Andreu v. Sapp

• Decision Date: 18 December 1990
• Docket Number: No. 89-3054,89-3054
• Parties: William ANDREU, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Glen E. SAPP, individually and as Sheriff of Charlotte County, and William E. Reilly, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 637

919 F.2d 637

William ANDREU, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Glen E. SAPP, individually and as Sheriff of Charlotte

County, and William E. Reilly, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 89-3054.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eleventh Circuit.

Dec. 18, 1990.

Keith C. Tischler, Tallahassee, Fla., for defendants-appellants.

Leonard M. Johnson, David K. Oaks, Punta Gorda, Fla., for plaintiff-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Before TJOFLAT, Chief Judge, and ANDERSON and CLARK, Circuit Judges.

CLARK, Circuit Judge:

Glen Sapp, the Sheriff of Charlotte County, Florida and William Reilly, his chief deputy, appeal the district court's denial of their motion for summary judgment. The case originated when William Andreu, a former deputy in the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, alleging federal constitutional violations and various state claims arising out of his arrest and subsequent discharge by the defendants. ¹ The defendants sought summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity. Because we find that the plaintiff has alleged violations of clearly established rights with respect to two of the claims, we now affirm.

I.

In April 1986, William Andreu was a Charlotte County Deputy Sheriff having been an employee of the department since 1979. That month, the Sheriff's Department began an investigation into whether Andreu knowingly purchased a stolen gun from James Hall, a seventeen-year old friend of his son. After several interviews with Hall, his mother, and Andreu, the deputies investigating the theft concluded that Andreu knew that the gun was stolen and that he had instructed Hall to give a false statement to the deputies concerning Andreu's knowledge of the theft.

Andreu denied all wrongdoing. Nevertheless, on April 18, 1986, he was arrested and charged with fabricating evidence, official misconduct, compounding a felony, and accessory to burglary. Andreu was then suspended from duty without pay on the instructions of Acting Sheriff John McDougall. Thereafter, Andreu's criminal case was scheduled for trial in October 1986. The morning of the trial the state attorney announced that he had dismissed the charges against Andreu.

Andreu then sought to return to his position with the department. At that time Glen Sapp, who had been on suspension himself, had returned to his position as Sheriff. Sapp told Andreu that he would consider the request for reinstatement. On November 21, 1986, however, Sapp notified Andreu that he was discharged from his position as deputy sheriff. After concluding that the recently enacted civil service statute did not apply to Andreu, Sapp denied Andreu's request for a hearing and certain other procedures required by the Act.

Andreu then brought this action. After discovery, the defendants sought summary judgment on many of the claims. With respect to the due process claims and the false arrest claim, the defendants sought summary judgment on the ground that qualified immunity protected them from suit. ² The district court denied summary judgment on these claims after finding that there were disputed issues of material fact preventing summary judgement. The defendants then brought the instant appeal.

II.

Before discussing the merits of the defendants' claims, we will briefly review the jurisdictional basis of this interlocutory appeal. Denials of summary judgment are usually considered interlocutory orders over which this court may not provide immediate review. Peppers v. Coates, 887 F.2d 1493, 1495 (11th Cir.1989). However, in Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985), the Supreme Court held that a district court's denial of a defendant's motion for summary judgment on the basis of the defense of qualified immunity is a decision "which finally determine[s] claims of right separable from, and collateral to, rights asserted in the action, too important to be denied review and too independent of the cause itself to require that appellate consideration be deferred until the whole case is adjudicated." Id. at 524-25, 105 S.Ct. at 2814, (quoting Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 546, 69 S.Ct. 1221, 1225-26, 93 L.Ed. 1528 (1949)). The basis for the Court's application of the "collateral order doctrine" to the pre-trial rejection of qualified immunity claims is that qualified immunity--in addition to providing a "defense" to the state official--provides the official with an "entitlement not to stand trial " when the plaintiff has failed to allege that the defendant has violated "clearly established rights." Forsyth, 472 U.S. at 525, 105 S.Ct. at 2815. Thus, because the defendants are appealing the district court's denial of their motion for summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity, we have jurisdiction over this case to determine if the defendants were entitled to summary judgment as a matter of law.

III.

A defendant is entitled to a pre-trial dismissal on the basis of qualified immunity under two circumstances. First, the defendant is entitled to dismissal when the plaintiff has failed to allege a violation of a clearly established right. Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2737-38, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). In such a case the defendant may be entitled to a dismissal even before discovery, Forsyth, 472 U.S. at 526, 105 S.Ct. at 2815, but if "substantial factual development" is necessary before the court can identify the set of facts implicating a clearly established right that the defendant has allegedly violated, the district court should defer ruling on the qualified immunity issue. Cf. Riley v. Wainwright, 810 F.2d 1006, 1007 (11th Cir.1987). In this first instance, it is the plaintiff's allegations that determine whether the defendant is entitled to immunity because (as with all motions for judgment on the complaint or pleadings) the plaintiff's factual allegations are taken as true. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b), 12(c) (motions for judgment relying on matters outside the pleadings are transformed into summary judgment motions).

Second, the defendant is entitled to summary judgment on the issue of qualified immunity when the "pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits [filed in support or in opposition to the motion], if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact" concerning whether the defendant has violated a clearly established right; in such a case, the moving party is entitled to summary judgment as a matter of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); see Bennett v. Parker, 898 F.2d 1530, 1532 (11th Cir.1990) (applying Rule 56 and Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2552, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986) to determination of whether defendant is entitled to qualified immunity). To resist summary judgment, the plaintiff must "set forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial." Bennett, 898 F.2d at 1532 n. 1 (citing Rule 56(e)). At this stage, factual disputes are resolved by accepting the plaintiff's version of the facts. If the facts, when considered in a light most favorable to the plaintiff, fail to establish a violation of a clearly established right, the defendant is entitled to summary judgment notwithstanding the presence of any factual disputes because resolution of these disputes is not material to the outcome of the case. Id. Thus, when the district court actually rules on a pre-trial motion based upon qualified immunity (as opposed to deferring its ruling to await factual development as the court did in Riley, supra ), the court determines a question of law--whether or not the plaintiff's factual scenario states a violation of clearly established rights.

IV.

In this case the defendants argue that they are entitled to qualified immunity on three of the plaintiff's claims. First, the defendants claim that the district court erred in refusing to dismiss the false arrest claim on qualified immunity grounds because (assuming that probable cause did not exist for the arrest) it was reasonable for the defendants to have believed that probable cause did exist. Second, the defendants allege the plaintiff's right to a pre-discharge hearing was not clearly established at the time of his discharge because the Florida statute giving the Charlotte County deputy sheriffs civil service status went into effect while Andreu was suspended, therefore making it unclear whether the Act applied to him. Finally, the defendants argue that they are entitled to qualified immunity with respect to Andreu's claim that he was entitled to a name clearing hearing to rebut the allegedly slanderous statements made by Sapp and Reilly at the time he was fired. The defendants contend that it was not clearly established that police officers could not comment on an investigation when the person under investigation was one of the department's employees. We address each of these claims in turn.

False Arrest

First, defendant Reilly argues that the district court erred in refusing to grant summary judgment on the plaintiff's claim that the he was arrested without probable cause. ³ It is not clear from the complaint and the record in this case whether this claim is a 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 action based upon the violation of the fourth amendment or a state based claim arguing that the defendants committed the intentional tort of false arrest. The district court and the defendant considered this claim to be a section 1983 action. At oral argument, however, the plaintiff's attorney characterized this claim as being based upon state law. Twice the plaintiff's attorney was asked whether the false arrest claim was based upon state law or the federal constitution. Both times he indicated that the claim was based upon state law. As this is the plaintiff's claim, we accept this characterization.

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