Williamson v. Curran

• Decision Date: 04 April 2013
• Docket Number: No. 09–3985.,09–3985.
• Citation: 714 F.3d 432
• Parties: Lisa WILLIAMSON, Plaintiff–Appellant, v. Mark C. CURRAN, Jr., Sheriff of Lake County, et al., Defendants–Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

714 F.3d 432

Lisa WILLIAMSON, Plaintiff–Appellant,

v.Mark C. CURRAN, Jr., Sheriff of Lake County, et al., Defendants–Appellees.

No. 09–3985.

United States Court of Appeals,Seventh Circuit.

Argued April 10, 2012.

Decided April 4, 2013.

Herman J. Marino (argued), Attorney, Chicago, IL, for Plaintiff–Appellant.

Daniel L. Jasica (argued), Attorney, Office of the State's Attorney of Lake County, Waukegan, IL, John W. Quinn, Attorney, Churchill, Quinn, Richtman & Hamilton, Grayslake, IL, George B. Collins, Maraika F. Collins, Attorneys, Collins, Bargione & Vuckovich, Chicago, IL, Karen Kies DeGrand, Attorney, Donohue, Brown, Mathewson & Smyth, Chicago, IL, for Defendants–Appellees.

Before POSNER, ROVNER and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

ROVNER, Circuit Judge.

Lisa Williamson was arrested along with her husband Lance on a charge that they had stolen someone else's horse. After being acquitted on the charge, Williamson filed suit against two Lake County, Illinois sheriff's deputies pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that they arrested her without probable cause in violation of the Fourth Amendment and deprived her of her Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection by arresting her based on nothing more (she contends) than her status as Lance's wife. The district court dismissed both claims for failure to state a claim on which relief could be granted. Williamson v. Curran, 2009 WL 3817613 (N.D.Ill. Nov. 12, 2009); seeFed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). We affirm.

I.

As this case was dismissed at the pleading stage, we accept the factual allegations of Williamson's first amended complaint as true, granting Williamson the benefit of every reasonable inference that may be drawn from those allegations. E.g., Bogie v. Rosenberg, 705 F.3d 603, 608 (7th Cir.2013).

Williamson has referred to and attached a variety of documents to her complaint, including, for example, the investigator reports that culminated in the issuance of the warrant for her arrest. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 10(c) providesthat “written instruments” attached to a pleading become part of that pleading for all purposes. Thus, when a plaintiff attaches to the complaint a document that qualifies as a written instrument, and her complaint references and relies upon that document in asserting her claim, the contents of that document become part of the complaint and may be considered as such when the court decides a motion attacking the sufficiency of the complaint. See, e.g., Centers v. Centennial Mortg., Inc., 398 F.3d 930, 933 (7th Cir.2005); N. Indiana Gun & Outdoor Shows, Inc. v. City of South Bend, 163 F.3d 449, 452–53 (7th Cir.1998). The traditional understanding of an instrument is a document that defines a party's rights, obligations, entitlements, or liabilities—a contract, for example. Black's Law Dictionary 869 (9th ed. 2009). Most of the documents that Williamson has appended to her complaint do not fit within that narrow understanding description of a written instrument. But we have taken a broader view of documents that may be considered on a motion to dismiss, noting that a court may consider, in addition to the allegations set forth in the complaint itself, documents that are attached to the complaint, documents that are central to the complaint and are referred to in it, and information that is properly subject to judicial notice. Geinosky v. City of Chicago, 675 F.3d 743, 745 n. 1 (7th Cir.2012); see also Reger Dev., LLC v. Nat'l City Bank, 592 F.3d 759, 764 (7th Cir.2010); Hecker v. Deere & Co., 556 F.3d 575, 582–83 (7th Cir.2009); Tierney v. Vahle, 304 F.3d 734, 738–39 (7th Cir.2002); see, e.g., Bogie, 705 F.3d at 608–09 (considering video cited in and attached to complaint); Brownmark Films, LLC v. Comedy Partners, 682 F.3d 687, 690–91 (7th Cir.2012) (considering videos cited in complaint in support of copyright infringement claim and submitted by defendant in support of motion to dismiss). What makes it appropriate for us to consider the documents that Williamson has attached to her complaint is that she has not only cited them in the body of her complaint, but she has, to some degree, relied on their contents as support for her claims. See, e.g., R. 35 at 8 ¶¶ 34, 37 (citing and attaching two different police reports and alleging that nothing in these reports “made any reference to any act, error or omission of Lisa Williamson”).

Thus, in the factual summary that follows, we have on occasion included statements that are drawn from the documents that Williamson has attached to and referenced in her complaint. Where we have done so, we have made it clear that this is what we are doing. As we discuss later in this opinion, Williamson has argued that it was inappropriate for the district court to consider these documents (along with additional documents submitted by the defendants) without converting the defendants' motion to dismiss into a motion for summary judgment. SeeFed.R.Civ.P. 12(d). We reject that argument for the reasons we detail below. For now it is sufficient to note that where we have incorporated the exhibits to the complaint into our summary of the facts, we have done so based on Williamson's own reliance on these documents and in the absence of any indication from her—be it in the complaint or the briefing—that the documents are not genuine or that they have been falsified in some way. See Hecker, 556 F.3d at 582 (noting that plaintiff did not contest authenticity of documents defendant sought to use in moving to dismiss complaint). We add that where we have cited documents attributing particular statements to Williamson, whether or not she made these statements obviously is within her personal knowledge, so we may legitimately assume that if the statements have not been accurately recounted in the exhibits, she would have disavowed them. With that said, we proceed with our summary of the facts as alleged in the complaint.

Marta Schroeder owned a horse named Chevallo, which she had purchased in January 2006 from the Lance Williamson Stables, LLC (“Williamson Stables”) in Gurnee, Illinois, for $20,000. Lance Williamson (“Lance”) was the owner and managing member of Williamson Stables. Schroeder kept the horse not at Williamson Stables but at Field & Fences Equestrian Center (“Field & Fences”), which was also in Gurnee. Christine Capuson was Chevallo's trainer at Field & Fences; she had also negotiated the purchase of the horse from Williamson Stables on Schroeder's behalf. In or about March 2007, Schroeder decided to sell the horse, and she commissioned Capuson to locate a buyer. Schroeder advised Capuson that she did not want either Williamson Stables or Lance to be involved with the sale.

Later that month, against Schroeder's expressed wish, Capuson contacted Lance, identified herself as Chevallo's trainer and Schroeder's agent, and told him she was looking for a buyer for the horse. Capuson asked Lance if he would show Chevallo to prospective buyers on consignment, given that he was already familiar with the animal. Lance advised Capuson that he did not have space in his barn for the horse at that time. But when Capuson followed up with him in late April and reported that she was still looking for a buyer, Lance agreed to board the horse and show him to prospective buyers. Lance advised Capuson that he would charge Schroeder a standard monthly fee for the boarding, feeding, and care of the horse; Capuson in turn consented to this arrangement and directed Lance to send the invoices for these services to her as Schroeder's agent and not to Schroeder. On April 27, 2007, Jennifer Crow, the barn manager for Williamson Stables, picked up Chevallo from Field & Fences and transported him to Williamson Stables, where Chevallo thereafter remained. Lisa Williamson had nothing to do with this arrangement.

On or about June 30, 2007, Schroeder asked Capuson about the status of Capuson's efforts to locate a buyer for Chevallo. Capuson in turn called Lance. When Lance informed her that he had not found a buyer, Capuson demanded the return of the horse to her. Lance informed her that he would return the horse when he was paid for having boarded and cared for the horse.

Capuson then informed Schroeder for the first time that Chevallo was in the custody of Williamson Stables. It was at this point, Williamson alleges, that Capuson and Schroeder concocted a false story that Lance had stolen Chevallo, with the aim of regaining possession of the horse without having to pay Williamson Stables for its services. Capuson and Schroeder proceeded to the Lake County Sheriff's Department in order to file a report charging Williamson Stables and the Williamsons with theft. Although the complaint portrays Schroeder and Capuson as being equally culpable in reporting to the Sheriff's Department that Chevallo had been stolen and in allowing a criminal charge to be pursued against Williamson, R. 35 at 7–8 ¶¶ 31, 33, Williamson alleges that Capuson kept Schroeder in the dark about the fact that she (Capuson) had asked Lance to try to find a buyer for the horse, R. 35 at 8 ¶ 35; see also R. 35 at 10 ¶ 44. So Williamson's theory apparently is that Schroeder understood from the start that the horse had not been stolen and that Williamson had nothing to do with Williamson Stables' possession of the horse, but that she did not know how in fact the horse had come to be in Lance's possession.

According to a written report by Sheriff's Deputy Anthony Fanella dated July 6, 2007, which Williamson has referenced in and attached to her complaint, Capuson represented that Lance had asked to take possession of Chevallo for a couple of days so that his wife could try him out and see if she liked the horse.¹ She had therefore allowed Lance's employee to pick up Chevallo and take him to Williamson Stables on the explicit understanding that he would be returned after Williamson took the horse for a test ride. After a week went by without the horse being returned...