Camilo-Robles v. Hoyos
| Decision Date | 25 February 1998 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 97-2260,D,TOLEDO-DAVIL,DIAZ-PAGA,P,CAMILO-ROBLE,SANTIAGO-GONZALE,s. 97-2260 |
| Citation | 151 F.3d 1 |
| Parties | Grancidlaintiff, Appellee, v. Dr. Guillermo HOYOS and Dr. Hector O. Rivera-Gonzalez, Defendants, Appellants. Grancidlaintiff, Appellee, v. Pedro A.efendant, Appellant. Grancidlaintiff, Appellee, v. Gilbertoefendant, Appellant. Grancidlaintiff, Appellee, v. Pabloefendant, Appellant. to 97-2262 and 97-2264. . Heard |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
Roberto Lefranc Romero, with whom Martinez Alvarez, Menendez Cortada & Lefranc Romero was on brief, for appellants Hoyos and Rivera-Gonzalez.
John F. Nevares, with whom Ayleen Charles, Lizzie Portela, and Smith & Nevares were on brief, for appellant Toledo-Davila.
Orlando Duran-Medero, with whom Ricardo R. Rodriguez Padilla Law Offices was on brief, for appellant Diaz-Pagan.
Roberto Santana Aparicio, with whom Marisol Vega Coputo and Del Toro & Santana were on brief, for appellant Santiago-Gonzalez.
Judith Berkan, with whom Peter Berkowitz was on brief, for appellee.
Before SELYA, Circuit Judge, CAMPBELL, Senior Circuit Judge, and STAHL, Circuit Judge.
After suffering indignities at the hands of an unstable police officer, plaintiff-appellee Grancid Camilo-Robles sued an array of defendants under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1994). 1 In due season, five such defendants, appellants here, moved for summary judgment on the ground of qualified immunity. The district court rejected their motions (in some instances without waiting for an opposition). Although the timing of the district court's ruling and the lack of any authoritative insight into the court's reasoning complicate our task, we affirm.
Parking privileges denote special status in our motorized society, and emotions often run high when a parking space is at stake. This case vividly illustrates that verity.
On May 13, 1994, Miguel Diaz-Martinez, a police officer assigned to the Bayamon Criminal Investigation Corps (CIC), sought to park in an area reserved for judges at the Bayamon Judicial Center. Camilo-Robles, a security guard sworn to protect that hallowed ground, told Diaz-Martinez that he could not park there. In response to this perceived affront, Diaz-Martinez placed his hand on his gun, arrested Camilo-Robles, handcuffed him, shoved the prisoner into his (Diaz-Martinez's) police cruiser, and drove to the station house (pausing to punch Camilo-Robles in the stomach and slap him in the face). Upon their arrival, Diaz-Martinez forced the plaintiff to remove his belt and shoes and placed him in a cell with other detainees. Cooler heads prevailed, and Diaz-Martinez's prey was released, uncharged, some three hours later.
Camilo-Robles sued Gilberto Diaz-Pagan (director of the Bayamon CIC), Pablo Santiago-Gonzalez (Bayamon area commander), and Pedro A. Toledo-Davila (superintendent of police). In addition to these high-ranking police officials, Camilo-Robles named a host of other defendants including inter alia two psychiatrists who worked for the police department, Drs. Guillermo Hoyos and Hector O. Rivera-Gonzalez. Invoking section 1983, Camilo-Robles alleged that these five named defendants (collectively, "the appellants") had deprived him of his civil rights by their deliberate indifference in carrying out their supervisory responsibilities (with the result that Diaz-Martinez, a demonstrably unstable officer, was allowed to remain on active duty).
The district court issued its scheduling order on February 21, 1996. In December of that year, the appellants filed summary judgment motions. Camilo-Robles responded on the merits to the psychiatrists' summary judgment motion, but served a cross-motion seeking additional time in which to oppose the police officials' motions, see Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(f), explaining that they had stonewalled during pretrial discovery. The district court granted this cross-motion without limit of time and referred all pending discovery matters to a magistrate judge. Lassitude set in, and the magistrate made no rulings until August 26, 1997. Two days later, the district court denied the appellants' summary judgment motions in a curt, two-page order. These appeals followed.
Because the allegations of liability and the defenses thereto hinge upon what actions the various defendants took (or should have taken) in light of Diaz-Martinez's flagitious history of violence, the latter's career is of great relevance. We extract the facts from the summary judgment record, resolving all conflicts in favor of the plaintiff. See Garside v. Osco Drug, Inc., 895 F.2d 46, 50 (1st Cir.1990).
Diaz-Martinez joined the police force as a cadet in March 1984. That December, he was suspended for an assault. Despite the suspension, he became a regular officer and served as such for the next five years. His record reflects numerous disciplinary infractions involving violent and/or threatening behavior--we count at least eighteen--many of which entailed unwarranted brandishing of his weapon. The denouement occurred in August 1989 when, after assaulting his wife, Diaz-Martinez entered the Catano police station, seized a shotgun, and held several gendarmes (including the acting police superintendent) hostage for several hours.
Subsequent to this bizarre display, Diaz-Martinez was committed involuntarily to a psychiatric hospital and diagnosed as schizophrenic. The hospital discharged him and three months later a police psychiatrist, Dr. Pagan-Davis, recommended that he be separated from the force and given a civilian position. The police department suspended Diaz-Martinez in 1990 and formally expelled him in 1991.
Justice sometimes moves in mysterious ways. Diaz-Martinez successfully appealed his expulsion and the police department reinstated him in May 1993. While on desk duty, he assaulted a civilian. Nevertheless, Drs. Hoyos and Rivera-Gonzalez found Diaz-Martinez free from mental illness and fit for active duty (with no restrictions) when they examined him in August. The department promptly rearmed him and assigned him to work in a high-tension neighborhood. On September 8, 1993 (the day following his return to active duty), Diaz-Martinez engaged in an altercation with two unarmed, law-abiding neighborhood residents. In the course of this fracas, he shot both of them, wounding one and killing the other. See Diaz v. Diaz Martinez, 112 F.3d 1, 2 (1st Cir.1997) (). The police department immediately confiscated his weapon.
After a self-imposed exile, Diaz-Martinez returned to desk duty in November 1993. On January 20, 1994, while still unarmed, Diaz-Martinez threatened to kill a fellow officer at the Bayamon Radio Center. Six days later, he was transferred to the Bayamon CIC. On February 28, 1994, Drs. Hoyos and Rivera-Gonzalez again examined Diaz-Martinez and again declared him ready for unrestricted active duty and fit to carry a weapon. The police department rearmed him forthwith.
The incident that sparked this suit occurred in May of 1994. The police department again expelled Diaz-Martinez that August. He eventually pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter in connection with the September 1993 shootings and was sentenced to serve a prison term. 2
Before tackling the vagaries of each defendant's appeal, we first must map the crossroads at which the qualified immunity doctrine and principles of supervisory liability under section 1983 intersect. We then discuss pertinent questions of appellate jurisdiction and pause to note the somewhat tentative nature of orders denying summary judgment in the qualified immunity context.
Federal law provides a cause of action when an individual, acting under color of state law, deprives a person of federally assured rights. See 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Public officials who stand accused of civil rights violations under section 1983 nonetheless can avoid liability for money damages by showing either that they did not violate a right clearly established under federal law or that they acted with objective legal reasonableness. 3 See Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 819, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982); Buenrostro v. Collazo, 973 F.2d 39, 42 (1st Cir.1992).
The Supreme Court has emphasized that a section 1983 plaintiff must allege a violation of a clearly established right secured either by the Constitution or by some other federal law. See County of Sacramento v. Lewis, --- U.S. ----, ---- n. 5, 118 S.Ct. 1708, 1714 n. 5, 140 L.Ed.2d 1043 (1998). Here, the plaintiff vaults this hurdle with room to spare. The right to be free from unreasonable seizure (and, by extension, unjustified arrest and detention) is clearly established in the jurisprudence of the Fourteenth Amendment (). The right to due process of law (and, by extension, to be free from police brutality) is likewise clearly established under the Fourteenth Amendment ().
We have not had occasion to address the question whether, to be liable under section 1983, a supervisor must have violated an independent, "clearly established" right, or whether a supervisor may be liable based only on his proximity to a subordinate's violation of a "clearly established" right. Other circuits, however, have addressed this interplay between the "clearly established" requirement and supervisory liability. We follow their lead and adopt an approach that comports with the core principle of qualified immunity by protecting supervisory officials from suit when they could not reasonably anticipate liability.
When a supervisor seeks qualified immunity in a section 1983 action, the "clearly established" prong of the qualified immunity...
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