Dean v. Gladney

• Decision Date: 24 July 1980
• Docket Number: No. 78-2632,78-2632
• Citation: 621 F.2d 1331
• Parties: Mary Elizabeth DEAN et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants Cross-Appellees, v. Robert R. GLADNEY et al., Defendants-Appellees, Roel G. Saldivar and Leroy Maddox, Defendants-Appellees Cross-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 1331

621 F.2d 1331

Mary Elizabeth DEAN et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants Cross-Appellees, v. Robert R. GLADNEY et al., Defendants-Appellees Roel G. Saldivar and Leroy Maddox, Defendants-Appellees Cross-Appellants.

No. 78-2632.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

July 24, 1980.

W. Thomas McKissick, Alvin, Tex., for Mary Elizabeth Dean et al.

Ogden Bass, Dist. Atty., Doyle W. Neighbours, Asst. Dist. Atty., A. B. Crowther, Jr., Angleton, Tex., for Brazoria County and Gladney.

John S. McEldowney, Galveston, Tex., for City of Clute, Tex.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Before JONES, GEE and REAVLEY, Circuit Judges.

GEE, Circuit Judge:

On May 11, 1975, a confrontation erupted between beachgoers and police at Surfside Beach near Freeport, in Brazoria County, Texas. Numerous persons, including the appellants, ¹ were arrested and jailed on charges of disorderly conduct or public intoxication by a large force of police officers summoned to quell the disturbance. As a result of this incident, various plaintiffs, including appellants, brought the instant lawsuit, predicated on the first, fourth, eighth and fourteenth amendments and 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 et seq., against the law enforcement officers involved in the arrests, plus Brazoria County Sheriff Robert Gladney and his deputy, Paul Dugan, ² Brazoria County, and the Cities of Angleton, Clute, and Freeport, Texas. Present appellees in this appeal consist of Brazoria County, Sheriff Gladney, former Brazoria County Deputy Sheriff Roel Saldivar, former Clute Police Officer Leroy Maddox, and the City of Clute.

We begin by briefly reciting the facts as set forth in the district court's memorandum opinion, 451 F.Supp. 1313 (D.C.Tex.1978). On the weekend prior to the incident resulting in this lawsuit, Brazoria County Deputy Sheriff Mike Jones effected an arrest at Surfside Beach. As he and his prisoner were leaving the area, persons on the beach opened the rear door of the police vehicle and allowed the prisoner to escape. This incident made Sheriff Gladney and the members of his department apprehensive that more trouble might occur the following weekend. As a precaution, Sheriff Gladney assigned two deputies, rather than one, to the police vehicle that patrolled the beach. In addition, he instructed his deputies that, should any further trouble arise, "unlawful force would be met with lawful force."

During the afternoon hours of May 11, Deputies Saldivar and Jones observed two men involved in an altercation. They arrested and handcuffed both men and placed them in the rear of the police vehicle. Following these arrests, large numbers of swimmers began to crowd around the vehicle, prompting the officers, fearful of another confrontation, to radio for assistance, which promptly arrived.

Shortly after the arrival of the first assistance vehicle, appellant Hawkins was arrested, handcuffed, and placed in the back of the Saldivar-Jones vehicle with the two other prisoners. Other arrests followed within a short period of time. Despite the arrival of some 15 to 20 additional police vehicles and a "paddy wagon," Deputies Jones and Saldivar placed five additional handcuffed prisoners in the back seat of the vehicle with Hawkins and the two others, leaving the eight there for approximately one and one-half hours in stifling heat with the windows closed. When Hawkins was finally taken to the Brazoria County Jail in Angleton, he was unable to walk and was allowed to fall to the pavement while being removed from the police vehicle. He was booked and held during the evening hours until bond was made, and then released. Hawkins was never prosecuted, and the charges against him were ultimately dismissed.

After Hawkins' arrest, Jones and Saldivar and others who had been sent to assist them began indiscriminately arresting numerous citizens and subjecting the arrestees to unreasonable force by kicking them and striking them with billy clubs. During the early stages of this disturbance, a vehicle occupied by appellant Cowley, her husband, and her younger sister Lauri Walker, drove up to the scene. The car in front of theirs stalled and Mr. Cowley went to assist. While Ms. Walker and Mrs. Cowley waited in their vehicle, Saldivar walked up to the car, clapping his hand with a billy club. Both women were taking pictures of the alleged brutality. Saldivar leaned into the vehicle and informed them that if they did not stop taking pictures he would "smash the camera into their heads." Mr. Cowley returned to his vehicle and drove to a food stand on the fringe of the disturbance. While the Cowleys purchased food, Ms. Walker remained in the car taking pictures. At this point Officer Maddox and an unidentified officer approached the Cowley vehicle, took the camera away from Ms. Walker, removed and disposed of the film, and placed Ms. Walker under arrest. Observing these events, Mrs. Cowley ran back towards her sixteen-year-old sister to protest Ms. Walker's arrest, whereupon Mrs. Cowley, too, was arrested.

During this series of events, appellant Polk was arrested for protesting her husband's arrest.

Appellant Dean was a passenger in a vehicle carrying two other persons. She was waiting by a fishing pier for her friends. As she watched the disturbance, she became upset and began crying. An unidentified officer approached her and told her to leave the beach. She informed him that she could not leave until her two friends returned. As the officer turned to leave, Ms. Dean affected a silent military salute. Apparently perceiving this gesture, the officer arrested her.

All four women were placed in Officer Maddox' unventilated patrol car, where they were left for approximately one and one-half hours in the hot sun. During this period Mrs. Polk became distraught because she feared that her five-month-old baby had been left unattended on the beach. Over the women's protests, Maddox ultimately drove them to the Brazoria County Jail at excessive rates of speed. Upon arrival at the jail, the four women were placed in a small cell with approximately twenty male prisoners, some of whom were lying on the floor groaning from their injuries; some were urinating on the wall. When the women asked to use a bathroom, the jailers, who were Brazoria County deputy sheriffs, told them that they could urinate with the men. The women were later removed from the cell and placed in a janitor's closet, which also had no bathroom facilities. They were then searched by a police matron, who informed them that they could either pay a $27.50 fine or plead "not guilty" and post a bond of $300.00.

Subsequently, appellants and other arrestees brought this lawsuit. Following the presentation of evidence, the case was submitted to the jury. With respect to appellant Hawkins, the jury found that probable cause existed for his arrest, which was made without illegal force, but that Saldivar and Jones, ³ acting without good faith, had subjected him to cruel and unusual punishment; accordingly, it awarded him compensatory damages of $3,300.00. Regarding appellant Polk, the jury found that probable cause existed for her arrest, which was made without illegal force, but that unknown officers, acting without good faith, had subjected her to cruel and unusual punishment, necessitating an award of compensatory damages in the amount of $1,000.00. The jury found that appellant Dean had been arrested without probable cause, in retaliation for exercising her protected first amendment rights, by unknown officers acting with "malice, ill will and conscious disregard of her rights" and had been subjected to cruel and unusual punishment. It awarded her compensatory damages of $2,600.00 for her injuries and punitive damages of $1,000.00. Finally, the jury determined that appellant Cowley had been arrested by Officer Maddox without probable cause, in retaliation for her exercise of protected first amendment rights, and subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, meriting compensatory damages of $4,000.00 and punitive damages of $1,000.00.

In addition to those facts established by the jury findings, the district court found, as a matter of law, that Officer Maddox and Deputy Saldivar were, "in light of the jury verdict, joint tort-feasors whose torts proximately caused the damages to plaintiffs Polk, Cowley and Dean." ⁴ Accordingly, the court entered judgments in the amounts of $1,000.00, $3,600.00 and $4,000.00 in favor of appellants Polk, Dean and Cowley, respectively, against appellees Saldivar and Maddox. ⁵ The court further determined that there was no evidence adduced at trial that Sheriff Gladney was negligent in the selection of his deputies, that he had any personal knowledge of the events at the jail on the afternoon of May 11, or that he personally ratified the acts of his deputies that day. ⁶ Thus, the court dismissed the cause of action against Sheriff Gladney with prejudice. ⁷ Moreover, the district court held that liability could not be imposed on Brazoria County or the Cities of Angleton, Clute, and Freeport, Texas, "because of the doctrine of sovereign immunity" and therefore dismissed plaintiffs' causes of action against those entities with prejudice. Finally, ⁸ after considering the factors set forth in Rainey v. Jackson State College, 551 F.2d 672 (5th Cir. 1977), the district court awarded appellants' counsel attorney fees totalling $8,445 ⁹ against appellees Saldivar and Maddox.

Following the denial of Saldivar's and Maddox' motion for a new trial, appellants filed a notice of appeal, alleging essentially three grounds of error: (1) failure to hold the county and the municipalities liable for damages to plaintiffs for first and eighth amendment violations committed by their employees; (2) failure to impose liability upon the county and municipalities for attorneys' fees incurred by appellants in the trial and appeal of the instant case pursuant to the ...