Burrell v. Virginia

• Decision Date: 27 January 2005
• Docket Number: No. 02-2347.,02-2347.
• Citation: 395 F.3d 508
• Parties: Charles Davis BURRELL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Commonwealth of VIRGINIA; Department Of Motor Vehicles; James E. Junius; Asbury W. Quillian; Chris Johnson, Police Officer; R.M. Rogers, Police Officer; John W. Hall, Police Sergeant; Sue Matthew; City Of Richmond Police Department; Governor of Virginia, The Honorable Mark Warner; Birdie H. Jamison, Judge, Defendants-Appellees, and Mufeed Said, Commonwealth Attorney; Vaughan Jones, Commonwealth Attorney, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

395 F.3d 508

Charles Davis BURRELL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Commonwealth of VIRGINIA; Department Of Motor Vehicles; James E. Junius; Asbury W. Quillian; Chris Johnson, Police Officer; R.M. Rogers, Police Officer; John W. Hall, Police Sergeant; Sue Matthew; City Of Richmond Police Department; Governor of Virginia, The Honorable Mark Warner; Birdie H. Jamison, Judge, Defendants-Appellees, and Mufeed Said, Commonwealth Attorney; Vaughan Jones, Commonwealth Attorney, Defendants.

No. 02-2347.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued: October 28, 2004.

Decided: January 27, 2005.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

ARGUED: Hillary Jane Collyer, Dimuro, Ginsberg & Mook, P.C., Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellant. Vicki West Harris, Assistant City Attorney, City Attorney's Office, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Bernard J. DiMuro, DIMURO, GINSBERG & MOOK, P.C., Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellant. Peter R. Messitt, Office of the Attorney General, Richmond, Virginia, for State Appellees.

Before LUTTIG, MOTZ, and DUNCAN, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge LUTTIG wrote the opinion, in which Judge MOTZ and Judge DUNCAN joined.

OPINION

LUTTIG, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiff-appellant Charles Davis Burrell filed a complaint in federal district court against numerous officials in the City of Richmond and the Commonwealth of Virginia, alleging numerous claims arising out of an automobile accident in which he was involved. He alleged, inter alia, that city officials violated his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and his Fourth Amendment right against unlawful seizure by summoning him to appear in court, after he refused to provide evidence of automobile insurance at the scene of the accident. The district court dismissed all of appellant's claims, and Burrell appeals, raising only his claims against the city in which he alleges that his Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights were violated. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

I.

Appellant was in a traffic accident on February 19, 2002. J.A. 15. The police officer on the scene, Officer Chris Johnson, requested that Burrell produce documentation of automobile liability insurance for his vehicle. Id. Burrell followed advice he had previously received from an attorney and refused to answer the question, asserting his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Id. 15-16. Officer Johnson told Burrell that he would be arrested for obstruction of justice if he continued to assert his Fifth Amendment privilege. Id. 15.

Officer Johnson called his supervisor, Sergeant John Hall, to the scene, and Sergeant Hall repeated the warning that Burrell would be arrested if he failed to cooperate by answering the questions. J.A. 16. Burrell continued to assert his Fifth Amendment right. Id. As Burrell was taken to the hospital to be treated for injuries sustained in the accident, Officer Johnson served Burrell with a Confirmation of Liability form, which required that he furnish liability insurance information to the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles within thirty days. He also served Burrell with two summonses for violation of the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia: one for operating an uninsured motor vehicle without paying an uninsured motorist fee,¹ and one for obstruction of justice. J.A. 63, 66-67.

On March 27, 2002, a Virginia traffic court convicted Burrell of obstructing justice, but dismissed the charge for failure to maintain insurance. J.A. 55, 69. The obstruction of justice charge was dismissed on appeal. Id.

Burrell thereafter brought suit in federal district court against numerous city and state defendants, seeking $10,000,000 in damages for his emotional distress, emotional pain, inconvenience, mental anguish, and reputation. He alleged that the defendants had violated his rights under the Fifth Amendment by compelling him to produce evidence of insurance, violated his rights by issuing a citation without probable cause, violated the Due Process Clause and the Commerce Clause, and that they were civilly liable to him under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). The district court entered an order dismissing all claims for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, having announced in an oral decision that the suit was barred under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. The court also concluded in its oral decision that the state defendants were protected by the Eleventh Amendment, that the city defendants were protected by qualified immunity, that Burrell failed to state a claim against any of the defendants, and that his Fifth Amendment right had not been violated. J.A. 58-60. Burrell appealed.

II.

Before reaching the Fourth and Fifth Amendment claims, we must address whether the district court correctly concluded that it lacked jurisdiction over all of Burrell's claims by virtue of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. J.A. 58-60. The district court held that "the arguments that the plaintiff raises in this matter ... are defenses that he should have raised in state court." J.A. 59. We review the court's dismissal pursuant to the Rooker-Feldman doctrine de novo. Shooting Point v. Cumming, 368 F.3d 379, 383 (4th Cir.2004).

The district court erred in its conclusion that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine barred consideration of appellant's claims. That doctrine "precludes federal `review of adjudications of the state's highest court and also the decisions of its lower courts.'" Shooting Point, 368 F.3d at 383 (quoting Jordahl v. Democratic Party, 122 F.3d 192, 199 (4th Cir.1997)). The federal lower courts are barred not only from reconsidering "issues actually decided by a state court" but also "those that are `inextricably intertwined with questions ruled upon by a state court.'" Id. (quoting Plyler v. Moore, 129 F.3d 728, 731 (4th Cir.1997)). Burrell did not ask the court to reconsider any such issue. We have recognized that a "`party losing in state court is barred from seeking what in substance would be appellate review of the state judgment in a United States district court based on the losing party's claim that the state judgment itself violates the loser's federal rights.'" Id. (quoting Brown & Root, Inc. v. Breckenridge, 211 F.3d 194, 199 (4th Cir.2000)). Burrell obviously makes no such claim; instead, the state court, in his view, correctly dismissed all charges against him. Therefore, the concern addressed by Rooker Feldman — that lower federal courts will not act as courts of appeals from state courts — is simply not present, and the doctrine does not bar federal court review of Burrell's claims.

III.

Turning to the merits of Burrell's section 1983 claim, Burrell challenges the district court's holding that the defendants enjoyed qualified immunity from his claims that the defendants violated (1) his Fifth Amendment rights by demanding insurance and (2) his Fourth Amendment rights by issuing two summonses without probable cause. We review a district court's denial of qualified immunity de novo. Rogers v. Pendleton, 249 F.3d 279, 285 (4th Cir.2001).

A.

Whether Burrell's Fifth Amendment claim against the officers is barred by qualified immunity is evaluated through a two-part inquiry. First, this court must consider whether the facts alleged show that the officer's conduct violated a constitutional right; if so, we must consider whether that constitutional right was clearly established. Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 200-01, 121 S.Ct. 2151, 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001). If the challenged conduct did violate a clearly established constitutional right, qualified immunity does not bar the suit. Id. at 200, 202, 121 S.Ct. 2151. Burrell alleges that his refusal to answer questions regarding his insurance was protected by his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, as incorporated against the state by the Fourteenth Amendment. The district court rejected this claim, and we agree, albeit on different reasoning.

The government relies on California v. Byers, 402 U.S. 424, 91 S.Ct. 1535, 29 L.Ed.2d 9 (1971), to argue that the district court correctly determined that Burrell had no Fifth Amendment right in this case.² In Byers, a plurality of the Supreme Court determined that a statute requiring that drivers involved in accidents disclose their names and addresses did not violate the Fifth Amendment, both because the identity-disclosure requirement was insufficiently incriminating to outweigh the policies in favor of the state's interest in regulating accidents, and because disclosing one's name and address was not testimonial in nature. Id. at 427-32, 91 S.Ct. 1535.

Byers does not control the case sub judice. To conclude that the disclosed information was insufficiently incriminating to outweigh the state's interest, the Byers Court relied on the fact that "it is not a criminal offense in California law to be a driver `involved in an accident.'" Id. at 430, 91 S.Ct. 1535. While not having insurance is not alone sufficient to constitute a criminal offense in Virginia, not having insurance is a criminal offense if the driver has not paid the uninsured motorist fee. See Virginia Code Ann. § 46.2-707. Disclosure that one does not maintain insurance therefore is more closely connected to a criminal offense than was the mere involvement in an accident in Byers. Byers explicitly left open the question of whether a state may be able to compel further disclosure of information other than name and address. Byers, 402 U.S. at 434 n. 6, 91 S.Ct. 1535 ("We are not called on to decide, but if the dictum of the [United States v.] Sullivan opinion were followed, the driver having stopped and identified himself, pursuant to the statute, could decline to make any further statement."). Byers thus does not resolve the question of whether the Fifth Amendment can be invoked as justification for a refusal to produce insurance information in a criminal case.

We need not decide whether to extend Byers here, however, because Chavez...