Kauffman v. Moss

• Decision Date: 14 January 1970
• Docket Number: No. 17686.,17686.
• Citation: 420 F.2d 1270
• Parties: Joseph KAUFFMAN, Appellant, v. Milton D. MOSS, District Attorney, W. H. Harner, Detective Captain, Charles Lennox, County Detective, and Francis Lynch, Detective Sergeant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

420 F.2d 1270 (1970)

Joseph KAUFFMAN, Appellant, v. Milton D. MOSS, District Attorney, W. H. Harner, Detective Captain, Charles Lennox, County Detective, and Francis Lynch, Detective Sergeant.

No. 17686.

United States Court of Appeals Third Circuit.

Submitted on Briefs November 3, 1969.

Decided January 14, 1970.

Joseph Kauffman, pro se.

Richard A. Devlin, Paul W. Tressler, Asst. Dist. Attys., Norristown, Pa., for appellees.

Before MARIS, SEITZ and STAHL, Circuit Judges.

OPINION OF THE COURT

STAHL, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from an order dismissing a civil rights complaint.

Appellant, according to his brief, was convicted by a jury of conspiracy to commit burglary, burglary and larceny in a Pennsylvania state court. He brought this suit for damages, pro se, under the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983, 1985, against the District Attorney of Montgomery County and three law enforcement officers, alleging that they had conspired to secure his convictions by the knowing use of perjured testimony. Appellees' motion to dismiss the complaint under FRCiv.P 12(b) was granted by the district court on the following grounds:¹

(1) The issue of the veracity of the witnesses had been decided against appellant at his state criminal trial and, therefore, he was collaterally estopped² from bringing a civil damage suit based on the alleged use of perjured testimony against him; and

(2) Appellant's complaint consisted of broad conclusionary allegations not supported by specific factual averments.³

At the outset we note that apart from the reasons stated by the district court, the dismissal of the complaint as to the district attorney, Moss, was proper on other grounds and should, therefore, be affirmed. Appellees, including Moss, moved to dismiss the complaint on the ground, inter alia, that it failed to set forth a cause of action. Treating this as a Rule 12(b) motion for "failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted," the district court could properly have sustained the motion as to appellant Moss on the basis of prosecutorial immunity.

A state prosecuting attorney is immune from liability under the Civil Rights Act, unless his alleged actions are clearly outside the scope of his jurisdiction. Bauers v. Heisel, 361 F.2d 581 (3d Cir. 1966). Here appellee Moss was acting within his jurisdiction in bringing a criminal charge against appellant for a claimed violation of state law regardless of the allegations that the subsequent conviction was the result of perjured testimony. We therefore affirm the district court's dismissal of the complaint as to the district attorney on the ground that, because of his immunity from suit, the complaint failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted against him. Bauers v. Heisel, supra at 592.

Having determined that the judgment of dismissal as to appellee Moss should not be disturbed, we now turn to a consideration of the grounds stated by the district court for dismissing the complaint against the remaining appellees.⁴ In determining that appellant's civil rights suit was barred by his prior conviction, the district court relied on Curtis v. Tower, 262 F.2d 166 (6th Cir. 1959).⁵ In Curtis, decided prior to Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167, 81 S.Ct. 473, 5 L.Ed.2d 492 (1961), the court upheld the dismissal of a civil rights action, apparently on the basis of collateral estoppel, stating:

The judgment of the State Court, if not vacated, corrected, or amended by the state reviewing courts, or set aside by the Federal Court for invasion of a federal constitutional right, must be accepted by us as in full force and effect unless it is vacated by a state or federal court for some invasion of federal constitutional right. * * * If the State Court judgment is valid, the appellant has not been injured and his complaint in the District Court sets forth no cause of action under the Civil Rights Act. 262 F.2d at 167.

However, the language quoted above has subsequently been repudiated by the Sixth Circuit in Mulligan v. Schlachter, 389 F.2d 231 (6th Cir. 1968). In that case the plaintiff, who had been convicted of murder in the state court and was then serving his sentence, alleged a deprivation of civil rights by his arrest and seizure of his property without probable cause. The court of appeals reversed the dismissal of the civil rights claim, stating:

It is apparent that our statement in Curtis does not make sufficient allowance for the distinct federal interests which are protected by the Civil Rights Act. * * * While considerations of state-federal comity and judicial efficiency may dictate that a civil rights action be dismissed when the alleged deprivation has been examined fully during a state criminal trial or has been waived by the complainant, the simple fact of an unreversed state conviction cannot by itself require dismissal. 389 F.2d at 232-233.

We agree with the Sixth Circuit's holding in Mulligan. We therefore proceed to determine whether in the circumstances of this case the district court properly dismissed the civil rights complaint on the ground of prior adjudication.

The standard for determining if litigation of a question in a civil suit is barred by a prior criminal trial is whether the question was "`distinctly put in issue and directly determined' in the criminal prosecution. * * * In the case of a criminal conviction based on a jury verdict of guilty, issues which were essential to the verdict must be regarded as having been determined by the judgment." Emich Motors Corp. v. General Motors Corp., 340 U.S. 558, 569, 71 S.Ct. 408, 414, 95 L.Ed. 534 (1951). Where a motion to dismiss is made on the basis of collateral estoppel, it is usually necessary for the court to examine the record of the prior trial,⁶ unless it appears on the face of the complaint that it is barred by issues decided in the prior adjudication.⁷ Reasonable doubt as to what was decided by a prior judgment should be resolved against using it as an estoppel.⁸

If, as is generally the case, the trial court must consider matters outside the complaint in deciding whether collateral estoppel is applicable, then the motion must be treated as one for summary judgment and be disposed of in accordance with Rules 12(b) and 56.⁹

The use of collateral estoppel in a civil rights case was dealt with by this court in Basista v. Weir, 340 F.2d 74 (3d Cir. 1965), a suit against police officers for assault and battery and false arrest, where it was held that the trial judge erroneously directed a verdict for the defendants on the ground, inter alia, of collateral estoppel. In that case the plaintiff had previously been convicted of assault and battery against the defendant police officers. On appeal, we held:

The transcript of the proceedings of Basista\'s trial before the Court of Quarter Sessions was not admitted in evidence and therefore there could be no collateral estoppel. Lacking a certified copy of the transcript we are uninformed as to what acts of Basista furnished the foundation for his conviction on the charge of assault and battery. * * * At best, the present Quarter Sessions judgment against Basista is ambiguous and therefore must be treated as insufficient to support collateral estoppel. 340 F.2d at 81-82.

Similarly, in the instant case, without examination of the record in the appellant's state trial, the court below could not know whether the veracity of the state's witnesses had been adequately put in issue by appellant nor whether the general verdict of guilty was necessarily based on the acceptance by the jury¹⁰ of the truth of the alleged perjured testimonly so as to permit the state judgment to bar the present claim of perjury.¹¹ While the case may be appropriate for summary judgment upon consideration of the criminal trial record,¹² it was error to dispose of the complaint by a motion to dismiss on the ground of estoppel.

From the foregoing discussion, it is apparent that the complaint should not have been dismissed provided a claim for relief was otherwise properly stated. The district court in its memorandum opinion characterized appellant's complaint as "a series of conclusionary allegations unsupported by facts." This court has adopted the rule that complaints in civil rights case must be specifically pleaded in order to avoid a motion to dismiss. Negrich v. Hohn, 379 F.2d 213 (3d Cir. 1967).¹³ While we adhere to this rule, we do not thereby intend to subvert the liberal policy favoring amendment of complaints as expressed in Rule 15(a).¹⁴ The considerations underlying the Negrich requirement¹⁵ must be balanced against the equally important policies that pro se litigants not be denied the opportunity to state a civil rights claim because of technicalities,¹⁶ and that litigation, where possible, should be decided on the merits.¹⁷

Here, since judgment has been entered on the motion to dismiss, appellant no longer has the right to amend his complaint as of course. Kelly v. Delaware River Joint Comm., 187 F.2d 93 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 342 U.S. 812, 72 S.Ct. 25, 96 L.Ed. 614 (1950).¹⁸ However, under Rule 15(a), the district court is enjoined to "freely" permit amendment as a matter of discretion. We recognize that since the court below believed that the instant complaint was barred by collateral estoppel, it had no occasion to exercise its discretion to permit appellant to make a more specific pleading. In this case we are of the opinion, however, that such discretion should be exercised to permit amendment.¹⁹

We therefore affirm the judgment below as to appellee Moss, and remand the case to the district court with directions that the judgment with respect to the remaining appellees be vacated and leave granted to amend within such reasonable period after vacation of the judgment as may be fixed by the court.

The judgment of the district court will be affirmed in part and vacated in part and the case remanded to the district court in accordance with...