City of Kodiak v. Samaniego
| Decision Date | 23 January 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. S-10365.,S-10365. |
| Citation | 83 P.3d 1077 |
| Parties | CITY OF KODIAK, Kodiak Police Department, and William D. Marsh, Appellants, v. Martha SAMANIEGO, Appellee. |
| Court | Alaska Supreme Court |
Frank S. Koziol, Law Office of Frank S. Koziol, Anchorage, for Appellants.
Jeffrey A. Friedman and Kenneth R. Friedman, Friedman, Rubin & White, Anchorage, for Appellee.
Before: BRYNER, Chief Justice, MATTHEWS, EASTAUGH, FABE, and CARPENETI, Justices.
Martha Samaniego sued the City of Kodiak for false confinement and battery when Sergeant Marsh of the Kodiak Police Department grabbed her and prevented her from leaving the scene of an Immigration and Naturalization investigation. At trial, the jury found that Sergeant Marsh had falsely confined and battered Martha Samaniego. The City of Kodiak appeals (1) the superior court's denial of its summary judgment motion on the question whether exigent circumstances justifying Marsh's detention of Martha existed as a matter of law; (2) the court's refusal to give a jury instruction proposed by Kodiak; (3) the court's evidentiary rulings concerning expert testimony and a knife at the scene; and (4) the court's award of attorney's fees to Martha Samaniego. Because the superior court's legal decisions were correct and its evidentiary determinations fell well within its discretion, we affirm the superior court's rulings.
In April 1994 Kodiak Police Sergeant William D. Marsh responded as back-up to a traffic stop conducted by Kodiak Police Officer Bohac and two Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) agents. Bohac and the INS agents were investigating whether the people in the stopped car had documentation proving that they were in the United States legally. While the INS agents and Bohac questioned the individuals, Julia Samaniego drove up and stopped at the scene because she knew the people under investigation. She was driving with four of her children, including her daughter Martha, and a friend.
One of the INS officers approached Julia Samaniego's car and asked her where she was from. According to the INS officer, Julia Samaniego replied "Mexico." The INS officer asked Julia Samaniego for her immigration documents, and Samaniego replied that the documents were at her house. The INS officer then asked whether Julia Samaniego had any identification with her, to which Samaniego replied "no." At that point, Sergeant Marsh approached Julia Samaniego's car.
At this point, Sergeant Marsh and Julia Samaniego's accounts of what happened diverge. According to Julia Samaniego, Sergeant Marsh told her "get out of the car or I [will] do it for you" and proceeded to pull her by the arm out of the car. According to Sergeant Marsh, he asked Julia Samaniego to step out of her car and offered his arm to help her. Julia Samaniego left the car and had a conversation with Marsh. While they were talking, the INS agent spoke to Samaniego's children, who were still in the car. According to Martha Samaniego, who was fifteen years old at the time, the agent asked the children individually where they were from and whether they had identification. Martha testified that when the agent asked her where she was from, she first replied "Mexico," but she then told the agent that she was just kidding and that she was born in the United States. Martha then decided to go home to get her mother's immigration and identification papers. She left the car and started to walk away. Martha explained that when her mother saw her walking away, her mother told her to wait and asked her where she was going.
It is uncontested that after Martha explained where she was going, Marsh grabbed her. Julia Samaniego pulled Martha behind her and stood between Martha and Sergeant Marsh. Martha testified that Julia told Marsh not to touch Martha. According to Martha, Marsh then attempted to arrest Julia and started to walk her to the back of the Samaniegos' car. Martha watched this as she was being held with her hand behind her back by an INS agent. Martha testified that during this confrontation, her mother's shirt had lifted up, and Martha wanted to reach out and pull it back down. Martha explained that she slipped out of the jacket she was wearing, left the INS officer holding the jacket, and took a step forward toward her mom to pull the shirt down. According to Martha, another officer stopped her and then the INS agent regained control over her, holding her until the incident was over.
Also relevant to this appeal are facts concerning a knife at the scene of the incident. On April 9, 1994, before the confrontation with the police occurred, the Samaniego family went to a rodeo. At the rodeo, Martha Samaniego found a knife, which she gave to her mother who put it into her pocket. Besides keeping the knife away from her kids, Julia Samaniego testified at her deposition that she did not know what she planned to do with the knife. The knife was never used during the confrontation nor was it discovered by the police until after Julia was arrested.
Martha Samaniego sued the City of Kodiak, the Kodiak Police Department, and Kodiak Police Sergeant William D. Marsh for assault and battery, false arrest, and false imprisonment. The parties stipulated that Martha Samaniego's case against the City of Kodiak be consolidated with her mother Julia Samaniego's case as both cases involved common issues of law and fact.1
Martha and Julia Samaniego filed a pre-trial motion in limine to exclude any evidence "concerning or referring to the pocketknife possessed by Julia Samaniego at the time of her arrest." Kodiak opposed the motion, arguing that introduction of evidence of the knife was integral to its case. Over Kodiak's objection, Superior Court Judge Sharon L. Gleason granted the motion to bar any reference to Julia Samaniego's possession of the knife. The superior court also noted that if Kodiak believed that the evidence became admissible during trial, it could raise the issue with the court outside of the jury's presence.
Kodiak moved for summary judgment against Martha Samaniego arguing that it was entitled to prevail on the question whether exigent circumstances existed as a matter of law. The superior court denied this motion.
The Samaniegos moved to exclude the testimony of Michael A. Brave, one of Kodiak's expert witnesses. Brave is an expert on the use of force. The court granted the motion to exclude Brave's testimony, finding that his expert opinion contained credibility determinations regarding the witnesses in the case and would usurp the court's role in instructing the jury on the applicable law of "reasonable force." For these reasons, the superior court concluded that Brave's opinion would not assist the jury as required by Alaska Rule of Evidence 702.
Martha Samaniego presented four issues to the jury: (1) whether Marsh, without legal justification, falsely confined Martha Samaniego at the scene; (2) whether Marsh, without legal justification, falsely confined Martha Samaniego when he brought her to the police station and kept her there; (3) whether Marsh, without legal justification, committed a battery on Martha Samaniego when he kept her from leaving the scene; and (4) whether Marsh, without legal justification, committed a battery on Martha Samaniego when he handcuffed her.
The jury found for Martha Samaniego on two of her claims. The jury determined that Marsh falsely confined Martha at the scene, but not when he brought her to the police station and kept her there. The jury found that the confinement at the scene was not a legal cause of injury to Martha and thus awarded her $1 in nominal damages. Finding that Marsh committed a battery on Martha when he kept her from leaving the scene, but not when he handcuffed her, the jury awarded Martha $35,000 for pain, suffering, and emotional distress resulting from the battery. The jury rejected Martha's claim for punitive damages against Marsh. The superior court entered final judgment for Martha for $35,001 in damages, plus $12,887.67 prejudgment interest, $7,288.87 attorney's fees, and $1,725.80 costs, for a total judgment of $56,903.34.
Kodiak appeals the superior court's denial of its summary judgment motion, the court's refusal to give the jury a certain proposed instruction, its exclusion of evidence regarding the knife and Brave's expert testimony, and its award of Alaska Civil Rule 82 attorney's fees to Martha Samaniego.
We review a superior court's denial of a motion for summary judgment under the independent judgment standard.2 Under that standard, we determine whether any genuine issue of material fact exists and whether the movant is entitled to judgment on the law.3 We view the facts in the light most favorable to the non-movant.4
In reviewing the superior court's rulings on jury instructions, we apply our independent judgment to determine whether the challenged or refused instruction states the law correctly.5 We then evaluate whether any error was prejudicial by putting ourselves "`in the position of the jurors and determining whether the error probably affected their judgment.'"6 The appellant bears the burden of proving prejudicial error.7
We review the superior court's evidentiary decisions under the abuse of discretion standard.8 We will find that the superior court abused its discretion only when we are left "with a definite and firm conviction, after reviewing the record as a whole, that the trial court erred in its ruling."9
We will overturn a superior court's award of attorney's fees "only upon a showing of abuse of discretion or a showing that the award is manifestly unreasonable."10
The issue of what test to apply to the detention of a witness arose in two contexts...
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State v. Carney
...that the witness's information will materially assist in the investigation, and the detention is necessary." City of Kodiak v. Samaniego, 83 P.3d 1077, 1083 (Alaska 2004). Clarifying the "serious crime" requirement, the Alaska Supreme Court noted with approval language from the Model Code: ......
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State v. Dorey
...under both the limited circumstances in Washington's common law for exigency and the circumstances referred to in City of Kodiak v. Samaniego, 83 P.3d 1077 (Alaska 2004) and the AM. LAW INST. A MODEL CODE OF PRE-ARRAIGNMENT PROCEDURE § 110.0(1)(b) (1975) (ALI Model Code). Id. 206-07, 174 P.......
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Doucette v. State
...and Seizure: A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment § 9.2(b), at 24-25 (3d ed.1996)); Williamson, 607 A.2d at 476; City of Kodiak v. Samaniego, 83 P.3d 1077, 1083-84 (Alaska 2004); Hernandez, 679 N.Y.S.2d at 207 Ariz. at 564-67, 88 P.3d at 1176-79. Similarly in Beauvois v. State, 837 P.2d 1118 ......
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State v. Watkins, 1 CA-CR 03-0197.
...and Seizure: A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment § 9.2(b), at 24-25 (3d ed.1996)); Williamson, 607 A.2d at 476; City of Kodiak v. Samaniego, 83 P.3d 1077, 1083-84 (Alaska 2004); Hernandez, 679 N.Y.S.2d at ¶ 20 Without deciding whether we should adopt these standards, the circumstances of thi......