Court Opinion

ID: 9439902
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 06:53:06.24169+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:26:41.803358
License: Public Domain

BOWNES, Senior Circuit Judge,
concurring, in part, and dissenting, in part.
I concur in all of the court’s holdings except the one dismissing the section 1983 claim against Domina. The evidence taken in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs is sufficient, I believe, for a reasonable fact-finder to conclude that there was a conspiracy between Domina and Leporati to discriminate against the plaintiff, Yvonne Alexis, because of the color of her skin.
I.
The facts from which such a conspiracy could rationally be inferred are as follows. A dispute over an incorrect food order occurred at the McDonald’s service counter between plaintiff Yvonne Alexis, an African American woman, Donna Domina, the “swing manager,” and the counterperson, Alfredo Pascado. After the dispute was over, Sherry Topham, a McDonald’s managerial employee, went outside the restaurant for police assistance. She returned with Officer Leporati, a uniformed off-duty police officer assigned to McDonald’s pursuant to an agreement between McDonald’s and the Town of Framingham. Leporati conferred with both Topham and Domina, who identified Yvonne Alexis as “that black woman.” Domina told Leporati that she wanted Alexis out of the restaurant. Domina made this request even though she was aware Yvonne Alexis and her family had already taken seats preparatory to eating the food they had purchased.
Officer Leporati neither asked Topham and Domina why he should make Alexis leave the restaurant nor made inquiries of anybody else as to the behavior of the Alexis family. Based solely on his initial discussion with Domina and Topham, Leporati proceeded to the dining room table where the Alexis family sat quietly eating their food. He told Yvonne Alexis that she and her entire family had to leave the premises. Yvonne Alexis stated that they would not leave until they finished eating. Upon hearing this, Officer Leporati left the dining area and conferred again with Topham and Domina. He told them that Alexis refused to leave.
During this second discussion, Topham said she had a problem with this woman on a prior occasion. Domina then said, “Well, if that’s the case, then maybe we should have her leave.” Neither Domina nor Officer Le-porati requested information about the alleged prior problem with Alexis. Significantly, Officer Leporati again failed to inquire as to why he was being told to remove Alexis from the restaurant. Instead, he said that “it wouldn’t be pretty” but he would make Yvonne Alexis leave if Domina wanted him to. Domina then told him that she wanted Yvonne Alexis out of the restaurant.
Officer Leporati returned to the Alexis table and notified Yvonne Alexis that she would be arrested unless she left within the ten minutes it would take his backup cruiser to arrive. Neither Yvonne nor any member of her family left. When the cruiser arrived, Officer Leporati physically pulled Yvonne Alexis out of her seat and over the table at which she and her family had been eating, bruising her in the process. Yvonne Alexis was then handcuffed, pushed into the cruiser, and taken to jail.
Both Yvonne Alexis and her husband protested the violent treatment she received from Officer Leporati during her removal from the restaurant. At one juncture, Mr. Alexis exclaimed, ‘We have rights,” to which Officer Leporati retorted, ‘You people have no rights. You better shut up your [expletive] mouth before I arrest you too.” Officer Leporati made these comments while still inside the restaurant.
II.
The majority opinion’s cursory treatment of Alexis’ section 1983 claims overlooks several factual bases for finding that there was a conspiracy within section 1983’s “under color of law” requirement between Domina and Leporati. See Lugar v. Edmondson Oil Co., 457 U.S. 922, 928, 102 S.Ct. 2744, 2749, 73 *356L.Ed.2d 482 (1982) (“ ‘under color of law has consistently been treated as the same thing as the ‘state action’ required under the Fourteenth Amendment”). Evidence submitted at trial, when viewed in the “light most favorable to the nonmoving party” and with “all reasonable inferences in that party’s favor,” Colonial Courts Apartment Co. v. Proc. Assocs., 57 F.3d 119, 122 (1st Cir.1995), supports the view that Alexis’ arrest resulted from concerted action between Domina and Leporati.
Section 1983 conspiracies are “commonly defined as ‘a combination of two or more persons acting in concert to commit an unlawful act, or to commit a lawful act by unlawful means, the principal element of which is an agreement between the parties to inflict a wrong against or injury upon another’_” Earle v. Benoit, 850 F.2d 836, 844 (1st Cir.1988) (quoting Hampton v. Hanrahan, 600 F.2d 600, 620-21 (7th Cir.1979), rev’d in part on other grounds, 446 U.S. 754, 100 S.Ct. 1987, 64 L.Ed.2d 670 (1980)). Under this definition, section 1983 liability attaches to private actors deemed “willful par-ticipantes] in [a] joint action with a State or its agents.” Lugar, 457 U.S. at 941, 102 S.Ct. at 2756; Dennis v. Sparks, 449 U.S. 24, 27, 101 S.Ct. 183, 186, 66 L.Ed.2d 185 (1980); Casa Marie, Inc. v. Superior Court of Puerto Rico, 988 F.2d 252, 259 (1st Cir.1993). And joint action may be proved by circumstantial evidence of a prearranged conspiracy. See Wagenmann v. Adams, 829 F.2d 196, 211 (1st Cir.1987); see also Moore v. Marketplace Restaurant, Inc., 754 F.2d 1336, 1352 (7th Cir.1985).
I do not contend that joint action existed in this case because Leporati worked the McDonald’s detail or that Domina’s supervisor, Sherry Topham, requested his assistance. This court has clearly stated that “merely initiating a good faith request for police protection would not attach liability for the subsequent unconstitutional conduct of arresting officers.” Wagenmann, 829 F.2d at 210; see also Lusby v. T.G. & Y. Stores, Inc., 749 F.2d 1423, 1433 (10th Cir.1984), vacated on other grounds sub nom. City of Lawton v. Lusby, 474 U.S. 805, 106 S.Ct. 40, 88 L.Ed.2d 33 (1985), aff'd by 796 F.2d 1307 (10th Cir.1986) (a store that employs an off-duty police officer is not vicariously liable under section 1983 for such officer’s deprivation of customer’s civil rights). But, I am persuaded by the fact that Domina and Leporati conferred on two separate occasions before Alexis’ brutal arrest. The record establishes that Domina, not Leporati, made the decision to expel Alexis from McDonald’s premises, and that she made that decision with the knowledge that some harm could befall Alexis (Alexis’ removal “would not be pretty”). And it is clear that Domina knew that Leporati would do as she requested.
Viewed in context, the events precipitating Yvonne Alexis’ claims against Domina cast a long shadow of doubt on the majority’s conclusion that there was “no evidence” to suggest Alexis’ claims against Domina should have survived summary judgment. The facts — that Leporati consulted with Domina on two occasions; that Leporati based his decision to arrest Alexis on Domina’s order; and that it could be found that both Leporati and Domina took Yvonne Alexis’ race into account — certainly suggest something more than independent, race neutral, police action. A factfinder could reasonably infer that Do-mina and Leporati were acting in concert with one another according to an informal plan whereby Leporati would eject anyone fi-om the restaurant identified by Domina as a problem without independently investigating the situation.
Evidence of such substituted judgment arrangements provides a basis for extending section 1983 liability to private actors. See Cruz v. Donnelly, 727 F.2d 79, 81 (3d Cir.1984) (holding evidence of a pre-arranged plan to arrest suspected shoplifters without independently investigating the presence of probable cause was needed to confer section 1983 liability); Lusby, 749 F.2d at 1432-33. While it generally does not suffice to show that a police officer fulfilled a private actor’s request to arrest someone, courts will impose liability where it is evident the police officer would not have acted without the private actor’s order. Cruz, 727 F.2d at 81. A failure to investigate, though not dispositive, has been deemed sufficiently demonstrative *357of conspiratorial conduct. See Lusby, 749 F.2d at 1432.
Despite the majority’s attempts to do so, this case cannot be squared with the holding in Carey v. Continental Airlines, Inc., 823 F.2d 1402 (10th Cir.1987). In that ease the Tenth Circuit found that there was no substituted judgment where a police officer was called into an airport to arrest a striking airline pilot. The police officer in Carey, however, was more of an independent actor than the facts show Officer Leporati was in this case. That officer actually conducted a separate inquiry into the facts before arresting the pilot. 823 F.2d at 1403. Officer Leporati failed to investigate at all, choosing to act solely at Domina’s behest. Additionally, it is worth noting that the use of excessive force and obvious racial overtones that marked Officer Leporati’s actions in this case were not present in Carey.
The current ease more closely patterns Wagenmann v. Adams, 829 F.2d 196 (1st Cir.1987), a case the majority attempts to distinguish. In that case the private actor enjoyed a close relationship with local police officers and enlisted them in carrying out a plan to eject a potential agitator from his son’s wedding ceremony. We held that a section 1983 conspiracy existed, concluding that the defendant in that case was essentially using the law enforcement officials involved to achieve his own, unconstitutional ends. 829 F.2d at 211.
A sound evidentiary basis exists for concluding Domina and Leporati adhered to a substituted judgment policy not unlike the one deemed constitutionally violative in Wag-enmann. First, the record reveals Domina, not Leporati, as the impetus for the decision to eject Yvonne Alexis. Second, Domina and Leporati, as individuals who worked at McDonald’s, could be found to have had a shared understanding to deprive Yvonne Alexis of her rights. See Adickes v. S.H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144, 152, 90 S.Ct. 1598, 1605-06, 26 L.Ed.2d 142 (1970). Leporati worked the McDonald’s detail on numerous occasions and must have had a working knowledge of company policy and decision making procedures for removals. Finally, the conversations Domina and Leporati held regarding Alexis were sufficient in duration and number to cement a conspiracy. These factors convince me that the independent police actions which persuaded the Tenth Circuit that no private liability existed in Carey are not present in this case.
I am not dissuaded by the absence of conclusive evidence that an express plan to discriminate existed between Domina and Leporati. The Supreme Court has found a section 1983 violation where there was no formal plan to discriminate. In Adickes v. S.H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144, 90 S.Ct. 1598, 26 L.Ed.2d 142 (1970), the Court held that a policeman’s presence in a segregated lunch counter might be enough to infer a conspiracy between the police officer and the establishment, where the plaintiff had both been refused service and arrested. In a notable decision the Seventh Circuit found a conspiracy where the state agents with whom the private actor conspired were not actively involved in the deprivation of rights. See Soldal v. County of Cook, 942 F.2d 1073 (7th Cir.1991), rev’d on other grounds by 506 U.S. 56, 113 S.Ct. 538, 121 L.Ed.2d 450 (1992) (finding that private owner and deputy sheriffs conspired to “get rid of a pesky tenant” when sheriffs passively watched an unlawful eviction). It was not necessary that there be evidence of an express plan between Domina and Leporati to implicate section 1983.
There was sufficient evidence from which a factfinder could conclude that Domina and Officer Leporati conspired together to deprive Yvonne Alexis of her due process right not to be arrested without probable cause and that such deprivation was based on the color of Alexis’ skin.
For the reasons discussed above, I would reverse the judgment of the district court on the section 1983 claims brought against Donna Domina.