Brooks v. Pembroke City Jail

• Decision Date: 12 September 1989
• Docket Number: No. 88-98-CRT-BR.,88-98-CRT-BR.
• Citation: 722 F. Supp. 1294
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of North Carolina
• Parties: Taft BROOKS, Plaintiff, v. PEMBROKE CITY JAIL, et al., Defendants.

722 F. Supp. 1294

Taft BROOKS, Plaintiff, v. PEMBROKE CITY JAIL, et al., Defendants.

No. 88-98-CRT-BR.

United States District Court, E.D. North Carolina, Raleigh Division.

September 12, 1989.

Taft Brooks, pro se.

William E. Moore, Jr., Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice, Raleigh, N.C., for defendants.

ORDER

BRITT, Chief Judge.

On 28 August 1989 Magistrate Wallace W. Dixon filed his memorandum and recommendation with regard to the motion by defendants for summary judgment. In apt time plaintiff filed objections thereto, although the objections constitute nothing more than a general disagreement with the recommendation. The court has conducted an independent review of the proceedings and is convinced that the well-reasoned recommendation of Magistrate Dixon is correct. Accordingly, for the reasons set forth in his memorandum, defendants' motion for summary judgment is granted and this action is hereby dismissed.

MEMORANDUM AND RECOMMENDATION

WALLACE W. DIXON, United States Magistrate.

This case is before the court on defendants' motion for summary judgment. Plaintiff has been sent the standard Rule 56(e) letter used by the court in cases of this type to notify the non-moving party of his or her responsibilities. Plaintiff has responded in opposition, thus the matter is now appropriate for disposition.

Plaintiff has sued the Pembroke City Jail, Robeson County Deputy Sheriff Jerry Woods, and Pembroke town police officer Horace Dial¹ in a § 1983 complaint seeking all manner of damages and what may be liberally construed as injunctive relief ("both police officers thrown off the force or moved to another county"). The basis of plaintiff's complaint is the alleged treatment he received at the hands of these officers during an arrest and pre-trial detention in the early morning hours of November 27, 1986. Plaintiff's complaint paints a rather placid picture of a man innocently riding his bicycle when he is suddenly stopped by police, roughed up, arrested, locked in a jail cell, and then punched in the eye, all for no apparent reason.

Defendants' answer and moving papers put a different gloss on that picture, however. Acting on a report from an ambulance crew who had seen plaintiff swerving all over the roadway while riding his bicycle at about 4:00 o'clock a.m., the defendant officers and a campus police officer at Pembroke State University stopped him after themselves observing plaintiff weaving and circling in the highway. It was apparent to them that defendant was intoxicated and their aim was to get him home. When plaintiff said he was not going home, the officers responded that it was either home or jail. At this, things took a turn for the worse. Plaintiff physically resisted the officers' efforts to get him into the police car, swinging at them, and knocking Dial to the ground. They nevertheless did bring plaintiff under control, he was hand-cuffed, and taken to the Pembroke police station. He was then searched and placed in a cell to sober up, but the officers let him keep his cigarettes and matches. Using the matches, plaintiff set his socks and a blanket on fire which in turn caused the officers to return to the cell to put out the fire and get the matches. Again, plaintiff fought the officers when they tried to get the matches from him to prevent him from using them should he try to set another fire later.

Plaintiff was ultimately released from custody later in the morning after posting bond. He went to an emergency room that day on his own, but left before a complete examination was done because he was upset at having to wait. On the following day, he went to a doctor for an eye examination. The diagnosis was a "black eye" or "shiner" with no structural damage. Plaintiff refused the doctor's suggestion for a follow-up examination.

All parties are in agreement that the officers encountered some resistance by plaintiff in both these confrontations — on the highway and in the police station. There is also no question but that defendant had been drinking and smoking marijuana. The observations of the ambulance crew, the officers themselves, and plaintiff's own statement at the emergency room the following day sufficiently prove this fact. And, it cannot be denied that plaintiff was injured while he was in custody. To be sure, the injury was not severe; it was not permanent; and, the record discloses that plaintiff was so unconcerned about his condition that he did not think it sufficiently important enough to wait at the emergency room on that very day for a complete examination and he refused follow-up visits suggested by the doctor examining his "black eye." The question here is whether this is an appropriate case for summary judgment on the defendants' motion. In my view, it is.² I support this view with the reasons which follow.

First, a court may grant summary judgment only if "there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and ... the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Celotex Corporation v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2552, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). On a motion for summary judgment, "inferences to be drawn from the underlying facts ... must be viewed in the light most favorable to the party opposing the motion." United States v. Diebold, Incorporated, 369 U.S. 654, 655, 82 S.Ct. 993, 994, 8 L.Ed.2d 176 (1962). See also Ross v. Communications Satellite Corporation, 759 F.2d 355, 364- 65 (4th Cir.1985). However, the mere possibility that a factual dispute may exist, without more, is insufficient to overcome a convincing presentation by the moving party. Quinn v. Syracuse Model Neighborhood Corporation, 613 F.2d 438, 445 (2d Cir.1980). As the Supreme Court recently held, "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).

Next, as to the question of the genuineness of a purported dispute regarding the facts of a case, the existence simply of a scintilla of evidence in support of a party's position is insufficient to withstand a motion for summary judgment; rather, there must be evidence upon which the finder of fact can reasonably hold for the party opposing the motion. Anderson, 477 U.S. at 252, 106 S.Ct. at 2512. A court, furthermore, may not allow a litigant opposing summary judgment to use mere conclusory allegations or denials as a vehicle for obtaining a trial. Ross, 759 F.2d at 365; Turk v. McCarthy, 661 F.Supp. 1526, 1529 (E.D.N.Y.1987). A party must do more than simply show the possibility of some "methaphysical doubt" concerning the material fact. Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co., Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corporation, 475 U.S. 574, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 1356, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986); St. Amant v. Benoit, 806 F.2d 1294, 1296-97 (5th Cir.1987). "Only disputes over facts that might affect the outcome of the suit under the governing law will properly preclude the entry of summary judgment. Factual disputes that are irrelevant or unnecessary will not be counted." Anderson, 477 U.S. at 248, 106 S.Ct. at 2510; Ross, supra. Summary judgment is undoubtedly warranted, for instance, where a party has failed to make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of an element that is essential to the party's case since, in such a situation, the complete failure of proof concerning an essential element of the nonmoving party's case necessarily renders all other facts immaterial. Celotex, 477 U.S. at 323-24, 106 S.Ct. at 2553.

Finally, in this regard, whether an issue is genuine has been said to center on the inquiry of whether reasonable persons could disagree as to the outcome. Schwarzer, Summary Judgment Under The Federal Rules: Defining Genuine Issues of Material Fact, 99 F.R.D. 465, 481 (1984). "If on the state of the evidence, reasonable persons could reach only one conclusion, there is no need for a trial on that issue." Id. Moreover, the materiality of any fact turns on the question of whether the fact makes a difference in the final decision — i.e., not whether the fact may have a bearing on the outcome, but whether the fact must ultimately be determined to reach the decision. Id. at 480. In assessing summary judgment motions with their questions of genuine issues and material facts, the court should first isolate the proof of the moving party without considering the counterveiling proof of the opposition. If in this first step, the court determines that the moving party would be entitled to judgment, it should then decide whether the opposing party has met its burden. Id. at 482. In this task, the party resisting the motion must refute the movant's showing with evidence which would preclude a directed verdict for the moving party. Id. Short of meeting this obligation, the party resisting the motion risks the entry of summary judgment against him. This exercise of isolating the respective proofs and weighing each against the other is made simpler when the trial is before a judge alone, as here. Id. at 476. As the judge is then the trier of fact, the question becomes: What does a trial add to the judge's ability to decide the issue submitted on motion? Id. Then only when the dispute over facts or inferences raises issues going to the weight or credibility of testimony should a trial with confrontation and cross-examination rights follow. Id. But when all material facts are before the judge on motion without real evidentiary dispute, a trial serves no useful purpose. With these principles in mind, I now turn to the facts of this case and applicable § 1983 principles.

The elements of a § 1983 cause of action were set forth by the Fourth Circuit in Clark v. Link, 855 F.2d 156 (4th Cir.1988) as follows:

The essential elements to be proved in any section § 1983 action

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