Brown v. Camden County, Ga.

• Decision Date: 15 October 2008
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. CV207-69.
• Citation: 583 F.Supp.2d 1358
• Parties: Malissa L. BROWN, Plaintiff, v. CAMDEN COUNTY, GEORGIA; Bill Smith, Individually and in his Official Capacity as Sheriff for Camden County, Georgia; Charles Byerly, Individually and in his Official Capacity as Deputy Sheriff for Camden County, Georgia; and Keith Purcell, d/b/a Kingsland Meats, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Georgia

583 F.Supp.2d 1358

Malissa L. BROWN, Plaintiff, v. CAMDEN COUNTY, GEORGIA; Bill Smith, Individually and in his Official Capacity as Sheriff for Camden County, Georgia; Charles Byerly, Individually and in his Official Capacity as Deputy Sheriff for Camden County, Georgia; and Keith Purcell, d/b/a Kingsland Meats, Defendants.

Civil Action No. CV207-69.

United States District Court, S.D. Georgia, Brunswick Division.

October 15, 2008.

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James A. Yancey, Jr., James A. Yancey, PC, Brunswick, GA, for Plaintiff.

Eric Louis Bumgartner, Steven Blackerby, Brown, Readdick, Bumgartner, Carter, Strickland, & Watkins, LLP, John E. Bumgartner, Whelchel, Brown, Readdick & Bumgartner, Brunswick, GA, for Defendants.

ORDER

ANTHONY A. ALAIMO, District Judge.

Plaintiff, Malissa L. Brown, filed the above-captioned case against Defendants, Camden County, Georgia; Sheriff Bill Smith; Deputy Sheriff Charles Byerly; and Keith Purcell (doing business as Kingsland Meats), asserting numerous federal and state law claims arising out of her arrest and incarceration for allegedly writing bad checks to Purcell.

Presently before the Court are all Defendants' motions for summary judgment and Byerly's motion to dismiss. Because Purcell and Byerly may have seized Brown unreasonably, but because certain other claims are barred as a matter of law, Defendants' summary judgment motions will be GRANTED in part, and DENIED in part. Because Byerly may have violated clearly established law, his motion to dismiss the complaint on qualified immunity grounds will be DENIED.

BACKGROUND

Viewing the facts in the light most favorable to Brown, as the Court must at this stage of the proceedings, the facts are as follows.¹ Plaintiff owned Food Source Florida, Inc., a Florida corporation. Around February 2005, Brown began purchasing food from Purcell's business, Kingsland Meats, located in Camden County, Georgia. Purcell delivered wholesale meat to Brown at the warehouse shared by her business, and Icehouse, a business owned by her father, Charles Joyner. The warehouse was located in Blackshear, Georgia, and was owned by Brown's brother, C. David Joyner, a Georgia criminal defense attorney.

In April and May 2005, Brown wrote and delivered three postdated checks to Purcell, with Purcell's assent and agreement to hold such checks for payment in the future.² The checks were all drawn on an account Food Source Florida held at Fifth Third Bank. Check No. 5136 was for $9,971.41, and Kingsland Meats deposited it on May 7, 2005. Check No. 5176 was for $7,792.03, and Kingsland Meats deposited it on May 21, 2005., Check No. 5177 was for $7,792.04, and Kingsland Meats deposited it on May 28, 2005. In June 2005, all three checks were returned to Purcell due to insufficient funds.

Thereafter, Purcell relates that he sent three notices to Brown by certified mail, informing her of the bad checks.³ According to Defendants, on June 17, 2005, the notices were received by Colby Groseclose, who signed for the letters as Plaintiff's agent. Brown denies that she ever received these notices, but concedes that she learned of the bank's dishonor of the checks, and admits that a Food Source Florida employee signed for the letters from Purcell. After learning of the bank's dishonor of the checks, Brown tried to contact Purcell several times.

After sending the notices, Purcell went to the Camden County Sheriffs Department and spoke with Deputy Sheriff Charles Byerly about the returned checks. Brown denies that Purcell gave Byerly a truthful accounting of his agreement with Brown to hold the checks for future payment.

After the bank refused to honor the checks, Brown sent Purcell two bank checks by overnight delivery for payment of two of the returned checks, and promised to make good on the third. Despite this fact, Purcell sought warrants for Brown's arrest on all three checks.⁴

Brown contends that she received a phone call from Byerly before her arrest, during which she informed the deputy "of her arrangements with Mr. Purcell to cover the checks and I reminded him that the checks were all postdated and [Purcell] had been accepting postdated checks for many months." Dkt. No. 48, Ex. C, Brown Aff. ¶ 12. According to Brown, Byerly knew that Purcell had accepted the checks postdated when he allegedly sought warrants for her arrest.

Plaintiff also relates that, in May 2005, Purcell received the checks in question for product[s] he had delivered in March and April with marked dates `to hold' for later dates in May. Mr. Purcell was also told on the phone when he called and asked me to mail him the checks for April's products that they were postdated as usual.

Dkt. No. 48, Ex. C, Brown Aff. ¶ 13. "When I wrote Mr. Purcell the three post-dated checks at issue, Mr. Purcell understood that I did not have the funds available at the time I wrote the checks, agreeing to receive payment in the future." Dkt. No. 48, Ex. C, Brown Aff. ¶ 16. According to an affidavit filed by Brown's brother, C. David Joyner, he "explained in great detail to Defendant Byerly that three postdated checks did not constitute present consideration as required by the deposit account fraud statute." Dkt. No. 48, Ex. A, C. David Joyner Aff. ¶ 10. Joyner also told Byerly that Purcell had accepted many other postdated checks from Brown other than the ones at issue, but Byerly refused to listen and had Brown arrested. Dkt. No. 48, Ex. A, C. David Joyner Aff. ¶¶ 11-13.

Although there is some dispute about this fact, apparently, three warrants were issued for Brown's arrest on June 29, 2005. According to an affidavit filed by Camden County Chief Magistrate Judge Harvey L. Fry, the Magistrate Judge issued these warrants on Byerly's application. Dkt. No. 36, Ex. A. Two warrants charged Brown with deposit account fraud, and a third charged her with theft by taking.

On June 30, 2005, deputies in Seminole County, Florida, arrested Brown pursuant to the warrants issued by Judge Fry. Brown contends that Seminole County officials held her at the insistence of Byerly and Purcell, until she paid the third check and other invoices, which were not due at the time of her arrest. Brown and members of her family advised Purcell and Byerly that the other invoices "had nothing to do with [her] arrest." Dkt. No. 19-2, Brown Aff. ¶ 17.

The invoices not yet due totaled over $24,000, and it took Brown and her family several days to get together the total $31,853.65 that Purcell and Byerly demanded. Plaintiff maintains that Defendants' conduct caused her to be incarcerated for at least six days in the maximum security section of the Seminole County Jail. Dkt. No. 1 ¶ 37.

Brown's brother supports her account of the incident. "After my sister's arrest, I had numerous telephone conversations with Defendants Purcell and Byerly who both insisted on payment of the returned check [and] also on all outstanding invoices my sister had with Defendant Purcell." Dkt. No. 48, Ex. A, C. David Joyner Aff. ¶ 14.

Based upon my telephone conversations with both Defendants Purcell and Byerly, it became clear to me that Defendant Purcell knew that he had received payment on two (2) of the three (3) checks, that his voluntary consent to accepting the three (3) post-dated checks took this incident out of the criminal arena and placed it in the civil arena, and that he remained intimately aware of everything that Defendant Byerly did regarding seeking warrants and forcing payment on invoices on which Defendant Purcell had not taken any previous action.

Dkt. No. 48, Ex. A, C. David Joyner Aff. ¶ 15.

In addition, Joyner asserted that Brown was not released until he and other family members paid the outstanding check and the other outstanding invoices. Dkt. No. 48, Ex. A, C. David Joyner Aff. ¶¶ 16-17; see also Dkt. No. 48, Ex. B, Charles Joyner Aff. ¶¶ 26-28.

Plaintiff's complaint asserts claims under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983, 1985, 1986, and 1988, for violations of her rights under the Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments.⁵ Brown has also asserted state law claims under Georgia law for false arrest, malicious arrest, false imprisonment malicious prosecution, intentional infliction of mental distress, slander, and negligent hiring and retention.

SUMMARY JUDGMENT STANDARD

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(c) provides for summary judgment "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). Facts are "material" if they could affect the outcome of the suit under the governing substantive law. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).

The Court must view the facts in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986), and must draw "all justifiable inferences in his favor ...", United States v. Four Parcels of Real Prop., 941 F.2d 1428, 1437 (11th Cir.1991) (en banc) (internal quotation marks omitted).

DISCUSSION

I. Fourth Amendment Claims Under § 1983

Title 42, United States Code, Section 1983, a codification of part of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, allows individuals to sue state actors in federal court for constitutional violations. Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167, 175-84, 81 S.Ct. 473, 5 L.Ed.2d 492 (1961), overruled on other grounds by Monell v. Dep't of Soc. Servs., 436 U.S. 658, 663, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978). In pertinent part, the Fourth Amendment provides that "[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated[.]" U.S. Const. amend....