Burns v. County of King

Decision Date29 August 1989
Docket NumberNos. 86-4173,86-4268,s. 86-4173
Citation883 F.2d 819
PartiesJoe BURNS, Jr., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. COUNTY OF KING, Defendant-Appellee. Joe BURNS, Jr., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. COUNTY OF KING; John Doe, Commissioner, individually and in his official capacity as Director of Harborview Medical Center; Carole Warwick, individually and in her official capacity as Social Worker for the County of King, Defendants-Appellees.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Joe Burns, Jr., Seattle, Wash., in pro per.

Daniel J. Radin and Steven D. Milam, Office of the Atty. Gen., Seattle, Wash., for defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Before SCHROEDER, BEEZER and BRUNETTI, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

Joe Burns, Jr. appeals pro se the district court's order granting the defendants' motion for summary judgment and dismissing his claims under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. Burns contends that social workers gave false information which caused a King County superior court judge to revoke Burns' bond pending the appeal of his conviction for rape. He ultimately tries to show that his due process rights were violated. The principal issue we must decide is whether a state social worker who provides an affidavit to the court in a bond revocation proceeding regarding a defendant's alleged prior violent acts is entitled to absolute immunity from liability under section 1983 for those statements.

On July 13, 1982 Burns was charged with kidnap and rape. The Washington Department of Social and Health Services filed a juvenile dependency action for custody of Burns' minor children at that time because Burns was in jail and his wife was in the hospital. From November, 1982 to February, 1983 Elaine Fiddler, a caseworker for the state, provided general supervision and casework services to the family. On February 1, 1983 Burns was found guilty of kidnap and rape in the first degree and sentenced to life imprisonment. On March 31, 1983 the King County superior court authorized Burns' release from custody pending appeal.

On April 28, 1983 David Smith, a King County prosecutor, filed a motion for review of Burns' release pending appeal and an affidavit in support of that motion. Smith's affidavit alleged that Burns had threatened the rape victim, and had also threatened to flee the state upon his release from custody. This affidavit was based on information that he then attributed to Elaine Fiddler, Judy Buck, another caseworker, Rebecca Hicks, the guardian ad litem for the Burns children, and Carole Warwick, a caseworker for Harborview Medical Center who worked with Dolores Burns while she was in the hospital. Smith later admitted that Fiddler had not, in fact, provided him with any information about the Burns case. After a hearing on May 6, 1983, at which an affidavit from Carole Warwick was introduced relating Burns' wife's allegations that Burns had physically abused her and intimidated her in the past, the court entered an order denying release from custody pending appeal, and Burns was returned to custody.

Burns filed this suit against Warwick, Fiddler, and various other state employees under 42 U.S.C. Secs. 1983 and 1985 (1982) on May 23, 1984. Burns' original complaint was dismissed with leave to amend. In his amended complaint Burns alleged that by providing false information to the prosecutor and the court, defendants Warwick and Fiddler caused the revocation of his bond pending appeal, and that these actions deprived him of his civil rights. Burns also alleged that defendants Alretta Bill, who was Fiddler's immediate supervisor, Karen Rahm, the director of the Department of Social and Health Services, and the Department of Social and Health Services itself violated his civil rights by failing to supervise Fiddler properly. Burns alleged that defendants Robert Jetland, the director of Harborview Medical Center, and Harborview Medical Center violated his rights by failing to supervise Warwick.

Summary judgment was granted against Burns on his claims on October 6, 1986. The district court found that Warwick was entitled to absolute immunity for her statements in her affidavit to the court under Briscoe v. LaHue, 460 U.S. 325, 103 S.Ct. 1108, 75 L.Ed.2d 96 (1983), and that because Warwick was immune, Jetland and the Harborview Medical Center were also not liable. The district court also found that, aside from the question of witness immunity, defendant Fiddler had not in fact provided any information that was relied upon by the court in its bond revocation decision so that she, Bill, Rahm, and the Department of Social and Health Services were not subject to suit. The district court also denied several pretrial motions made by Burns. Burns appeals the dismissal, the entry of summary judgment against him, and the denial of his motions.

The district court properly granted summary judgment for defendant Fiddler because the record in this case demonstrates that Fiddler did not provide any information used at the bail revocation hearing. The prosecuting attorney originally stated in his own affidavit, filed when he requested the bail revocation hearing, that Fiddler had provided him with certain information indicating that the plaintiff might be dangerous if released. However, the prosecutor later retracted his statement, stating that the information he had attributed to Fiddler was actually related to him by another person. Fiddler provided no affidavit nor did she testify at the bond revocation hearing. Because the plaintiff's claims against defendants Bill and Rahm were based on allegedly negligent supervision of Fiddler, summary judgment was also properly granted against Burns on these claims.

Burns' claim against the Department of Social and Health Services fails because he did not allege or show any deprivation of his rights by a government policy or custom as required by Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 694, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 2037, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978).

Burns' complaint contains allegations of a conspiracy to deprive him of his civil rights in violation of 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1985. The record in the case, however, lacks any indication that Burns was discriminated against because he is a member of a particular race or suspect class. Burns thus failed to make out a claim under section 1985. See Bretz v. Kelman, 773 F.2d 1026, 1028 (9th Cir.1985) (en banc). Likewise, Burns' claims against all the defendants for a conspiracy to violate his constitutional rights under section 1983 also fail because they were supported only by conclusory allegations. To state a claim for a conspiracy to violate one's constitutional rights under section 1983, the plaintiff must state specific facts to support the existence of the claimed conspiracy. Coverdell v. Dept. of Social and Health Services, 834 F.2d 758, 769 (9th Cir.1987). Summary judgment was properly granted for the defendants on these claims.

Because the alleged wrong from which all of Burns' claims stem is the revocation of his bond based on allegedly false information, the principal issue before us on appeal is whether an individual who supplied an affidavit for use in a bail revocation hearing is entitled to absolute immunity against civil claims. The only defendant named whose affidavit was actually presented at Burns' bail revocation hearing was Carole Warwick. The district court granted summary judgment against Burns on his action against Warwick, holding that Warwick was entitled to absolute immunity for statements made to the court in her affidavit. Burns contends on appeal that in so doing the district court applied the principle of absolute witness immunity too broadly.

Under the Supreme Court's decision in Briscoe v. Lahue, 460 U.S. 325, 345-46, 103 S.Ct. 1108, 1120-21, 75 L.Ed.2d 96 (1983), as interpreted by this court in Holt v. Castaneda, 832 F.2d 123, 127 (9th Cir.1987), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 1275, 99 L.Ed.2d 486 (1988), witnesses are absolutely immune from suits for damages under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 for testimony given at trial, or for testimony given during adversarial pretrial proceedings. In Briscoe, convicted criminal defendants brought suit against police officers, claiming that the officers had given perjured testimony during the defendant's criminal trials. The Supreme Court held that witnesses, including government officials, are absolutely immune from damages liability under section 1983 based on their testimony. Briscoe, 460 U.S. at 326, 103 S.Ct. at 1110. The Court first concluded that witnesses were absolutely immune from suits based on testimony given in a trial at common law. Id at 330-34, 103 S.Ct. at 1113-15. The court then determined that the importance of obtaining the full participation of witnesses at trial, unfettered by any fear of liability, dictated that absolute immunity should similarly extend under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 to government officials who testified as witnesses at trial. Id. at 342-46, 103 S.Ct. at 1119-21.

In this circuit's leading post-Briscoe decision, Holt v. Castaneda, 832 F.2d 123, 127 (9th Cir.1987), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 1275, 99 L.Ed.2d 486 (1988), we extended the Briscoe analysis to provide absolute immunity for a police witness at adversarial pretrial proceedings. We reviewed the decisions of other circuits in which absolute witness immunity has been extended to various nontrial proceedings, see Holt at 125-26, and concluded that there was no meaningful distinction between the considerations underlying Briscoe and the considerations that would support absolute immunity for witnesses in adversarial pretrial proceedings.

We have also held in Demoran v. Witt, 781 F.2d 155, 157-58 (9th Cir.1986), that probation officers preparing presentence reports for the use of state courts are absolutely immune from damage liability under section 1983. See also Burkes...

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