Caruth v. Geddes

• Decision Date: 16 January 1978
• Docket Number: No. 77 C 1042.,77 C 1042.
• Citation: 443 F. Supp. 1295
• Parties: Alsana X. CARUTH, Plaintiff, v. Richard J. GEDDES, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

443 F. Supp. 1295

Alsana X. CARUTH, Plaintiff, v. Richard J. GEDDES, Defendant.

No. 77 C 1042.

United States District Court, N. D. Illinois, E. D.

January 16, 1978.

Alsana Caruth, pro se.

Richard Steck, Chicago, Ill, for defendant.

MEMORANDUM DECISION

MARSHALL, District Judge.

This is a civil rights action brought by Alsana X. Caruth, an Illinois prisoner, against Richard J. Geddes, a lawyer with the Illinois Appellate Defender. Caruth was convicted of armed robbery in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, and sentenced to a term in the Correctional Center at Pontiac, Illinois. On appeal Geddes was appointed to represent him. On March 15, 1977, Geddes filed with the Appellate Court of Illinois, First Judicial District, a motion to withdraw as counsel on appeal together with a supporting brief, as required by Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 87 S.Ct. 1396, 18 L.Ed.2d 493 (1967). Copies of the motion and brief were served on Caruth and he was given time to respond, which he did. On June 20, 1977, the court granted Geddes' motion.

On March 29, 1977, before the Appellate Court had granted Geddes' motion, Caruth filed the instant action charging that Geddes had violated Caruth's civil rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 et seq. The complaint alleges that Geddes, acting under color of state law, withdrew as counsel for Caruth and in so doing maliciously deprived Caruth of his due process and equal protection rights. Caruth claims that Geddes submitted to the appellate court a brief "attacking all the plaintiff's points of appeal," "raising matters told to him in letters and conversations," (Complaint ¶ 5) tending purposefully to mislead the appellate court and lessen Caruth's chances of success in the appeal of his criminal conviction. The complaint also alleges that Geddes "acted outside the good faith ethics" of the legal profession, and "flagrantly went beyond the scope of an attorney for the defense on appeal." (Complaint ¶¶ 5, 6). Caruth seeks damages in the amount of $50,000 under 28 U.S.C. § 1343, and also asks that Geddes be disbarred. Section 1343 confers jurisdiction upon this court.

Geddes has filed a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim on which relief may be granted. The motion is based on three alternative theories: 1) a public defender enjoys an absolute immunity from liability under the civil rights act; 2) a public defender enjoys a qualified immunity; and 3) a public defender does not act under color of state law.

The defense of qualified immunity is not available against the charges made in the complaint, by way of a motion to dismiss. While it is true that this Circuit has recognized a public defender enjoys qualified immunity from 1983 actions, John v. Hurt, 489 F.2d 786 (7th Cir. 1973); Beaver v. Carey, 426 F.Supp. 301 (N.D.Ill.1977), the defense does not defeat a claim of intentional or malicious harm. See John at 788. Caruth's complaint charges acts of malicious deprivation of his constitutional rights in that the public defender was "acting in bad faith," had "denied the plaintiff . . fair play," and "acting under the color of state law . . . has done the plaintiff's appeal great . . . legal, emotional, physiological harm; and has acted outside the good faith ethics that are supposed to govern the legal conduct, and practice, of any attorney." (Complaint ¶¶ 4, 5). Therefore, the complaint could not be dismissed at the pleading stage on the basis of the defendant's qualified immunity.

An alternative contention made by the defendant is that public defenders, like prosecuting attorneys, Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 96 S.Ct. 984, 47 L.Ed.2d 128 (1976), enjoy absolute immunity from actions brought under § 1983. Such immunity defeats a suit at the outset, so long as the official's actions are within the scope of his or her official duties; no inquiry is made as to whether the actions were undertaken with bad faith or malice. Imbler, supra at 419 n. 13, 96 S.Ct. 984. Geddes points out that the three circuits which have squarely addressed the issue of whether a public defender is absolutely immune have decided in the affirmative. Miller v. Barilla, 549 F.2d 648 (9th Cir. 1977); Minns v. Paul, 542 F.2d 899 (4th Cir. 1976); Brown v. Joseph, 463 F.2d 1046 (3d Cir. 1972).

Minns involved a § 1983 claim brought by a prisoner charging a public defender with improper delay in filing a petition for habeas corpus. In finding an absolute immunity, the court noted that the defense of even frivolous suits would consume the energies of state-subsidized attorneys. In the typical attorney-client relationship, the court reasoned, the potential costs to the client operate as an economic brake on frivolous grievances, and the private attorney may simply turn away those potential clients who persist in urging claims which are patently unsound. The public defender, on the other hand, has virtually no control over which clients to accept or reject. 542 F.2d at 901-902. Following Imbler, the Fourth Circuit concluded that only an absolute immunity would free a public defender from the need to weigh each decision regarding the representation of the client in terms of the potential for personal liability.

The resentment of unsuccessful litigants may easily blossom into § 1983 litigation, and the defense of even frivolous § 1983 suits would consume the energy of state-subsidized attorneys which should be devoted to representing the interests of other indigent clients. 542 F.2d at 902.

The court noted that the nature of the attorney's work requires making strategic decisions and thus leaves an attorney particularly vulnerable to § 1983 suits. Absent immunity, the threat of § 1983 claims might have an adverse subconscious effect on the judgment of a judicial officer whose primary duty is to find the truth and apply the law. 542 F.2d at 902, citing Imbler, 424 U.S. at 409, 96 S.Ct. 984.

The Ninth Circuit, in Miller, stressed the fact that the objectives of recruiting and retaining able public defenders and encouraging their unfettered exercise of discretion would only be achieved by a grant of absolute immunity. The court found the analysis of the Fourth Circuit in Minns persuasive and followed its reasoning. 549 F.2d at 649.

Brown v. Joseph, decided by the Third Circuit before Imbler, extended absolute immunity to public defenders. That court said that it perceived "no valid reason to extend this immunity to state and federal prosecutors and judges and to withhold it from state-appointed and state-subsidized defenders." 463 F.2d at 1048.

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has not had occasion to address the question of the public defender's immunity since John v. Hurt, supra. There the Court likened the immunity of the public defender to that of the prosecutor, although at that time prosecuting attorneys were considered to have only a qualified and not an absolute immunity:

We conclude that public defenders, like state prosecutors, and state and city attorneys, enjoy a qualified immunity for acts performed in the discharge of their official duties. 489 F.2d at 788 (emphasis added).

Although the Seventh Circuit did not elaborate on the similarity between the public defender and the prosecuting attorney, the court's language suggests that whatever the immunity accorded the prosecutor, the public defender's immunity should be the same.

Since John v. Hurt was decided, the Supreme Court has held that a prosecuting attorney, in initiating, prosecuting or presenting the state's case, is absolutely immune from liability in actions brought under § 1983. Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. at 431, 96 S.Ct. 984. The Imbler case was a civil rights action brought by a convicted defendant against the prosecutor. The complaint alleged that the prosecutor knowingly had used false testimony and suppressed at trial material evidence favorable to the defendant. The prosecutor claimed an absolute immunity for actions taken in initiating the state's case. The Court's holding that the prosecutor was absolutely immune was based in large part upon the fact that at common law prosecutors enjoyed "quasi-judicial" immunity when prosecuting the state's case. 424 U.S. at 417-422, 96 S.Ct. 984. Earlier the Court had implied that judicial immunity would be preserved under § 1983 actions as well as actions at common law. Pierson v. Ray, 386 U.S. 547, 554-555, 87 S.Ct. 1213, 18 L.Ed.2d 288 (1967). The Imbler Court made clear that quasi-judicial immunity extends to those activities which cast the prosecutor in the role of an advocate and are an "integral part of the judicial process." These activities are "intimately associated with the judicial phase of the criminal process, and thus are functions to which the reasons for absolute immunity apply with full force." 424 U.S. at 430, 96 S.Ct. at 995.

In addition to the historical foundations of the immunity, the Court's decision in Imbler also focused upon the policy considerations underlying prosecutorial immunity:

Harassment by unfounded litigation would cause a deflection of the prosecutor's energies from his public duties, and the possibility that he would shade his decisions instead of exercising the independence of judgment required by the public trust. . . . The public trust of the prosecutor's office would suffer if he were constrained in making every decision by the consequences in terms of his own potential liability in a suit for damages. Such suits could be expected with some frequency, for a defendant often will transform his resentment at being prosecuted into the ascription of improper and malicious actions to the State's advocate. 424 U.S. at 423, 424-425, 96 S.Ct. at 991.

The Court considered whether a qualified immunity would afford sufficient protection and concluded that it would not:

It is fair to say, we think, that the honest prosecutor would face greater difficulty in meeting the standards of qualified immunity than other executive or administrative

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