Bennett v. City of Eastpointe

Citation410 F.3d 810
Decision Date08 June 2005
Docket NumberNo. 03-2204.,03-2204.
PartiesDonald BENNETT, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. CITY OF EASTPOINTE, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

ARGUED: J. Mark Finnegan, Heberle & Finnegan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, for Appellants. Timothy S. Ferrand, Cummings, McClorey, Davis & Acho, Roseville, Michigan, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: J. Mark Finnegan, Heberle & Finnegan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Michael J. Steinberg, American Civil Liberties Union Fund of Michigan, Detroit, Michigan, Charles H. Chomet, Kelman, Loria, Will, Harvey & Thompson, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellants. Timothy S. Ferrand, Cummings, McClorey, Davis & Acho, Roseville, Michigan, Joseph Nimako, Cummings, McClorey, Davis & Acho, Livonia, Michigan, for Appellees.

Before: MARTIN, COOK, and LAY, Circuit Judges.*

BOYCE F. MARTIN, JR., Circuit Judge.

In the present case, we again confront allegations that the City of Eastpointe and its police officers violated the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights of young African-American bicycle riders. In this civil rights action brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, there were originally twenty-two plaintiffs and twelve separate incidents at issue. On June 20, 2003, the district court heard arguments, and eleven days later granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants on all counts. On appeal, twelve plaintiffs remain, seeking reversal on claims arising out of seven of the incidents.

Approximately five months after the district court's decision in this case, this Court issued an opinion in King v. City of Eastpointe, 86 Fed.Appx. 790 (6th Cir.2003) (unpublished), a case involving several claims, some with facts nearly identical to those at issue here. The district court had likewise granted summary judgment on all counts to the City of Eastpointe and its police officers. In King, this Court affirmed the district court's judgment with respect to all claims against the City of Eastpointe and the police supervisors, and also affirmed the grant of summary judgment in favor of most of the officers who played secondary roles in the alleged unconstitutional stops. The Court, however, reversed and remanded claims alleging Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment violations by defendant-Officer Childs following an April 1996 stop where the officer allegedly used a racial epithet, holding that this conduct raised an issue of fact as to whether the stop was based on race, and also whether the pat-down search conducted by Officer Childs was reasonable under the circumstances. The Court also reversed and remanded a claim alleging a Fourth Amendment violation by Officer Keiser during a vehicle stop in February 1997. Consistent with the holding in King, we AFFIRM in part and REVERSE in part, and REMAND for further proceedings.

I.

Eastpointe, formerly East Detroit, is a suburb adjacent to Detroit. The 2000 census figures indicate that Eastpointe is 92.1 percent white and 4.7 percent African-American. Detroit was found to be 12.3 percent white and 81.6 percent African-American. Eight Mile Road, made famous by the popular movie 8 Mile divides the two cities and is commonly known as a racial dividing line. The plaintiffs claim that they were subjected to racial discrimination when they crossed Eight Mile Road into Eastpointe. Against the backdrop of each individual Fourteenth Amendment claim is reference to the "DeWeese Memorandum." This memorandum was drafted by Eastpointe's current Chief of Police, Fred DeWeese, following a meeting he had with Charles King, Sr., the plaintiff and next friend to his minor-son-plaintiffs in King. In that memo, distributed only to the city manager, DeWeese wrote that when he was a Lieutenant, "[f]rom May of 1995 to August of 95 .... I was assigned as a Shift Commander on the Afternoon Shift .... My instructions to the officers were to investigate any black youths riding through our subdivisions .... I would expect that our officers would investigate younger black males riding bicycles."

II.

The plaintiffs proceed under theories of individual, supervisory, and municipal liability under section 1983. At the summary judgment stage, the police officer-defendants' motions for summary judgment and all but one of their replies to the plaintiffs' motions for summary judgment focused exclusively on the Fourth Amendment claims. The district court, however, granted summary judgment sua sponte to the officers on all claims, including the Fourteenth Amendment claims. In addition to challenging summary judgment as to each specific incident, the plaintiffs argue that the district court abused its discretion in granting summary judgment sua sponte for the various individual defendants on the Fourteenth Amendment claims, and consequently, that we should reverse and remand all of the Fourteenth Amendment claims so that the plaintiffs have a proper opportunity to brief and respond to any motions for summary judgment. We begin by briefly explaining why we hold that the district court abused its discretion procedurally in sua sponte granting summary judgment on the Fourteenth Amendment claims against the police officer-defendants. We then provide some substantive guidance on the Fourteenth Amendment claims in our discussion of each individual incident.

A.

"When a district court grants summary judgment sua sponte, its decision is subject to two separate standards of review. The substance of the district court's decision is reviewed de novo under the normal standards for summary judgment. The district court's procedural decision to enter summary judgment sua sponte, however, is reviewed for abuse of discretion." Shelby County Health Care Corp. v. S. Council of Indus. Workers Health & Welfare Trust Fund, 203 F.3d 926, 931 (6th Cir.2000) (internal citations omitted). If we find no abuse of discretion in the district court's procedural decision, we review the decision substantively. If we find a procedural abuse of discretion, we reverse and remand to provide the district court the opportunity to review all of the evidence before making a substantive decision. See id.

A district court does not abuse its discretion in sua sponte granting summary judgment so long as "the losing party was on notice that it had to come forward with all of its evidence [and had a] reasonable opportunity to respond to all the issues to be considered by the court." Id. (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). As noted above, the police officer-defendants' motions for summary judgment and all but one of their replies to the plaintiffs' motions for summary judgment focused exclusively on the Fourth Amendment though the officers concluded their reply briefs with the request that the district court dismiss "the claims of Plaintiffs." The district court concluded that the defendants were "seeking dismissal of the entire case" and then granted summary judgment in their favor.

We conclude that the district court abused its discretion in sua sponte granting summary judgment to the police officer-defendants on the Fourteenth Amendment claims. True, some of the defendants' briefs below, responding to the plaintiffs' motions for summary judgment, mentioned the Fourteenth Amendment. But nothing gave the plaintiffs any notice that they would be forced to defend against a nonexistent motion by the defendants for summary judgment on the Fourteenth Amendment claims. The officers could have moved for summary judgment on this issue in their own motion for summary judgment—but they did not. Thus, the plaintiffs were understandably "surprised by the proceedings" when the district court granted the officers summary judgment anyway. We therefore conclude that it was error for the district court to sua sponte grant summary judgment on the issue.

B.

With regard to the claims properly briefed below, this Court reviews a decision to grant summary judgment on the substantive claims de novo. Gribcheck v. Runyon, 245 F.3d 547, 550 (6th Cir.2001). Summary judgment is only appropriate "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). The burden is generally on the moving party to show that no genuine issue of material fact exists, but that burden may be discharged by "showing—that is, pointing out to the district court—that there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party's case." Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 325, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986) (internal quotation marks omitted). In reviewing a summary judgment motion, credibility judgments and weighing of the evidence are prohibited. Rather, the evidence should be viewed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 255, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). Thus, the facts and any inferences that can be drawn from those facts, must be viewed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986).

The plaintiffs bring their claims for violations of their Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. To succeed on a claim under section 1983, the claimant must demonstrate both that the conduct complained of was committed by a person acting under color of state law and that the conduct deprived the claimant of rights, privileges or immunities secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States. McKnight v. Rees, 88 F.3d 417, 419 (6th Cir.1996). The police and officials in this case were acting under color of state law and there is no dispute as to this factor. As in King,...

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