Harrell v. Cook

• Decision Date: 17 February 1999
• Docket Number: No. 97-3404,97-3404
• Citation: 169 F.3d 428
• Parties: Howard HARRELL and Sarah Harrell, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Donald COOK, Jack Woods, John Keenan, and a police officer unknown to plaintiffs, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 428

169 F.3d 428

Howard HARRELL and Sarah Harrell, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Donald COOK, Jack Woods, John Keenan, and a police officer unknown to plaintiffs, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 97-3404.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

Argued Feb. 25, 1998.

Decided Feb. 17, 1999.

Charles W. Courtney, Jr. (argued), Belleville, IL, for Plaintiffs-Appellees.

Kenneth D. Reifsteck (argued), Thomas, Mamer & Haughey, Champaign, IL, for Defendants-Appellants.

Before POSNER, Chief Judge, WOOD, JR., and DIANE P. WOOD, Circuit Judges.

DIANE P. WOOD, Circuit Judge.

Not everyone believes that banks are the safest or most desirable place to keep cold, hard cash, notwithstanding the existence of safeguards like federal deposit insurance. Howard and Sarah Harrell were among the skeptics. The Harrells had in excess of $95,000 stashed away in a cooler in the crawl space under their house. One day, they discovered that the cash, but not the cooler, had vanished. This case arises out of their belief that the local police department bungled the investigation, or worse, when it lost key evidence. They sued Jacksonville, Illinois, police officers Donald Cook, Jack Woods, John Keenan, and any unknown officers involved in the disappearance of the cooler under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that the officers deprived them of their due process rights to proceed against the suspected thief in court. The police responded with a motion to dismiss, which the district court denied. Before us now is the narrow question whether the district court correctly rejected the officers' claim of qualified immunity. We conclude that the court should have granted the officers' motion and dismissed the claims against them.

I

This case centers around one of two large containers the Harrells had buried in the crawl space beneath their house. One of the containers was an ordinary chest cooler, in which the Harrells had placed the extraordinary amount of $95,854.70. On July 11, 1995, the Harrells discovered that the chest cooler had been unearthed and its contents were missing. The only other party who had had access to the crawl space where the money was buried was a contractor whom the Harrells had hired to work on their home between January 9 and July 11, 1995.

The Harrells took their story and the now-empty cooler (as well as some smaller containers housed therein that the Harrells had used for organizing the money) to the Jacksonville Police. They spoke with Assistant Police Chief John Keenan, who told them that the contractor was his number-one suspect. (There is some disagreement in the record about the spelling of the name of defendant John "Keenan." We use here the spelling that Keenan's lawyer adopted, rather than plaintiffs' "Canaan" or the district court's "Keehan.") Keenan accepted possession of the cooler and its containers, saying that he would have them tested for fingerprints. The next day, Keenan told the Harrells that he would be sending investigators to their home to pursue the lost funds. More than two weeks later, Jacksonville Police Officer Jack Woods arrived to photograph the Harrell home. He broke the bad news that the cooler and its containers were missing, apparently lost by the police department. Although the Jacksonville police had a policy of placing evidence in the department's evidence room, the Harrells' evidence had last been seen in the police garage by Assistant Chief Keenan and Officers Woods and Cook.

Following the disappearance of the cooler, the Harrells repeatedly met with Cook to encourage the continued investigation of the theft. Despite their efforts, the police dropped the criminal case and made no effort to pursue the loss of the cooler. Moreover, as the Harrells' attorney explained at oral argument, without the cooler and the fingerprints they hoped to find on it, the Harrells did not believe they had enough evidence to pursue a civil claim for conversion against the contractor. Apparently without recourse against the suspected thief, the Harrells turned to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and brought this three-count complaint against the City of Jacksonville and its police department, and against Keenan, Woods, Cook, and any unknown officer or officers who disposed of or absconded with the Harrells' evidence.

Count I of the Harrells' complaint alleged that the individual officers deprived them of their rights to proceed against the person or persons responsible for the theft of their money. Count II alleged that the defendants acted intentionally and sought punitive damages. In Count III, the Harrells argued that the City of Jacksonville maintained a custom or policy of not investigating citizen complaints of wrongdoing by the police force, a claim that was dismissed by the district court and is not a subject of this appeal.

The defendants filed a motion to dismiss on the ground that they were entitled to qualified immunity, because the Harrells failed to allege a violation of a clearly established federal right. The district court denied the motion, finding first that the plaintiffs had properly alleged a violation of their right to meaningful access to the courts, as provided by the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The court further found that this constitutional right was clearly established at the time of the alleged violation, and hence the defendants were not protected by qualified immunity.

II

Relief under § 1983 is available to a plaintiff who can demonstrate that a person acting under color of state law deprived the plaintiff of a right, privilege, or immunity secured either by the Constitution or by federal law. Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527, 535, 101 S.Ct. 1908, 68 L.Ed.2d 420 (1981). Nonetheless, the doctrine of qualified immunity often operates to shield public officials from liability for civil damages. In Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982), the Supreme Court held that "government officials performing discretionary functions generally are shielded from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Id. at 817-18, 102 S.Ct. 2727. See also Crawford-El v. Britton, 523 U.S. 574, 118 S.Ct. 1584, 1592, 140 L.Ed.2d 759 (1998). Qualified immunity depends on the objective legal reasonableness of the defendants' actions, not on their subjective motivations. Levenstein v. Salafsky, 164 F.3d 345, 350-51 (7th Cir.1998). In order to survive a defense motion to dismiss on qualified immunity grounds, a plaintiff must show (1) that she has asserted a violation of a constitutional or statutory right, and (2) that the applicable legal standards were clearly established at the time the defendants acted. Id.; see also Kelley v. Myler, 149 F.3d 641, 648 (7th Cir.1998).

Because qualified immunity is designed to protect defendants from the burden of suit, as well as the burden of liability, it is a question that should be resolved as promptly as possible. For that reason, the Supreme Court has recognized that defendants are entitled to take an immediate appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 from a denial of qualified immunity, as long as the resolution of the immunity issue itself does not turn on disputed facts. See, e.g., Behrens v. Pelletier, 516 U.S. 299, 301, 116 S.Ct. 834, 133 L.Ed.2d 773 (1996); Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985); Weir v. Propst, 915 F.2d 283 (7th Cir.1990). In this case, because qualified immunity was raised in a motion to dismiss, the procedural posture of the case itself assures the absence of factual issues. Instead, as is always the case with a Rule 12(b)(6) ruling, we take the allegations of the plaintiffs' complaint as true, construing them liberally and viewing them in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs. Triad Associates, Inc. v. Robinson, 10 F.3d 492, 495 (7th Cir.1993). Because this appeal presents only issues of law, the standard of review is de novo. Id.; see also Marshall v. Allen, 984 F.2d 787, 793 (7th Cir.1993).

In undertaking our analysis of the Harrells' claims, it is necessary to consider Counts I and II of the complaint separately. Count I alleges that the defendants improperly stored the Harrells' evidence and then refused to investigate its loss, causing the deprivation of the Harrells' right to proceed in court. Nowhere does it allege an intentional interference with that right, however, and thus it boils down to a claim of negligent interference with the right of access to the courts. In contrast, Count II alleges an intentional violation of the plaintiffs' constitutional rights. Paragraph 27 maintains that the defendants "acted intentionally to deprive plaintiffs of their rights by disposing of or absconding with plaintiffs' evidence." This language is sufficient to encompass the claim that the defendants intentionally rid themselves of the cooler in order to prevent the Harrells from suing the person whom they believed to have stolen their money. The defendants have remarked that this allegation also resembles a state law tort claim for spoliation of evidence, see Boyd v. Travelers Insurance Co., 166 Ill.2d 188, 209...