Baxter v. Roberts

• Decision Date: 30 November 2022
• Docket Number: 21-11428
• Citation: 54 F.4th 1241
• Parties: Michael BAXTER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Louis ROBERTS, III, Trevor Lee, Deputy, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

54 F.4th 1241

Michael BAXTER, Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.Louis ROBERTS, III, Trevor Lee, Deputy, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 21-11428

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

Filed: November 30, 2022

Marie A. Mattox, Ashley Nicole Richardson, Marie A. Mattox, PA, Tallahassee, FL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Alyssa M. Yarbrough, Alicia D. Carothers, Jennifer Alane Hawkins, Timothy Michael Warner, William Gerard Warner, Warner Law Firm, PA, Panama City, FL, for Defendants-Appellees.

Before Wilson, Branch, and Tjoflat, Circuit Judges.

Branch, Circuit Judge:

This is an appeal from summary judgment in a civil rights case arising from a traffic stop and arrest that took place in Northwest Florida on December 24, 2017. On that day, Michael Baxter was pulled over by Deputy Trevor Lee of the Jackson County Sheriff's Office for erratic driving. During the stop, Deputy Lee noticed an open container of beer and decided to issue a warning citation. Deputy Lee wrote—but never delivered—the ticket. Instead, a few minutes into the stop, he ordered Baxter out of the truck so he could walk his drug-sniffing dog around the vehicle. The encounter escalated. Baxter resisted Deputy Lee's commands verbally and then physically. Once Baxter exited the truck, Deputy Lee arrested him for obstruction. Baxter suffered minor injuries. His truck was searched, but no drugs were found. The obstruction charge was later dismissed.

A couple years after this encounter, Baxter filed claims against Deputy Lee and the Jackson County Sheriff under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and Florida common law. In his § 1983 claims against Deputy Lee, Baxter asserted that Deputy Lee violated his Fourth Amendment rights in four ways. Baxter alleged that Deputy Lee (1) initiated the traffic stop without justification; (2) unlawfully prolonged the stop to conduct a dog sniff for the presence of drugs; (3) arrested him for obstruction without probable cause; and (4) used excessive force in arresting him. Under a Monell¹ theory of liability, Baxter asserted that the Jackson County Sheriff was also responsible for the constitutional violations he endured. In his state law claims, Baxter asserted false imprisonment and battery against Deputy Lee personally and the sheriff vicariously.

The district court granted the defendants summary judgment. It held that Deputy Lee was entitled to qualified immunity on the § 1983 claims and otherwise found that Baxter's claims lacked merit. The district court got it mostly right—but not entirely. One aspect of Baxter's § 1983 claims—whether Deputy Lee unlawfully prolonged the traffic stop—presents triable issues that preclude qualified immunity at the summary judgment stage. The same is true for two aspects of Baxter's false imprisonment claim. In all other respects, the district court was correct.

Accordingly, after careful review and with the benefit of oral argument, we affirm in part, vacate in part, and remand.

I. Background

A. Facts²

On December 24, 2017, Michael Baxter stopped at a convenience store in Northwest Florida to buy gas and a beer. After leaving the store, Baxter cracked open the beer, placed it in the cupholder, and kept driving. Around that time, Jackson County Sheriff's Deputy Trevor Lee—who was on patrol in his K9 unit squad car—noticed Baxter's truck. Baxter's driving caught Deputy Lee's attention because he was swerving and weaving within his lane of traffic.³ Deputy Lee followed Baxter and pulled him over after he continued to swerve and weave.

After Baxter pulled over, Deputy Lee exited his squad car and approached the passenger side of Baxter's truck.⁴ Deputy Lee informed Baxter that he had been "all over the road" and asked if he was okay. Baxter responded that he had been "trying to make a phone call." Deputy Lee asked Baxter for his license, insurance, and registration. Baxter told Deputy Lee he "didn't know" he had been "all over the road."

At this point, Deputy Lee noticed the cracked beer can in the cupholder and told Baxter he could not have the open container in the vehicle.⁵ Meanwhile, Baxter handed over his license, but was struggling to find his insurance and registration. Deputy Lee told Baxter that he would let him "work on that," and returned to his squad car. He called dispatch to run a records check.

Deputy Lee then returned to the passenger side of Baxter's truck. Baxter handed over his insurance card. He kept searching for his registration, but said he "d[idn't] know where [he] could see it." Deputy Lee told Baxter to "hang tight" as he was going to write a warning ticket and then "walk my dog around the car." Deputy Lee went back to his car and typed up what appeared to be a warning ticket for Baxter's open container violation.

Leaving the warning ticket up on his computer—but without printing or delivering it—Deputy Lee walked to the driver's side of Baxter's truck. He instructed Baxter to "turn the truck off and step back here to me." Baxter asked why he needed to exit the vehicle, and Deputy Lee explained that he planned to "walk[ ] the dog around the car" to sniff for drugs. Baxter questioned Deputy Lee's "probable cause" to do so. Deputy Lee asserted that he needed none. For the next minute or so, Deputy Lee repeatedly asked Baxter to step out of the truck while Baxter repeatedly claimed that Deputy Lee had no justification for walking the dog around his vehicle. Baxter eventually complied. He turned the truck off, took the key out, and stepped out. Deputy Lee asked Baxter to hand over his keys, but Baxter said "they're my keys" and clutched them to his chest.

At that point, Deputy Lee decided to arrest Baxter for nonviolent obstruction.⁶

In conducting the arrest, Deputy Lee grabbed Baxter's arm, forced him to the ground, twisted his arm around, and placed him in handcuffs. Baxter suffered a chipped tooth and facial abrasions.

Shortly after the arrest, a sergeant with the Jackson County Sheriff's Office arrived. Baxter claims to have heard Deputy Lee tell the sergeant that he had to "charge [Baxter] with something" because he had "roughed him up." A few minutes later, Deputy Lee walked his K9 around Baxter's truck. The dog alerted, but Deputy Lee found no drugs inside Baxter's truck.

Baxter was charged with nonviolent obstruction and ticketed for the open container. The obstruction charge was later dismissed. According to Baxter, after the December 24, 2017 incident, Deputy Lee twice pulled his squad car up behind Baxter, turned his lights on as if to pull Baxter over, but then just "cruis[ed] on by."

B. Procedural History

In July 2019, Baxter filed a civil rights complaint against Deputy Lee and the Jackson County Sheriff in which he asserted claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and Florida common law. In his § 1983 claims against Deputy Lee, Baxter alleged that Deputy Lee violated his Fourth Amendment rights in four distinct ways: by (1) unlawfully initiating the traffic stop; (2) unlawfully prolonging the traffic stop; (3) arresting him without probable cause; and (4) using excessive force during the arrest. Baxter also asserted Monell claims against the Jackson County Sheriff in which he alleged that the sheriff was responsible for the constitutional injuries he allegedly suffered.⁷ Finally, Baxter asserted common law tort claims for false imprisonment and battery against both Deputy Lee personally and the sheriff vicariously.

Following discovery, the defendants filed motions for summary judgment. In their respective motions, the defendants argued that all of Baxter's claims lacked merit. Deputy Lee also asserted immunity defenses—qualified immunity with respect to the § 1983 claims and statutory immunity under Florida law with respect to the state law claims.

After the defendants moved for summary judgment, but before Baxter responded, Baxter took the witness statement of a former Jackson County Sheriff's Deputy. In that statement, Cory Finch—who was Deputy Lee's former supervisor—testified that he raised concerns about Deputy Lee conducting traffic stops without probable cause, but that, to his knowledge, no remedial action was taken by the sheriff's office. Baxter attached Finch's witness statement to his response to the defendants’ motions for summary judgment. The defendants moved to strike Finch's statement from the summary judgment record because Baxter had not disclosed Finch as a potential witness prior to the close of discovery.

The district court granted the defendants’ motions for summary judgment and their motion to strike Finch's statement. In granting the motion to strike, the district court found that Baxter had failed to timely disclose Finch as a potential witness and that the failure was neither justified nor harmless. In granting summary judgment, the district court found that Baxter failed to raise a genuine dispute of material fact as to whether Deputy Lee violated his constitutional rights during the December 2017 traffic stop and arrest. As such, Deputy Lee was entitled to qualified immunity as to the § 1983 claims against him. Because it found that Baxter had failed to raise a genuine dispute of material fact as to whether Deputy Lee violated his constitutional rights, the district court found that Baxter's state law tort claims against both Deputy Lee and the Jackson County Sheriff also lacked merit. Finally, the district court granted summary judgment in the sheriff's favor on the Monell claims.

The district court entered judgment and Baxter timely appealed.

II. Standard of Review

We review the district court's grant of summary judgment de novo. Simmons v. Bradshaw , 879 F.3d 1157, 1162 (11th Cir. 2018). Summary judgment is proper where the evidence "shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). "If no reasonable jury could return a verdict in favor of the nonmoving party, there is no genuine issue of material fact and summary judgment will be granted." Beal v. Paramount Pictures Corp. , 20...