Brown v. Griesenauer

• Decision Date: 13 July 1992
• Docket Number: No. 90-1805,90-1805
• Citation: 970 F.2d 431
• Parties: James BROWN, Appellee, v. Edward GRIESENAUER, Jerry Davis, David London, Kenneth Molloy, Karl Duncan, Theodore Boller, Marvin Coval, Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 431

970 F.2d 431

James BROWN, Appellee, v. Edward GRIESENAUER, Jerry Davis, David London, Kenneth Molloy, Karl Duncan, Theodore Boller, Marvin Coval, Appellants.

No. 90-1805.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Nov. 12, 1990.

Decided July 13, 1992.

Joy R. Urbom, St. Louis, Mo., argued, for appellants.

Steven Hamburg, St. Louis, Mo., argued, for appellee.

Before McMILLIAN and BEAM, Circuit Judges, and ROSENBAUM, ^* District Judge.

McMILLIAN, Circuit Judge.

Defendants Edward Griesenauer, Jerry Davis, David London, Kenneth Molloy, Karl Duncan, Theodore Boller, and Marvin Coval appeal from an order entered in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri denying their motion to dismiss a civil rights complaint on the ground of absolute immunity. Brown v. Griesenauer, No. 88-0601C(6) (Apr. 9, 1990) (order) (Brown ). For reversal, defendants argue that they are entitled to absolute immunity from damages liability for actions undertaken as members of a municipal board of impeachment. For the reasons discussed below, we reverse and remand the case to the district court with directions to dismiss the complaint.

In April 1983 plaintiff James Brown was inaugurated mayor of the City of O'Fallon, Missouri. He began his second term as mayor in April 1985. Defendants were members of the city's board of aldermen. The board of aldermen has a total of eight members. For reasons that are not apparent from the record, relations between Brown and the board of aldermen deteriorated, and in September 1985 the board of aldermen passed a resolution of censure against Brown. Brown went to state trial court and obtained a temporary restraining order prohibiting the board of aldermen from implementing the resolution of censure. Relations between Brown and the board of aldermen worsened, and in February 1986 the board of aldermen passed a resolution of impeachment against Brown. Pursuant to Mo.Rev.Stat. § 79.240, ¹ the board of aldermen conducted impeachment proceedings, which included a hearing. At the beginning of the impeachment proceedings, Brown had filed a motion to disqualify two members of the board of aldermen for bias. The board of aldermen denied the motion to disqualify, voted to impeach Brown (the vote was seven to one) and issued written findings of facts and conclusions of law.

Brown then filed an action for review of the impeachment proceedings in state trial court. He alleged that there were numerous procedural improprieties in the impeachment proceedings. The state trial court affirmed the impeachment decision and dissolved the temporary restraining order. After an initial appeal to the state supreme court, the state supreme court remanded the case to the state court of appeals. The state court of appeals reversed the impeachment decision on the ground that Brown had not been afforded a reasonable opportunity to present evidence of bias on the part of two members of the board of aldermen, ordered Brown returned to office and remanded the case to the state trial court for further proceedings. State ex rel. Brown v. City of O'Fallon, 728 S.W.2d 595, 596-98 (Mo.Ct.App.1987).

Brown then filed this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action against defendants (the seven aldermen who voted against him), in their individual capacities only, for voting to impeach him and sought compensatory and punitive damages and attorney's fees and costs. Brown alleged that the impeachment proceedings violated his federal constitutional rights and also violated certain state laws. Defendants filed a motion to dismiss on the grounds of failure to state a claim and absolute immunity from personal liability for damages. The district court concluded that, construed liberally, the complaint stated a claim for deprivation of procedural due process, that is, the right to an impartial tribunal. Brown, slip op. at 3 (concluding that Brown possessed a protectible property interest in continued employment as mayor because, under applicable state law, elective officers can only be removed "for cause shown").

With respect to the claim of absolute immunity from damages liability, defendants argued that they were entitled to absolute immunity because they acted in a judicial capacity when they sat as a municipal board of impeachment. The district court applied the functional analysis test from Cleavinger v. Saxner, 474 U.S. 193, 202, 106 S.Ct. 496, 501, 88 L.Ed.2d 507 (1985) (Cleavinger ), and Butz v. Economou, 438 U.S. 478, 512, 98 S.Ct. 2894, 2913, 57 L.Ed.2d 895 (1978) (Butz ), and decided that defendants were not entitled to absolute immunity because, as elected officials, they were not insulated from political influence. Brown, slip op. at 5, citing Williams v. City of Montgomery, 742 F.2d 586, 589 (11th Cir.1984) (per curiam) (appointed personnel hearing examiners held not entitled to absolute immunity), cert. denied, 470 U.S. 1053, 105 S.Ct. 1756, 84 L.Ed.2d 819 (1985). The district court then directed the parties to brief the defense of qualified immunity as a motion for summary judgment. This interlocutory appeal followed.

As a preliminary matter, we hold that we have jurisdiction over this interlocutory appeal under the collateral order doctrine of Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 69 S.Ct. 1221, 93 L.Ed. 1528 (1949). See Nixon v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 731, 742-43, 102 S.Ct. 2690, 2697-98, 73 L.Ed.2d 349 (1982) (order denying claim of absolute immunity held appealable as collateral order); Evans v. Dillahunty, 711 F.2d 828, 829-30 (8th Cir.1983) (absolute or qualified immunity claimed by state parole official and prosecutor). The order in the present case is a collateral order: it conclusively determined the disputed claim of absolute immunity, which is an important issue that is completely separate from the merits of the underlying action and one that is effectively unreviewable on appeal from a final judgment, and presented a serious and unsettled question. See Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 526, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 2815, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985); Nixon v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. at 742, 102 S.Ct. at 2697.

We review the district court's denial of absolute immunity de novo. The essential facts necessary to resolve the claim of absolute immunity in the present case are not in dispute, and whether defendants are entitled to absolute immunity from damages liability ² is solely a question of law. Evans v. Dillahunty, 711 F.2d at 829; cf. Hudgins v. City of Ashburn, 890 F.2d 396, 403 (11th Cir.1989) (qualified immunity). Although "federal, not state, law determines the adequacy of defenses asserted in civil rights actions brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983[,] ... a court may consider relevant state law in determining the appropriate federal immunities standard to apply." Jodeco, Inc. v. Hann, 674 F.Supp. 488, 497 (D.N.J.1987).

For reversal, defendants argue that they acted essentially in a judicial capacity when they sat as a municipal board of impeachment and are therefore entitled to absolute immunity from damages liability. Defendants specifically argue the district court misapplied the political influence factor. They argue that elective status alone does not preclude absolute immunity from damages liability and cite state judges and prosecutors as examples of elected government officials who are nonetheless protected by absolute immunity from damages liability for their judicial or prosecutorial acts. Defendants also argue the district court's analysis was too narrowly focused on the political influence factor and that the other Cleavinger- Butz factors indicated that they acted in a judicial capacity when sitting as a municipal board of impeachment. In the alternative, defendants argue that they are entitled to absolute immunity from damages liability because impeachment is a legislative act. Under state law, the board of aldermen has the power to remove any elected official, including the mayor.

In contrast, Brown argues the district court properly applied the Cleavinger- Butz factors. He argues impeachment is an essentially political process in which precedent is not important and in which all the participants are elected politicians and thus are not insulated from political influence. Brown further argues that absolute immunity would not sufficiently increase defendants' ability to act in a forthright manner to warrant the absence of a remedy for intentional or otherwise inexcusable constitutional violations. He argues defendants did not act in either a judicial or legislative capacity when they sat as a municipal board of impeachment, but instead they acted in an administrative or executive capacity. In other words, Brown characterizes impeachment as a specialized kind of personnel decision, for which government officials enjoy only qualified immunity. ³

For the reasons discussed below, we hold that defendants are entitled to absolute immunity from damages liability.

There are two types of immunity from personal liability for damages available to government officials: absolute immunity and qualified immunity. See Owen v. City of Independence, 445 U.S. 622, 637-38, 100 S.Ct. 1398, 1408-09, 63 L.Ed.2d 673 (1980). Judges are entitled to absolute immunity for actions taken in their judicial capacity. See Stump v. Sparkman, 435 U.S. 349, 98 S.Ct. 1099, 55 L.Ed.2d 331 (1978) (acts within jurisdiction); Pierson v. Ray, 386 U.S. 547, 553-54, 87 S.Ct. 1213, 1217-18, 18 L.Ed.2d 288 (1967); Bradley v. Fisher, 80 U.S. (13 Wall.) 335, 347, 20 L.Ed. 646 (1872). "Judicial immunity apparently originated, in medieval times, as a device for discouraging collateral attacks and thereby helping to establish appellate procedure as the standard system for correcting judicial error.... [J]udicial immunity also protected judicial independence by insulating judges from vexatious actions prosecuted by disgruntled litigants." Forrester v. White, 484 U.S. 219, 225, 108 S.Ct. 538, 543, 98 L.Ed.2d...