Carter v. Cole

• Decision Date: 10 January 1995
• Docket Number: No. CO-94-1580,CO-94-1580
• Citation: 526 N.W.2d 209
• Parties: Thaurtha CARTER, Respondent, v. Robin COLE, et al., Appellants.
• Court: Minnesota Court of Appeals

Page 209

526 N.W.2d 209

Thaurtha CARTER, Respondent, v. Robin COLE, et al., Appellants.

No. CO-94-1580.

Court of Appeals of Minnesota.

Jan. 10, 1995.

Review Granted March 14, 1995.

Syllabus by the Court

An order denying a government official's motion for summary judgment may not be appealed before trial solely on the finding that there is a genuine issue of material fact whether the official committed the acts alleged by plaintiff.

Roderick J. MacPherson, III, Kristin Nering Lockhart, Brosnahan, Joseph, Lockhart, Suggs, Minneapolis, for respondent.

Surell Brady, Minneapolis City Atty., Edward A. Backstrom, Asst. City Atty., Minneapolis, for appellants.

Considered and decided by CRIPPEN, P.J., and HARTEN and MULALLY, ^* JJ.

OPINION

CRIPPEN, Judge.

Respondent Thaurtha Carter sued the City of Minneapolis and four of its police officers seeking damages under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 and state common law, on claims that he was beaten when the police executed a search warrant at his home. Two of the officers appeal from an order denying their motion for summary judgment, arguing solely that there is insufficient evidence in the record to permit an inference that they committed the acts alleged by respondent. This order is not appealable and we dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction.

FACTS

In July 1991, eight officers of the Minneapolis Police Department, including defendant Officers Robin Cole, Edward Nelson, Thomas Rice and Sergeant (now Lieutenant) Michael Sauro, executed a search warrant at a Minneapolis duplex. Respondent resided in the upstairs apartment of this duplex and was standing in his front yard talking with his neighbor, Benson Crawford, when the police arrived. The officers ordered respondent and Crawford to lie on the ground and handcuffed them behind their backs.

A verbal exchange ensued between the officers and respondent. This episode was apparently quite loud and a crowd was beginning to gather. Sergeant Sauro came out to the front of the house to determine the cause of the commotion and ordered Officers Cole and Nelson to take respondent inside.

Cole and Nelson took respondent, still handcuffed, around the side of the house to the kitchen door of the lower unit. Cole was on respondent's left and Nelson was on his right. Respondent testified in his deposition that he heard someone else walking behind him but could not see who it was. Respondent claims he did not struggle or resist the officers. As they approached the kitchen door, respondent claims he was hit once on the back of the neck and twice on the left side of his face, but he did not see which of the officers struck him.

It is undisputed that respondent suffered serious injuries to his face during the execution of the search warrant. The officers deny hitting respondent or observing anyone hitting him. Cole and Nelson have stated that respondent was struggling and uncooperative and would not lie down on the kitchen floor. They claim they used a leg sweep to subdue respondent, causing Cole to lose his balance and land on respondent. They maintain respondent sustained his injuries when he fell to the floor and Cole landed on him. Nelson and Cole have also stated that they were the only officers present when respondent was injured.

The defendants brought a motion for summary judgment that the trial court granted in part and denied in part. Nelson and Sauro appeal from the trial court's denial of their summary judgment motion on respondent's section 1983 excessive force claim. Sauro also appeals from the denial of his motion on the common law assault, negligence, and failure to protect claims. ¹ Nelson argues that given the location of respondent's injuries, there is no evidence permitting the jury to infer that he struck respondent. Sauro argues there is no evidence permitting the inference that he was present during the alleged beating; respondent counters that the jury could infer that Sauro was the third person he heard walking behind him.

ISSUE

Can an order denying a government official's motion for summary judgment be appealed before trial solely on the finding that there is a genuine issue of material fact whether the official committed the acts alleged by the plaintiff?

ANALYSIS

Respondent sued appellants Sauro and Nelson under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 (1988). The use of excessive force by police officers constitutes a violation of the Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable seizure and is actionable under section 1983. Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 395, 109 S.Ct. 1865, 1871, 104 L.Ed.2d 443 (1989). The test for determining whether police officers have violated the Fourth Amendment by using excessive force is "whether the officers' actions are 'objectively reasonable' in light of the facts and circumstance confronting them, without regard to their underlying intent or motivation." Id. at 397, 109 S.Ct. at 1872. The "reasonableness" of the conduct must be judged "from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene." Id. at 396, 109 S.Ct. at 1872.

Government officials, including police officers, enjoy a qualified immunity from suit under section 1983. Pierson v. Ray, 386 U.S. 547, 555-57, 87 S.Ct. 1213, 1218-19, 18 L.Ed.2d 288 (1967). The test for qualified immunity is also an objective one. Government officials performing discretionary functions generally are shielded from liability for civil damages if their conduct "does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2738, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). The burden of proving qualified immunity is on the official seeking to invoke it. Doe v. Taylor Independent School District, 975 F.2d 137, 141 (5th Cir.1992), reh'g granted, 987 F.2d 231, aff'd in part, rev'd in part on other grounds, & remanded, 15 F.3d 443 (5th Cir.1994).

Qualified immunity is both a defense to liability and an immunity from suit. See Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 526, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 2815, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985). Because a determination that an official is not entitled to qualified immunity finally determines the official's right to avoid standing trial on the suit, such an order is generally found to be appealable. Id. at 530, 105 S.Ct. at 2817; Anderson v. City of Hopkins, 393 N.W.2d 363, 364 (Minn.1986).

Normally, evaluating a claim of qualified immunity involves two inquiries: (1) "whether the plaintiff has alleged the violation of a clearly established constitutional right"; and (2) whether an officer could reasonably have believed his actions were lawful "in light of clearly established law and the information [he] possessed." See Baker v. Chaplin, 517 N.W.2d 911, 914 (Minn.1994) (citations omitted).

An appellate court reviewing the denial of the defendant's claim of immunity need not consider the correctness of plaintiff's version of the facts, nor even determine whether the plaintiff's allegations actually state a claim. All it need determine is a question of law: whether the legal norms allegedly violated by the defendant were clearly established at the time of the challenged actions or, in cases where the district court has denied summary judgment for the defendant on the ground that even under the defendant's version of the facts the defendant's conduct violated clearly established law, whether the law clearly proscribed the actions the defendant claims he took. ⁹

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(Footnote) 9: We emphasize at this point that the appealable issue is a purely legal one: whether the facts alleged (by the plaintiff or, in some cases, the defendant) support a claim of violation of clearly established law.

Mitchell, 472 U.S. at 528, 105 S.Ct. at 2816.

The trial court found that if one or more of the officers struck respondent while he was handcuffed and cooperative, as he alleged, then the officers would have violated clearly established constitutional law and no reasonable officer could believe those acts would not violate the law. Appellants do not dispute this conclusion. The trial court went on to decide that respondent had come forward with sufficient evidence to create a genuine issue for trial whether either Nelson or Sauro in fact participated in the alleged assault. It is only this latter decision which appellants seek to appeal.

The trial court's finding of a genuine fact issue constitutes a determination that the plaintiff has produced sufficient evidence on the merits of his lawsuit to survive a motion for summary judgment. And the decision that claims are sufficiently proven to create a genuine fact issue is ordinarily not an appealable order. City of Woodbury v. Woodbury Township Co., 254 N.W.2d 385, 387 n. 3 (Minn.1977).

Minnesota does not favor interlocutory appeals and our appellate courts have "consistently dismissed appeals from orders that did not finally determine either the action or some positive legal right of the appellant relating to such action." Emme v. C.O.M.B., Inc., 418 N.W.2d 176, 178 (Minn.1988) (citations omitted).

Pretrial appeals may cause disruption, delay, and expense for litigants; they also burden appellate courts by requiring immediate consideration of issues which may become moot or irrelevant by the end of trial. Finally, requiring complete disposition of the case prior to appeal protects the strong interest in allowing trial judges to supervise pretrial and trial procedures without undue influence.

Id. at 179 (citing Stringfellow v. Concerned Neighbors in Action, 480 U.S. 370, 380, 107 S.Ct. 1177, 1184, 94 L.Ed.2d 389 (1987)). While Minnesota recognizes the right of a government official to an interlocutory appeal from denial of summary judgment based on federal qualified immunity, Anderson, 393 N.W.2d at 364, and state common law immunities, McGovern v. City of Minneapolis, 475 N.W.2d 71, 73 (Minn.1991), we find no case law allowing a governmental official an interlocutory appeal from a motion denying...