Pouillon v. City of Owosso

• Decision Date: 23 September 1999
• Docket Number: V,DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES,PLAINTIFF-APPELLAN,No. 98-1967,98-1967
• Citation: 206 F.3d 711
• Parties: (6th Cir. 2000) JAMES L. POUILLON,CITY OF OWOSSO; SERGEANT SHARON LITTLE; AND OFFICER W. G. BLANCHETT, Argued:
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 711

206 F.3d 711 (6th Cir. 2000)

JAMES L. POUILLON, PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT,

V.

CITY OF OWOSSO; SERGEANT SHARON LITTLE; AND OFFICER W. G. BLANCHETT, DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES.

No. 98-1967

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

Argued: September 23, 1999

Decided and Filed: March 16, 2000

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan at Detroit. No. 97-70413--Anna Diggs Taylor, District Judge. [Copyrighted Material Omitted] Michael J. Gildner (argued and briefed), Simen, Figura & Parker, Flint, Michigan, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Patrick A. Aseltyne, Johnson, Rosati, LaBarge, Aseltyne & Field, Lansing, Michigan, Marcia L. Howe (argued), Johnson, Rosati, LaBarge, Aseltyne & Field, Farmington Hills, Michigan, David R. Brinks (briefed), Johnson, Rosati, LaBarge, Aseltyne & Field, Lansing, Michigan, for Defendants-Appellees.

Before: Boggs and Daughtrey, Circuit Judges; and Donald, District Judge.^*

OPINION

Boggs, Circuit Judge.

James L. Pouillon was arrested by Owosso, Michigan city police while protesting on public property against abortion. The arrest was ostensibly for "refusing a lawful police order" to move, and "obstructing passage to a public building." Pouillon sued the City of Owosso and two of its police officers, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, for violating his clearly established constitutional rights to freedom of speech, religion, and assembly by arresting him for protesting abortion while standing with a sign in front of city hall. The district court denied his motion for summary judgment and, after a jury found against him, his renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law. He appeals these rulings, and also contends that the district court committed reversible error in submitting to the jury the issue of defendants' qualified immunity, rather than submitting special interrogatories on the basis of which the court would then decide the question of whether the defendants' actions were qualifiedly immune. He also appeals the district court's dismissal sua sponte of his claim for punitive damages. The district court submitted the case to a jury under instructions that misstated and conflated the principles of qualified immunity, First Amendment rights, and freedom from arbitrary arrest. We therefore remand this case for further proceedings under the appropriate standards, as set forth in this opinion.

I.

James Pouillon is a dedicated anti-abortion protester whose non-working life is largely devoted to activism in that cause. He was a familiar figure on the streets of Owosso, where he staged abortion protests for a portion of each day almost every weekday for over ten years. On the date he was arrested, he had decided to move his protest from his customary post on the sidewalk to a position on a small plaza separating upper and lower short flights of steps to city hall, or on the steps themselves. On the sidewalk, he had often been the target of verbal abuse as well as assorted missiles, and had once been almost run down by a motorist who swerved onto the sidewalk and drove straight at him. He had also been issued a ticket on the sidewalk by Sergeant Little on an earlier occasion for violating a city ordinance banning signs in the public right-of-way. However, Sergeant Little testified that this incident involved a large, free-standing sign rather than Pouillon's usual hand-held sign, and that it was the sign, rather than Pouillon's presence, that had constituted the sidewalk obstruction and resulted in his ticket on that earlier occasion.

On December 22, 1994, Sergeant Little and Officer Blanchett, responding to a complaint about Pouillon's presence there, went to city hall's steps and ordered him to move to the sidewalk. Pouillon contends that the reason they gave is that he was on private property and in any case was violating the doctrine of separation of church and state. They deny this and claim that they told him he was obstructing entry to and egress from city hall. In any event, when he refused to move, he was arrested under City Ordinance 19-27, which prohibits impeding a police officer in the conduct of his or her duties.

The police assert that Pouillon was actively seeking, and that he admitted that he wanted, to be arrested. Pouillon denies this. The arrest itself appears to have been handled with some cordiality. For example, the officers moved his handcuffs from behind his back to the front of his body so that Pouillon could be more comfortable in the police cruiser; after he was taken to the police station, searched, and booked, he was released on a personal recognizance bond; Sergeant Little drove him back to his car so that he could be on time for work. Nonetheless, Pouillon charges that the police conduct was outrageous, constituted an abuse of power, and warrants punitive damages, in addition to compensatory damages for violation of his civil rights.

II.

Sergeant Little and Officer Blanchett both testified at trial that, in their judgment, Pouillon and his sign constituted an obstruction of access to city hall, or would intimidate others who might wish to use the steps. Based on this judgment, and given that they had been dispatched there due to a complaint, they asked Pouillon to move to the sidewalk. Their defense to Pouillon's charge that the arrest constituted an illegal deprivation of his First and Fourth Amendment rights is, first, that the restriction was a reasonable one since it left Pouillon alternative avenues of communication (the sidewalk), and finally, that even if his allegations on this issue were taken as true, the doctrine of qualified immunity shields them from liability.

Pouillon argues: (a) that his constitutional rights, specifically of freedom of speech, religion, assembly, and freedom from unlawful arrest, were violated, in that the officers' restriction of his freedom of speech, even if construed as a time, place, and manner regulation, was not a reasonable one; and (b) that the trial court should have rejected the defendants' qualified immunity defense and granted plaintiff's motion for judgment as a matter of law since, as he argues, there were no factual disputes permitting such a defense, in that any reasonable officer would have known that her actions involved such a constitutional violation.

Pouillon also contends that the district court committed reversible error in allowing the jury to decide the case on a general verdict that allowed a qualified immunity defense, rather than putting special interrogatories to the jury on the basis of which the court could then rule on the defendants' qualified immunity as a matter of law. A trial judge's decision whether or not to submit a dispute to the jury through special interrogatories is within the trial court's sound discretion. Fed. R. Civ. P. 49. Such discretion is reviewed by this court for abuse, which "is defined as a definite and firm conviction that the trial court committed an error of judgment." See Monette v. AM-7-7 Baking Co., 929 F.2d 276, 280 (6th Cir. 1991) (quoting Logan v. Dayton Hudson Corp., 865 F.2d 789, 790 (6th Cir. 1989)). The trial court's discretion will not be disturbed unless "it relies upon clearly erroneous findings of fact or when it improperly applies the law or uses an erroneous legal standard." Fleischut v. Nixon Detroit Diesel, Inc., 859 F.2d 26, 30 (6th Cir. 1988).

This case involves related sets of questions for determination. First, there are three factual questions about what happened at city hall on December 22, 1994. Was Pouillon obstructing anyone? Could any reasonable officer have thought he was or might be obstructing anyone? Why did the officers arrest Pouillon? These are appropriate questions for the jury as finders of fact. Second, there are legal issues. What are the standards by which we judge whether Pouillon's actions are constitutionally protected? Did the officers' actions violate constitutional rights? These are matters on which the judge must instruct the jury.

In analyzing qualified immunity claims "[w]e conduct de novo review because the issue whether qualified immunity is applicable to an officer's actions is a matter of law." Dickerson v. McClellan, 101 F.3d 1151, 1157 (6th Cir. 1996). However, "[w]here... the legal question of qualified immunity turns upon which version of the facts one accepts, the jury, not the judge, must determine liability." Sova v. City of Mount Pleasant, 142 F.3d 898, 903 (6th Cir. 1998). But in either case, "[t]he first step in a qualified immunity analysis is whether, based on the applicable law, a constitutional violation occurred." Dickerson, 101 F.3d at 1157.

A.

The initial question before us, therefore, is whether Pouillon had the right to protest on city hall's steps in the first place. The Supreme Court's analysis of governmental authority to regulate speech, as given in Perry Educational Ass'n v. Perry Local Educators Ass'n, 460 U.S. 37, 44-46 (1983), divides public property that may be used for expression by the public into several categories. The first category, and the one most open for public expression, is that of the "traditional public forum," the quintessential examples of which are public streets and parks. Id. at 45. In such fora, "[t]he State may... enforce regulations of the time, place, and manner of expression which are content-neutral, are narrowly tailored to serve a significant government interest, and leave open ample alternative channels of communication." Ibid. The second category includes public property which the State has designated, perhaps only for a given time, as open for use by the public for expressive activity; during the time it is so open, the same standards apply here as apply to traditional public fora. Id. at 45-46. Finally, some public property may be neither traditional nor designated public fora; in such venues the State may regulate speech as it wishes, so long as the regulation is reasonable and not motivated by...