Court Opinion

ID: 9457237
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:16:50.291485+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:16.655861
License: Public Domain

NICHOLS, Judge
(concurring) :
I join in the decision of the court in this case and in its reasoning except where it is inconsistent with the observations that follow.
The problems posed appear to be of the highest importance and not only to my colleagues on the panel, who as regular judges of the D.C. Circuit will have to live with what we say herein, but also *371to me as a citizen and taxpayer of the District of Columbia. I want to state my position because I am fearful that the decision we come to may wrongly be taken as just another manifestation of that deplorable hostility between bench and bar, and police, that has grown up so fast in my lifetime, and which in my view constitutes a disturbing symptom of the degeneration of our society.
First of all, as to officers Prete and Layton. The trial court apparently held they were immune from suit because of their official status, regardless of their share, if any, in the alleged wrong, and also because they were not alleged to have had a direct share in it. It seems to me we had to reverse and remand because the imputed rationale of the decision below would if followed go far to render useless and futile a major provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1871, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, quoted in this court’s opinion. If state or territorial supervisory police officials (including D.C.) are to be absolutely immune from personal liability, simply by virtue of their positions, the section might as well be repealed, it would be so spotty and erratic in its application. Congress could not have intended this and the law has not done it hitherto. The police official is in such a key position as to Civil Rights, that to immunize him would deny equal justice to anyone else who might incur personal liability under § 1983. Thus I deem it necessary to follow decisions of other circuits cited by this court, but apparently ignored by the court below, holding that local law rules of immunity for local officials do not necessarily or wholly apply to them in § 1983 cases. I do not see any reason to think that in the immediate future any such state or territorial immunity will be recognized under § 1983 in any Federal court unless in a context where its continued existence appears consistent with the purposes of § 1983.
I deem it therefore a sterile exercise to consider whether outside of § 1983, defendants Layton and Prete may be immune from suit at common law to the extent to which their now unascertained duties are held to be discretionary. Certainly § 1983 takes such per se immunity from them.
I do not think that a Federal officer not subject to § 1983 by its terms, and sued in tort at common law, should be held to enjoy an immunity denied his state or territorial brother similarly situated. I wish to “record a continuing belief that all police and ancillary personnel in this nation, whether state or Federal, should be subject to the same accountability under law for their conduct.” See concurring opinion of Judge Bell in Anderson v. Nosser, 438 F.2d 183, 205 (5th Cir. 1971), calling attention to this apparent anomaly in that circuit and referring to Judge Gewin’s dissent in Norton v. McShane, 332 F.2d 855, 863 (5th Cir. 1964). -I think rather that § 1983 extends to local officials a Federal common law rule that determines primarily and of its own force the liability or immunity of Federal officials for breaches of civil rights protected by the Constitution. The existence of such a rule will no longer be denied in view of Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents, 403 U.S. 388, 91 S.Ct. 1999, 29 L.Ed.2d 619 (1971), although the part of it that establishes official immunities is left open, except in Mr. Justice Harlan’s concurring opinion. The District of Columbia being a Federal enclave, here least of all is there any rhyme or reason for any distinction between the immunities of Federal and D.C. officials. In the states, contrariwise, the Federal system requires that Federal courts when exercising pendent or diversity jurisdiction respect any immunities of state officials against liability under state law, and this is done in Roberts v. Williams (5th Cir. 1971), where certain county officials were held absolutely immune under their own state law of torts, but only quali-fiedly immune under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
Thus the necessity as we hold here, that plaintiff have his day in court; I would apply to a Constitutional claim of a similar kind against a police of*372ficer employed by any state or territory and also against any person employed in the District of Columbia or elsewhere by the Federal government and having functions remotely comparable to those of a D.C. police officer. I deem it important to emphasize that D.C. police are not second-class citizens. If there is a difference it is in fact situations not applicable here.
David v. Cohen, 132 U.S.App.D.C. 333, 407 F.2d 1268 (1969) is the leading case in this circuit on the immunity of Government officials, and properly has received careful attention in the instant case, but it confronts us with complications not easily made simple. The plaintiffs, Mr. and Mrs. David, had been delinquent Federal taxpayers. He paid the deficiencies, but a few days later the Internal Revenue Service levied on his bank account, causing their outstanding checks to be dishonored, with adverse consequences to them. Revenue agent Lynch, a defendant, issued the levies because of a mistake of fact. Both parties moved for summary judgment, and the trial court dismissed the complaint. This court affirmed. Defendant Sheldon Cohen, then Commissioner of Internal Revenue, was shown to have had no operating responsibilities in the issuance of levies, delegations of authority being outstanding, that vested this duty in subordinates. The court reasoned from this that Mr. Cohen could not have been personally negligent except in the exercise of supervisory duties and any failure in that capacity would be “within the scope of his authority and in the discharge of his official duties.” I read this as meaning that a person at Mr. Cohen’s level could not be liable for negligence in generally managing and directing the policies and procedures of the agency, in the absence of malice towards plaintiffs, or any act specifically directed at them. A breach of duty respecting plaintiffs specifically was not possible, and any deficiency in the discretionary general management of the agency was not the proper subject of a lawsuit. It is hard to tell, however, to what extent Mr. Cohen’s immunity resulted from his general status as an official of his high level, and to what extent from an analysis of the breaches of duty possible to him in that particular case. The opinion recites the need that he should do his duty unembarrassed by fear of damage suits which would consume time and energies needed for public service. This suggests that the real foundation of the immunity is status. However, agent Lynch, an official of no particular status, was held immune also, though he actually issued the offending levies. He acted under a mistake of fact, but there was no consideration whether it might have been his duty to know the facts. This issue was apparently dismissed as not relevant. It was held “he made the type of mistake of fact that is insulated by the privilege given to non-ministerial acts.” “The test of whether a challenged action is ministerial or non-ministerial is not the office per se or its height, but whether the function itself was of such discretionary nature that the threat of litigation would impede the official to whom it was assigned.”
The immunities of these two defendants thus appear to be of different kinds. That of Mr. Cohen results from the insulation afforded to him by delegations of authority, from responsibility for the actual operative decision that led to the injury. That of Mr. Lynch is the official’s qualified immunity when he has to make a difficult discretionary decision and acts under a mistake of fact. If either had been a municipal official sued under § 1983, I doubt if the results would have been different, that is, I question whether anything should properly have turned or did turn on their employer being the Federal government. It has been said that no one has a Constitutional right to be free from a law officer’s honest misunderstanding of law or fact in making arrest. Gabbard v. Rose, 359 F.2d 182 (6th Cir. 1966). Thus it seems there is some kind of immunity from negligence liability where the alleged negligence is failure to be informed, that covers a wide spectrum of *373official acts. Cf. Pierson v. Ray, 386 U.S. 547, 87 S.Ct. 1213, 18 L.Ed.2d 288 (1967). And we have also involved here the ancient reluctance of courts to substitute their judgment for that of executive government officials, in the making of policy or managerial decisions confided by law to the latter persons. Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch (5 U.S.) 137, 2 L.Ed. 60 (1803).
While the final adjudication of this ease will require findings as to the duties of defendants Layton and Prete, as the majority hold, it may be premature to deal with them as a threshold question. I do not for myself consider I need that knowledge to assure me that they do not have the status immunity apparently allowed to Mr. Cohen, supra, absolute in the absence of malice. Their duties must be known for a determination whether they breached them. I think it is at least useful and roughly accurate to describe the position of police and other municipal officials not having absolute immunity as being one of qualified immunity, under § 1983. McLaughlin v. Tilendis, 398 F.2d 287 (7th Cir. 1968); Nelson v. Knox, 256 F.2d 312 (6th Cir. 1958); Cobb v. City of Malden, 202 F.2d 701 (1st Cir. 1953). They are not liable for executive or managerial elections among policy alternatives, or good faith acts on mistaken fact premises, and in a negligence claim, only for a clear breach of duty that led ,to the injury. Thus they are not liable for honest, good-faith errors of judgment, because an official who exercises his best judgment does not commit a breach of duty just because he is wrong. It might be that delegations of authority would, as in the case of Mr. Cohen, insulate the D.C. Chief of Police from the kind of decision making, as to training of patrolmen, that might generate tort liability, but I think the hurdle plaintiff must surmount is more fundamental. We might well have followed the example Chief Judge Magruder of the First Circuit set some years ago, in remanding a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 case where the lower court had erroneously allowed absolute immunity to city officials. Cobb v. City of Malden, 202 F.2d at 706 (concurring). He said:
* * *. But I think it deserves to be emphasized how unlikely it is that the plaintiffs will be able to recover judgment, upon trial of the case against the individual defendants, in view of what plaintiffs will have to prove [under the qualified immunity standard] in order to make out a cause of action in tort.
It appears to me to be a rare situation where one exercising a supervisory or managerial responsibility in Government has committed such a clear cut breach of duty that he is personally liable in spite of this qualified immunity. Roberts v. Williams, supra, offers an example of the failure of mere mistakes to reach that level. If plaintiff has nothing more specific against defendants Prete and Layton than he divulged at the oral argument, the ethics and propriety of subjecting busy and harassed officials, defendants and others, to a long course of discovery depositions should be carefully considered. Modern summary judgment procedures, however, afford good means of promptly eliminating from a case parties who should not be in it, as was done in David v. Cohen, supra, and in Joyce v. Ferrazzi, 323 F.2d 931 (1st Cir. 1963). There is really no limit to the nature of information that may be put before a court on a motion for summary judgment, and I am therefore not at all certain that treating as a threshold question the issue of immunities, as distinguished from the merits, really helps to protect busy officials from harassment by unmeritorious suits.
By P.L. 91-358, approved July 29, 1970, Title V, §§ 501 and 502, Layton and Prete would have had the right to be defended by the D.C. Corporation Counsel if this suit had been brought after the date of enactment. As it is, such defense is apparently a matter of grace. The Corporation Counsel did represent them before us. While the trial judge will have authority to allow amendment *374to the complaint, I see all this as reason to be cautious indeed with respect to amendments that would add any new charges against the defendant police officials, not asserted before July 29, 1970. The original complaint did not allege that Layton and Prete knew Carlson was in the habit of using brass knuckles; plaintiff would like to add this. I view it as a new charge. The original complaint only alleged deficient performance in their supervisory or managerial capacities, and this goes further.
I turn now to the liability of the municipality. In view of the holding that it is liable for either a negligent injury or an intentional assault inflicted by Carlson upon Carter, if proved, I find it difficult to imagine how the alleged negligence of Layton and Prete, or anyone else, or their non-negligence, would either enhance or diminish the municipality’s liability as it would otherwise be. If it did make a difference, I find it hard to understand how they could be negligent enough to expose the municipality to liability for their negligence, without being negligent enough to lose their immunity to personal liability qualified as it is. This notion may be valid in other contexts, but not here. The opinion of the court thus starts some hares that lack bodily substance, I believe.
In general, it appears to me that the law being left, as it has been in this area, to be made by judges, judges should make it as this second part does. In the existing state of our society, we have to have policemen, and policemen who are combative when that quality is needed. Training and discipline do wonders, but at best, a combative person is not always able to turn his combativeness on and off as lawyers and judges deem proper. Therefore, despite the best efforts of those in authority, policemen will at times use excessive force or attack people without lawful cause. Those wronged are not wronged by the policeman alone or even chiefly, and not by the supervisor merely because he has failed to give the very best training and instruction. It is the municipality which employs the policeman, because it knows of no other way to hold the forces of evil in check, and has failed to diminish them or remove the causes that bring them into being, with any real effectiveness. Thus it appears very unjust for a citizen, injured in such an encounter, to have to look for redress only to a patrolman who maybe cannot even be served with process, like Carlson here, or is judgment proof. It is not much more satisfactory if he can sue supervisory officials who most likely were doing everything possible according to their lights to avert the evil that occurred. The municipality which arms and uniforms an untrained person and puts him on the streets without need, in anything short of a desperate emergency, has committed a grievous wrong.
On the other hand, one must consider that many suits will be groundless. Sufficient exposure to these, and the effort required to defeat them — even if counsel fees are not a factor — might lead policemen to refuse to take decisive action that would be lawful and needs to be taken. Here, it seems that a sharing of the exposure, by the municipality, would be conducive to the disinterested and fearless police action we all desire. The Congress has recognized the possibly chilling effect of groundless suits upon police initiative in the new legislation above mentioned, and I think today’s decision conforms to the same considerations and policy. The policeman no longer stands in court alone and undefended.