Gros v. City of Grand Prairie Texas, 98-10357

• Decision Date: 14 July 1999
• Docket Number: No. 98-10357,98-10357
• Parties: (5th Cir. 1999) DANETTE HOPE GROS; EDITH D SIKES, Plaintiffs - Appellants, v. THE CITY OF GRAND PRAIRIE, TEXAS, ET AL, Defendants, THE CITY OF GRAND PRAIRIE, TEXAS; HARRY L CRUM; RICHARD L BENDER, Defendants - Appellees
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 613

181 F.3d 613 (5th Cir. 1999)

DANETTE HOPE GROS; EDITH D SIKES, Plaintiffs - Appellants, v. THE CITY OF GRAND PRAIRIE, TEXAS, ET AL, Defendants, THE CITY OF GRAND PRAIRIE, TEXAS; HARRY L CRUM; RICHARD L BENDER, Defendants - Appellees.

No. 98-10357

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT

July 14, 1999

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas

Before KING, Chief Judge, and POLITZ and BENAVIDES, Circuit Judges.

BENAVIDES, Circuit Judge:

Dannette Hope Gros and Edith D. Sikes appeal from an adverse summary judgment order dismissing their 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claims against the City of Grand Prairie, Texas (the "City"); Harry Crum, the Chief of the City of Grand Prairie Police Department ("GPPD"); and Richard L. Bender, the GPPD's officer in charge of internal affairs (collectively, "Municipal Defendants"). Because we find that the district court applied improper legal standards in its summary judgment order, we vacate and remand for further consideration.

This suit grew out of allegations by Gros and Sikes that Eric Rogers, a former GPPD officer, physically, sexually, and verbally abused them. Gros contends that during a routine traffic stop in August 1995, Officer ogers used excessive and improper force against her, including grabbing her breast and placing her in the back of his squad car on a hot day with the windows closed. Sikes asserts that Rogers, while responding to a call in February 1996, sexually abused her by grabbing her breast and placing his hand in her pants. Both Gros and Sikes filed complaints with the GPPD Internal Affairs Department. Sikes also testified before a grand jury which indicted Officer Rogers on charges of "official oppression." Rogers was terminated by the GPPD following an internal investigation.

Gros and Sikes filed a complaint in October 1996 against Officer Rogers and the Municipal Defendants¹ in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. They asserted several causes of action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violations of their Fourth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights. In the only cause of action directed at the City, Gros and Sikes listed forty-one ways in which the City "as a matter of policy practice and/or custom has acted in reckless, callous and deliberate indifference to [Gros and Sikes's] constitutional rights." They included numerous alleged deficiencies in the hiring, training, and disciplining of police officers in general, and of Officer Rogers specifically.

In August 1997, the Municipal Defendants filed a motion for summary judgment. Gros and Sikes argued that summary judgment was inappropriate because there was sufficient evidence that "the City of Grand Prairie itself caused the deprivation of [Gros and Sikes's] constitutional rights through policies and customs which were an intentional choice by the final policymaking authority, Chief Crum." On February 23, 1998, District Judge Fitzwater entered an order granting the Municpal Defendants' motion and dismissing all of Gros and Sikes's claims against the City and all of their official-capacity claims against Crum and Bender. The court found that the City was not liable under § 1983 because Gros and Sikes had failed to show that Crum possessed final policymaking authority over the GPPD's policies. The court dismissed the official-capacity claims against Crum and Bender on the same basis. We now consider the timely appeal by Gros and Sikes of that order.

DISCUSSION

Gros and Sikes contend on appeal that the district court erred in finding that the City of Grand Prairie could not be held liable for Chief Crum's decisions to enact or ratify the GPPD's alleged unconstitutional policies and customs. Under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a municipality cannot be held vicariously liable for the constitutional torts of its employees or agents. See Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 638, 694 (1978). Liability arises only when the execution of an official policy or custom of the municipality causes the constitutional injury. See id. A policy or custom becomes official for purposes of § 1983 when it results from the decision or acquiescence of the municipal officer or body with "final policymaking authority" over the subject matter of the offending policy. Jett v. Dallas Independent School District, 491 U.S. 701, 737 (1989). Thus, the City of Grand Prairie could be liable for the decisions of Chief Crum if Crum was the City's final policymaking authority over the areas in which the decisions were made.

In reaching its conclusion that Chief Crum did not have final policymaking authority over the GPPD's hiring, training, or discipline policies, the district court employed two legal principles. First, it found that the ultimate policymaking authority did not reside with Chief Crum because "[a]bsent contrary evidence, the court must assume that policymaking authority resides with the City's governing body." Second, the court stated that Gros and Sikes could nonetheless survive summary judgment if "there is an issue of material fact whether policymaking authority has been delegated to Chief Crum." On the basis of these two legal precepts, and its finding that "a reasonable trier of fact could not find that final policymaking authority has been delegated by the City's governing body to Chief Crum," the district court granted summary judgment to the Municipal Defendants.

Appellants contend that the district court used the wrong legal standards in granting summary judgment. As recognized by the district court in its decision, the Supreme Court has evinced no preference for any single body as the source of municipal policymaking authority. See Pembaur v. City of Cincinnati, 475 U.S. 469, 480 (1986) (instructing that final policymaking authority "is no more the exclusive province of the legislature at the local level than at the state or national level"). Instead, the Court has remarked that "one may expect to find a rich variety of ways in which the power of [local] government is distributed among a host of different officials and official bodies." City of St. Louis v. Praprotnik, 485 U.S. 112, 124-25 (1988). The Court has also rejected the need for establishing any default final policymaker, finding that "state law . . . will always direct a court to some official or body that has the responsibility for making law or setting policy in any given area of a local government'sbusiness." Id. at 125 (emphasis added). To the extent that the district court relied upon a presumption concerning the locus of final policymaking authority in the City of Grand Prairie instead of looking to state law as the sole determinant, we find that it erred.

In this regard, we note that there was legal authority available to assist the district court in determining which of the City's officials or bodies possessed final policymaking authority over the GPPD policies. The sources of state law which should be used to discern which municipal officials possess final policymaking authority are "state and local positive law, as well as 'custom or usage' having the force of law." Jett, 491 U.S. at 737 (internal quotation omitted). In this case, each of those sources were available. First, Chief Crum's testimony in the record refers repeatedly to the City of Grand Prairie Civil Service Commission. In a Texas municipality with a population between 10,000 and 1.5 million, the creation of a police civil service commission must be approved by the municipality's voters. See Tex. Loc. Gov't Code Ann. § 143.002 (1999 Supp.). The commission is then empowered under the Texas Local Government Code to make and review certain decisions regarding the hiring and disciplining of police officers. See id. § 143.001 et seq. There are thus questions of local and state positive law whether a Grand Prairie Civil Service Commission was adopted by the Grand Prairie voters and whether that commission, instead of the City's governing body or Chief Crum, was the final policymaking authority over the GPPD's hiring or discipline policies. Second, Gros and Sikes submitted to the district court affidavits or depositions of at least five members of the GPPD, including three depositions of Chief Crum. In these depositions, Chief Crum and the other officers were questioned at length concerning the methods by which the GPPD's hiring, training, and discipline policies were created and implemented. Their testimony indicated that Chief Crum, the city manager, and the civil service commission each played a role in the formation of GPPD policy.² Those depositions were available to the district court as potential evidence of municipal customs or usages having the force of state law. It was thus incumbent upon the district court to consider state and local positive law as well as evidence of the City's customs and usages in determining which City officials or bodies had final policymaking authority over the policies at issue in this case.

We also disagree with the district court's assertion that even if Chief Crum did not possess final policymaking authority as a matter of state law, Gros and Sikes could nonetheless survive summary judgment if there was an issue of material fact whether Crum had been delegated final policymaking authority. In Jett v. Dallas Independent School District, 491 U.S. 701 (1989), the Supreme Court established that whether an official has been delegated final policymaking authority is a question of law for the judge, not of fact for the jury. See id. at 737 ("[T]he identification of those officials whose decisions represent the official policy of the local governmental unit is itself a legal question to be resolved by the trial judge before the case is submitted to the jury.") On remand, this court interpreted that instruction as including, as questions of law for the court, determinations whether final policymaking authority has been delegated. See Jett v. Dallas Independent...