Bayer v. Monroe County Children and Youth Services

• Citation: 577 F.3d 186
• Decision Date: 14 August 2009
• Docket Number: No. 07-4267.,07-4267.
• Parties: Bruce BAYER, on his own behalf, and on behalf of minor children Gabriel Zhanay, Pedro Zhanay and John Bayer; Angela Bayer, on her own behalf, and on behalf of minor children Gabriel Zhanay, Pedro Zhanay and John Bayer v. MONROE COUNTY CHILDREN AND YOUTH SERVICES; Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; Monroe County; Sat Bahl; William Browning; Heather Dry; Brenda Rante; P.J. Geese; Eliza Loncola-Hicks; Tara Surrago; Iretha Nolls; Detective Robson; Sgt. Bowman; Chief John Lamberton; Margherita Worthington; President Judge Ronald E. Vican; Elizabeth Weeks; David Williamson; Barry Cohen; Dawn Thorton; Adel Heinlein; Dr. Judy Munoz; Donna Asure; Robert Nothstein; Walter Clatch; Ellis Karle; Dr. Taroli; Dr. Coleen Copper; District Attorney Mark Pazuhanich, Former DA; District Attorney's Office Monroe County; Regional Children and Youth; Foster Care Division of Monroe County Sat Bahl and Heather Dry, Appellants.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (3rd Circuit)

577 F.3d 186

Bruce BAYER, on his own behalf, and on behalf of minor children Gabriel Zhanay, Pedro Zhanay and John Bayer; Angela Bayer, on her own behalf, and on behalf of minor children Gabriel Zhanay, Pedro Zhanay and John Bayer v. MONROE COUNTY CHILDREN AND YOUTH SERVICES; Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; Monroe County; Sat Bahl; William Browning; Heather Dry; Brenda Rante; P.J. Geese; Eliza Loncola-Hicks; Tara Surrago; Iretha Nolls; Detective Robson; Sgt. Bowman; Chief John Lamberton; Margherita Worthington; President Judge Ronald E. Vican; Elizabeth Weeks; David Williamson; Barry Cohen; Dawn Thorton; Adel Heinlein; Dr. Judy Munoz; Donna Asure; Robert

Nothstein; Walter Clatch; Ellis Karle; Dr. Taroli; Dr. Coleen Copper; District Attorney Mark Pazuhanich, Former DA; District Attorney's Office Monroe County; Regional Children and Youth; Foster Care Division of Monroe County Sat Bahl and Heather Dry, Appellants.

No. 07-4267.

United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Argued April 20, 2009.

Filed: August 14, 2009.

Gerard J. Geiger, Esquire (Argued), Newman, Williams, Mishkin, Corveleyn, Wolfe & Fareri, Stroudsburg, PA, Attorney for Appellants.

Peter G. Loftus, Esquire (Argued), The Loftus Law Firm, Waverly, PA, Attorney for Appellees, Bruce Bayer and Angela Bayer.

Before SCIRICA, Chief Judge, SLOVITER and FISHER, Circuit Judges.

OPINION OF THE COURT

SCIRICA, Chief Judge.

In this action brought principally under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, at issue is whether defendants, a social worker for the Monroe County Children and Youth Services and her supervisor, are entitled to absolute or qualified immunity in connection with an allegedly unconstitutional delay in holding a dependency hearing after the agency removed children from their mother's custody. The District Court determined defendants were entitled to neither form of immunity, and denied their request for summary judgment on those grounds. We disagree and will reverse, holding that defendants are entitled to qualified immunity.

I.

Plaintiffs P.Z. and G.Z. were minor children (9 and 11 years old, respectively) at the time of the events at issue in this case. Plaintiff Angela Bayer is their biological mother, and Bruce Bayer, Angela's second husband, is their stepfather. Angela Bayer had primary custody of the children, and the children's biological father, Gabriel Zhanay, lived elsewhere and had visitation rights. According to Angela Bayer's testimony, Zhanay was allowed to take the children for visits for part of one day each month.

On Friday, January 10, 2003, a telephone call was placed to Monroe County Children and Youth Services, reporting that G.Z. and P.Z. had been sexually abused by their biological father. On several prior occasions, the agency had received reports that the biological father was harming the children.¹ The parties dispute who made the January 10 telephone call. Defendants contend the Bayers themselves reported that the children's biological father had been abusing the children and was about to arrive at their home to exercise his visitation rights, while the Bayers claim it was one of the children's therapists who telephoned. At the end of that day, the children were placed in the custody of Monroe County Children and Youth Services. The parties dispute whether the police took the children into custody or whether Bruce and Angela Bayer brought the children to Monroe County Children and Youth Services. The Bayers were served with a notice of placement regarding protective custody signed by Detective Michael Robson of the Pocono Regional Police Department. Pursuant to that order, P.Z. and G.Z. were removed from the Bayer home and placed in protective custody with Monroe County Children and Youth Services while the children's biological father was investigated for alleged sexual abuse.²

On Monday morning, January 13, Defendant Heather Dry, a caseworker at Monroe County Children and Youth Services, forwarded to attorney Elizabeth Weekes, the agency's solicitor, information involving the alleged abusive conduct and the removal of the children from the Bayer home, so that Weekes could file an emergency petition in the Monroe County Court of Common Pleas on behalf of the agency to take protective custody of G.Z. and P.Z.³ The next day, Tuesday, Weekes filed the petition. That same day, Monroe County Court of Common Pleas Judge Margherita Worthington signed an order continuing custody in Monroe County Children and Youth Services and scheduling a hearing for Thursday, January 16.

On January 16, Judge Worthington held a hearing at which both biological parents, as well as the children, were present and represented by counsel. The parents agreed to a continuance until February 20, 2003; in the interim, the children remained in the custody of Monroe County Children and Youth Services and underwent psychological evaluation. Angela Bayer claims she was under duress when she agreed to the continuance. On January 28, Monroe County Children and Youth Services determined the sexual abuse case against the biological father was unfounded, and at the hearing on February 20, recommended the court return the children to the Bayers' custody. The court did so, finding that the agency's custody over the children in the period from January 10 to February 20 had been necessary due to the allegations of abuse and had been in the best interests of the children.

On November 18, 2004, plaintiffs filed a complaint in federal court raising forty-one claims against thirty-one defendants under various provisions of state and federal law. In earlier orders not at issue in this appeal, the District Court dismissed many of those defendants and claims. In an order filed October 15, 2007, the court granted the remaining defendants' motion for summary judgment in part, dismissing all such defendants save two—caseworker Heather Dry and her supervisor, Sat Bahl. The court also dismissed all claims against these two defendants except the claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 that these defendants, under color of state law, deprived plaintiffs of their Fourteenth Amendment right to procedural due process.⁴ Viewing the record in the light most favorable to plaintiffs, the court found that plaintiffs' "procedural due process rights were violated based on the failure to receive a post-deprivation hearing in a period which would satisfy due process." In the court's view, this period extended no further than 72 hours after the children were removed from their mother's custody.⁵ Defendants interposed alternative assertions of absolute and qualified immunity, which the court rejected.

Defendants filed a timely notice of appeal. They challenge only the District Court's rulings that they are not entitled to either qualified or absolute immunity with respect to plaintiffs' Fourteenth Amendment procedural due process claims.

II.

The District Court exercised jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1331. Under the collateral order doctrine, 28 U.S.C. § 1291 confers appellate jurisdiction over the District Court's denial, at the summary-judgment stage, of defendants' claim that they are entitled to absolute or qualified immunity, to the extent that denial turns on questions of law. Walter v. Pike County, 544 F.3d 182, 190 (3d Cir.2008) (citing Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 530, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985)); see also id. (noting that, in this context, "`we lack jurisdiction to consider whether the district court correctly identified the set of facts that the summary judgment record is sufficient to prove; but we possess jurisdiction to review whether the set of facts identified by the district court' supports a claim beyond the bounds of the immunity at issue" (quoting Ziccardi v. City of Phila., 288 F.3d 57, 61 (3d Cir.2002))).

"We review the denial of a motion for summary judgment de novo. We apply the same test required of the district court and view inferences to be drawn from the underlying facts in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party." Haybarger v. Lawrence County Adult Prob. & Parole, 551 F.3d 193, 197 (3d Cir.2008) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted); see also Walter, 544 F.3d at 190 (noting that although the scope of our review in this context is limited, "we still apply the standard for summary judgment").

III.

"The doctrine of qualified immunity protects government officials `from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.'" Pearson v. Callahan, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 808, 815, 172 L.Ed.2d 565 (2009) (quoting Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982)). At the time the District Court filed its opinion, Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 121 S.Ct. 2151, 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001), provided the controlling standard for analyzing claims of qualified immunity. Under Saucier's two-step inquiry,

[f]irst, the court must determine whether the facts alleged show that the defendant's conduct violated a constitutional or statutory right. If so, the court must then determine whether the constitutional or statutory right allegedly violated by the defendant was "clearly established." If the court concludes that the defendant's conduct did violate a clearly established constitutional or statutory right, then it must deny the defendant the protection afforded by qualified immunity.

Williams v. Bitner, 455 F.3d 186, 190 (3d Cir.2006) (citing Saucier, 533 U.S. at 201, 121 S.Ct. 2151). Subsequently, however, the Supreme Court in Pearson clarified that "the Saucier procedure should not be regarded as an inflexible requirement." 129 S.Ct. at 811. Rather, "[t]he judges of the district courts and the courts of appeals should be permitted to exercise their sound discretion in deciding which of the two prongs of the qualified immunity analysis should be addressed first in light of the circumstances in the particular...