Aubin v. Fudala, s. 83-1147
| Decision Date | 01 November 1983 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 83-1147,s. 83-1147 |
| Citation | 782 F.2d 280 |
| Parties | Lionel AUBIN, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellees, v. Stanley FUDALA, et al., Defendants, Appellees. Appeal of TOWN OF BEDFORD and Richard Audette, in his capacity as Chief of Police of the Town of Bedford, Defendants, Appellants. Lionel AUBIN, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. Stanley FUDALA, et al., Defendants, Appellees. Lionel AUBIN, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellees, v. Stanley FUDALA, Paul Biron and Leo Morency, Defendants, Appellants. Lionel AUBIN, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellees, v. Stanley FUDALA, et al., Defendants, Appellees. Appeal of John J. MEANEY, Defendant, Appellant. thru 83-1150. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
Mark L. Mallory, Manchester, N.H., with whom Law Offices of Augustine J. McDonough, P.A., Manchester, N.H. was on brief, for Town of Bedford and Richard Audette, in his capacity as Chief of Police of the Town of Bedford.
Theodore Wadleigh, with whom Katherine M. Hanna, and Wadleigh, Starr, Peters, Dunn & Chiesa, Manchester, N.H were on brief, for Stanley Fudala, Paul Biron and Leo Morency.
Robert K. Mekeel, with whom Joseph F. McDowell, III, and Craig, Wenners & McDowell, P.A., Manchester, N.H., were on brief, for Lionel Aubin, et al.
Betsy S. Westgate, Asst. Atty. Gen., Concord, N.H. with whom Gregory H. Smith, Atty. Gen., Concord, N.H. was on brief, for John J. Meaney.
Before CAMPBELL, Chief Judge, SKELTON, * Senior Circuit Judge, and BREYER, Circuit Judge.
The legal questions that plaintiffs and defendants raise in their cross-appeals in this "civil rights/tort" case are for the most part rooted in the facts and the evidence produced at trial. That is to say, the answers to the parties' legal claims--e.g. that the district court should have given certain instructions, that it should have directed verdicts on certain issues but not others--can be determined only by a study of the record. We have conducted that study and we conclude that the judgments of the district court should be affirmed. This opinion, rather than reiterating all the relevant facts, testimony and arguments, will simply set forth enough trial-related information to indicate to the parties the reasoning on which our conclusion rests.
The suit underlying this appeal is a combined "federal civil rights/state negligence" action that Maurice and Normande Aubin and their two sons, Lionel and Norman, brought against the New Hampshire town of Bedford, its police chief (Audette), four police officers (Fudala, Biron, Morency, Abood) and a New Hampshire state trooper (Meaney). The claims arose out of the fact that the police shot Lionel Aubin by mistake while investigating a robbery with which he had absolutely no connection. Many of the surrounding facts are disputed; but for purposes of this appeal, we can take the following as a rough description of what is either agreed upon or at least firmly established.
On New Year's Eve, 1979, someone called the Bedford Police Department and reported a burglary in progress at the home of the Kuzakis', exact address unknown. The police dispatcher, apparently knowing the approximate location, said to Officer Fudala, "Stan, we've got a burglary in progress at the Kuzakis residence, Palomino and Whitmore," and he broadcast that information to policemen Biron and Abood. Trooper Meaney received the same broadcast and went to the scene, arriving there first.
Meaney saw two people on the corner; one fled; Policemen Fudala, Abood and Biron arrived; and all began to search the area. Fudala noticed plaintiff Lionel Aubin in the basement of his family home. Lionel noticed Fudala's flashlight through the basement window. Thinking that a burglar was outside, Lionel shouted to his brother, "Norman, in the backyard, quick." Lionel went up the basement/backyard stairs, grabbed a shovel, stepped out into the yard, at which point Fudala, perhaps thinking Lionel was threatening him, shot him in the right shoulder.
Trooper Meaney, hearing the shot, went into the backyard, saw Lionel and Norman (who had come out of the house), and then ordered Norman to lie on the ground, where he handcuffed him. The police took Lionel to the hospital and took Norman to the police station.
Policemen Biron and Morency then went to the Aubin's door and asked Ronald (another Aubin brother) if they could search. Ronald initially refused, then relented. The police searched for a few minutes and left.
Sometime later that evening, Maurice and Normande Aubin, who had not been at home, found out about their sons' plight, retrieved Norman from the police station and found Lionel in the hospital.
Needless to say, many subsidiary matters are hotly disputed. The plaintiffs introduced evidence tending to show that the police had behaved in a way that can charitably be described as idiotic, cavalier, or worse. The defense introduced evidence designed to show that the police had behaved reasonably under tragically confused circumstances.
The results of the Aubin's state tort and federal civil rights claims were as follows.
1. The jury awarded Lionel Aubin $300,000 on his common law tort claim against policemen Fudala and Biron, the chief of police, and the town. It awarded him $500 on a parallel federal civil rights action against policeman Fudala.
2. The jury found in favor of Maurice and Normande Aubin (the parents) on their civil rights claim complaining of an unlawful search of their house; but, the jury, following the court's instructions, awarded only nominal damages ($1).
3. The jury found against Norman Aubin on his tort and civil rights claims.
4. The court directed a verdict against all plaintiffs on a different civil rights claim--one that in essence charged an alleged agreement among the defendants to cover up their mistake in shooting Lionel.
Thus, Lionel was awarded $300,500; his relations effectively received nothing.
Defendants' appeal rests primarily upon their claims of faulty jury instructions. The case was tried on a theory of negligence on the part of the policemen, the police chief who supervised their training, and the town that employed them. The parties agree that the district court correctly defined "negligence" for the jury. Defendants argue, however, that the court should have instructed the jury more explicitly 1) about the reasonableness of the policemen's behavior, 2) about the reasonableness of the police department's training and supervision, and 3) about the reasonableness of behavior that violates a specific rule or regulation.
In reviewing these instructions we must satisfy ourselves "that the instructions show no tendency to confuse or mislead the jury with respect to the applicable principles of law." Harrington v. United States, 504 F.2d 1306, 1317 (1st Cir.1974). See also McKinnon v. Skil Corp., 638 F.2d 270, 274 (1st Cir.1981); Hubbard v. Faros Fisheries, Inc., 626 F.2d 196, 201 (1st Cir.1980). The extent to which the instructions must elaborate upon those basic principles is primarily up to the trial judge. "The trial judge is not required to elaborate the meaning of controlling legal standards in terms of the particular facts of the case." Hubbard v. Faros Fisheries, Inc., 626 F.2d at 201. Only where the facts are unusually complex--to the point where there is significant risk of jury confusion--will appellate courts overturn trial courts on the issue of elaboration. Choy v. Bouchelle, 436 F.2d 319, 325 (3d Cir.1970) (factual complexity involved); Lessig v. Tidewater Oil Co., 327 F.2d 459, 466 n. 13 (9th Cir.1964) (same); United States v. 145.31 Acres of Land, 54 F.R.D. 359, 361 (M.D.Pa.1972) (). Defendants' request for additional instructions here would seem to present a similar issue: was the trial court's decision that the facts and law were not complicated enough to call for legal elaboration of specific aspects of negligence within the court's lawful power?
This case, as presented to the jury, was not unusually complex, nor was there any unusual risk of jury confusion. Defendants wanted an instruction that would have made clear to the jury that the simple failure by the police to choose another, possibly better course of action does not necessarily show negligence. They wanted the court to tell the jury that it must determine "negligence" in light of what was known at the time, without benefit of hindsight. They wanted the court to go beyond its fairly simple instruction on supervision and training. (The court told the jury that Lionel Aubin must establish ... that Mr. Audette did some act which the average chief of police in the exercise of ordinary care would not do, or failed to do something that the average chief of police in the exercise of ordinary care would do when prompted by the considerations that ordinarily regulate conduct of the affairs of a police department.)
And, they wanted the court to explain that violation of police department regulations does not automatically show negligence. See Emery v. Booth, 114 N.H. 646, 647, 325 A.2d 788 (1973); Davy v. Greenlaw, 101 N.H. 134, 135, 135 A.2d 900 (1957); Martin v. Kelley, 97 N.H. 466, 468-69, 92 A.2d 163 (1952); Flynn v. Gordon, 86 N.H. 198, 200, 165 A. 715 (1933). All these requested instructions involved elaboration of the basic negligence standard. Since counsel argued these very points to the jury, since the case as presented was relatively simple, since the court gave no erroneous instruction on any of these points, and since the court's instructions about negligence were correct and covered in a general way the points at issue, we find no error.
Defendants' strongest "instruction based" argument concerns the courts' charge about Lionel Aubin's comparative negligence. The court told the jury that the "defendants here claim that Lionel Aubin is legally at fault [in that he] ... was negligent in...
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