Whitfield V. Melendez-Rivera
| Decision Date | 06 December 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 04-1219.,No. 04-1218.,No. 04-1217.,04-1217.,04-1218.,04-1219. |
| Citation | 431 F.3d 1 |
| Parties | Justin Lee WHITFIELD; Terry Whitfield; Gail Whitfield, Plaintiffs, Appellees, v. Anibal Meléndez-Rivera; Ismael álvarez-Monge; Maria L. Lebrón-Ramos, Defendants, Appellants, Municipality of Fajardo; William Mangomé-Roldán, Defendants. Justin Lee Whitfield; Terry Whitfield; Gail Whitfield, Plaintiffs, Appellees, v. Municipality of Fajardo, Defendant, Appellant, Anibal Meléndez-Rivera; Ismael álvarez-Monge; Maria L. Lebrón-Ramos; William Mangomé-Roldán, Defendants. Justin Lee Whitfield; Terry Whitfield; Gail Whitfield, Plaintiffs, Appellees, v. Municipality of Fajardo; Anibal Meléndez-Rivera; Ismael álvarez-Monge; Maria L. Lebrón-Ramos, Defendants, William Mangomé-Roldán, Defendant, Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
Gael Mahony with whom Stephen S. Young, Holland & Knight, LLP, Etienne Totti Del Toro, and Totti & Rodriguez Diaz, were on brief, for appellant, Municipality of Fajardo.
Eileen Landron Guardiola, with whom William Vázquez Irizarry, Secretary of Justice, Ivonne Palerm, Deputy Secretary of Justice in Charge of Litigation, Eduardo Vera Ramírez and Landrón & Vera, LLP, were on brief, for appellants, Anibal Meléndez-Rivera, Ismael Álvarez-Monge and Maria L. Lebrón-Ramos.
Tessie M. Leal-Garabis, with whom Gary H. Montilla, and Quiñones & Sánchez, P.S.C., were on brief, for appellant, William Mangomé-Roldán.
John F. Nevares with whom John F. Nevares and Associates P.S.C., Camilo K. Salas III, Karen M. Fontana, and Niles, Salas, Bourque & Fontana, L.C., were on brief for appellees.
Before LYNCH, Circuit Judge, CAMPBELL, Senior Circuit Judge, and HOWARD, Circuit Judge.
Justin Whitfield was shot twice in the left leg by two municipal police officers as he retreated from the scene of an apparent arson at a parking garage in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. Alleging that the officers had employed excessive force, and that the mayor and the police commissioner of the city had failed to adopt and implement regulations and training programs instructing local police on the proper use of deadly force, Whitfield and his parents brought suit under, inter alia, 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Whitfield additionally brought suit against the city, seeking to hold it liable under a Monell theory. See Monell v. Dep't of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978). The defendants now appeal the jury verdict and the over $5 million dollar compensatory and punitive damage awards. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.
We state the facts in the light most favorable to the jury verdict. See Torres-Rivera v. O'Neill-Cancel, 406 F.3d 43, 45 (1st Cir.2005). In the pre-dawn hours of December 9, 2000, Justin Whitfield, an active duty serviceman in the United States Navy stationed in Puerto Rico, gave a ride to a friend and fellow Navy enlistee, John Kawika. Under the pretense of showing Whitfield some antique cars, Kawika instructed Whitfield to drive to a municipal parking garage in downtown Fajardo. Once they arrived, Kawika told Whitfield he intended to light a car on fire. Kawika proceeded to climb the exterior wall of the garage and Whitfield followed. As Whitfield looked on, Kawika set fire to a convertible on the third level of the garage.
Two patrolling Fajardo police officers, Officer William Mangomé-Roldán, and his immediate superior, Sergeant Maria Lebrón-Ramos, observed Kawika and Whitfield scaling the exterior garage wall. The officers entered the building to investigate. Upon reaching the third level, Mangomé and Lebrón found three cars on fire. The officers saw two people at the far end of the garage and ordered them to stop. Ignoring these commands, Kawika jumped from the third level of the garage to the street below and ran. Whitfield followed soon thereafter.
Whitfield and the officers present diverging stories of what happened next. According to Whitfield, after dropping 20 feet from the garage, he picked himself up and started running toward his car, which was parked down the street. The street was illuminated by street lights. Before he got very far he "felt a force from behind" that knocked him to the ground. Not realizing he had been shot, Whitfield got up and continued to run. When he noticed that his left foot was pointing toward his right foot, he began to hop on his right leg. He was then knocked to the ground a second time. At this point, realizing that he had been shot, Whitfield remained still and waited for the police. Whitfield denied that he had a weapon or any other object in his hands at any time during the course of these events.
Lebrón and Mangomé testified that they split up when they entered the garage. Lebrón arrived first at the scene of the arson and observed Kawika jump off the ledge. She then noticed Whitfield standing nearby with his back to her. She testified that, as she moved to within 20 feet of him, Whitfield turned his head toward her and she saw that he held a metal object with both hands. Despite their close proximity, Lebrón testified that she did not seek cover because she did not fear for her life. She then watched as Whitfield jumped down to the street below. When Mangomé arrived, Whitfield was already in the process of jumping. Mangomé did not observe a metal object in Whitfield's hands at that time.
Moving to the ledge from which Whitfield had jumped, Lebrón and Mangomé spotted Whitfield on the street below running away from the garage. Lebrón yelled "alto policia" (stop police). Both Lebrón and Mangomé testified that, at that moment, they saw Whitfield turn toward them holding a metal object in his hands. Fearing that he would shoot at them, Lebrón and Mangomé simultaneously fired their handguns.1 Lebrón then observed Whitfield grab his leg and limp away from the garage until he eventually fell to the ground.
An injured Whitfield lay in the street unattended for some period of time. Mangomé testified that he left the scene to pursue Kawika immediately after the shooting and did not return until about 15 to 20 minutes later. Lebrón testified that she lingered in the garage for 8 to 10 minutes before looking for Whitfield outside. Neither Lebrón nor Mangomé located the metal object that Whitfield allegedly was carrying. Mangomé testified that when he returned to the scene, another officer showed him a metal object in the street. The officer who allegedly found the metal object did not testify at trial, and neither Mangomé nor Lebrón could say whether the object that was found in the street was what they had seen in Whitfield's hands. They also did not know whether the object was ever fingerprinted.
Hospital x-rays revealed a communal fracture2 of Whitfield's thigh bone. Whitfield was transferred to the Puerto Rico Medical Center, where he awaited surgery for eight days. The day after the surgery, Whitfield was released to the Navy and was transferred to the Naval hospital in Fajardo. Physicians at the Naval hospital determined that, without follow-up surgery, Whitfield's leg would not heal properly. Therefore, five days after the initial surgery, a second surgery was performed. Despite the two surgeries, Whitfield has not recovered the full use of his left leg and continues to suffer from chronic pain.
Following the shooting, Whitfield's parents were notified that their son had been shot and was hospitalized in Puerto Rico. Shortly thereafter, they flew from their home in Ohio to Puerto Rico to visit him. They observed that he was in acute pain. After his discharge from the Navy, Whitfield returned home to live with his parents.
Whitfield brought the underlying civil rights action seeking relief under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1983 and 1985 for violations of his rights under the Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Whitfield's parents, Terry and Gayle Whitfield, sought relief for emotional damages under Article 1802 of the Civil Code of Puerto Rico. The plaintiffs alleged that Sergeant Lebrón and Officer Mangomé had violated Whitfield's constitutional right to be free from the use of excessive force. They further alleged that the city of Fajardo; the mayor, Anibal Meléndez-Rivera; and the police commissioner, Ismael Álvarez-Monge, were liable for failing to adopt regulations governing the proper use of firearms and to train municipal police officers in accordance with such regulations.
Following a flurry of pre-trial motions,3 the district court denied cross-motions for summary judgment on the issues of supervisory and municipal liability. The court also denied motions to dismiss and for summary judgment seeking to invoke the qualified immunity defense on behalf of the officers, the mayor and the police commissioner.
The surviving claims of excessive force and municipal and supervisory liability were heard by a jury. At the close of the plaintiffs' case, and again at the close of all evidence, the defendants moved for judgment as a matter of law under Fed. R.Civ.P. 50(a). Finding that the validity of the claims and defenses hinged on the resolution of disputed facts, the court denied these motions and submitted the case to the jury. The jury thereafter returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiffs on all claims, and awarded the plaintiffs $5 million in compensatory and $98,000 in punitive damages. The court again denied the defendants' effort to invoke qualified immunity and entered judgment consistent with the verdict and the jury's award of damages.
The defendants filed a joint post-trial motion seeking judgment as a matter of law or a new trial, see Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(b), 59(a), or a remittitur of the damages award, see Fed.R. Civ.P. 59(e). They argued that the two police officers, the mayor, and the police commissioner should have been afforded qualified immunity because their conduct had been reasonable under the...
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