Winfield v. Trottier
| Decision Date | 06 March 2013 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 11–4404–CV. |
| Citation | 710 F.3d 49 |
| Parties | Marie WINFIELD and Jason Winfield, Plaintiffs–Appellees, v. Daniel TROTTIER, Defendant–Appellant, Aimee Nolan, State of Vermont, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Michael B. Kimberly, Mayer Brown LLP, Washington, DC, for Appellees.
Megan J. Shafritz, Assistant Attorney General, (Jana M. Brown on the brief) for, William H. Sorrell, Attorney General, for the State of Vermont for Appellant.
Before: JACOBS, Chief Judge, POOLER and HALL, Circuit Judges.
Daniel Trottier (“Trottier”), a Vermont State Police officer, appeals from an order entered in the United States District Court for the District of Vermont (Reiss, J.), denying his motion for qualified immunity in a claim brought by motorist Marie Winfield (“Winfield”) under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that Trottier violated her Fourth Amendment rights when, while searching her car with her consent during a traffic stop, he read a piece of her mail.
At issue is the scope of Winfield's consent to the search of her car, which is determined by looking at what a reasonable person would have understood by the exchange between Trottier and Winfield. We conclude that, while the scope of Winfield's consent was not limited to a search for any particular object of contraband, it did not extend to the text of her mail. However, since this right was not clearly established at the time of the search, Trottier is entitled to qualified immunity. We therefore reverse.
The district court found that the following facts were undisputed. On May 26, 2007, Winfield was driving north on Interstate 89 in Vermont, en route to visit her father in Montreal. Trottier, a state trooper, stopped her for driving twenty miles per hour over the limit, and was inspired to search the car by certain things he deemed suspicious: The passenger, Winfield's son Jason, avoided making eye contact with him; and Winfield was eating a Powerbar “in what he regarded as a hurried manner.” Winfield v. Trottier, No. 5:08–cv–278, 2011 WL 4442933, at *1 (D.Vt. Sept. 21, 2011).
As Trottier was waiting for verification of Winfield's identity, he approached the car and asked, “Ms. Winfield, you don't have to if you don't want to, but while we're waiting, would you mind coming back here for a minute [behind the car] and talk[ing] to me for a second?” She got out and walked with Trottier to the back of her car while State Trooper Aimee Nolan arrived on the scene, as backup.
The following exchange ensued:
Winfield explained that she was “probably tired” because her daughter's high school graduation was the previous night. The conversation continued:
After patting down Jason (with his consent), Trottier searched the car. Trottier, who admits he was not looking for anything in particular, found an envelope addressed either to or from a court, opened it,1 and read what was inside. It was a court document pertaining to the arrest of Winfield's husband “for possession,” and a letter that Winfield had written to a judge. Id. at *3 n. 4. After finishing the search and finding nothing, he issued a speeding citation and the Winfields proceeded on their way.
The Winfields sued, alleging, inter alia, violations of the Fourth Amendment's prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures. The district court concluded that “no reasonable understanding of the exchange between Ms. Winfield and Trooper Trottier could be construed as consent for Trooper Trottier to read Ms. Winfield's mail, regardless of to whom or from whom [the mail] was addressed.” Id. at *10. The court denied qualified immunity because “[i]t was well-established at the time of the search that ‘[i]t is a violation of a suspect's Fourth Amendment rights for a consensual search to exceed the scope of the consent given.’ ” Id. at *11 (quoting United States v. McWeeney, 454 F.3d 1030, 1034 (9th Cir.2006)) (second alteration in original).
The Court reviews de novo a decision on a motion for summary judgment. Mario v. P & C Food Mkts., Inc., 313 F.3d 758, 763 (2d Cir.2002); see also Miller v. Wolpoff & Abramson, L.L.P., 321 F.3d 292, 300 (2d Cir.2003). Summary judgment is appropriate if there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Miller, 321 F.3d at 300. In assessing a motion for summary judgment, the Court is “required to resolve all ambiguities and draw all permissible factual inferences in favor of the party against whom summary judgment [was granted].” Terry v. Ashcroft, 336 F.3d 128, 137 (2d Cir.2003) (internal quotation marks omitted).
“Qualified immunity protects officials from liability for civil damages as long as ‘their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.’ ” Gilles v. Repicky, 511 F.3d 239, 243 (2d Cir.2007) (quoting Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982)). In deciding qualified immunity, courts ask whether the facts shown [i] “make out a violation of a constitutional right,” and [ii] “whether the right at issue was clearly established at the time of defendant's alleged misconduct.” Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223, 232, 129 S.Ct. 808, 172 L.Ed.2d 565 (2009) (internal quotation marks omitted).
To be clearly established, “[t]he contours of the right must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right.” Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 640, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987). In this way, qualified immunity shields official conduct that is “ ‘objectively legally reasonable in light of the legal rules that were clearly established at the time it was taken.’ ” X–Men Sec., Inc. v. Pataki, 196 F.3d 56, 66 (2d Cir.1999) (alterations omitted) (quoting Anderson, 483 U.S. at 639, 107 S.Ct. 3034);see also Taravella v. Town of Wolcott, 599 F.3d 129, 134–35 (2d Cir.2010).
Plaintiffs challenge appellate jurisdiction on the ground that the qualified immunity inquiry in this case turns on a question of fact: the reasonableness determination as to the scope of Winfield's consent.
We have appellate jurisdiction over this interlocutory appeal. “[A] district court's denial of a claim of qualified immunity, to the extent that it turns on an issue of law, is an appealable ‘final decision’ within the meaning of 28 U.S.C. § 1291 notwithstanding the absence of a final judgment.” Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 529, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985) (emphasis added). An appealable order therefore cannot turn on a district court decision as to “what occurred, or why an action was taken or omitted, but [must relate to] disputes about the substance and clarity of pre-existing law.” Ortiz v. Jordan, ––– U.S. ––––, 131 S.Ct. 884, 893, 178 L.Ed.2d 703 (2011); see also Britt v. Garcia, 457 F.3d 264, 271–72 (2d Cir.2006).
“The standard for measuring the scope of a suspect's consent under the Fourth Amendment is that of ‘objective’ reasonableness—what would the typical reasonable person have understood by the exchange between the officer and the suspect?” Florida v. Jimeno, 500 U.S. 248, 251, 111 S.Ct. 1801, 114 L.Ed.2d 297 (1991).
As there are no disputed facts in this case, Plaintiffs' argument is essentially that an appeals court lacks jurisdiction over an interlocutory appeal that turns on a determination of reasonableness. But in other contexts, courts hold that reasonableness may be a question of law when the facts are undisputed. See, e.g., Kent v. Katz, 312 F.3d 568, 577 (2d Cir.2002) ; Huang v. Attorney Gen., 620 F.3d 372, 385 (3d Cir.2010) ; Vaughn v. Ruoff, 253 F.3d 1124, 1128 (8th Cir.2001) ().
Plaintiffs fail to cite a single case holding that an appellate court lacks jurisdiction to review a...
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