Davis v. City of Charleston, Mo., s. 86-1653
| Decision Date | 12 October 1987 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 86-1653,86-2592,s. 86-1653 |
| Citation | 827 F.2d 317 |
| Parties | Carol DAVIS, Appellant, v. CITY OF CHARLESTON, MISSOURI; Kim Smith, Individually and as a Police Officer of the City of Charleston, Missouri; Sgt. Claude Grant, Individually and as a Police Officer of the City of Charleston, Missouri; and Edward C. Graham, Appellees. Carol DAVIS, Appellant, v. CITY OF CHARLESTON, MISSOURI; Kim Smith, Individually and as a Police Officer of the City of Charleston, Missouri; Sgt. Claude Grant, Individually and as a Police Officer of the City of Charleston, Missouri; and Edward C. Graham, Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Eric E. Vickers, St. Louis, Mo., for appellant.
Henry Herschel, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, Mo., and John L. Oliver, Jr., Cape Girardeau, Mo., for appellees.
Before ROSS, Circuit Judge, BRIGHT, Senior Circuit Judge, and MAGILL, Circuit Judge.
These consolidated appeals arise out of Carol Davis' arrest and conviction for peace disturbance in Missouri state court. Two Charleston, Missouri, police officers, Kim Smith and Claude Grant, arrested Davis when she allegedly interfered with their attempts to break up a street fight between Davis' niece and another teenager. Missouri Associate Circuit Court Judge Edward Graham found Davis guilty of the peace disturbance charge and, upon Davis' refusal to pay a $200.00 fine for her conviction, sentenced her to a two-week term of imprisonment.
Thereafter, Davis filed this section 1983 civil rights action, naming as defendants Officers Smith and Grant, the City of Charleston and Judge Graham. In her complaint, Davis alleged that her constitutional rights had been violated by the fact of and manner of her arrest and by her imprisonment.
The district court granted the Officers' motion for summary judgment upon Davis' failure to appear at trial, and granted Davis' motion for partial summary judgment against Judge Graham for imprisoning Davis upon nonpayment of her fine without first holding a hearing on her claimed indigency. 1 The district court awarded the Officers $4,591.56 and Davis $460.00 in attorney's fees in the two actions.
On the appeal, Davis contends that the district court erred in (1) granting the Officers' second motion for summary judgment; (2) awarding the Officers attorney's fees; and (3) refusing to grant her attorney's fees in the amount she requested.
We affirm the district court's grant of summary judgment, but remand for reconsideration by the district court the issues of whether the Officers were properly awarded attorney's fees and the appropriate amount of Davis' attorney's fees in her action against Judge Graham.
On October 4, 1984, Carol Davis was driving to the National Guard Armory in Charleston, Missouri, to register new voters when she spied her teenage niece on a street corner battling another teenager with a stick. It seems the other teenager had started the fight, but Davis' niece had gained the upperhand. By the time Davis approached the two girls, Officer Claude Grant of the Charleston Police Department, dressed in plain clothes, had stepped in to break up the fight. When Officer Kim Smith, also of the Charleston Police Department, stopped at the corner in his patrol car, he and Grant proceeded to place Davis' niece in the patrol car.
At her state court trial for disturbing the peace, Carol Davis claimed that when the Officers placed her niece in the patrol car, she requested to accompany her to the police department, as the girl's mother would need to be notified. She claimed that not only was her request denied, but Officer Grant told Officer Smith, "If she gets her ass in the car, arrest her." Davis claimed that as soon as she climbed into the patrol car, Officer Smith did indeed arrest her.
According to Officers Smith and Grant's testimony at the same trial, as Officer Grant was attempting to place Davis' niece in the car, Davis kept pulling her niece back, screaming and hollering, and grabbing Officer Grant's shirt in an effort to restrain him. Officer Smith testified that he was forced to pin Davis against the car so that Officer Grant could place Davis' niece in the car. When Davis refused to stay out of the Officers' way, she was arrested, and Officer Smith took her hand and assisted her into the car.
Davis was not represented by counsel at her state court trial on October 25, 1984, but requested that the presiding judge appoint counsel for her. After receiving the Prosecuting Attorney's opinion that a guilty verdict on the peace disturbance charge would not demand a jail sentence, the state judge denied Davis' request. Following presentation of testimony, the court found Davis guilty of the peace disturbance charge and fined her $200.00, plus costs of $50.50.
The court informed Davis that she had until November 26, 1984 to pay the fine and costs or to show cause why she should not be imprisoned for nonpayment. On November 26, 1984, Davis called the court clerk to say that she could not pay the amount and was ready to go to jail. The court then issued a Warrant of Commitment under Mo.Ann.Stat. Sec. 560.031 (Vernon 1979), ordering Davis to spend fourteen days in jail for nonpayment of the fine and costs. As a result of Davis' work in the prison kitchen, she was released after seven days confinement.
In her complaint against the City of Charleston and Officers Grant and Smith (as augmented by her Supplemental Answer to Interrogatories), Davis alleged that the Officers (1) unlawfully arrested her (or arrested her without probable cause); (2) took her into custody without informing her of her Miranda rights, including her sixth amendment right to counsel; (3) used excessive force against her during the arrest; (4) misrepresented under oath at her state court trial the facts giving rise to her arrest. Against the City, Davis alleged that the Officers' actions were part of a pattern, practice, and custom by the Charleston Police Department of using excessive force against Charleston residents and depriving them of their constitutional rights. Davis requested $100,000 in actual damages, plus $150,000 in punitive damages for this conduct. Finally, Davis alleged that Judge Graham violated her constitutional rights in imprisoning her for nonpayment of a fine without a hearing.
For a full understanding of the parties' positions on appeal, some review of the proceedings before the district court is necessary. We first address the proceedings of Davis' suit against Officers Smith and Grant. On August 8, 1985, the Officers and the City of Charleston filed their first joint memorandum for summary judgment, together with affidavits from Officer Grant, the Police Chief and the City Manager, and the transcript of Davis' state court trial. The defendants' filed Officer Smith's affidavit on August 30, 1985. On October 17, 1985, the district court denied the motion, based in part upon Davis' claimed need for additional time for discovery. The trial was set for March 10, 1986, but prior to that date Officers Smith and Grant and the City filed their second motion for summary judgment based upon new data submitted by Davis, and the district court ordered the trial date reset. On March 28, 1986, the district court granted the City's second motion for summary judgment, but did not rule on the Officers' motion at that time, or at any other time prior to September 30, 1986.
After vacating the March 10, 1986 trial date, the court reset the trial date four more times. Due to a scheduling conflict, Davis' counsel requested a continuance of the fifth and final trial date of September 30, 1986 from the district court by telephone. It is not clear whether the district court acted on counsel's request at that time. In any case, on the morning of September 30th, neither Davis nor her counsel appeared. Officers Grant and Smith orally renewed their second motion for summary judgment at that time and the court granted the motion the same day. In a subsequently released memorandum opinion, the court reasoned that, although the case could properly be dismissed for want of prosecution because Davis' alleged constitutional violations upon which she sought to establish her section 1983 claims were neither supported by the facts of her arrest or by the law, summary judgment for the defendants was appropriate. As noted above, the court subsequently awarded the Officers $4,591.56 in attorney's fees and costs.
As to Davis' suit against Judge Graham, the court had earlier granted Davis partial summary judgment on March 28, 1986. The court found Judge Graham's failure to conduct a hearing to determine why Davis failed to pay her $200.00 fine, after Davis had raised an inference that poverty was the cause, denied Davis equal protection under the law. As noted above, the court awarded Davis $460.00 in attorney's fees for her success in this action. 635 F.Supp. 197 (E.D.Mo.1986).
Davis first argues that the district court erred in granting Officers Grant and Smith's second motion for summary judgment, as (1) the motion was not filed ten days prior to a hearing on the motion as is required by Rule 56(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure; and (2) genuine issues of material fact existed to preclude summary judgment. After reviewing the record, we affirm the district court on this issue.
Rule 56(c) provides that a motion for summary judgment "shall be served at least 10 days before the time fixed for the hearing." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). This court requires strict adherence to the ten-day notice requirement in order to protect the opposing party's rights to respond to the motion. See Williams v. City of St. Louis, 783 F.2d 114, 116 (8th Cir.1986); Twin City Federal Sav. & Loan Ass'n v. Transamerica Ins. Co., 491 F.2d 1122,...
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