Doe v. Leach

• Decision Date: 15 July 1999
• Docket Number: No. 18,638.,18,638.
• Parties: John DOE, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Howard LEACH and Felix Rodriguez, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: Court of Appeals of New Mexico

988 P.2d 1252

128 N.M. 28

John DOE, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Howard LEACH and Felix Rodriguez, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 18,638.

Court of Appeals of New Mexico.

July 15, 1999.

Daymon B. Ely, Albuquerque, for Appellee.

Paula G. Maynes, Miller, Stratvert & Torgerson, P.A., Andrew S. Montgomery, Montgomery & Andrews, P.A., Santa Fe, for Appellants.

OPINION

HARTZ, J.

{1} Howard Leach and Felix Rodriguez (Defendants) are former public employees. Plaintiff has sued them for damages under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 (1994). Defendants claim they are entitled to qualified immunity because (1) they did not violate any federal right of Plaintiff's, or (2) if they did violate a federal right, the right was not clearly established at the time of their alleged misconduct.

{2} What makes this case unusual is its procedural posture. Defendants moved for summary judgment predicated on qualified immunity. The district court neither granted nor denied the motion. Rather, it postponed decision pending further discovery. Defendants petitioned this Court for a writ of error to review "the district court's determination not to consider their claim of qualified immunity." We granted the petition and now hold that the district court erred in deferring its decision while permitting further discovery. Because the record shows that Defendants were entitled to qualified immunity, we remand to the district court with instructions to enter judgment in favor of Defendants on the § 1983 claim.

I. BACKGROUND

{3} In moving for summary judgment, Defendants did not challenge Plaintiff's essential allegations. We accept them as true for purposes of the appeal. Plaintiff was sexually abused by Father Edward Donelan while Plaintiff was a minor living at the Hacienda de los Muchachos from February 1971 to June 1973. The Hacienda was a private, nonprofit corporation operated as a facility of the Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. It provided residence, schooling, and religious instruction for troubled juvenile males. Donelan ran the Hacienda as an employee of the Archdiocese. Plaintiff was placed at the Hacienda by his father and grandmother on the advice of church officials.

{4} Before working at the Hacienda, Donelan had served as the chaplain at the New Mexico Boys' School in Springer, New Mexico. His service there ended on July 1, 1970, three months after Leach became Secretary of the State Department of Corrections. During the relevant time period Rodriguez was Deputy Secretary of the Department and Warden of the state penitentiary. Sometime in 1970, apparently after Donelan had left the Boys' School, Leach and Rodriguez received allegations that Donelan had sexually abused residents of the school. They reported the complaints to the Archbishop, but not to any law enforcement agencies. The gist of Plaintiff's contentions is that Defendants' failure to report the allegations to the district attorney "permitted Donelan to continue working at Hacienda where he came into contact with and abused the Plaintiff."

{5} Plaintiff sued Defendants and others on a variety of theories. The claim at issue on appeal is his § 1983 claim against Defendants in their individual capacities. He alleges that Defendants violated his rights under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in that they "were deliberately indifferent to the rights of Plaintiff and/or lacked professional judgment in failing to adequately investigate sexual abuse complaints about Donelan." On March 15, 1996, Defendants moved for partial summary judgment on the § 1983 claim. They claimed qualified immunity on three grounds: (1) the complaint failed to state a claim for violation of a federal right; (2) no federal right asserted in the complaint was clearly established by 1971; and (3) Plaintiff had not presented evidence that Defendants were deliberately indifferent to Plaintiff's rights or abdicated their professional judgment. They contended that they owed Plaintiff no duty under the Fourteenth Amendment to protect him from Donelan because Plaintiff had no custodial relationship with the State and because Defendants had not created the danger posed by Donelan or rendered Plaintiff more vulnerable to that danger. Plaintiff responded that the State had assumed sufficient control of Plaintiff to create a "special relationship" that imposed on Defendants a duty to protect him. Plaintiff also contended that Defendants created the danger to him posed by Donelan and that factual issues remained regarding whether Defendants had displayed deliberate indifference to Plaintiff's rights and had failed to exercise professional judgment.

{6} Two days before filing their motion for summary judgment, Defendants, together with other defendants who were parties at the time, filed a motion for protective order seeking a stay of discovery pending resolution of the immunity defenses raised in the various answers to the complaint. The district court conducted a hearing on the motion for protective order on April 30, 1996. The focus of the discussion was Plaintiff's notices of deposition for six persons, most of whom were social workers. Defendants contended that the proposed deponents could provide no information relevant to qualified immunity. Plaintiff responded that "their testimony may lead directly to the question of whether [Defendants'] actions were reasonable, which is the basis for the qualified immunity argument." The district court orally denied the motion.

{7} Two days later Plaintiff filed his response to Defendants' motion for partial summary judgment. Defendants filed their reply on May 20, 1996. Also on that date Plaintiff renoticed the depositions of the six witnesses for July 1 and 2, 1996. On June 20, 1996, Defendants filed a notice that they would not appear at the depositions and moved for reconsideration of the denial of their motion for protective order. The district court conducted a hearing on the motion on June 4, 1997, and on July 2 the court entered its order denying the motion. The order further stated: "[T]he parties will request new hearings on the pending Motions to Dismiss and Summary Judgment. The parties will supplement their original motions within twenty (20) days; their responses within forty (40) days; and their replies within sixty (60) days." On August 1, 1997, Defendants filed with this Court their petition for writ of error, seeking review of the July 2 order. We granted the petition on July 13, 1998. Defendants' briefs ask this Court to remand the case to the district court with directions to enter summary judgment on Plaintiff's § 1983 claims against them.

II. QUALIFIED IMMUNITY

A. General Propositions

{8} Section 1983 provides a cause of action against a person acting under color of state law who has violated one's rights under the United States Constitution or other federal law. See 42 U.S.C. § 1983. It is a federal statute creating a federal cause of action. Therefore, "[t]he elements of, and the defenses to, a [§ 1983 claim] are defined by federal law." Howlett ex rel. Howlett v. Rose, 496 U.S. 356, 375, 110 S.Ct. 2430, 110 L.Ed.2d 332 (1990); see Carrillo v. Rostro, 114 N.M. 607, 617 n. 9, 845 P.2d 130, 140 n. 9 (1992)

(indicating that administration of the collateral order doctrine in a § 1983 action is governed by federal law).

{9} Section 1983 suits may be brought against government agencies, public officials in their official capacities, public officials in their individual capacities, and private persons. A suit against a public official in his or her official capacity is essentially a suit against the entity for whom the official works. See Ford v. New Mexico Dep't of Pub. Safety, 119 N.M. 405, 410-11, 891 P.2d 546, 551-52 (Ct.App.1994)

(discussing suits against public officials in their official and individual capacities). Suits for damages are restricted by both the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution and § 1983 itself; they cannot be brought against state agencies or against state officials in their official capacities. See id. Damage claims may, however, be brought against public officials in their individual capacities. See id. But such claims face serious obstacles.

{10} The United States Supreme Court has imposed stringent restrictions on damage suits under federal law against public officials in their individual capacities when the suits arise out of their performance of discretionary functions. It is, of course, necessary that the plaintiff prove that the defendant violated the plaintiff's rights. But that is not in itself sufficient. The defendant is entitled to qualified immunity unless the plaintiff demonstrates that the federal right so violated was a right "clearly established" at the time of the alleged violation. See Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982)

(suit against federal official); Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 340 n. 2, 106 S.Ct. 1092, 89 L.Ed.2d 271 (1986) (§ 1983 suit); Romero v. Sanchez, 119 N.M. 690, 692, 895 P.2d 212, 214 (1995) (same). For a right to be clearly established, "[t]he contours of the right must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right." Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 640, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987). Thus, the fact that an abstract right—such as the right to due process—is, in a sense, clearly established is not enough. See id. at 639-40, 107 S.Ct. 3034. Although it is not necessary that "the very action in question has previously been held unlawful,... in the light of pre-existing law the unlawfulness must be apparent." Id. at 640, 107 S.Ct. 3034 (citation omitted).

{11} The Supreme Court's justification for requiring that the right be clearly established is "`the need to protect officials who are required to exercise their discretion and the related public interest in encouraging the vigorous...