Bravo v. City of Santa Maria

• Citation: 810 F.3d 659
• Decision Date: 12 January 2016
• Docket Number: 14–55687.,Nos. 14–55557,s. 14–55557
• Parties: Javier BRAVO, Sr.; Hope Bravo; E.B., a minor by her Guardian ad Litem Sara Gonzales, Plaintiffs–Appellees/Cross–Appellants, v. CITY OF SANTA MARIA; Louis Tanore, Santa Maria Police Detective; Larry Ralston, Santa Maria Police Lieutenant, Defendants–Appellants/Cross–Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

810 F.3d 659

Javier BRAVO, Sr.; Hope Bravo; E.B., a minor by her Guardian ad Litem Sara Gonzales, Plaintiffs–Appellees/Cross–Appellants,

v.CITY OF SANTA MARIA; Louis Tanore, Santa Maria Police Detective; Larry Ralston, Santa Maria Police Lieutenant, Defendants–Appellants/Cross–Appellees.

Nos. 14–55557

14–55687.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted Oct. 28, 2015.

Filed Jan. 12, 2016.

Jeffrey E. Raskin (argued) and Timothy T. Coates, Greines, Martin, Stein & Richland LLP, Los Angeles, CA; David M. Cumberland, Joshua M. George, and Jordan Cunningham, Adamski Moroski Madden Cumberland & Green LLP, San Luis Obispo, CA, for Defendants–Appellants/Cross–Appellees.

Donald W. Cook (argued) and Robert Mann, Los Angeles, CA, for Plaintiffs–Appellees/Cross–Appellants.

Before: STEPHEN REINHARDT, MICHAEL DALY HAWKINS, and MILAN D. SMITH, JR., Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge HAWKINS

; Concurrence by Judge REINHARDT.

OPINION

HAWKINS, Circuit Judge:

This appeal arises from a jury verdict that Defendants the City of Santa Maria ("City") and Louis Tanore, Larry Ralston, and Danny Macagni of the Santa Maria Police Department ("SMPD") violated the constitutional rights of Plaintiffs Javier Bravo, Sr., his wife Hope, and their granddaughter E.B. (collectively, "the Bravos"). Specifically, the jury found that SMPD officers failed to disclose in seeking a warrant to search the Bravos' home that Javier Bravo, Jr.—suspected of hiding weapons that may have been used in a gang-related shooting incident—was not living and had not been living in the home for some seven months prior to the shooting because he was incarcerated in state prison on unrelated charges. The resulting pre-dawn, SWAT-style search of the Bravos' residence did not yield any weapons, but succeeded in rousing the Bravos from their beds and frightening them. Prior to trial, the Bravos settled with the City of Santa Barbara, whose officers actually carried out the entry of the Bravo home, for $360,000. The case went to trial against the remaining defendants and resulted in a jury award of $5,000 in compensatory damages to Javier Sr. and nominal damages to Hope and E.B. In this opinion,¹ we address an issue of first impression: whether in considering an award of attorney fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1988, it is appropriate to take into consideration a plaintiff's success in obtaining a settlement against another party arising out of the same facts. For the reasons set forth below, we conclude that, under the facts and circumstances of this case, it was appropriate to take the Santa Barbara settlement into consideration and, accordingly, we affirm the district court's fee award. On the same theory, we vacate the cost award against the Santa Maria defendants and remand for the district court to take into account the costs recovered in the Santa Barbara settlement and offset those costs against the costs to be awarded against the Santa Maria defendants.

BACKGROUND

I. Facts

A. Shooting Incident and Investigation

While investigating an April 2006 gang-related shooting, SMPD detectives Louis Tanore and Eligio Lara learned that Javier Bravo, Jr. and about a dozen others might have been involved in the shooting or might possess evidence of the crime (in particular, the weapons used).

Tanore directed Lara to gather information on eight of these individuals, including checking into their criminal histories and custody status. According to Lara's testimony, he called the Santa Barbara county jail to determine the custody status of the eight targets. Lara learned from these calls that one of the eight—James Franklin—had been transferred from county custody to state prison. He disclosed this finding to Tanore, and Franklin was removed from the list of targets. According to a county jail official's trial testimony, Lara asked whether Javier Jr. was in county custody (he was not), but he did not ask follow-up questions about whether, like Franklin, Javier Jr. had been transferred from county to state custody. Lara never learned this.

B. Custody Check Procedure

To determine a target's custody status, SMPD officers' practice was to call the Santa Barbara county jail. County jail officials can determine whether a target is in county custody, as well as whether he has been released or transferred to state custody. Determining whether a target is in county custody and determining whether he has been transferred to state custody requires two different computer searches.

Lara and Larry Ralston, the lead supervisor of the investigation, testified that if an SMPD officer learned that a target had been transferred to state custody, he or she would then follow up with state authorities. Tanore testified that SMPD practice was to call the Santa Barbara county substation regardless of whether a person was potentially in county or state custody; he did not mention any follow-up procedure.

C. Warrant Affidavit

Based in part on information gathered by Lara, Tanore prepared an affidavit in support of nighttime warrants to search the homes of Javier Jr. and six other suspected gang members. The affidavit included criminal history information on each target, including Javier Jr., which Tanore obtained by reviewing rap sheets provided by Lara. The affidavit stated that Javier Jr. had been arrested or charged numerous times in the past and included possession of known stolen property as one of the crimes for which he had been arrested or charged. However, the affidavit did not include the dates of the offenses. Nor did it disclose that Javier Jr. had been sentenced to two years in state prison in September 2005—about seven months prior to the shooting incident—for the stolen property offense, or that he might still be incarcerated.

D. Search

The magistrate judge approved a warrant for a nighttime search. Because SMPD lacked the resources to conduct seven simultaneous home searches, its officers invited the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Office (a county agency) and Santa Barbara Police Department (a city agency) to conduct some of the searches. Tanore informed the partner agencies of the risks and dangers of the search. Though neither Tanore nor anyone else from SMPD prescribed the partner agencies' tactics, Tanore stated that he was not surprised that they elected to use a SWAT team.

At 5:26 a.m. on April 26, 2006, a Santa Barbara Police Department SWAT team knocked on the front door of the Bravos' residence, announced their presence, and three seconds later shot off the locks and broke down the door. Simultaneously, the team deployed two "flashbang" grenades outside of the back door.

Javier Sr., Hope, and E.B. (eight years old at the time) were awakened by these loud noises and frightened to see armed individuals in their home. Javier Sr. initially believed that robbers were invading the house or that his son had escaped from jail and been shot at his doorstep, causing him to experience heart-attack-like symptoms. All three plaintiffs testified that they were not touched during the search. Hope and E.B. were told to lie on the floor in the bathroom, where they had gone to hide upon hearing the loud noises. After securing the residence, the City of Santa Barbara officers turned the scene over to SMPD to search the house.

At some point during the search, Hope informed the officers that Javier Jr. was in prison and showed them a letter she had recently received from him. As Tanore was off-site, an officer at the scene called to inform him that Javier Jr. was in custody, at which time Tanore instructed the officer to continue with a "cursory" search of the residence. SMPD seized a number of items from the home, but found no weapons.

II. Procedural History

A. Complaint, Pretrial Motions, and Prior Appeal

In October 2006, the Bravos brought suit against Tanore, his supervisor Ralston, SMPD Chief of Police Danny Macagni, and the City of Santa Maria, as well as the counties of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara, their sheriff's offices and county sheriffs, and the cities of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara and their police chiefs. The Bravos alleged violations of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments (due process and equal protection) and various state laws, and requested unspecified amounts of general, special, and punitive damages, a $25,000 civil penalty, and recovery of related costs.

Plaintiffs stipulated to dismiss their claims against the County of San Luis Obispo and City of San Luis Obispo defendants early in the case. They settled with the City of Santa Barbara defendants for $360,000 after the City of Santa Barbara defendants appealed the district court's denial of qualified immunity. The settlement amount consisted of $50,000 in damages for each plaintiff, $169,856.34 in attorney fees, and $16,208.95 in costs.

The district court then granted summary judgment for the County of Santa Barbara and the Santa Maria defendants. The Bravos appealed. In that appeal, we affirmed the grant of summary judgment for the County of Santa Barbara defendants, but reversed the grant of summary judgment in favor of the Santa Maria defendants. Bravo v. City of Santa Maria, 665 F.3d 1076, 1091 (9th Cir.2011). We rejected the district court's finding that the omission of Javier Jr.'s custody status was immaterial, concluding that if "Javier Jr.'s two-year sentence imposed over six months prior to the incident occasioning the search warrant" and his incarceration at the time of the shooting were included, the affidavit "could not establish probable cause for the search and especially does not meet the heightened standard of justification required for nighttime SWAT service." Id. at 1084. Javier Jr.'s custody status "meant not only that he would not be present in the Bravo residence at the time of the search, but that he could not have been involved in the shooting or in concealing the evidence." Id.

We also rejected the conclusion that Tanore was "negligent at most" in omitting Javier Jr.'s custody status, concluding that the Bravos ...