Douthit v. Jones

• Decision Date: 20 June 1980
• Docket Number: No. 78-1036,78-1036
• Citation: 619 F.2d 527
• Parties: Troy Lee DOUTHIT, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Clarence JONES, Sheriff, Dallas County, Texas, and W. H. McCallum, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 527

619 F.2d 527

Troy Lee DOUTHIT, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Clarence JONES, Sheriff, Dallas County, Texas, and W. H McCallum, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 78-1036.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

June 20, 1980.

Linda L. Addison, Houston, Tex. (Court-appointed), for plaintiff-appellant.

John B. Tolle, Sue L. Lagarde, Asst. Dist. Attys., Dallas, Tex., for defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

Before CHARLES CLARK, RONEY and HENDERSON, Circuit Judges.

CHARLES CLARK, Circuit Judge:

Troy Lee Douthit brought this action against Clarence Jones, a former sheriff of Dallas County, Texas, and W. H. McCallum, a deputy sheriff of Dallas County, seeking damages for his allegedly wrongful incarceration by the defendants under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983, 1988 and the Texas common law tort of false imprisonment. The district court granted judgment to Jones and McCallum on the basis of the jury's finding that they had acted on a reasonable good faith belief that they had lawful authority to imprison Douthit. On this appeal, Douthit urges that the judgment must be reversed because of improper selection of the jury, bias on the part of the trial judge, ineffective assistance of counsel, perjury and suppression of evidence by the defendants, and the submission to the jury of the good faith, qualified immunity defense without adequate evidentiary support. We conclude that Jones and McCallum did not present sufficient evidence to be entitled to qualified immunity from § 1983 liability and that under Texas common law a party may not assert a good faith defense to a false imprisonment action, and therefore reverse.

I. Facts

The series of events out of which this action arises originated in September, 1968, when the Dallas County Criminal Court issued a capias in case number 68-2591-C authorizing Douthit's arrest on a misdemeanor charge of passing a worthless check. The return on the capias indicates that the Dallas County sheriff's office arrested Douthit in early December, 1969. Douthit posted bond and was released. For some unexplained reason, Douthit was not tried on the worthless check charge until October, 1972.

In May, 1971, the district attorney of Dallas County filed an information charging Douthit with the misdemeanor offense of possession of a dangerous drug, and the Dallas County Criminal Court issued a capias for his arrest. The Dallas County sheriff's department arrested Douthit on that charge, case number 71-85-C, in July, 1970, but released him when he posted bond. Douthit apparently failed to appear on September 14, 1972, to enter a plea. His bond was forfeited and the Criminal Court issued an alias capias for his arrest. The sheriff's office executed the capias by arresting Douthit on September 18, 1972. While Douthit was in jail, the sheriff's department served upon him a capias issued on the pending 1968 worthless check charge.

On October 12, 1972, Douthit pled guilty to both the check and drug charges, and Judge Stinson of the Dallas County Criminal Court ordered him to serve concurrent sentences of ninety days in jail on each charge, commencing September 18, 1972, and to pay all court costs. According to the clerk's records, Douthit was assessed $68.00 in costs in case number 68-2591-C and $58.00 in number 71-85-C. In 1972 the practice of the Dallas County sheriff was to award five days "good time" for every thirty days served by a prisoner. Thus, a prisoner sentenced to serve ninety days could complete his sentence in seventy-five days. Douthit served seventy-nine days, from September 18 to December 5, 1972, and accumulated fifteen days of good time credit. Under Texas law, if a defendant defaults in the payment of the cost judgment, the court may order him to be imprisoned until the judgment is discharged at the statutory rate of $5.00 per day. Tex.Code Crim.Proc.Ann. arts. 43.03, .09. On December 5, 1972, Douthit filed a pauper's oath with the county criminal court, asserting that he was indigent. The court ordered his release from jail and allowed him until March 1, 1973, to pay the costs assessed against him. The extra four days Douthit served should have reduced the costs he owed by $20.00 at the statutory rate of $5.00 per day. Apparently Douthit did not receive credit for this additional time he was incarcerated beyond the period of his sentence.

Douthit did not pay his remaining costs by March 1, 1973, as ordered by the county criminal court, but he was not rearrested upon this default. On October 19, 1973, the Dallas County sheriff's department arrested Douthit on a capias, issued in case number 73-5457, charging him with the misdemeanor offense of operating a car without a driver's license. Douthit pled guilty to the charge on October 23, 1973, and the county criminal court sentenced him to seventy-two hours in jail and assessed him $48.00 in costs. With credit for the period he had been incarcerated since his arrest, Douthit had already served his three-day sentence at the time he pled guilty. Since he had not paid the court costs, however, the sheriff's department held him until October 31, 1973, an additional ten days, to satisfy the $48.00 in court costs at the statutory rate of $5.00 per day. The commitment order issued by the clerk of the Dallas County Criminal Court in case number 73-5457 authorized this confinement until October 31, 1973. However, the sheriff's department did not release him from its custody until November 30, 1973.

Jones, who was sheriff of Dallas County during this period, and McCallum, who was a deputy sheriff and was in charge of the admission and release of prisoners, contend that the sheriff's office continued to imprison Douthit until he discharged the costs judgments on which he had defaulted in the two prior misdemeanor actions, case numbers 68-2591-C and 71-85-C. The only documents they introduced that purported to authorize Douthit's continued confinement were two commitments that the clerk of the Dallas County Criminal Courts had dated November 30, 1973, not the date of commitment but the date of Douthit's ultimate release. One commitment authorized his imprisonment for the unpaid costs of $68.00 assessed against him in case number 71-85-C, and the sheriff's return indicates that Douthit discharged those costs by serving from November 1 to November 15. The other commitment listed costs of $76.00 as being owed in case number 68-2581-C, and the sheriff's return states that Douthit was held from November 15 until his release on November 30 to satisfy those costs.

Douthit subsequently initiated this action against Sheriff Jones and Deputy Sheriff McCallum, asserting that their continued confinement of him during November, 1973, without a valid judicial commitment was an actionable wrong under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983, 1988, and constituted the Texas common law tort of false imprisonment. Jones and McCallum defended on the ground that they believed in good faith based upon reasonable grounds that they had the authority to imprison Douthit to satisfy the court costs that he admittedly owed in cases 68-2591-C and 71-85-C. They introduced into evidence the two November 30, 1973, commitments and records kept by the Dallas County jail on its prisoners, which Deputy McCallum testified contained information concerning Douthit's unpaid court costs in the two prior misdemeanor actions that could only have been obtained from a commitment. Both defendants surmised that either the November 30th dates on the commitments were typographical errors or another commitment had existed that was now missing from the clerk of court's records.

The trial court instructed the jury on the good faith, qualified immunity defense accorded to executive officers sued under § 1983, but it did not distinguish in its instructions between Douthit's Texas common law false imprisonment claim and his § 1983 claim. The jury returned a verdict in favor of Sheriff Jones and Deputy McCallum based upon a specific finding that they had acted in reasonable good faith in incarcerating Douthit, and the district court entered a judgment in their favor.

On this appeal Douthit contends that the judgment rendered against him should be reversed on several grounds. He argues that the manner in which the jury was impaneled operated to exclude poor persons, blacks, and Mexicans; that the trial judge exhibited bias against him; that he received ineffective assistance from his appointed counsel; that the defendants committed perjury and deliberately suppressed evidence; that good faith is not a defense to a claim of false imprisonment under Texas law; that the evidence presented by the defendants did not justify presenting the good faith, qualified immunity defense to the jury; and that the trial judge improperly allowed the defendants to introduce evidence of his past and present criminal record.

II. The Qualified Immunity Defense to the § 1983 Claim

Douthit contends that the trial court erred in submitting to the jury the question of whether Jones and McCallum had a reasonable good faith belief that they were acting under lawful authority in imprisoning him. He urges that in a § 1983 action predicated upon false imprisonment, a defendant jailer is entitled to qualified immunity only if he demonstrates either that the plaintiff's confinement resulted from an error made outside the realm of his control or knowledge, or that he lawfully incarcerated the plaintiff on the basis of a facially valid legal order. Douthit argues that Jones and McCallum failed to present sufficient evidence of their reasonable good faith to warrant the district court's instruction to the jury on the qualified immunity defense since they did not introduce a facially valid commitment order or capias pro fine authorizing his imprisonment for the unpaid court costs. The defendants respond that the district court's instruction on the qualified immunity defense was...