Kenney v. Fox, 12581

Citation232 F.2d 288
Decision Date19 April 1956
Docket Number12610.,No. 12581,12622,12581
PartiesEdward James KENNEY, Jr., Appellant, v. Honorable Raymond W. FOX, Appellee. Edward James KENNEY, Jr., Appellant, v. Honorable Malcolm K. HATFIELD, Thomas N. Robinson, Dr. Roy A. Morter, Dr. Joseph McCarthy, Appellees. Edward James KENNEY, Jr., Appellant, v. Joseph J. KILLIAN, Appellee.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit)

Edward James Kenney, Jr., Benton Harbor, Mich., per se.

Edmund E. Shepherd, Sol. Gen., Lansing, Mich. (Gould Fox, Fox, Fox & Thompson, Kalamazoo, Mich., on the brief), for Raymond W. Fox.

Paul E. Cholette, Grand Rapids, Mich. (Alexander, Cholette, Buchanan, Perkins & Conklin, Grand Rapids, Mich., on the brief), for Joseph J. Killian.

Paul E. Cholette, Grand Rapids, Mich., Charles Gore, Benton Harbor, Mich., Edmund E. Shepherd, Lansing, Mich. (Alexander, Cholette, Buchanan, Perkins & Conklin, Grand Rapids, Mich., Gore & Williams, Benton Harbor, Mich., Thomas M. Kavanagh, Daniel J. O'Hara, Perry A. Maynard, Lansing, Mich., Roland L. Huff, Kalamazoo, Mich., on the brief), for Malcolm K. Hatfield, Thomas N. Robinson, Dr. Roy A. Morter and Dr. Joseph McCarthy.

Before MARTIN, MILLER and STEWART, Circuit Judges.

MARTIN, Circuit Judge.

These three cases, brought to our court by the same appellant, were argued separately but may be appropriately dealt with in one opinion.

In No. 12,581, the appellant, Edward James Kenney, Jr., an attorney, brought an action for $123,000 damages against Honorable Raymond W. Fox, Judge of Circuit Court of Kalamazoo County, Michigan. He prayed, in the alternative, for a declaratory judgment determining the dismissal by Judge Fox of his action against Dr. Morter and others to be null and void. He based the jurisdiction of his cause of action upon Title 28, U.S.C.A. § 1343, as amended, and upon Title 28, U.S.C.A. § 2201, as amended. His claim for recovery was grounded upon the federal civil rights statute, 42 U. S.C.A. § 1983, formerly 8 U.S.C.A. § 43, which provides: "Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress."

In a well considered opinion, Kenney v. Fox, D.C.W.D.Mich., 132 F.Supp. 305, United States District Judge Starr sustained the motion to dismiss filed by Judge Fox. After a painstaking review of the authorities, the district judge summarized his reasons for dismissing Kenney's action to be that Judge Fox, as a state circuit court judge, had jurisdiction and in dismissing Kenney's state court action was acting in his official judicial capacity; that he did not exceed his authority and was not acting in bad faith or motivated by malice, prejudice, bias, partiality, undue influence, or from other improper motives; that Kenney, as a dissatisfied litigant, was in reality seeking a federal court review of a state court decision; that the complaint did not state facts which, under the Civil Rights Act, would entitle him to relief against the judge; and that the complaint failed to state a cause of action upon which relief could be granted. The facts are sufficiently detailed in the aforementioned opinion of the United States District Judge, reported in D.C., 132 F.Supp. 305, and will not be repeated here. The law of the case will be discussed later in this opinion.

In No. 12,622, the appellant, Edward James Kenney, Jr., brought an action, based on 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983 formerly 8 U.S.C.A. § 43, on 28 U.S.C.A. § 1343, and under certain statutes of Michigan 12 M.S.A., section 14.801 et seq., Comp. Laws of Mich.1948, § 330.1 et seq. for deprivation of his alleged civil rights by his confinement in a Michigan mental institution. He named as defendants the Honorable Malcolm A. Hatfield, Probate Court Judge of Berrien County, Michigan; Thomas N. Robinson, an attorney on whose alleged recommendation the commitment of plaintiff was made; Dr. Roy A. Morter, Medical Superintendent of the Kalamazoo State Hospital; and Dr. Joseph McCarthy, a physician on the staff of that state institution. The basic allegation of appellant was that each of the defendants had participated in a series of acts which caused the confinement of plaintiff in the state mental hospital and his continued detention there.

The district court sustained the motions of all the defendants to dismiss for the reasons stated by District Judge Kent in his carefully prepared opinion in Kenney v. Hatfield, D.C.W.D.Mich., 132 F.Supp. 814. The facts, being adequately stated there, will not be repeated here. We pause to say that we think the district judge correctly distinguished the opinions of this court in McShane v. Moldovan, 6 Cir., 172 F.2d 1016, 1017; and Manning v. Ketcham, 6 Cir., 58 F.2d 948; 132 F.Supp. 820. We are in accord with his reasoning, 132 F.Supp. 817, that Robinson, a private practitioner, in preparing the papers filed as the first step in the proceedings resulting in Kenney's commitment to the Kalamazoo State Hospital, was not amenable to an action based on the civil rights statute. See Whittington v. Johnston, 5 Cir., 201 F.2d 810, 811, cited in the opinion of the United States District Judge.

We agree also with the reasoning of the district judge concerning the non-liability of the two doctors. As stated in his opinion, the institutional doctors should not be expected or even permitted to go behind a court order of commitment of a person to a state mental hospital where, on its face, the order appears to be valid. Indeed, a Michigan statute, section 14.805(10), Michigan Statutes Annotated, Comp.Laws 1948, § 330.15, provides, in part: "The order for admission shall be full and sufficient authority and protection to the medical superintendent, or the person acting as such in his absence, for receiving and detaining in such institution the person named therein, and he shall not be liable to any suit or action on account thereof." 132 F.Supp. 818.

We are in accord also with the dismissal of the case as to the state probate judge, but will reserve discussion of the question of judicial immunity to the latter part of the opinion.

In No. 12,610, the appellant, Edward James Kenney, Jr., brought an action based upon the civil rights statute, 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983, against Joseph E. Killian, prosecuting attorney of Berrien County, Michigan, for alleged false imprisonment and malicious prosecution upon allegations that the defendant official caused the plaintiff to be confined in a county jail for about forty hours, in violation of his claimed civil rights. The district court held that the action was barred by the Michigan two-year statute of limitations; that the complaint failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted; and that the defendant was immune from civil liability to the plaintiff under the civil rights statute. District Judge Starr wrote a full-dress opinion, Kenney v. Killian, D.C., 133 F.Supp. 571, in which he set forth the facts, in view of which we consider it unnecessary to restate them here.

We pretermit decision upon whether Kenney's action is barred by the statute of limitations, but uphold the dismissal of the suit upon the basis of no cause of action. We think the district judge has supplied in his opinion compelling reasons for his dismissal of Kenney's action against the prosecuting attorney, who was acting in his official capacity in connection with all actions of which appellant complains. A prosecuting attorney is a quasi-judicial officer and enjoys the same immunity from a civil action for damages as that which protects a judge acting within his jurisdiction over the parties and the subject matter of the litigation. Yaselli v. Goff, 2 Cir., 12 F.2d 396, 404, 56 A.L. R. 1239; Cawley v. Warren, 7 Cir., 216 F.2d 74, 76; Laughlin v. Rosenman, 82 U.S.App.D.C. 164, 163 F.2d 838.

We shall now discuss, rather extensively, the important doctrine of judicial immunity and the question of whether it has been abrogated or impaired by virtue of the Civil Rights Act in an action brought under that statute.

The leading American authority upon the subject of judicial immunity is the constantly cited case of Bradley v. Fisher, 13 Wall. 335, 80 U.S. 335, 20 L.Ed. 646, in which Mr. Justice Field wrote the opinion of the Supreme Court nearly ninety years ago. In holding that judges of courts of superior or general jurisdiction are not liable to civil actions for their judicial acts, even when such acts are in excess of their jurisdiction and alleged to have been done maliciously or corruptly, the eminent jurist said: "A distinction must be here observed between excess of jurisdiction and the clear absence of all jurisdiction over the subject-matter. Where there is clearly no jurisdiction over the subject-matter any authority exercised is a usurped authority, and for the exercise of such authority, when the want of jurisdiction is known to the judge, no excuse is permissible. But where jurisdiction over the subject-matter is invested by law in the judge, or in the court which he holds, the manner and extent in which the jurisdiction shall be exercised are generally as much questions for his determination as any other questions involved in the case, although upon the correctness of his determination in these particulars the validity of his judgments may depend. Thus, if a probate court, invested only with authority over wills and the settlement of estates of deceased persons, should proceed to try parties for public offences, jurisdiction over the subject of offences being entirely wanting in the court, and this being necessarily known to its judge, his commission would afford no protection to him in the exercise...

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