Crumpacker v. Farrell, H 79-0108.

• Decision Date: 24 April 1981
• Docket Number: No. H 79-0108.,H 79-0108.
• Citation: 516 F. Supp. 276
• Parties: Owen W. CRUMPACKER, Plaintiff, v. Chet FARRELL et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Indiana

516 F. Supp. 276

Owen W. CRUMPACKER, Plaintiff, v. Chet FARRELL et al., Defendants.

No. H 79-0108.

United States District Court, N. D. of Indiana, Hammond Division.

April 22, 1981.

Supplemental Opinion April 24, 1981.

Owen Crumpacker, Hammond, Ind., pro se.

Kenneth D. Reed, Harold Abrahamson, Hammond, Ind., Gregory S. Reising, Clorius L. Lay, Hamilton L. Carmouche, Gary, Ind., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

ASPEN, District Judge:^*

This action—as well as three other related cases¹—has its roots in a contempt of court citation issued against plaintiff Owen W. Crumpacker during the course of his representation of certain defendants in a state court condemnation proceeding. State of Indiana v. Kushner, 36721-C (LaPorte Circuit Court, April 29, 1975). The Honorable Alban M. Smith, who presided in that action, issued the order of contempt after Crumpacker had failed to comply with an order to return to his clients various files and $70,000 he had retained as payment for attorney's fees. Judge Smith's order provided that Crumpacker would be incarcerated in the LaPorte County Jail until he complied with the Court's order.

After three-and-one-half years of legal machinations, however, Crumpacker still was free of custody and his former clients still had not received their money and papers. Finally, in a habeas corpus proceeding that Crumpacker had filed in 1975 to attack the contempt citation, the Honorable James T. Moody ordered that the April 29 order be enforced. Crumpacker v. Pruitt, Cause No. 175-528 (Lake Superior Court, October 20, 1978). And yet Crumpacker still was able to avoid incarceration; on October 26, as the Lake County sheriffs were poised to take him into custody, Crumpacker was stricken down by illness and hospitalized at St. Margaret Hospital in Hammond and then St. Catherine's Hospital in East Chicago until November 15. According to the complaint, a sheriff rode with Crumpacker in the ambulance to St. Margaret; moreover, sheriffs remained posted outside Crumpacker's hospital rooms during his entire period of hospitalization. ¶ 10. Further, he alleges that on November 15, Lake County sheriff's delivered him to the LaPorte County Sheriff's Department for enforcement of the contempt citation.

Crumpacker brings this action pursuant to the Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and Indiana state law seeking $1.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages for false arrest and imprisonment, assault and battery, and unlawful entry into his hospital rooms. Named as defendants are various Lake County sheriffs, his former clients in the state condemnation proceeding, and attorneys he claims were acting on their behalf. Plaintiff's theory is that these defendants conspired to extort from him the $70,000 and the papers sought by his former clients by falsely arresting and imprisoning him under a void contempt order.

This action now comes before the Court on motions by several of the defendant attorneys—Abrahamson, Reed, and Reising—to dismiss or for summary judgment and by Crumpacker's former clients—Steve Gersack, Doris Gersack, and Abe Kushner—to dismiss and for a protective order. Although these motions long have been on file, plaintiff has completely failed to respond to them.² Accordingly, as it advised it would, the Court will consider these motions without the benefit of plaintiff's views.

Defendants Abrahamson, Reed, and Reising argue that the allegations of the complaint either fail to implicate them in any inappropriate conduct or improperly seek to relitigate matters already decided. Upon examination of the complaint and the extrinsic materials filed by these defendants, the Court agrees.³

First, many of the allegations either are erroneous or simply innocuous. Paragraph 5 merely identifies these defendants by address and profession. Paragraph 9 alleges that these defendants were not attorneys of record in the proceeding before Judge Moody; this, however, unquestionably is erroneous. Reed is listed as a party-defendant in the caption of Judge Moody's order of October 20, 1978. Reising represented the Gersacks and Kushner, who successfully intervened in the action on March 10, 1976; both Reising and Abrahamson are listed as attorneys of record on orders filed by the state court.⁴ Since Abrahamson was counsel of record in that proceeding, the allegation in paragraph 10 that he delivered copies of Judge Moody's order to the Lake County sheriffs is in itself innocuous.

Second, the heart of plaintiff's complaint, contained in paragraphs 9 and 12, is based on the underlying premise that Judge Moody's order enforcing the April 29, 1975, contempt citation—and perhaps the April 29 order itself—are void. The allegations of a conspiracy to obtain unlawfully the money and papers, of a false arrest, and of a false imprisonment all depend upon the view that the contempt order and the attempts to enforce it, as well as the order requiring Crumpacker to turn over the money and papers, were invalid. These issues, however, have been litigated to death. The following chronology of legal actions stemming from the April 29 contempt citation and the order requiring the return of money and papers bears this out.

Upon issuance of the contempt citation, Crumpacker filed in the Indiana Supreme Court an original action attacking Judge Smith's contempt citation as well as his underlying order. The Supreme Court dismissed the action, commending Crumpacker to the normal appellate process. State of Indiana ex rel. Crumpacker v. LaPorte Circuit Court, No. 575 S 137 (December 10, 1975). Crumpacker then filed such an appeal, but it was dismissed due to Crumpacker's failure to file briefs in a timely manner. Crumpacker v. Kushner, 3-1275-A-284, 3-1275-A-285 (Ind.Ct.App., May 20, 1976). The Supreme Court on September 9, 1976, declined to hear an appeal of the action.⁵

Contemporaneous with these appeals, Crumpacker filed in state court in a different county a petition for writ of habeas corpus. The Honorable Cordell C. Pinkerton, who then presided over the action, issued a temporary writ and ordered the Sheriff's Office to amend its service to comply with statutory requirements. Crumpacker v. Pruitt, Cause No. 175-528 (Lake Superior Court, June 9, 1975). The Sheriff's Office did so.⁶ The case was inactive until Judge Moody, who succeeded Judge Pinkerton, vacated this temporary writ by an order dated November 23, 1976. He stayed the order to give Crumpacker an opportunity to appeal. Crumpacker's appeal, however, was dismissed by the Indiana Supreme Court for failure to prosecute. Crumpacker v. Pruitt, Cause No. 477 S 251 (October 16, 1978). Upon receiving notice of the dismissal, Judge Moody vacated his stay and ordered the enforcement of Judge Smith's contempt citation. The Supreme Court on November 6, 1978, denied Crumpacker's petition for a temporary writ of prohibition, a denial which it made permanent on March 6, 1979. State of Indiana ex rel. Crumpacker v. Lake Superior Court, Ind., 386 N.E.2d 663 (1979). In denying the petition, the Supreme Court expressly found that Judge Moody had acted appropriately in issuing orders to enforce the contempt citation. Id. at 665.

Crumpacker, however, was not yet through. He filed another petition for writ of habeas corpus, this time before the Honorable James L. Clement, which was denied. Crumpacker v. Pruitt, Misc. Docket No. 590 (Lake Superior Court, November 9, 1978). Crumpacker filed yet another petition for writ of habeas corpus on November 15, 1978, but then dismissed it voluntarily two days later. Crumpacker v. Arnold, Cause No. S2-78-4218 (LaPorte Superior Court, November 17, 1978). On the same day he appeared before the Honorable Robert S. Gettinger, who succeeded Judge Smith in the condemnation proceeding, and unsuccessfully moved to be released from custody. Crumpacker moved that the court reconsider its ruling, but then voluntarily dismissed the motion. State of Indiana v. Kushner, 37621-C (LaPorte Circuit Court, November 22, 1978). Finally, Crumpacker filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the Seventh Circuit, which was remanded to and evidently still is pending in the Northern District of Indiana. Crumpacker v. Arnold, Misc. Docket No. 403 (N.D.Ind.).

A number of inferences can be drawn from this tortuous litigation history. But the one that inescapably must be drawn is that plaintiff has attacked each and every ruling adverse to him in every conceivable way possible—and then some. Plaintiff no longer can argue that Judge Smith's order requiring him to return the money and papers to his clients was invalid; that Judge Smith's contempt citation was invalid; or that Judge Moody was without authority to issue the orders to enforce that citation. Those matters have been resolved finally, either on the merits or because of plaintiff's laxity in pursuing the appeals that he filed. With the propriety of these judicial actions established unequivocally, the very foundation of plaintiff's action against these defendants collapses. Accordingly, the Court grants summary judgment in favor of defendants Abrahamson, Reid, and Reising.⁷

The motion to dismiss filed by the Gersacks and Kushner is based solely on a settlement agreement they entered into with plaintiff in Crumpacker v. Arnold, Misc. Docket No. 403 (N.D.Ind.).⁸ This agreement provided that the parties would arbitrate the right of the defendants herein to the money and records notwithstanding the resolution of that matter in other judicial proceedings, "it being the intent of the parties that there shall be a de novo hearing on these issues." Pursuant to the agreement, Crumpacker would dismiss various suits instigated against the Gersacks and Kushner, and they in turn would dismiss their claims against him in the condemnation proceeding. It was agreed that the arbitrator's decision would be final, as the parties "expressly waive their...