Crenshaw v. City of Defuniak Springs

• Decision Date: 12 May 1995
• Docket Number: No. 94-30072-RV.,94-30072-RV.
• Citation: 891 F. Supp. 1548
• Parties: Helen L. CRENSHAW, Plaintiff, v. CITY OF DEFUNIAK SPRINGS, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Florida

891 F. Supp. 1548

Helen L. CRENSHAW, Plaintiff, v. CITY OF DEFUNIAK SPRINGS, et al., Defendants.

No. 94-30072-RV.

United States District Court, N.D. Florida, Pensacola Division.

May 12, 1995.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Stephanie A. Taylor, McKenzie & Soloway, P.A., Pensacola, FL, for plaintiff Helen L. Crenshaw.

Helen L. Crenshaw, DeFuniak Springs, FL, pro se.

D. Lloyd Monroe, IV, Cooper, Coppins & Monroe, Tallahassee, FL, for defendants City of Defuniak Springs, FL, Mike Stanley.

ORDER

VINSON, District Judge.

Pending is the defendant's motion for summary judgment. (doc. 35) Also pending are numerous post-complaint motions by the plaintiff, (doc. 64, 69, 72, 74), and the defendant's motion to impose costs, expenses, and attorney's fees. (doc. 66)

I. BACKGROUND

This is a civil rights action brought pursuant to Title 42, United States Code, Sections 1983 and 1981. The plaintiff, Helen L. Crenshaw, alleges various acts of misconduct on the part of defendant Mike Standley, City Manager for the City of DeFuniak Springs, Florida, and defendant City of DeFuniak Springs. Except as noted, the following facts are not in dispute.

The plaintiff, who is black, owns property located near the northeast corner of what is now the 19th Street cul-de-sac in DeFuniak Springs, just north of State Highway 90. At one time, 19th Street continued past the point where the cul-de-sac is now located, and joined 20th Street. This continuation of 19th Street crossed land owned by Vernon Cosson, Ronald Bryan, and Aaron Strickland, and was located on an easement held by the city. In 1986, Vernon Cosson applied to the city council for abandonment of the easement, and the city council officially abandoned the easement by resolution on February 9, 1987. (attachment to doc. 38, ex. D) The city retained a fifteen-foot utility easement through the center of the abandoned street, and was instructed by the city council not to actually abandon the easement until Wabash Avenue was constructed. Wabash Avenue was intended to provide access to property affected by the abandonment of the portion of 19th Street, and adjoins the plaintiff's property.

In July of 1989, the city actually abandoned its easement, and ceased to provide curbside garbage collection service on the abandoned portion of 19th Street. The plaintiff's property adjoins the abandoned street, and the plaintiff had previously had her garbage picked up at a location on the abandoned street. The plaintiff contacted defendant Standley and asked that garbage service be resumed. According to the plaintiff, Standley refused to reinstate service along the abandoned street, and made derogatory and racial remarks to her. The defendants maintain that the plaintiff was informed that because the city had abandoned its easement, her garbage could no longer be picked up at the 19th Street location, but could be picked up at two other locations where either the cul-de-sac or Wabash Avenue provide access to her property. (Crenshaw dep., ex. 3) One of those locations is on the cul-de-sac immediately adjacent to where plaintiff had placed her garbage in the past, and where it now remains uncollected. It is undisputed that the plaintiff has continued to pay for garbage collection service. Defendant Standley made a statement on the local radio station in the City of DeFuniak Springs that the plaintiff's garbage would not be collected until she placed it at the proper location.

The plaintiff had traditionally used 19th Street to gain access to and from her property, and continued to do so after the city's abandonment of the easement. Ronald Bryan, who is white, sought to prevent the plaintiff from continuing to use the abandoned portion of 19th Street, which crossed over property owned by his daughter, Sharon Bryan. The plaintiff obtained a temporary order from the Circuit Court in and for Walton County, Florida, on March 1, 1990, which found that the plaintiff had a way of necessity easement and/or prescriptive easement running over the strip of land abandoned by the city, and restrained the Bryans from obstructing the easement. According to the plaintiff, the city police harassed her and refused to prevent Bryan from interfering with her use of the abandoned street.

The amended complaint alleges that the defendants denied the plaintiff equal protection of the law in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, caused her to suffer the badges and incidents of slavery in violation of the Thirteenth Amendment, and violated Title 42, United States Code, Sections 1981 and 1983 by abandoning 19th Street and discontinuing garbage collection services along 19th street. The defendants in their motion for summary judgment contend that the plaintiff has failed to show the necessary discriminatory impact and discriminatory intent, and has otherwise failed to demonstrate a factual basis for her claims. Defendant Standley urges that he is entitled to qualified immunity. These arguments will be considered in turn. The plaintiff has filed numerous motions since the amended complaint, which will also be considered.¹ Finally, the defendants have moved for imposition of costs, expenses, and attorney's fees on the plaintiff.

II. ANALYSIS

A. Summary Judgment Standard

A motion for summary judgment should be granted when "the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Rule 56(c), Fed.R.Civ.P. Summary judgment is improper "if a reasonable fact finder could draw more than one inference from the facts, and that inference creates a genuine issue of material fact." Cornelius v. Highland Lake, 880 F.2d 348, 351 (11th Cir. 1989), cert. denied, 494 U.S. 1066, 110 S.Ct. 1784, 108 L.Ed.2d 785 (1990).

The court may not weigh evidence to resolve a factual dispute; if a genuine issue of material fact is present, the court must deny summary judgment. Hutcherson v. Progressive Corp., 984 F.2d 1152, 1155 (11th Cir. 1993). Likewise, if reasonable minds could differ on the inferences arising from undisputed facts, then the court should deny summary judgment. Miranda v. B & B Cash Grocery Store, Inc., 975 F.2d 1518, 1534 (11th Cir.1992).

On a summary judgment motion, the record and all reasonable inferences that can be drawn from it must be viewed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. McCabe v. Sharrett, 12 F.3d 1558, 1560 (11th Cir.1994). Furthermore, the court must consider the entire record in the case, and not just those pieces of evidence which have been singled out for attention by the parties. See Clinkscales v. Chevron USA, Inc., 831 F.2d 1565, 1570 (11th Cir.1987).

In this case, the plaintiff is proceeding pro se, so I will not hold her to strict accountability of compliance with the rules of procedure, and will construe the complaint more liberally than I would formal pleadings drafted by lawyers. Hughes v. Rowe, 449 U.S. 5, 9, 101 S.Ct. 173, 175, 66 L.Ed.2d 163 (1980). However, although the plaintiff's complaint is entitled to a liberal interpretation, the plaintiff must still meet the essential burden of establishing that there is a genuine issue as to a fact material to his case. Brown v. Crawford, 906 F.2d 667, 669-70 (11th Cir.1990).

B. Section 1983

To prevail in a civil rights action under Title 42, United States Code, Section 1983, a plaintiff must show that the defendant, acting under color of state law, deprived her of a right secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States.² Bannum, Inc. v. City of Ft. Lauderdale, 901 F.2d 989, 997 (11th Cir. 1990). Section 1983 itself creates no substantive rights; rather, it provides a remedy for deprivations of federal rights established elsewhere. Barfield v. Brierton, 883 F.2d 923, 934 (11th Cir.1989); Wideman v. Shallowford Community Hosp., Inc., 826 F.2d 1030, 1032 (11th Cir.1987). Thus, the plaintiff must first identify specific constitutional or statutory rights of which she has been deprived.

(1) Discrimination in Supply of City Services

The amended complaint can be construed as alleging racial discrimination in the supply of city services. Once a city decides to provide services, it must do so in a racially nondiscriminatory manner. United Farmworkers of Florida Housing Project, Inc. v. City of Delray Beach, 493 F.2d 799, 808 (5th Cir.1974). See Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356, 6 S.Ct. 1064, 30 L.Ed. 220 (1886). In such cases, the plaintiff must show both discriminatory impact and discriminatory intent. Ammons v. Dade City, Fla., 783 F.2d 982, 984 (11th Cir.1986). See Alexander v. Chicago Park District, 709 F.2d 463, 467-68 (7th Cir.1983); Baugh v. City of Milwaukee, 823 F.Supp. 1452, 1459 (E.D.Wis.1993), aff'd, 41 F.3d 1510 (7th Cir.1994). If the plaintiff can show discriminatory impact, the plaintiff must then show "a correlation between municipal service disparities and racially tainted purposiveness to mandate a finding of discriminatory intent." Dowdell v. City of Apopka, 698 F.2d 1181, 1185-86 (11th Cir. 1983). Here, the plaintiff alleges that the defendants discriminated against her by discontinuing garbage collection service along 19th Street.³ It is undisputed that the City of DeFuniak Springs was requested to abandon the portion of 19th Street adjoining the plaintiff's house, and did so by resolution of the city council on February 9, 1987. (attachment to doc. 38, ex. D) Therefore, the portion of 19th Street upon which the city formerly collected the plaintiff's garbage is now private property. The city code does not allow the city to collect garbage on private property, except that if someone is handicapped or elderly, the city may enter that person's own property to collect their garbage. (attachment to doc. 38, ex. F) Although the plaintiff argues that she is handicapped, the exception does not...