Clark v. Lutcher, Civ. No. 77-563.

• Decision Date: 30 August 1977
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 77-563.
• Citation: 436 F. Supp. 1266
• Parties: David F. CLARK et al., Plaintiffs, v. Thomas J. LUTCHER, Individually and as a Trooper with the Pennsylvania State Police, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Pennsylvania

436 F. Supp. 1266

David F. CLARK et al., Plaintiffs, v. Thomas J. LUTCHER, Individually and as a Trooper with the Pennsylvania State Police, et al., Defendants.

Civ. No. 77-563.

United States District Court, M. D. Pennsylvania.

August 30, 1977.

Jack C. Younkin, Leavens & Younkin, Shamokin, Pa., for plaintiffs.

J. Andrew Smyser, Deputy Atty. Gen., Vincent X. Yakowitz, Sol. Gen., Robert P. Kane, Atty. Gen., Dept. of Justice, Harrisburg, Pa., for defendants Lutcher, Peterson and McGlynn.

Roger V. Wiest, Charles H. Saylor, Wiest & Wiest, Sunbury, Pa., for defendants Brittain and Kreisher.

OPINION

MUIR, District Judge.

David F. Clark and his parents, Franklin Clark and Pauline Clark, have filed this action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging that Defendants, three state policemen and two state prosecutors, violated David Clark's constitutional rights by arresting and incarcerating him without probable cause in connection with the death of one Dorothy M. Bonawitz. On July 25, 1977. Defendants Richard C. Brittain and William Kreisher, the state prosecutors, filed a motion to dismiss supported by a brief filed on August 1, 1977. On July 26, 1977, Defendants Thomas J. Lutcher, Edward Peterson, and William A. McGlynn, all state policemen, filed a motion to dismiss supported by a brief filed on August 4, 1977. The Clarks filed a responsive brief on August 12, 1977. The time for a reply brief expired August 19, 1977 without any reply brief being filed.

All of the Defendants contend that Mr. and Mrs. Clark have no standing to participate in this action because they have not alleged a violation of their constitutional rights and that the Court should not exercise its jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1343 to entertain a claim for money damages while a state criminal prosecution is pending. In addition, Defendants Brittain and Kreisher argue that Clark is collaterally estopped from raising the issue of whether his arrest was based upon probable cause because that issue has been decided by a state trial judge and that, as state prosecutors, they enjoy absolute immunity from this action. In addition to those issues, the Court will address the question of whether three state law claims set forth in the Clarks' complaint, based upon false imprisonment, malicious abuse of legal process, and intentional infliction of emotional harm, should fall within the Court's pendent jurisdiction. These contentions will be addressed seriatim.

In deciding whether to exercise pendent jurisdiction over state law claims, a federal court must first determine whether it has jurisdictional power and then, if it has such power, whether to exercise that power. Pendent jurisdiction exists when state law claims "form a separate but parallel ground for relief also sought in a substantial claim based upon federal law." United Mineworkers v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 722, 86 S.Ct. 1130, 1137, 16 L.Ed.2d 218 (1966). See also Tully v. Mott Supermarkets, Inc., 540 F.2d 187 (3d Cir. 1976). If the state causes of action arise from a common nucleus of operative facts which would ordinarily be tried in one judicial proceeding, then jurisdiction exists. That test is met in this case, so that the Court's exercise of pendent jurisdiction would not be an abuse of its power. However, Gibbs also indicates that the Court must consider the impact of the exercise of its jurisdiction upon judicial economy, convenience, and fairness to the litigants. It must determine whether substantial federal policies are implicated in the state law claims and whether the joinder of those claims with the federal cause of action would cause confusion or complexity likely to mislead the trier of fact. The Court believes that the possibility of confusion overrides any considerations of economy present in this context. The elements of a claim brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 differ vastly from those of state tort claims based upon false arrest, malicious abuse of process, and intentional infliction of emotional harm. It would be extremely difficult for the trier of fact to keep separate the elements of four distinct causes of action when standards of liability may differ on each. Therefore, in the exercise of its discretion, the Court will refuse to entertain under its pendent jurisdiction the causes of action set forth in Counts II, III, and IV of the Clarks' complaint.

Defendants assert that Mr. and Mrs. Clark have no standing to bring an action for damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 based upon a violation not of their constitutional rights but the rights of their son, David F. Clark. It is clear that as a matter of general policy the Courts should not permit litigants to raise the constitutional rights of third parties who are not before the Court unless exceptional circumstances exist. See, e. g., Population Services Int. v. Wilson, 398 F.Supp. 321 (S.D.N.Y.1975), prob. juris. noted, 426 U.S. 918, 97 S.Ct. 2010, 52 L.Ed.2d 675 (1976). An exception is made where the party before the Court stands in some special relationship to the third person whose rights he intends to assert. See Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438, 92 S.Ct. 1029, 31 L.Ed.2d 349 (1972). However, the Court believes that the traditional rules of jus tertii should be relaxed in this situation because Mr. and Mrs. Clark allege that they have suffered a financial loss as a result of the violation of David's constitutional rights, their entitlement to the earnings of a minor child. A similar result has been reached in other cases where litigants have asserted a right to all or part of the monetary damage suffered by the third person whose rights were violated. See Wolfer v. Thaler, 525 F.2d 977 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 425 U.S. 975, 96 S.Ct. 2176, 48 L.Ed.2d 800 (1976); Mattis v. Schnarr, 502 F.2d 588 (8th Cir. 1974). Therefore, Mr. and Mrs. Clark have standing to assert their claim.

Defendants urge this Court to refrain from exercising its jurisdiction over the Clarks' claim because the Commonwealth's prosecution against David F. Clark for rape, robbery, and murder is still pending. They state that considerations of federalism mandate that the Court not interfere with the orderly process of a state criminal prosecution. The Court finds this argument unconvincing and, in addition, seriously doubts that it has the power to refuse to exercise its jurisdiction over actions at law once that jurisdiction has properly been invoked. In addition, the interference with the state prosecution is not sufficiently serious to justify denying Plaintiffs their right to a federal forum or holding the action in abeyance pending the outcome of Clark's prosecution. Consequently, the Court will permit the action to proceed to an adjudication on the merits.

A federal court is required to stay its hand in favor of state action either when it runs the risk of interfering substantially with a state criminal prosecution or a civil proceeding which involves state, rather than private, interests, or when a decision on an issue of constitutional law may be avoided by a state's resolution of a question of state law in a manner which would obviate the need to reach the constitutional question. The first situation is commonly termed "Equitable Restraint" while the second is the traditional abstention doctrine. The Court is convinced that decisions rendered under either label do not mandate that it refrain from exercising jurisdiction in this case.

The doctrine of equitable restraint has its origin in Douglas v. City of Jeanette, 319 U.S. 157, 63 S.Ct. 877, 87 L.Ed. 1324 (1943). Since that time, it has become widely accepted that a federal equity court will not act to enjoin an ongoing state criminal prosecution absent a showing of some irreparable injury both great and immediate and an allegation that the state prosecution is a product of bad faith or harassment on the part of state officials, so that vindication in the state proceeding will not serve adequately to protect a party's constitutional rights. In Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971), the Court stated that absent a showing of exceptional circumstances, "Our Federalism" precluded a federal court from entering an injunction against a state prosecution which had begun before the federal lawsuit was initiated, and on the same day, in Samuels v. Mackell, 401 U.S. 66, 91 S.Ct. 764, 27 L.Ed.2d 688 (1971), applied the rationale of Younger to an action for declaratory judgment. The Court stated that a declaratory judgment can be as intrusive as an injunction because it may serve as the basis for a subsequent injunction if state officials do not abide by the decision, and it may have a res judicata effect when the issue is reached by the state tribunal. 401 U.S. at 72, 91 S.Ct. 764. The Court noted that declaratory relief, while a statutory remedy is "essentially an equitable cause of action," citing Great Lakes Co. v. Huffman, 319 U.S. 293, 63 S.Ct. 1070, 1074, 87 L.Ed. 1407 (1943). The extension of the equitable restraint doctrine in recent years has taken the form of enlarging the types of state proceedings with which a federal court should not interfere to civil proceedings where the state is the real party in interest and enlarging the time period in which a state may begin proceedings which will cut off a party's right to federal intervention. All of those cases have involved suits either for injunctive or declaratory relief. See Trainor v. Hernandez, 431 U.S. 434, 97 S.Ct. 1911, 52 L.Ed.2d 486 (1977); Wooley v. Maynard, 430 U.S. 705, 97 S.Ct. 1428, 51 L.Ed.2d 752 (1977); Judice v. Vail, 430 U.S. 327, 97 S.Ct. 1211, 51 L.Ed.2d 376 (1977); Doran v. Salem Inn, Inc., 422 U.S. 922, 95 S.Ct. 2561, 45 L.Ed.2d 648 (1975); Hicks v. Miranda, 422 U.S. 332, 95 S.Ct. 2281, 45 L.Ed.2d 223 (1975); Ellis v. Dyson, 421 U.S. 426, 95 S.Ct. 1691, 44 L.Ed.2d 274 (1975); Kugler v. Helfant, 421 U.S. 117, 95 S.Ct. 1524, 44 L.Ed.2d 15 (1975); Huffman v. Pursue Ltd., 420 U.S. 592, 95 S.Ct....