Boyer-Gladden v. Hill

• Decision Date: 09 February 2010
• Docket Number: No. S-09-0102.,S-09-0102.
• Citation: 2010 WY 12,224 P.3d 21
• Parties: Latasha M. BOYER-GLADDEN, Appellant (Plaintiff), v. Deputy Sheriff Bill HILL, and Danny Glick, Sheriff of Laramie County Wyoming in his Official Capacity, Appellees (Defendants).
• Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

224 P.3d 21

2010 WY 12

Latasha M. BOYER-GLADDEN, Appellant (Plaintiff), v. Deputy Sheriff Bill HILL, and Danny Glick, Sheriff of Laramie County Wyoming in his Official Capacity, Appellees (Defendants).

No. S-09-0102.

Supreme Court of Wyoming.

February 9, 2010.

Representing Appellant: Bernard Q. Phelan, The Phelan Law Firm, Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Representing Appellee Bill Hill: Kay Lynn Bestol of Sundahl, Powers, Kapp & Martin, LLC, Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Representing Appellee Danny Glick: Nancy D. Freudenthal and Mark Stewart of Davis & Cannon, LLP, Cheyenne, Wyoming; and Bruce A. Salzburg, Wyoming Attorney General; John W. Renneisen, Deputy Attorney General; Theodore R. Racines, Senior Assistant Attorney General. Argument by Ms. Freudenthal and Mr. Racines.

Before VOIGT, C.J., and GOLDEN, HILL, KITE, and BURKE, JJ.

VOIGT, Chief Justice.

[¶ 1] The appellant claims that, while she was a pretrial detainee in the Laramie County Detention Facility, she was sexually assaulted by a detention deputy. She sued both the deputy and the sheriff who employed him, alleging assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent failure of the sheriff to supervise the deputy, and deprivation of her civil rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (2003). She now appeals from the district court orders granting summary judgment both to the deputy and to the sheriff on all causes of action.

[¶ 2] We affirm in part and reverse in part.

ISSUES

[¶ 3] The parties' disjunctive identification of the appellate issues in their respective briefs not being conducive to structured analysis, we will restate the issues as follows:

1. Did the district court appropriately grant summary judgment against the appellant on the Wyoming Governmental Claims Act claim?

2. Did the district court appropriately grant summary judgment to the deputy on the state law tort claims?

3. Did the district court appropriately grant summary judgment to the deputy on the federal civil rights claim?

4. Did the district court appropriately grant summary judgment to the sheriff on the state law tort claims?

5. Did the district court appropriately grant summary judgment to the sheriff on the federal civil rights claim?

FACTS

[¶ 4] The undisputed material facts relevant to this appeal are not many. On November 9, 2004, the appellant was a pretrial detainee incarcerated in the Laramie County Detention Facility. While she was mopping the floors in the "pod" that evening, she was sexually assaulted by a detention deputy.¹ Upon learning about the sexual assault, the sheriff suspended, and then terminated, the deputy's employment on the ground that sexual contact between inmates and detention deputies violated the policies of the sheriff's office.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

[¶ 5] Summary judgments are governed by W.R.C.P. 56(c):

The judgment sought shall be rendered forthwith if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.

A district court's summary judgment ruling is reviewed de novo, using the same materials and following the same standards as the district court. The evidence is considered from the vantage point most favorable to the party opposing the motion, and we give that party the benefit of all favorable inferences that may fairly be drawn from the record.

The summary judgment movant bears the initial burden of establishing a prima facie case for summary judgment by showing that no genuine issue of material fact exists and that judgment should be granted as a matter of law. He must present admissible evidence to meet his burden.

If the party seeking summary judgment carries his burden, the opposing party must present specific facts to demonstrate a genuine issue of material fact exists....

After a movant has adequately supported the motion for summary judgment, the opposing party must come forward with competent evidence admissible at trial showing there are genuine issues of material fact. The opposing party must affirmatively set forth material, specific facts in opposition to a motion for summary judgment, and cannot rely only upon allegations and pleadings[], and conclusory statements or mere opinions are insufficient to satisfy the opposing party's burden.

The evidence opposing a prima facie case on a motion for summary judgment must be competent and admissible, lest the rule permitting summary judgments be entirely eviscerated by plaintiff's proceeding to trial on the basis of mere conjecture or wishful speculation. Speculation, conjecture, the suggestion of a possibility, guesses, or even probability, are insufficient to establish an issue of material fact.

Alloway v. RT Capital, Inc., 2008 WY 123, ¶¶ 5-8, 193 P.3d 713, 715-16 (Wyo.2008) (internal citations and quotation marks omitted). In reviewing the grant of a summary judgment, we do not defer to the district court as to issues of law. Luhm v. Bd. of Trs. of Hot Springs County Sch. Dist. No. 1, 2009 WY 63, ¶ 7, 206 P.3d 1290, 1294 (Wyo. 2009). We may affirm a grant of summary judgment on any proper legal basis supported by the record. Id.

DISCUSSION

Did the district court appropriately grant summary judgment against the appellant on the Wyoming Governmental Claims Act claim?

[¶ 6] The Wyoming Governmental Claims Act (WGCA) provides at Wyo. Stat Ann. § 1-39-112 (LexisNexis 2009) that "[a] governmental entity is liable for damages resulting from tortious conduct of peace officers while acting within the scope of their duties." A detention deputy is a peace officer under the WGCA. Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 1-39-103(a)(iii) (LexisNexis 2009); Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 7-2-101(a)(iv)(H) (LexisNexis 2009). To proceed under the WGCA, a claimant must present his or her claim to the governmental entity within two years of the alleged act, error or omission. Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 1-39-113(a) (LexisNexis 2009). Of particular importance in the instant case is the additional statutory mandate that an action against a governmental entity is forever barred unless it is "commenced" within one year after the date the claim was presented to the governmental entity. Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 1-39-114 (LexisNexis 2009). W.R.C.P. 3(b) defines "commenced" in the context of a statute of limitations:

(b) When commenced.—For purposes of statutes of limitation, an action shall be deemed commenced on the date of filing the complaint as to each defendant, if service is made on the defendant or on a codefendant who is a joint contractor or otherwise united in interest with the defendant, within 60 days after the filing of the complaint. If such service is not made within 60 days that action shall be deemed commenced on the date when service is made. ...

(Emphasis added.)

[¶ 7] The sexual assault occurred on November 9, 2004. The appellant's claim was presented to Laramie County on June 15, 2006, well within the two-year period mandated by Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 1-39-113(a).² The appellant filed her complaint in district court on December 22, 2006. It is significant that, while this filing occurred within the one-year limitation period of Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 1-39-114, the deputy was not served with a copy of the complaint until October 5, 2007. Consequently, pursuant to W.R.C.P. 3(b), the suit was not "commenced" until that date, which was outside the one-year statutory period. As a result, the appellant's state law tort claims against the deputy under the WGCA are time-barred, and the district court must be affirmed in that regard.³ The appellant conceded as much below.

Did the district court appropriately grant summary judgment to the deputy on the state law tort claims?

[¶ 8] The appellant contends vigorously on appeal that, even if dismissal of the state law tort claims under the WGCA was appropriate, those claims should survive as personal claims against the deputy.⁴ Indeed relying upon Milton v. Mitchell, 762 P.2d 372, 376-78 (Wyo.1988), the district court initially denied the deputy's motion for summary judgment on this issue on the ground that sexual assault was outside the deputy's "scope of duties." The relevant holding of Milton is that the WGCA and its statute of limitations apply only to allegations of conduct within the "scope of duties," as opposed to allegations of conduct within the "scope of employment." Id. at 378. After the publication of Krenning v. Heart Mountain Irrigation District, 2009 WY 11, 200 P.3d 774 (Wyo.2009), however, the district court reconsidered and granted the summary judgment motion. The district court found that, as in Krenning, the appellant in the instant case "has consistently pled and argued that [the deputy] was acting within the course and scope of his duties," and that the WGCA and its statute of limitations were applicable. Having reviewed the complaint filed in this matter, we find the latter conclusion of the district court to be correct as it applies to the only state law tort claim appealed, that being the claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress, and we affirm the granting of summary judgment to the deputy.⁵ That allegation was pled against the deputy as a WGCA claim—"while on duty as a detention officer"—and the statute of limitations governing WGCA actions was correctly applied. When a claim is pled under the WGCA, we will not speculate that the appellant also intended to plead a separate tort claim against the governmental employee. See Krenning, 2009 WY 11, ¶¶ 30-31, 200 P.3d at 783; Watts v. Holmes, 386 P.2d 718, 719 (Wyo.1963); W.R.C.P. 8(a), (e).

Did the district court appropriately grant summary judgment to the deputy on the federal civil rights claim?

[¶ 9] The district court's resolution of this issue, and this Court's reversal of that resolution, are best understood if placed within the context of the applicable law. In the restricted sense of a "civil rights action"...