Court Opinion

ID: 9385698
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-04-07 20:01:02.417287+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:18:03.926185
License: Public Domain

USCA11 Case: 22-12320     Document: 35-1       Date Filed: 04/07/2023   Page: 1 of 9

                                                     [DO NOT PUBLISH]
                                      In the
                United States Court of Appeals
                          For the Eleventh Circuit

                           ____________________

                                  No. 22-12320
                            Non-Argument Calendar
                           ____________________

       ALONZO BERNARD MCAFFEE,
                                                        Plaintiff-Appellant,
       versus
       CITY OF CLEARWATER,
       JASON MOORE,
       in his individual capacity ,
       JOSEPH MAY,
       in his individual capacity,

                                                    Defendants-Appellees.

                           ____________________
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       2                      Opinion of the Court                22-12320

                  Appeal from the United States District Court
                       for the Middle District of Florida
                   D.C. Docket No. 8:21-cv-02763-SDM-SPF
                           ____________________

       Before JILL PRYOR, LUCK, and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.
       PER CURIAM:
             Plaintiff Alonzo Bernard McAffee appeals the district court’s
       order dismissing his claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for malicious
       prosecution. After careful consideration, we affirm.
                                        I.
               In the early morning hours of August 3, 2017, McAffee was
       standing in his front yard while listening to music, smoking a ciga-
       rette, and talking on the phone. Two men, whom McAffee did not
       recognize, ran toward him. The two men were City of Clearwater
       police officers Jason Moore and Joseph May. Although McAffee
       was not engaged in any criminal conduct and did nothing to inter-
       fere with the officers, the officers arrested McAffee, asserting that
       he had run away from them and disobeyed their commands to stop
       running.
              McAffee faced both state and federal charges arising out of
       this incident. Based on the officers’ reports that McAffee had run
       from them and disobeyed their commands, he was charged in Flor-
       ida state court with resisting an officer without violence. A few
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       22-12320                   Opinion of the Court                        3

       months after the incident, a state prosecutor filed a nolle prosequi
       stating that further prosecution was not warranted.
               Shortly before the state court charges were dismissed,
       McAffee was charged in federal district court with being a felon in
       possession of a firearm. McAffee faced this charge based on Moore
       and May’s report that they found a firearm in McAffee’s pocket
       when he was arrested. In the federal criminal case, McAffee filed a
       motion to suppress, arguing that his arrest was unlawful. The dis-
       trict court granted McAffee’s motion to suppress, and in April 2018,
       the district court dismissed the indictment.
               In November 2021, McAffee filed a civil lawsuit against
       Moore and May in federal district court. He brought several claims
       against the officers under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, including claims for
       false arrest, use of excessive force, and malicious prosecution. Re-
       garding the malicious prosecution claim, the complaint alleged that
       the officers “intentionally, knowingly, and maliciously provided
       false statements to prosecuting authorities which formed the basis”
       of the federal criminal case against McAffee. Doc. 1 at ¶¶ 66, 96. 1
              The officers filed a motion to dismiss the complaint. They
       argued that the § 1983 false arrest and excessive force claims were
       barred by the applicable statute of limitations. They explained that
       these claims accrued on August 3, 2017, when the officers arrested
       McAffee, and the applicable limitations period was four years.

       1 “Doc.” numbers refer to the district court’s docket entries.
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       4                      Opinion of the Court                 22-12320

       Because McAffee waited more than four years from the date the
       claims accrued, the officers argued, the claims were untimely.
               The officers acknowledged that McAffee’s § 1983 malicious
       prosecution claims appeared to be timely. They nevertheless ar-
       gued that these claims should be dismissed because the complaint
       failed to state a claim for relief.
               After the officers filed the motion to dismiss, McAfee re-
       ceived leave to file an amended complaint. In the amended com-
       plaint, he made the same general allegations about the August 3
       incident in which he was arrested. But in the amended complaint,
       unlike the original complaint, McAffee alleged that due to the of-
       ficers’ false report, he had been charged in Florida state court with
       resisting an officer without violence. Nowhere did the amended
       complaint mention the federal criminal charges against him. And
       in the amended complaint McAffee asserted § 1983 claims only for
       malicious prosecution.
              The officers moved to dismiss the amended complaint. As
       relevant for our purposes, the officers argued that the amended
       complaint failed to state a § 1983 claim for malicious prosecution
       because the “alleged constitutional violations occur[red] before the
       institution of a judicial proceeding.” Doc. 24 at 8 (emphasis in orig-
       inal).
             The district court granted the motion to dismiss. It explained
       that McAffee failed to state a claim for malicious prosecution be-
       cause his claims arose out of “events . . . that occurred before the
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       22-12320                   Opinion of the Court                                5

       prosecution began.” Doc. 29 at 2. The court dismissed the § 1983
       malicious prosecution claims with prejudice.2
               This is McAffee’s appeal.
                                              II.
              We review de novo a district court order granting a motion
       to dismiss for failure to state a claim for relief, accepting the com-
       plaint’s allegations as true and construing them in the light most
       favorable to the plaintiff. See Fox v. Gaines, 4 F.4th 1293, 1295 (11th
       Cir. 2021).
                                             III.
              McAffee argues that the district court erred in dismissing his
       § 1983 claims for malicious prosecution. A § 1983 malicious prose-
       cution claim has two basic elements: the plaintiff must prove that
       (1) “the defendant violated [the plaintiff’s] Fourth Amendment
       right to be free from seizures pursuant to legal process” and (2) “the
       criminal proceedings against [the plaintiff] terminated in his favor.”
       Luke v. Gulley, 50 F.4th 90, 95 (11th Cir. 2022) (internal quotation
       marks omitted). The central issue in this appeal is whether, assum-
       ing the allegations in in the amended complaint are true, any

       2 In the amended complaint, McAffee also brought state-law malicious prose-
       cution claims against the officers and the City of Clearwater. The district court
       declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over these claims. Because
       McAffee raises no argument on appeal challenging the district court’s decision
       not to exercise supplemental jurisdiction, we discuss the state-law claims no
       further.
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       6                          Opinion of the Court                      22-12320

       Fourth Amendment violation was a “seizure[] pursuant to legal
       process.” Id.
              We have previously identified the types of deprivations of
       liberty that qualify as seizures pursuant to legal process and give
       rise to § 1983 malicious prosecution claims. See Williams v.
       Aguirre, 965 F.3d 1147, 1158 (11th Cir. 2020). We have recognized
       that “warrant-based seizures” as well as “seizures following an ar-
       raignment, indictment, or probable-cause hearing” qualify as sei-
       zures pursuant to legal process. Id. In contrast, a plaintiff who is
       subjected to a warrantless arrest but is not detained after the com-
       mencement of judicial proceedings generally does not suffer a sei-
       zure pursuant to legal process. See Kingsland v. City of Miami, 382
       F.3d 1220, 1235 (11th Cir. 2004). Although a person suffers a seizure
       at the time of the warrantless arrest, the seizure is not pursuant to
       legal process because it “occur[s] prior to the time of arraignment”
       and the commencement of the judicial proceedings. Id. 3
              In Kingsland, a plaintiff who was subjected to a warrantless
       arrest but not placed in detention after the commencement of ju-
       dicial proceedings argued that she suffered a seizure pursuant to
       legal process because she was required to adhere to certain condi-
       tions while on pretrial release. See id. at 1235–36. She pointed out

       3 A plaintiff claiming that an officer made a warrantless arrest without proba-
       ble cause may have a § 1983 claim for false arrest. See Kingsland, 382 F.3d at
       1226. But McAffee’s amended complaint included no § 1983 false arrest claim
       alleging that a constitutional violation occurred at the time of the warrantless
       arrest.
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       22-12320                Opinion of the Court                          7

       that after the judicial proceedings commenced, she was required to
       post a bond and appear in proceedings to defend herself in court.
       Id. at 1235. We rejected this argument, concluding that these “nor-
       mal conditions of pretrial release” did not impose a seizure for pur-
       poses of a malicious prosecution claim. Id. at 1236. We explained
       that for a condition of pretrial release to constitute a seizure, the
       plaintiff must show “some significant, ongoing deprivation of lib-
       erty, such as a restriction on [his] right to travel interstate.” Id.
              Here, McAffee argues that his amended complaint stated a
       claim for § 1983 malicious prosecution because he alleged that the
       officers “falsely” stated to “prosecuting authorities that . . . McAffee
       resisted arrest . . . and those false allegations[] caused the State of
       Florida to commence criminal prosecution” against him. Appel-
       lant’s Br. at 11. But to state a claim for malicious prosecution, the
       amended complaint also had to allege that McAffee suffered an un-
       constitutional “seizure pursuant to legal process.” Williams,
       965 F.3d at 1158 (internal quotation marks omitted). We conclude
       that the amended complaint failed to state a claim for relief because
       there was no allegation that any seizure occurred after the com-
       mencement of the state judicial proceedings. Indeed, there was no
       allegation that McAffee was arrested pursuant to a warrant. And
       there was no allegation that he was subjected to a seizure following
       an arraignment, indictment, or probable-cause hearing in the state
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       8                           Opinion of the Court                        22-12320

       criminal case. 4 Absent any allegation that McAffee suffered a sei-
       zure pursuant to legal process in the state court action, we agree
       with the district court that he failed to state a claim for relief.5 See
       id.; Kingsland, 382 F.3d at 1236.

       4 The fact that McAffee’s original complaint alleged that he faced federal crim-
       inal proceedings arising out of this same incident does not help him. When he
       filed the amended complaint, the initial complaint, which referenced the fed-
       eral criminal case, “became a legal nullity,” and the allegations in the initial
       complaint “were no longer a part of [McAffee’s] averments against” the offic-
       ers. Hoefling v. City of Miami, 811 F.3d 1271, 1277 (11th Cir. 2016) (alteration
       adopted) (internal quotation marks omitted). As a result, we do not consider
       the federal criminal proceedings in our analysis of whether McAffee stated a
       claim.
       5 In his appellant’s brief, McAffee also suggests that the district court erred in
       dismissing his complaint with prejudice. His arguments about why the district
       court erred in entering a dismissal with prejudice are identical to the argu-
       ments he raises in challenging the district court’s determination that he failed
       to state a claim for relief. And, as we explained above, the district court did not
       err in concluding that he failed to state a claim for relief.
       To the extent McAffee is arguing that the district court should have granted
       him leave to file a second amended complaint instead of entering a dismissal
       with prejudice, we conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion.
       We reach this conclusion because in the district court McAffee never sought
       leave to file a second amended complaint or argued that he could cure the
       defects in his amended complaint in a subsequent pleading. See Urquilla-Diaz
       v. Kaplan Univ., 780 F.3d 1039, 1057 n.14 (11th Cir. 2015) (holding that district
       court did not abuse its discretion in failing to grant plaintiff leave to amend his
       complaint when the plaintiff “never made a motion to amend his complaint,
       nor did he ever suggest how he could cure his defective complaint in a subse-
       quent pleading”).
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       22-12320               Opinion of the Court                      9

                                        IV.
                For the reasons set forth above, we AFFIRM the district
       court.
                AFFIRMED.