Pierce v. Multnomah County, Or.

Decision Date14 February 1996
Docket NumberNo. 93-35405,93-35405
Citation76 F.3d 1032
Parties96 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 1006, 96 Daily Journal D.A.R. 1678 Stephanie G. PIERCE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MULTNOMAH COUNTY, OREGON; City of Portland, Oregon; Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon; Steve Duncan; Janet Bowdle; and, George Karcher, Defendants-Appellees.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Stephanie G. Pierce, Pro Se, Portland, Oregon, for plaintiff-appellant.

Gerald H. Itkin, Multnomah County Counsel, Portland, Oregon; Harry Auerbach, Deputy City Attorney, Portland, Oregon, for defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Oregon, George E. Juba, Magistrate Judge, Presiding.

Before: FLETCHER, D.W. NELSON, and RYMER, Circuit Judges.

FLETCHER, Circuit Judge:

Pro se 1 plaintiff Stephanie Pierce appeals an adverse judgment following a jury trial in her 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action. Plaintiff sued the City of Portland ("City"), Multnomah County ("County"), the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon ("Tri-Met"), fare inspector Jackson, corrections officers Bowdle and Karcher, and police officer Duncan, alleging that the defendants violated her Eighth and Fourth Amendment rights and also violated federal and state law. She was detained for four hours for identification following a citation for boarding a train without proof of payment of fare. The parties tried the case before a magistrate judge, who directed verdicts for the City, Bowdle, and Duncan. A jury returned a verdict for the defendants on the remaining claims. Upon denial of her motion for a new trial, Pierce timely appealed. We have jurisdiction, 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and reverse and remand.

FACTS & PRIOR PROCEEDINGS

Fare inspector Jackson stopped Pierce as she was boarding a Tri-Met train and cited her for failing to produce proof of payment of fare. Pierce did not have any identification, so Jackson called the police to do an identification report. After police officer Duncan arrived, Pierce testified that she provided her name, date of birth, zip codes, addresses, and phone numbers--one for her residence and the other for her business--but refused to provide her social security number. Duncan radioed the police computer and was able to locate Pierce's name, a matching address, and her arrest record. When Duncan asked Pierce whether she had an arrest record, Pierce initially denied that she had ever been arrested. However, Pierce later confirmed his information that she had been arrested for shoplifting many years earlier. The radio check also included a Laidlaw residential address. Although Pierce did not have her driver's license with her, the police data base provided her driver's license number. The Laidlaw address and the Ankeny store address were both included on the completed citation.

Duncan ultimately charged Pierce with the misdemeanor of furnishing false information to a police officer, Or.Rev.Stat. § 162.385, 2 and with the failure to produce proof of payment of fare, Tri-Met Code § 29.15. She was handcuffed and searched. Pierce testified that Duncan performed these tasks in an excessively rough manner. Pierce was taken by police car to and led in hand-cuffs through the Meier & Frank Department Store where officer Duncan had gone in order to question a shoplifter in an unrelated incident. Pierce was then transported to the Multnomah County Detention Center for a "firm" identification. At the jail, Pierce was photographed, screened by a nurse, fingerprinted, searched, and detained in a cell.

Pierce testified that during the approximately four hours she spent at the jail, she was assaulted by corrections officers Karcher and Bowdle. According to Pierce, the officers forcibly yanked her arm behind her back, shouted at her, grabbed her hair, and forced her back into a cell after she was told she was free to go. The defendants admit that they administered "control holds," but claim that the force was necessary because Pierce was distraught, demanding, abusive, and uncooperative during her detention.

Pierce filed a section 1983 action. She stipulated to the dismissal of Tri-Met, and the remaining parties consented to trial before Magistrate Judge Juba. Pierce inadvertently dismissed her claim against the County. The magistrate judge denied her motion to reinstate the County as a defendant.

At trial, the City and Duncan stipulated that the charge for furnishing false information was not the basis for their authority to detain Pierce. Rather, the City and Duncan relied solely on the infraction of failure to furnish proof of payment of fare as the basis for the plaintiff's custodial detention.

At the close of plaintiff's case-in-chief, the magistrate judge directed verdicts for the City and Duncan. The magistrate judge also directed a verdict for Bowdle on Pierce's Fourth Amendment claim for forcibly seizing her after she was released. The magistrate judge instructed the jury on Eighth Amendment standards pertaining to excessive force. It returned a verdict for the defendants on Pierce's excessive force claims against Bowdle and Karcher. Judgment was entered for all defendants. After Pierce's motion for a new trial was denied by the district court, she timely appealed.

DISCUSSION
I. Directed Verdict for City and Officer Duncan on Pierce's Fourth Amendment Claim

Pierce argues first that the trial court erred by directing a verdict for the City and We review de novo the grant of a directed verdict. Zamalloa v. Hart, 31 F.3d 911, 913 (9th Cir.1994); In re Hawaii Federal Asbestos Cases, 960 F.2d 806, 816 (9th Cir.1992). "[A] directed verdict is proper when the evidence permits only one reasonable conclusion as to the verdict." McGonigle v. Combs, 968 F.2d 810, 816 (9th Cir.), cert. dismissed, 506 U.S. 948, 113 S.Ct. 399, 121 L.Ed.2d 325 (1992). "If conflicting inferences may be drawn from the facts, the case must go to the jury." Rutherford v. City of Berkeley, 780 F.2d 1444, 1448 (9th Cir.1986). Therefore, to uphold the directed verdict for Duncan and the City, we would have to determine that the evidence supported only a verdict in their favor.

                Duncan on her claim that her Fourth Amendment rights were violated by the custodial detention for identification for the fare-beating infraction. 3  We agree
                
A. Duncan's Claim of Qualified Immunity

As to Duncan, the factual dispute concerns whether Duncan reasonably could have believed the identifying information supplied by Pierce was inadequate or that the fare infraction warranted detention. We conclude that because Pierce presented evidence from which the jury could conclude that any such beliefs were unreasonable, Duncan was not entitled to a directed verdict on his claim of qualified immunity. Accordingly, we reverse and remand for determination by the jury after both sides have introduced their evidence.

The doctrine of qualified immunity shields public officials performing discretionary functions under certain circumstances. See Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 812, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2735, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). The availability of qualified immunity "generally turns on the 'objective legal reasonableness' of the action, assessed in light of the legal rules that were 'clearly established' at the time it was taken." Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 639, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 3038, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987) (quoting Harlow, 457 U.S. at 818, 819, 102 S.Ct. at 2739); see generally Grossman v. City of Portland, 33 F.3d 1200, 1209-10 (9th Cir.1994) (ordinarily enforcement of an ordinance entitles officer to qualified immunity). However, qualified immunity is not available if, "in light of pre-existing law," the unlawfulness of the officer's conduct was "apparent." Anderson, 483 U.S. at 640, 107 S.Ct. at 3039. "[A]n officer who unlawfully enforces an ordinance in a particularly egregious manner, or in a manner which a reasonable officer would recognize exceeds the bounds of the ordinance will not be entitled to immunity even if there is no clear case law declaring ... the officer's particular conduct unconstitutional." Grossman, 33 F.3d at 1209-10 (citing Chew v. Gates, 27 F.3d 1432, 1449-50 (9th Cir.1994), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 1097, 130 L.Ed.2d 1065 (1995)).

Applying these principles to the case at hand, we conclude that disputes of fact preclude a directed verdict on Duncan's qualified immunity claim.

1. Clearly Established Law

The threshold issue in determining whether an officer's conduct is objectively legally reasonable is whether the law regarding the right that the plaintiff claims has been violated was "clearly established" at the time of the alleged violation. Harlow, 457 U.S. at 819, 102 S.Ct. at 2739. "The 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. at 640, 107 S.Ct. at 3039. Thus, this standard demands that the right be sufficiently particularized to put potential defendants on notice that their conduct probably is unlawful. See id. (finding that "in the light of pre-existing law the unlawfulness must be apparent").

Pierce claims that her de facto arrest by Duncan violated clearly established

                law because Duncan lacked authority to arrest her for identification after he had sufficient information for the issuance of the citation for the fare infraction.   We agree.   The length and scope of detention must be justified by the circumstances authorizing its initiation.   See Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 16, 19, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1877, 1878, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968).   Thus, when an officer has obtained sufficient information to issue a citation, a continued detention without probable cause to arrest for a crime is unreasonable.  United States v. Luckett, 484 F.2d 89, 90-91 (9th Cir.1973) (per curiam) (finding that an individual stopped for jay-walking may be
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