specially concur in section V because bound by Familias Unidas v. Briscoe, 619 F.2d 391 (5th Cir. 1980), repeated in Van Ooteghem v. Gray, 628 F.2d 488 (5th Cir. 1980).1
My problem is that in Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978), finding county or municipal entities to be a “person” under § 1983, the Supreme Court confines this new-found liability to situations in which the action represents official policy, not just the unconstitutional act of an officer or agent of the entity.2
*1203It seems incongruous to me that the Supreme Court meant to hold that Congress intended action to be that of the entity as a sort of “official” governmental policy when the officer-agent is acting in a crass, flagrant violation of established constitutional rights. Especially is this true since, under Owen v. City of Independence, 445 U.S. 622, 100 S.Ct. 1398, 63 L.Ed.2d 673 (1980), such an official (and hence the City, County entity) is denied the defense of good faith immunity when sued in an official capacity. See Universal Amusement Co. v. Hofheinz, 646 F.2d 996, 997 (5th Cir. 1981); Familias Unidas v. Briscoe, 619 F.2d 391 (5th Cir. 1980).
The public treasury is made to bear the consequences of actions by an officer-agent no matter how flagrant or spectacular the unconstitutional conduct might have been on the theory that somehow such person is carrying out the official governmental policy of the entity.3

. Vacated on grant of Rehearing En Banc now pending before the full Court.

. The Court stated:
We conclude, therefore, that a local government may not be sued for an injury inflicted solely by its employees or agents. 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 *1203inflicts the injury that the government as an entity is responsible under § 1983.
98 S.Ct. at 2038.

. Lurking also is the question of the Eleventh Amendment, which, for the present, I do not discuss.