Willingham v. Loughnan

• Decision Date: 15 August 2001
• Docket Number: No. 99-4005,99-4005
• Parties: (11th Cir. 2001) BETTY WILLINGHAM, Plaintiff-Appellee-Cross-Appellant, v. JAMES LOUGHNAN, BRIAN, BUECLER, Defendants-Appellants-Cross-Appellees
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1178

261 F.3d 1178 (11th Cir. 2001)

BETTY WILLINGHAM, Plaintiff-Appellee-Cross-Appellant, v. JAMES LOUGHNAN, BRIAN, BUECLER, Defendants-Appellants-Cross-Appellees.

No. 99-4005

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT

August 15, 2001

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Before EDMONDSON, BLACK and McKAY^*, Circuit Judges.

EDMONDSON, Circuit Judge:

This case is mainly about qualified immunity and the deference afforded the findings of fact implicit in a general jury verdict in favor of Plaintiff in a section 1983 suit, considering Plaintiff's earlier criminal conviction related to the same events that are the subject of the section 1983 suit. The Officer Defendants in their individual capacities appeal the district court's denial of their Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law and their Motion for Remittitur. Plaintiff cross-appeals the district court's grant of the City's post-trial motion for judgment.

The Officer Defendants first argue that Plaintiff was precluded from asserting a claim for a Fourth Amendment violation because of her conviction for attempted second degree murder of a police officer during the incident in question. They next argue that Plaintiff lacked a cognizable section 1983 claim because of the rule established in Heck v. Humphrey, 114 S.Ct. 2364 (1994). The Officer Defendants argue, most substantively, that they are entitled to qualified immunity because their acts violated no clearly established law at the pertinent time.

We review the district court's decision on a Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law de novo, taking the evidence presented to the jury in the light most favorable to the non-moving party.¹ See Stimpson v. City of Tuscoloosa, 186 F.3d 1328, 1331 (11th Cir. 1999).

PROCEEDINGS BELOW

In October 1987, Plaintiff Betty Willingham ("Plaintiff") was shot by police officers during an incident outside of her home. Plaintiff was then convicted of attempted, second-degree murder of one of the police officers and of battery on another police officer there that night.

In 1990, Plaintiff filed suit against several defendants alleging a variety of state and federal claims. Defendants' motions for summary judgment in 1992 and 1995 were denied by the district court. The 1995 motion was denied on the grounds that material issues of fact remained in dispute which, if resolved in Plaintiff's favor, would deprive the Defendants of qualified immunity. This court - in an unpublished opinion - affirmed the denial of qualified immunity on interlocutory appeal in September 1997. See Willingham v. Loughnan, 124 F.3d 1299 (11th Cir. 1997)(Table).

The federal civil rights claims against Brian Beucler and James Loughnan (the "Officer Defendants") and the City of Boynton Beach (the "City") proceeded to trial.² The jury returned a verdict in favor of Plaintiff for $5,000,000.00 in compensatory damages against the Officer Defendants and the City, and $500,000.00 in punitive damages against each officer in his individual capacity. The Officer Defendants and the City filed motions for judgment as a matter of law, for a new trial and for remittitur. The district court granted the City's motion for judgment as a matter of law,³ but denied the Officer Defendants' motions. The Officer Defendants now appeal the denial of their motion for judgment as a matter of law and motion for remittitur.⁴ Plaintiff filed a cross-appeal of the judgment in favor of the City.

BACKGROUND

The facts in this case are disputed on many relevant details by the parties involved. The difficult question presented in this case is what findings of fact can a court determine a jury made when the jury by general verdict in the section 1983 suit found for Plaintiff - and therefore all facts and inferences supported by the evidence must be drawn favorably to Plaintiff - but, certain evidence presented in the civil case cannot (as a matter of law) be taken as fact because it contradicts findings of fact necessarily made by the earlier criminal-case jury when that jury found Plaintiff guilty -- beyond a reasonable doubt -- of attempted second degree murder and of battery on a police officer. We first summarize the testimony of key witnesses to the events and will determine in our discussion of the case what facts must be taken as true because of the earlier conviction for assault and attempted murder.

Testimony of Plaintiff Betty Willingham

Plaintiff testified that she came to the door of her home on the night in question, responding to a knock on her door that woke her. When she opened the door, she saw her brother, Arnold Sims ("Sims"), near his truck and saw Officer Ronald Panucci ("Panucci") and his police dog out by the road in front of the house. Sims and Panucci were in an argument and were standing about six or seven feet from each other. While standing in the doorway, Plaintiff called other members of her family on the phone to tell them the police were harassing Sims.

Panucci then started moving toward Sims with the leashed dog. The confrontation between Panucci and Sims then became physical; Panucci said something, and the dog began to attack Sims. The dog began to bite Sims below the knee. Plaintiff found two bottles in her kitchen near the door and threw them at the dog, which was closer to her than Panucci or Sims. Although the bottles hit the dog, it would not stop biting Sims. Plaintiff then grabbed a knife in the kitchen sink and threw the knife at the dog. She said that she never had a second knife, that she never threw a glass at a police officer and that she never tried to throw anything at Panucci. Plaintiff never stepped completely out of the doorway. Plaintiff said that she saw Loughnan and another police car at some point before the shooting but did not hear anyone yelling at her.

Immediately after throwing the knife at Panucci, Plaintiff reached up to pull her hair in frustration while screaming for the dog to stop biting Sims. Just as she was reaching up, she was shot and fell back into the kitchen. Plaintiff says she was shot within a "split second" of throwing the knife.⁵ After she was shot, one of the Officer Defendants told her, "If I had the opportunity, I'd shoot your ass again." Shortly thereafter, paramedics arrived and took her to the hospital.

Testimony of Officer Loughnan

Loughnan went to the scene of the pertinent events after receiving a radio call that Panucci had stopped a car and needed assistance. When Loughnan arrived, he saw that Panucci and Sims were near the house with Panucci's back to the door. The dog was at heel at Panucci's side. Plaintiff was out on the top stoop of her doorway, cursing at Panucci and telling him to leave Sims alone. Panucci and Sims were yelling at each other and then became engaged in physical struggle. Loughnan concentrated on Plaintiff because (having had some dog training in the military) he did not want to get between a dog and its target. Plaintiff then threw a bottle at Panucci, which bounced off the back of Panucci's leg or back. Loughnan then approached Plaintiff, and she threw a glass at him striking him in the shoulder.

Loughnan told Plaintiff she was under arrest. He grabbed her by her bathrobe to apprehend her. Plaintiff resisted, tearing the garment and a necklace from her as she fled into the house and closed the door behind her. Loughnan could hear Plaintiff rummaging through drawers in the kitchen. At that point Loughnan moved away from the stoop and said he might have drawn his gun and held it by his side. Plaintiff reemerged from the house holding two knives. She threw one at Panucci that bounced off his leg or back. Loughnan began yelling repeatedly "drop the knife." Plaintiff turned and looked at Loughnan and saw the gun pointed at her. She then turned and lunged toward Panucci. Loughnan fired four bullets at Plaintiff, stopping her and spinning her around so that she fell in her doorway.⁶ Loughnan was somewhere between two and six feet from Plaintiff.

Testimony of Beucler

Beucler was working with Officer Blum the night Plaintiff was shot. They went to the area where Panucci was trying to stop Sims after they heard the stop announced on the radio. They were aware at the time that Sims' truck had not stopped when directed to do so by Panucci. When Beucler and Blum arrived at the scene, a civilian car drove by and stopped. Blum approached the car to direct the occupants to move on.

Beucler was focused on Panucci and Sims. He could see that they were in an argument. The dog was sitting at Panucci's side. At some point, Beucler was close enough to the confrontation to put his hand on Sims's shoulder. Beucler saw Sims push Panucci, and Panucci respond by grabbing Sims. The dog then attacked Sims, but Beucler could not tell if the dog actually bit Sims. Beucler backed away from the struggle when the dog became involved.

While Beucler was getting involved with Sims and Panucci, he suddenly heard a voice yelling "drop the knife" several times. Beucler saw that neither Panucci nor Sims had a knife; so he looked around to where the sound was coming from and noticed, for the first time, Plaintiff on the stoop. He saw Plaintiff make a throwing motion and saw the knife kick up off the ground. But he did not see the knife hit Panucci. Beucler then saw that Plaintiff had another knife. She was moving toward Panucci's back with the knife raised. Beucler then fired four shots at Plaintiff. The shots stopped her forward motion, and she fell back into the doorway of the house.

Beucler ran up to Plaintiff to check on her condition. He saw the knife next to Plaintiff on the kitchen floor but did not touch the knife. Beucler said his total time at the scene before the shooting was no more than 75 seconds, and it was only a matter of "split seconds" between the time he heard Loughnan yelling "drop the knife" and his own firing on Plaintiff.

DISCUSSION...