Carradine v. State

• Decision Date: 29 December 1992
• Docket Number: No. C5-92-1070,C5-92-1070
• Citation: 494 N.W.2d 77
• Parties: Robert Reed CARRADINE, Respondent, v. STATE of Minnesota, et al., Appellants.
• Court: Minnesota Court of Appeals

Page 77

494 N.W.2d 77

Robert Reed CARRADINE, Respondent, v. STATE of Minnesota, et al., Appellants.

No. C5-92-1070.

Court of Appeals of Minnesota.

Dec. 29, 1992.

Review Granted in Part, Denied

in Part Feb. 23,

1993.

Syllabus by the Court

1. A law enforcement officer who commits a willful wrong is not protected from individual liability by the official immunity doctrine.

2. A law enforcement officer does not have an absolute privilege to publish a defamatory arrest report.

3. The state may be held vicariously liable for a law enforcement officer's operational actions.

4. A law enforcement officer is entitled to qualified immunity where the officer did not violate a clearly established statutory or constitutional right.

Peter H. Grills, O'Neill, Burke, O'Neill, Leonard & O'Brien, Ltd., St. Paul, for respondent.

Hubert H. Humphrey, III, Atty. Gen., Peter M. Ackerberg, Jacquelyn E. Albright, Sp. Asst. Attys. Gen., St. Paul, for appellants.

Considered and decided by HUSPENI, P.J., and SHORT, and PETERSON, JJ.

OPINION

SHORT, Judge.

This civil case arises out of the arrest and subsequent incarceration of Robert Reed Carradine. Carradine sued state trooper Patrick Chase (officer) and the State of Minnesota claiming unreasonable search and seizure, deprivation of personal freedom and liberty without due process of law, assault, battery, false imprisonment, excessive use of force, negligent infliction of emotional distress, defamation, malicious prosecution, negligence, trespass to personal property, conversion, and vicarious liability. The officer and the state moved for summary judgment on the basis of official, absolute, sovereign, and qualified immunity. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the officer and the state on all of Carradine's claims, except negligent infliction of emotional distress, defamation and vicarious liability. On appeal, all parties argue the trial court erred as a matter of law. We affirm.

FACTS

The officer arrested Carradine on July 9, 1987, while he was driving to Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport to catch an early morning airplane flight. The officer prepared an arrest report describing Carradine's conduct to include speeding, reckless driving, fleeing an officer, and impersonating an officer. Carradine and his travel companion dispute the officer's version of the events.

Following his arrest, the officer transported Carradine to the Hennepin County Adult Detention Center where Carradine was booked, fingerprinted and strip-searched. The officer was not involved in the booking process or in the strip-search. After approximately ten hours in custody, Carradine was released on his own recognizance. When contacted by a local reporter, the officer orally recounted the events described in the arrest report. Based on the officer's statements to the reporter, accounts of Carradine's arrest appeared in numerous national newspaper articles and wire reports, and one account was reported on a television show.

Carradine was charged with: (a) fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle, in violation of Minn.Stat. Sec. 609.487, subd. 3 (1986), a gross misdemeanor; (b) reckless driving, in violation of Minn.Stat. Sec. 169.13, subd. 1 (1986), a misdemeanor; and (c) careless driving, in violation of Minn.Stat. Sec. 169.13, subd. 2 (1986), a misdemeanor. Pursuant to a plea agreement, Carradine admitted driving over the posted speed limit and pleaded guilty to a petty misdemeanor charge of speeding. At the conclusion of the criminal proceedings, Carradine began this civil lawsuit against the officer and the state. Carradine alleges the officer made defamatory statements about his conduct in the arrest report, to law enforcement officials, to prosecuting authorities and to the news media.

ISSUES

I. Is the doctrine of official immunity applicable either to an officer's writing of an arrest report or to a subsequent oral account of the arrest?

II. Does the doctrine of sovereign immunity bar Carradine's vicarious liability claim based on defamation and negligent infliction of emotional distress?

III. Is the officer's stop, arrest and search of Carradine protected by qualified immunity?

ANALYSIS

On appeal from a grant of summary judgment, we must determine whether any genuine issues of material fact exist and whether the trial court erred in applying the law. Hubred v. Control Data Corp., 442 N.W.2d 308, 310 (Minn.1989). We need not defer to a trial court's decision on legal issues. Frost-Benco Elec. Ass'n v. Minnesota Pub. Utils. Comm'n, 358 N.W.2d 639, 642 (Minn.1984).

Whether the doctrines of official immunity and sovereign immunity apply to the facts requires us to focus on the nature of the officer's particular acts in question. Johnson v. Morris, 453 N.W.2d 31, 42 (Minn.1990); see Nusbaum v. County of Blue Earth, 422 N.W.2d 713, 719 (Minn.1988) ("each case must be judged in a fashion which focuses on whether the legislature intended to immunize the particular government activity"). The determination of whether an officer's actions were malicious or willful is generally a fact question to be decided by a jury, but may be resolved by summary judgment. See Elwood v. County of Rice, 423 N.W.2d 671, 679 (Minn.1988) (recognizing application of the doctrines may involve a fact question for the jury, but not finding such a question in the case before it). Whether the officer's actions were discretionary or ministerial is a question of law. Engle v. Hennepin County, 412 N.W.2d 364, 366 (Minn.App.1987), pet. for rev. denied (Minn. Nov. 18, 1987).

A determination of whether an official's conduct falls within the scope of immunity outlined by the objective qualified immunity test generally is a question of law which may be resolved by summary judgment. Anderson v. City of Hopkins, 400 N.W.2d 350, 354 (Minn.App.1987). An appellate court reviewing a claim of qualified immunity "need not consider the correctness of the plaintiff's version of the facts, nor even determine whether the plaintiff's allegations actually state a claim." Id. (quoting Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 528, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 2816, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985)). "All [the reviewing court] need determine is a question of law: whether the legal norms allegedly violated by [the officer] were clearly established at the time of the challenged actions or, in cases where the district court has denied summary judgment for the [officer] * * * whether the law clearly proscribed the actions the [officer] claims he took." Id. (quoting Mitchell, 472 U.S. at 528, 105 S.Ct. at 2816).

I.

Minnesota's official immunity doctrine protects from personal liability a public official charged by law with duties calling for the exercise of judgment or discretion, unless the official is guilty of a willful or malicious wrong. Elwood, 423 N.W.2d at 677. The purpose behind the official immunity doctrine is "to insure that the threat of potential liability does not unduly inhibit the exercise of discretion required of public officers in the discharge of their duties." Rico v. State, 472 N.W.2d 100, 107 (Minn.1991) (quoting Holmquist v. State, 425 N.W.2d 230, 233 n. 1 (Minn.1988)). Official immunity, however, does not protect an officer who willfully violates a known right. Id. Generally, police officers exercising their official duties are classified as "discretionary" rather than "ministerial" officers and thus are afforded official immunity in executing those duties. Johnson, 453 N.W.2d at 42; Elwood, 423 N.W.2d at 678. In this case, the officer seeks immunity for his decision to detail the events surrounding Carradine's arrest in an arrest report and in oral communications to detention officers and a reporter.

The state and the officer argue the doctrine of official immunity protects the officer from Carradine's claims. We disagree. It is undisputed a law enforcement officer has an absolute duty to report accurately the circumstances underlying an arrest. See Minn.R.Crim.P. 4.02, subd. 3 (officer shall notify prosecuting attorney of the arrest); State Patrol Gen. Order No. PR 83-90-007 (July 1, 1983) (establishing a uniform incident reporting system). Carradine alleges the officer: (a) fabricated the circumstances leading to the arrest; (b) intentionally misrepresented the events surrounding the arrest in the police report; and (c) embellished the events in talking with a reporter. The testimony of Carradine, his traveling companion and a reconstruction expert support Carradine's allegations and create a genuine issue for trial on whether the officer is guilty of a willful wrong. Under these circumstances, the officer is not entitled to summary judgment on the basis of official immunity.

The state and officer also argue the officer is absolutely privileged to publish the arrest report, regardless of its content, because the report is a public document under Minn.Stat. Sec. 13.82, subds. 2(c), 3, 4(f), 16 (1986) and the Minnesota Supreme Court's holding in Johnson v. Dirkswager, 315 N.W.2d 215, 223 (1982). We disagree. First, the court's finding of an absolute privilege in Dirkswager was predicated on Dirkswager's status as a top-level cabinet-equivalent official of the executive branch. Id. at 220-23. The arresting officer here was not a cabinet-level policy-making official; he was an entry-level state trooper. Dirkswager's rationale does not extend to low-level law enforcement officers. Second, we are not convinced extending an absolute privilege to low-level law enforcement officers would promote the public good because such an extension would: (a) undercut Dirkswager's limited exception to Minnesota's official immunity doctrine; and (b) eliminate an incentive to be accurate. See id. at 220 (purpose of the absolute privilege is not to protect public officials, but to promote the public good). And third, the Government Data Practices Act does not specifically protect government employees from liability for making defamatory...