Galbraith v. County of Santa Clara, 00-17369.

• Decision Date: 09 October 2002
• Docket Number: No. 00-17369.,00-17369.
• Parties: Nelson GALBRAITH, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. COUNTY OF SANTA CLARA, a Municipality of the State of California; Angelo Ozoa, MD, individually, and in his official capacity as Santa Clara County Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

307 F.3d 1119

Nelson GALBRAITH, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. COUNTY OF SANTA CLARA, a Municipality of the State of California; Angelo Ozoa, MD, individually, and in his official capacity as Santa Clara County Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 00-17369.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted April 11, 2002.

Filed October 9, 2002.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Michael Goldsmith, Park City, Utah, and Thomas R. Hogan, Law Offices of Thomas R. Hogan, San Jose, California, for plaintiff-appellant.

James E. Towery, Hoge, Fenton, Jones & Appel, Inc., San Jose, CA, for defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California; Spencer M. Williams, Senior Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-99-20887-SW.

Before SCHROEDER, Chief Judge, B. FLETCHER and KOZINSKI, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

SCHROEDER, Chief Judge.

This appeal involves a claim that a county coroner falsified an autopsy report, leading to the false arrest and prosecution of plaintiff Nelson Galbraith ("Galbraith") for murder in violation of his constitutional rights. The central question is whether a heightened pleading standard should continue to apply to constitutional tort claims in which improper motive is an element. See Branch v. Tunnell, 937 F.2d 1382, 1385-88 (9th Cir.1991). In light of intervening Supreme Court cases, we hold that the Branch heightened pleading standard no longer applies. See Crawford-El v. Britton, 523 U.S. 574, 118 S.Ct. 1584, 140 L.Ed.2d 759 (1998); Swierkiewicz v. Sorema N.A., 534 U.S. 506, 122 S.Ct. 992, 152 L.Ed.2d 1 (2002). Because Galbraith's amended complaint adequately states claims for relief under the Fourth Amendment absent the heightened pleading standard, see Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(a)(2), we reverse the district court's order dismissing the complaint with prejudice and remand for further proceedings. We affirm the district court's dismissal of the due process claims, however, because the more specific provisions of the Fourth Amendment govern our analysis. See County of Sacramento v. Lewis, 523 U.S. 833, 843, 118 S.Ct. 1708, 140 L.Ed.2d 1043 (1998) (citing Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 109 S.Ct. 1865, 104 L.Ed.2d 443 (1989)).

ALLEGATIONS OF THE AMENDED COMPLAINT

When reviewing a district court's order granting a motion to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), we take the factual allegations of the complaint as true and construe them in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Epstein v. Washington Energy Co., 83 F.3d 1136, 1140 (9th Cir.1996). The facts as alleged in the amended complaint at issue here are as follows.

Galbraith maintains that his wife, Josephine Galbraith ("Josephine"), committed suicide on September 18, 1995. She first tried to slit her wrists, then strangled herself by double-knotting a sash around her neck. During this time, Galbraith was in a separate room watching television. Josephine had been under the care of physicians for severe depression with suicidal ideation. In the days before her death, Josephine asked her physicians for a lethal dose of medication; she repeatedly told family members that she wanted to die, and said she just wanted to "sprout wings and fly away."

The officers who investigated Josephine's death originally concluded that the cause of death was suicide. They based their determination on Josephine's statements before her death and the absence of scattered blood, defensive wounding, and indication of a struggle at the scene. Dr. Angelo Ozoa, the County's Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner, performed an autopsy on Josephine's body, and concluded that Josephine did not commit suicide but was instead strangled. This finding shifted the focus of the investigation.

Dr. Ozoa's autopsy report, attached to the amended complaint, describes Josephine's body as "that of a moderately well developed, moderately well nourished white female." It further states that external examination of the neck revealed "somewhat transverse wrinkle marks but... no evidence of injury" and internal examination revealed that "[t]he hyoid, larynx, trachea, soft tissues and cervical spine are unremarkable and show no evidence of injury." Despite this apparent lack of injury to the neck, both internally and externally, Dr. Ozoa concluded that the cause of death was asphyxia due to ligature strangulation by an assailant. Galbraith alleges that this conclusion was a result of Dr. Ozoa's "incompetence" and that Dr. Ozoa deliberately attempted to cover up his incompetence from this point forward.

Dr. Ozoa communicated his autopsy findings to Detective Michael Yore of the Palo Alto Police Department. Detective Yore's investigative report, which is also attached to the amended complaint, states: "This homicide was originally thought to be a suicide until the Corners [sic] Office advised me that he [sic] cause of death had changed." Detective Yore spoke with Dick Miller, an employee in the County Coroner's office, who informed him that the cuts on Josephine's wrists were too superficial to have caused her death. Miller further indicated that the sash tied around Josephine's neck had asphyxiated her and Dr. Ozoa concluded "the victim was not strong enough to have tied it herself." The report states that "[t]he only other person in the house [at] the time of the homicide was the victim's husband Nelson Galbraith."

According to the amended complaint, Galbraith was arrested and charged with murdering Josephine as a direct result of Dr. Ozoa's determinations. Dr. Ozoa testified at Galbraith's preliminary hearing and trial that Josephine was strangled, that the death was not a result of suicide, and that Galbraith was the likely perpetrator. The jury acquitted Galbraith.

After Galbraith's acquittal, Josephine's body was exhumed. An expert retained by Galbraith found that Josephine's neck organs were not properly dissected. More specifically, the expert concluded that Dr. Ozoa could not have examined key internal neck structures that Dr. Ozoa claimed to have examined in the autopsy report, such as the hyoid bone, which remained fully encased in muscle, and the cartilage of the trachea, which was obscured by the still-attached thyroid gland. The expert opined that close examination of these structures would have been central to any forensic determination that the cause of death was ligature strangulation by an assailant. Galbraith's amended complaint alleges that Dr. Ozoa intentionally lied about the nature and extent of the autopsy to the police, prosecutors, and later on the stand in order to cover up his shoddy work.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The complaint Galbraith originally filed in federal court stated four claims for relief: (1) against Dr. Ozoa and twenty "Doe" defendant coroners and police officers for violating the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments and 42 U.S.C. § 1983; (2) against Dr. Ozoa and Santa Clara County (the "County") for policies and practices that proximately caused the false arrest and malicious prosecution of Galbraith in derogation of his constitutional rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978); (3) malicious prosecution under state law; and (4) fraud under state law.

On defendants' Rule 12(b)(6) motion, the district court dismissed the state law claims with prejudice because it concluded that Dr. Ozoa and the County were immune from claims of malicious prosecution and fraud under state law. Galbraith does not challenge these rulings on appeal. The district court also dismissed the federal claims without prejudice. It held that the complaint pled only negligence, whereas constitutional tort actions that involve improper motive "must contain nonconclusory allegations of unlawful intent." In so holding, the district court relied on Branch v. Tunnell, 937 F.2d 1382, 1386-87 (9th Cir.1991) ("Branch I"). The district court also held that any amended pleading would have to allege specific evidence that Dr. Ozoa's falsifications, and not other evidence available to the prosecution, caused Galbraith to be arrested and prosecuted. See Smiddy v. Varney, 803 F.2d 1469, 1472-73 (9th Cir.1986) ("Smiddy II") (requiring evidence on summary judgment "sufficient to overcome the presumption that the prosecutor independently exercised her official duty in instituting the prosecution").

Galbraith then filed an amended complaint stating two claims for relief: (1) against Dr. Ozoa and twenty "Doe" defendant coroners and police officers for depriving Galbraith of his rights under the Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments and 42 U.S.C. § 1983; and (2) against Dr. Ozoa and the County under § 1983 and Monell for policies and practices proximately causing the false arrest and malicious prosecution of Galbraith in derogation of his constitutional rights. Galbraith attached the autopsy report, Dr. Ozoa's handwritten notes from the autopsy, and the investigative report of Detective Yore to the amended complaint.

Once again, the district court granted defendants' motion to dismiss the complaint, this time with prejudice. Citing Branch I, the court concluded that the amended complaint's allegations of incompetent autopsy and omissions in the autopsy report "could very well amount to negligence — but as a matter of law this failure does not support a claim for intentional falsification." The court further held that, under Smiddy II, the amended pleading failed to allege that Dr. Ozoa's supposed falsifications, and not independent prosecutorial judgment, caused the County to arrest and charge Galbraith for murder. The district court entered judgment, and Galbraith filed a timely notice of appeal.

DISCUSSION

Relying on Branch I, the district court evaluated Galbraith's amended complaint under a heightened pleading standard. The court held the amended complaint deficient because it failed to identify with particularity which of Dr....