Biddle v. Martin

• Decision Date: 22 April 1993
• Docket Number: No. 92-2437,92-2437
• Citation: 992 F.2d 673
• Parties: Ronald S. BIDDLE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Amy J. MARTIN and Paul Lehmann, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 673

992 F.2d 673

Ronald S. BIDDLE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Amy J. MARTIN and Paul Lehmann, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 92-2437.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

Submitted Feb. 26, 1993. ¹

Decided April 22, 1993.

George F. Taseff, Jennings, Novick, Taseff, Smalley & Davis, Bloomington, IL, for plaintiff-appellant.

Thomas G. DiCianni, Ancel, Glink, Diamond & Cope, Chicago, IL, for defendants-appellees.

Before BAUER, Chief Judge, FLAUM, and MANION, Circuit Judges.

BAUER, Chief Judge.

Ronald S. Biddle brought this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, claiming he was unlawfully arrested and maliciously prosecuted by the defendants, two Normal, Illinois police officers. The district court found that the police had probable cause to arrest Biddle. Accordingly, it found that the officers are entitled to qualified immunity for their actions, and granted their motion for summary judgment on the unlawful arrest claim. The court also determined that the malicious prosecution claim is barred by the finding of probable cause. Biddle appeals. We affirm.

I.

Ronald Biddle, his brother Tim, and two friends, Dana Mitchell and Lori Miller were taking Mitchell home from work shortly after 3 a.m. on September 8, 1990. Ron, Tim, and Miller had been drinking at a wedding reception and a local tavern. Tim and Ron had had enough to drink so neither wanted to drive. Although Miller had also been drinking, she drove Ron Biddle's van. Officer Cannon stopped the van and administered field sobriety tests to Miller. She failed the tests and Cannon arrested her for driving under the influence of alcohol.

Cannon asked the remaining passengers if any of them had a valid driver's license and wanted to drive the van. They all declined. Cannon told the passengers that unless someone drove the van home, it would have to be towed. Tim Biddle and Mitchell decided to try to contact two friends from a nearby pay phone to drive the van for them. Ron Biddle stayed with his van. Before Cannon left with Miller, Officer Amy Jo Martin arrived. She assisted Cannon in placing Miller under arrest and then began to complete a tow report on Biddle's van.

After Cannon left, Biddle began shouting at Martin about towing the van. He believed he was entitled to have someone come to pick it up, and Martin believed that the van would have to be towed. Biddle was intoxicated, and kept arguing with Martin. He shouted and swore at her for almost ten minutes. Biddle Deposition at 26, 38-39. Eventually, Martin asked him for his name and identification, but Biddle refused to give it to her. According to Martin, Biddle walked up and down on the sidewalk, waving his arms, swearing and shouting. Because of Biddle's continual shouting Martin decided she could not finish the tow report. As she walked toward her squad car, Biddle asked her a question. She did not hear it, so she asked him to repeat it. He yelled at her "You heard what I said--Now answer me!" Incident Report, Martin Deposition Exhibit 1. Because Biddle continued to be very irate and because he is bigger than she is, Martin became concerned for her safety and called for back-up. Officer Paul Lehmann arrived on the scene and Biddle was arrested for obstructing a police officer under 720 ILCS 5/31-1 (formerly Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. 38, para. 31-1). Because Biddle continued to be disruptive and uncontrollable, Biddle was taken from the Normal Police Station to the County Jail. Martin Deposition at 68. The charge against Biddle was eventually dismissed. Biddle admits that he shouted, swore at, and argued with the officers. He also admits that he was intoxicated. He maintains, however, that the officers' response to his behavior was unreasonable.

Biddle sued Officers Martin and Lehmann under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for false arrest and malicious prosecution. The district court granted summary judgment for the officers, finding that Biddle's unlawful arrest claim was without merit because the officers had probable cause to arrest him for obstruction of justice, disorderly conduct, and for allowing someone to operate his vehicle in a manner contrary to law in violation of 625 ILCS 5/16-202 (formerly Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. 95 1/2, para. 16-202). The court also found that because the arrest was reasonable, the officers violated no clearly established constitutional rights, and consequently were entitled to qualified immunity for their actions. The court also noted that because Biddle's arrest was supported by probable cause, his malicious prosecution claim must fail under our ruling in Fernandez v. Perez, 937 F.2d 368, 371 (7th Cir.1991).

On appeal, Biddle contends that genuine issues of material fact preclude the entry of summary judgment on the probable cause question, and contests the district court's ruling on his malicious prosecution claim.

II. Analysis

A. Standard of Review

We review the district court's summary judgment determination de novo. Marshall v. Allen, 984 F.2d 787 (7th Cir.1993). In conducting this review, we consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. The purpose of summary judgment is to "pierce the pleadings and to assess the proof in order to see whether there is a genuine need for trial." Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 1356, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986). Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(c) "by its very terms, ... provides that the mere existence of some alleged factual dispute between the parties will not defeat an otherwise properly supported motion for summary judgment; the requirement is that there be no genuine issue of material fact." Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 247-48, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986) (emphasis in original).

B. Probable Cause to Arrest

The defendant police officers contend that qualified immunity shields them from liability for Biddle's arrest because they reasonably believed the arrest was supported by probable cause. "[G]overnment officials performing discretionary functions generally are shielded from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2738, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). To determine whether an official's conduct violates clearly established law requires a two-step inquiry. First, the plaintiff must show that the law was clearly established when the challenged conduct occurred. In this Circuit, we ask "whether the law was clear in relation to the specific facts confronting the public official when he or she acted." Apostol v. Landau, 957 F.2d 339, 341 (7th Cir.1992). Second, we evaluate the objective legal reasonableness of the defendants' conduct. We inquire whether reasonably competent officials would agree on the application of the clearly established right to a given set of facts. Id. at 341. See also Henderson v. DeRobertis, 940 F.2d 1055, 1059 (7th Cir.1991), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 1578, 118 L.Ed.2d 220 (1992).

The defendants do not dispute that Biddle had a clearly established right in 1990 to be free from arrest without probable cause. This appeal focuses upon the second prong of the analysis. We examine the undisputed facts in the record to evaluate the objective legal reasonableness of the officers' acts. Apostol, 957 F.2d at 342. In this case, then, qualified immunity shields the defendant police officers from Biddle's damage action if "a reasonable officer could have believed [Biddle's arrest] to be lawful, in light of clearly established law and the information the arresting officers possessed." Hunter v. Bryant, --- U.S. ----, ----, 112 S.Ct. 534, 536, 116 L.Ed.2d 589 (1991).

Biddle's brief on the appropriateness of summary judgment when probable cause is at issue completely misapprehends the governing law. He asserts, "It is ... well settled that the existence of probable cause to arrest is generally a question for the trier of fact that is inappropriate for resolution by summary judgment." Appellant's Brief at 9. To the contrary, the Supreme Court recently explained, this assertion is wrong

for two reasons. First, it routinely places the question of immunity in the hands of the jury. Immunity ordinarily should be decided by the court long before trial. Second, the court should ask whether the agents acted reasonably under settled law in the circumstances, not whether another reasonable, or more reasonable, interpretation of the events can be constructed [long] after the fact.

Hunter v. Bryant, --- U.S. ----, ----, 112 S.Ct. 534, 537, 116 L.Ed.2d 589 (1991). As the Eighth Circuit has explained, "[i]f a case involves a question of whether probable cause existed to support an officer's actions, the case should not be permitted to go to trial if there is any reasonable basis to conclude that probable cause existed." Cross v. City of Des Moines, 965 F.2d 629, 632 (8th Cir.1992) (citing Hunter, --- U.S. at ----, 112 S.Ct. at 536). Consequently, if reasonable police officers would have believed that probable cause existed to arrest Biddle, Martin and Lehmann are entitled to qualified immunity from his suit.

We also note that in § 1983 actions for false arrest, probable cause need not have existed for the charge for which the plaintiff was arrested, so long as probable cause existed for arrest on a closely related charge.

While an arresting officer's subjective knowledge of facts sufficient to constitute probable cause is central to evaluation of the propriety of an arrest, we do not believe that the officer's view of the legal basis for the arrest is important. Under the principles of Harlow v. Fitzgerald and the fourth amendment, an objective standard applies where the parties present alternative legal justifications for an arrest. The issue is whether a reasonably competent police officer, with knowledge of the facts actually known by...