Court Opinion

ID: 9482642
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:56:22.137697+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:06.998895
License: Public Domain

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I join that part of the opinion and judgment of the court that reverses the district court’s sua sponte dismissal of the plaintiff’s claim against defendant Landau. I respectfully dissent, however, from the court’s affirmance of the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of defendants Haloulos and Gallion.
1.
As the court states in the initial stages of its analysis, when considering the issue of qualified immunity on a motion for summary judgment, a district court must consider the entire record and read the undisputed evidence in the light most favorable *344to the non-moving party. Green v. Carlson, 826 F.2d 647, 650 (7th Cir.1987). Moreover, as the court also acknowledges, if there are issues of disputed fact upon which the issue of immunity turns, summary judgment is not proper.
Here, the court presents, at different points in its opinion, decidedly different possible characterizations of the record. In discussing the issue of qualified immunity, the court describes the officer's conduct as entirely passive: “the officers did not participate in any search of Apostol’s office or seizure of Apostol’s business documents; they simply stood by passively while Landau served and executed the court order.” Majority Op. at 342. By contrast, when discussing the possibility that Mr. Landau’s actions might be considered “state action,” the court notes that there is a question of fact with respect to the level of participation of the officers. “A police agreement to ‘stand by in case of trouble’ does not convert a private repossession into state action.” Greco v. Guss, 775 F.2d 161, 168 (7th Cir.1985). Rather, “the overt, significant assistance of state officials” is required. Tulsa Professional Collection Servs. v. Pope, 485 U.S. 478, 486, 108 S.Ct. 1340, 1345, 99 L.Ed.2d 565 (1988). Either the court is undertaking a major expansion of the state action doctrine or it has erred in its assessment of the record as to the role of the officers.
In my view, the record presents a genuine issue of fact with respect to the role of the officers in the episode at Mr. Apostol’s office. At this point in the development of the record, it is impossible to determine whether the officers passively stood by in an effort to keep the peace or aided in an illegal search. The court should acknowledge frankly this dispute and permit the parties to resolve the issue in the district court. Fairness — and established legal principle — requires no less.
2.
The court’s opinion also suggests that the officers were entitled to qualified immunity because the authority of the temporary restraining order was not “questionable on its face” and “could be construed to require Apostol’s documents to be delivered in the presence of police officers.” “In short, officers Haloulos and Gallion had no reason to believe that Landau was acting beyond the authority of the court order.” Majority Op. at 342.
The court is correct in stating that we must assess the defendants’ conduct at a sufficiently particularized level of specificity to permit a determination “that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right.” Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 640, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 3039, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987). Of course, “[tjhis is not to say that an official action is protected by qualified immunity unless the very action in question has previously been held unlawful....” Id. Here, however, the court embarks on a curious and potentially very dangerous application of this principle. It undertakes an assessment of the particular state court temporary restraining order at issue and declares, without an effort to support its analysis by reference to the text, that the officers could have construed the document as permitting the broad-ranging search conducted by Mr. Landau in their presence and perhaps with their help.
I respectfully disagree that the state court order is susceptible to such an interpretation. More fundamentally, I disagree that this court ought to hold that, as a matter of law, police officers are incapable of distinguishing between court orders that permit them to undertake a search of the property and personal effects of private individuals and those that do not. The Supreme Court has made it clear that such a presumption of ignorance on the part of professional law enforcement officers is unwarranted. See Mancusi v. DeForte, 392 U.S. 364, 370-71, 88 S.Ct. 2120, 2124-25, 20 L.Ed.2d 1154 (1968). It is indeed a novel proposition of law to hold, as the court does today, that police officers are not charged with the responsibility of knowing that their authority to search the property and personal effects of others is circumscribed by the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment and the specific exceptions to that requirement. See Hurl-*345man v. Rice, 927 F.2d 74, 79-80 (2d Cir.1991).
Because the court’s judgment on the qualified immunity issue is based on an erroneous reading of the record and a legal conclusion that finds no support in our case law, I respectfully dissent.