Ridder v. City of Springfield

• Citation: 109 F.3d 288
• Decision Date: 14 March 1997
• Docket Number: No. 95-4220,95-4220
• Parties: Stephen Michael RIDDER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CITY OF SPRINGFIELD, Defendant-Appellee, Clark County, et al., Defendants.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit)

Page 288

109 F.3d 288

36 Fed.R.Serv.3d 1288

Stephen Michael RIDDER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CITY OF SPRINGFIELD, Defendant-Appellee, Clark County, et al., Defendants.

No. 95-4220.

United States Court of Appeals,

Sixth Circuit.

Argued Sept. 27, 1996.

Decided March 14, 1997.

Dwight D. Brannon (argued and briefed), Dayton, OH, for plaintiff-appellant.

Robin B. DeBell (argued and briefed), Office of the City Law Director, Springfield, OH, for defendant-appellee.

Before: SUHRHEINRICH and MOORE, Circuit Judges; McKINLEY, District Judge. ^*

MOORE, Circuit Judge.

In this appeal we are asked to determine the propriety of sanctions under FED.R.CIV.P. 11, as amended in 1993, when a motion for sanctions is filed without satisfying the requisite "safe harbor" period and after a court has entered summary judgment. Following a protracted civil rights litigation resulting in summary judgment for defendants on all claims, Defendant City of Springfield moved for sanctions against Plaintiff Stephen M. Ridder's counsel, Dwight D. Brannon, pursuant to Rule 11 and 28 U.S.C. § 1927, without first serving the motion on plaintiff's counsel for a "safe harbor" period as instructed by the 1993 Amendments to Rule 11. Agreeing with Springfield's contention that over the five-year litigation period Ridder had failed to put forth any evidence of a proper basis for municipal liability, the magistrate judge imposed sanctions in the form of a $32,546.02 fine against Ridder's counsel. As explained below, we disallow the Rule 11 sanctions because Springfield failed to comply with the rule's explicit procedural prerequisite. Springfield is entitled to $32,546.02 in attorney fees, ¹ however, under § 1927 insofar as Ridder's counsel unreasonably and vexatiously multiplied the proceedings. Therefore, we affirm the magistrate judge's order awarding fees.

I. BACKGROUND

In January 1990, Stephen M. Ridder commenced an action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the City of Springfield, Ohio, and other defendants as a result of his arrest and pre-trial incarceration for a number of rape and related charges. Compl.; J.A. at 34. Ridder essentially alleged that the actions of Springfield police officers in withholding from a search warrant affidavit inconsistent information given by various rape victims and in failing to investigate fully Ridder's alibis deprived Ridder of his constitutional right to due process of law. See Third Amend.Compl. at 16-38; J.A. at 183-205.

The events that formed the basis of Ridder's suit stemmed from a series of rapes that occurred in and around Springfield between January 1986 and July 1988. In July 1988, Ridder's hand was nearly severed in an industrial accident. While physicians reattached his hand, a hospital employee identified Ridder's voice as that of her attacker. Police began investigating Ridder. He could be placed in the general location at the time of several of the rapes, and five of eight victims identified him in a lineup. Pursuant to a fourteen-count indictment, Springfield police officers arrested Ridder on September 8, 1988. He was detained in the Clark County Jail from then until January 4, 1989, when DNA tests exonerated him. Ridder was released from jail on January 4, 1989, and all charges against him were later dropped.

On January 4, 1990, Ridder filed a complaint against the City of Springfield, Clark County, Prosecutor Stephen A. Schumaker, Clark County Sheriff Gene A. Kelly, Springfield Chief of Police Roger Evans, Sergeant Robert Marcum, Detectives Ronald Mendah and Robert Kerr, and Dr. Walter Lawrence alleging several causes of action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, 42 U.S.C. § 1985, and state law. Compl.; J.A. at 34. The assigned magistrate judge, Michael R. Merz, noted several pleading deficiencies as to who was being sued for what and gave Ridder an opportunity to amend the complaint. Decision, Sept. 10, 1990; J.A. No. 95-3358 at 412-15. On October 1, 1990, Ridder filed an amended complaint. First Amend.Compl.; J.A. at 56. The magistrate judge subsequently dismissed most claims in the amended complaint as failing to state a claim upon which relief could be granted or as barred by qualified immunity. Decision, Mar. 4, 1992; J.A. No. 95-3358 at 455.

Ridder then obtained leave to file a second amended complaint, which he filed on May 11, 1992. Second Amend.Compl.; J.A. at 105. With respect to this complaint, the magistrate judge granted a defense motion for a more definite statement, noting that "still the Court is faced with a pleading that is not explicit about who is being sued for what." Order, June 10, 1992; J.A. No. 95-3358 at 481. The magistrate judge also decided sua sponte that the filing of the second amended complaint constituted a violation of 28 U.S.C. § 1927 in that it multiplied proceedings vexatiously and unreasonably. Order, June 10, 1992; J.A. No. 95-3358 at 481-82. This § 1927 ruling, however, never became final as the magistrate judge granted Ridder leave to file a third amended complaint. See Order, Aug. 17, 1993; J.A. No. 95-3358 at 650-52.

Ridder filed his third amended complaint on August 17, 1993. Third Amend.Compl.; J.A. at 168. In the intervening period, the Supreme Court in Leatherman v. Tarrant County Narcotics Intelligence and Coordination Unit, 507 U.S. 163, 113 S.Ct. 1160, 122 L.Ed.2d 517 (1993), held that a civil rights complaint alleging municipal liability cannot be subject to a heightened pleading standard. Recognizing Leatherman 's effect on Ridder's municipal liability claims, the magistrate judge deemed the third amended complaint sufficient for Ridder's case to progress beyond the pleading stage. Decision, Jan. 24, 1994; J.A. No. 95-3358 at 348.

Proceeding on the basis of the third amended complaint, the parties undertook discovery throughout 1994. Near the end of that year, Springfield moved for summary judgment. Motion; J.A. at 422. Even assuming that the Springfield police officers deprived Ridder of a constitutional right, the magistrate judge found that Ridder offered no evidence that the officers acted pursuant to any policy, custom, or usage of the City of Springfield, as required by Monell v. Department of Social Servs., 436 U.S. 658, 690, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 2035-36, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978). Decision, Feb. 28, 1995; J.A. at 358. Ridder admitted in interrogatories that he was not relying on any written policy, and the magistrate judge found no evidence that the officers' conduct toward Ridder was pursuant to a pattern, much less amounted to a policy, custom, or usage. Id. Accordingly, the magistrate judge dismissed the § 1983 claims against Springfield, as well as all other claims against the City and other defendants. Decision, Feb. 28, 1995; J.A. at 365-67. ²

On March 28, 1995, one month after the magistrate judge entered judgment in favor of the City, Springfield moved for attorney fees and/or sanctions pursuant to 42 U.S.C § 1988, ³ 28 U.S.C. § 1927, and Rule 11. Motion; J.A. at 568. Early in the case Springfield had determined that separate counsel would be retained to defend the individual police officers, thereby avoiding conflict inherent in having one attorney represent both the officers and the City. Accordingly, Springfield sought reimbursement for the fees earned by the retained counsel and not for the time and effort of the Law Director for the City of Springfield, who represented the City's interests throughout Ridder's suit. Motion at 3; J.A. at 570.

Springfield urged that Ridder's counsel should be sanctioned under Rule 11 for "failing to reasonably investigate, pre-filing, claims made against Defendant City, and for continuing in their claims long after it became, or should have become, clear that there was no factual or legal basis for municipal liability." Motion at 5-6; J.A. at 572-73. Springfield acknowledged the "safe harbor" provision of amended Rule 11 which instructs that a motion should be served on offending counsel twenty-one days prior to any filing with the court, yet the City admitted that it did not serve such a motion on Ridder's counsel. Motion at 10; J.A. at 577. Finally, Springfield insisted that by pursuing the case over five years, Ridder's counsel unreasonably and vexatiously multiplied the litigation within the meaning of 28 U.S.C. § 1927. Ridder unsuccessfully moved the magistrate judge to stay decision on Springfield's motion for sanctions pending appeal to this court of the underlying civil rights action. ⁴

On October 11, 1995, the magistrate judge ⁵ ordered Ridder's counsel, Dwight D. Brannon, to pay the City of Springfield $32,546.02 pursuant to Rule 11 and 28 U.S.C. § 1927. ⁶ Decision, Oct. 11, 1995 at 7; J.A. at 619. According to the magistrate judge, Ridder's counsel asserted frivolous claims against Springfield at the outset of the case, and continued to maintain the claims without ever developing evidentiary support. Id. As to Rule 11's "safe harbor" provision, the magistrate judge reasoned:

The purpose of this requirement in the Rule is to allow a party threatened with sanctions to withdraw an offending paper, thereby avoiding the need to litigate the Rule 11 questions. Here the Motion is directed to Plaintiff's counsel's conduct in maintaining the case at all and keeping the City of Springfield in the case from the beginning through summary judgment. Plaintiff has vigorously defended against motions to dismiss and certainly did not withdraw his claims against the City of Springfield when confronted with their motion for summary judgment. Serving Plaintiff's counsel with the Rule 11 Motion 21 days before filing it would have been in this case an empty formality. In any event, the requirement does not appear to be jurisdictional; amended Rule 11 does not forbid the award of sanctions when this particular requirement is not met.

Decision, Oct. 11, 1995 at 5; J.A. at 617 (emphasis added). Thus, according to the magistrate judge, the failure of Springfield to comport with Rule 11's "safe harbor"...