Briggs v. Marshall
| Decision Date | 15 August 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. 95-1745,95-1745 |
| Citation | 93 F.3d 355 |
| Parties | Connie J. BRIGGS, Michael Brown, Jr., Michael J. Carnes, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. William F. MARSHALL, individually and as an employee of the Town of French Lick, Indiana, and Town of French Lick, Indiana, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
John H. Shean, Bloomington, IN, Michael K. Sutherlin (argued), Sutherlin & Associates, Indianapolis, IN, for plaintiffs-appellants.
John B. Drummy, Kightlinger & Gray, Indianapolis, IN, Richard T. Mullineaux (argued) John B. Drummy, Kightlinger & Gray, Indianapolis, IN, Richard T. Mullineaux (argued), Van T. Willis, Kightlinger & Gray, New Albany, IN, for defendant-appellee Town of French Lick, Indiana.
Van T. Willis, Kightlinger & Gray, New Albany, IN, Jay D. Allen, Allen, Allen & Allen, Salem, IN, for defendant-appellee William F. Marshall.
Before BAUER, CUDAHY, and FLAUM, Circuit Judges.
The plaintiffs, Connie Jo Briggs, Michael Brown, Jr., Michael John Carnes, and Robert Patton, filed this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 civil rights action against Orange County, Indiana, French Lick, Indiana, and a number of French Lick police officers. Their complaint sought compensatory and punitive damages against the individual officers for wrongful arrest and detention, use of excessive force, and various state law torts. The complaint also sought damages against the town and county for the allegedly unlawful actions of the officers.
By the time the case reached trial, the only remaining defendants were Officers William Marshall and Howard Rutherford, and French Lick. At the close of evidence, the district court entered judgment as a matter of law in favor of French Lick, and instructed the jury on the plaintiffs' unlawful arrest and detention, and excessive force claims against Marshall, and their failure to intervene claim against Rutherford. The court also instructed the jury on nominal, actual, and punitive damages. The jury returned a mixed verdict. The jury found for the plaintiffs on the excessive force claim against Marshall, but awarded each plaintiff only one dollar in nominal damages and no punitive damages. The jury found in favor of Marshall on the unlawful arrest and detention claim and in favor of Rutherford on the failure to intervene claim. The plaintiffs filed a motion for new trial and for attorney's fees. The district court denied the motion for new trial, and, although it found the plaintiffs "prevailing parties," denied attorney's fees.
The plaintiffs raise four arguments directed only at the excessive force claims against Marshall. The plaintiffs argue that the district court erred in: (1) instructing the jury on nominal damages; (2) denying the plaintiffs' motion for a new trial; (3) denying the plaintiffs attorney's fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1988; and (4) refusing to admit into evidence certain medical records and a deposition transcript. We affirm.
Given the jury's mixed verdict and its decision to award only nominal damages, it is somewhat difficult to ascertain which facts the jury "found." As a result, we will use broad brush strokes to describe the facts of this case. On May 17, 1988, the French Lick Police Department received a report that vandals had broken into a change machine at the French Lick Springs Hotel. Officers Marshall and Rutherford stopped Carnes, Patton, and Brown (all of whom allegedly had been seen at the hotel earlier that day). What started as a routine stop quickly got out of hand, as Marshall used excessive force (including slapping and hair pulling) to subdue the plaintiffs. Eventually (approximately 10-15 minutes later), the officers released the plaintiffs.
Shortly thereafter, Marshall went to a local restaurant. Unfortunately, he ran into Carnes' mother, Connie Jo Briggs. Briggs confronted Marshall, and the situation quickly deteriorated into a physical altercation. Eventually, Marshall put a headlock on Briggs and led her out of the restaurant. 1 Briggs struggled all the way out.
All of the plaintiffs alleged that Marshall caused a variety of injuries, and all but Brown sought some sort of medical treatment. Briggs testified that as a result of her injuries, she had to stay home from work for a month. However, none of the plaintiffs presented testimony by medical doctors or other health care providers. In fact, only
Briggs presented any evidence, other than the plaintiffs' own testimony, of the treatment she allegedly received as a result of her injuries, and Briggs' evidence was a chiropractor's bill. The chiropractor did not testify about the cause or extent of the injuries.
The plaintiffs' primary argument attacks the district court's decision to instruct the jury on nominal damages. Our review of jury instructions is limited. We will reverse "only if it appears that the jury was misled and its understanding of the issue was seriously affected to the prejudice of the complaining party." Wilson v. Williams, 83 F.3d 870, 874 (7th Cir.1996) (citations omitted). In reviewing the pertinent instruction, we conduct a two-part test. First, we determine if the instruction is a sufficiently correct statement of the law. If not, we determine whether the error prejudiced the complaining party. Id. Here, we need not reach the second prong; the instruction was sufficiently accurate.
Before we discuss the instruction itself, we must address Marshall's argument that the plaintiffs failed to preserve their objection to the nominal damages instruction because they did not state adequately the grounds for their objection. 2 Fed.R.Civ.P. 51. Rule 51 requires the parties to alert the judge to their reasons for objecting, so that the court may resolve legal disputes with full information and avoid all errors that are avoidable. Hebron v. Touhy, 18 F.3d 421, 424 (7th Cir.1994). The problem here is that the district court conducted its jury instruction conference in two parts. First the lawyers and the judge discussed matters in chambers without a court reporter present. Next, the district court permitted counsel to put their objections on the record. Apparently, plaintiffs' counsel's objections during the in-chambers portion of the instruction conference were much more detailed than his on-the-record objections, which consisted solely of his statement that "they are either going to find some money or not." 3
This is mighty skimpy. However, given the plaintiffs' counsel's assurance that he made a fully explained objection in chambers, we conclude that he has not waived his objection. See Niehus v. Liberio, 973 F.2d 526, 529 (7th Cir.1992) (). Nevertheless, as plaintiffs' counsel acknowledged at oral argument, the much better practice is to ensure that a fully explained objection is on the record.
Now to the merits. The challenged instruction reads:
If you find that any of the plaintiffs has proven all the essential elements of his or her case and is entitled to a verdict in his or her favor, but you also find that such plaintiff has not proven any actual damages, then you should return a verdict for that plaintiff in a nominal sum of one dollar ($1.00) as actual damages. The law presumes at least nominal actual damages if a plaintiff's constitutional rights were violated by the intentional or reckless acts of a defendant.
The award of a nominal sum as actual damages does not preclude an award of punitive, or exemplary damages if you find such a punitive award justified.
The plaintiffs raise two attacks on this instruction. First, citing Stachniak v. Hayes, 989 F.2d 914, 923 (7th Cir.1993), they argue that a finding of excessive force by definition precludes the awarding of nominal damages. However, in Stachniak, we neither created nor applied a per se rule regarding nominal damages vis-a-vis excessive force. We held merely that a nominal damages instruction is inappropriate when no evidence is presented We recognize that "excessive force" and "nominal damages" make strange bedfellows. However, as the district court recognized in its order denying the plaintiffs' motion for new trial, there are three situations where courts may award nominal damages to remedy the constitutional violation of excessive force. First, during an altercation between a police officer and an arrestee/detainee, the officer might use both justifiable and excessive force, but any injury might have resulted from the justifiable force, thereby supporting the denial of compensatory damages. Gibeau v. Nellis, 18 F.3d 107, 110 (2nd Cir.1994). Next, nominal damages may be appropriate where a jury reasonably concludes that evidence concerning the plaintiffs' injuries was not credible. Butler v. Dowd, 979 F.2d 661, 669 (8th Cir.1992) (en banc), cert. denied, 508 U.S. 930, 113 S.Ct. 2395, 124 L.Ed.2d 297 (1993). In Butler, the court affirmed the award of nominal damages to excessive force victims because "plaintiffs failed to produce at trial objective medical evidence supporting their physical injuries or detailing the extent of their emotional injuries," and thus, the "jury could have disbelieved the plaintiffs' testimony regarding the extent of their injuries." Id. at 669, 672. Finally, nominal damages may be appropriate where the victim's injuries "have no monetary value or are insufficient to justify with reasonable certainty a more substantial measure of damages." Howard v. Barnett, 21 F.3d at 873.
at trial to support a defendant's argument that there was no provable injury. Id. This is a far cry from holding that nominal damages are never permissible once the jury finds excessive force. See also Haywood v. Koehler, 78 F.3d 101, 104 (2nd Cir.1996) (finding of excessive force does not, as a matter of law, entitle the victim to compensatory damages); Howard v. Barnett, 21 F.3d 868, 872-73
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