Dunn v. Estes

• Decision Date: 03 December 1953
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 52-1476.
• Citation: 117 F. Supp. 146
• Parties: DUNN v. ESTES et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts

117 F. Supp. 146

DUNN v. ESTES et al.

Civ. No. 52-1476.

United States District Court, D. Massachusetts.

December 3, 1953.

Isadore H. Y. Muchnick, Boston Mass., for plaintiff.

George Fingold, Atty. Gen., Matthew S. Heaphy, Asst. Atty. Gen., for Elliot E. McDowell and Miriam Van Waters.

John W. McIntyre, McIntyre & Henry, Attleboro, Mass., for Gazzola & Marron.

Edward O. Proctor, Dever & Proctor, Boston, Mass., for Olive Nerney.

FORD, District Judge.

We have here another phase of a complaint under the Civil Rights Act. Plaintiff brings her suit, as she alleges, under §§ 43 and 47(3) of Ch. 3 of Title 8 U.S. C.A.¹ The complaint alleges a conspiracy between the Justice of the Fourth District Court of Bristol County, Massachusetts (Estes), the chief probation officer (Nerney), the chief of police (Marron), a police sergeant (Gazzola) and the superintendent of the Reformatory for Women at Framingham (Van Waters), alleging that they, acting under color of state statutes, illegally incarcerated and imprisoned the plaintiff in the Reformatory for Women at Framingham on a charge of neglect of her minor children without due process of law, i. e., without a fair trial.

Olive Nerney, probation officer, filed motions to dismiss and for summary judgment alleging that all of her actions were in the performance of her duties as probation officer, G.L. (Ter.Ed.) Mass. c. 276, § 85, for the Fourth District Court of Bristol County and for these no liability is imposed on her because the Civil Rights Act does not deprive public officers of their established immunity from civil liability for their official acts.

This court very recently had occasion to consider the immunity of judges from civil liability for their official acts, Francis v. Lyman, D.C., 108 F.Supp. 884, affirmed Francis v. Crafts, 1 Cir., 203 F.2d 809, certiorari denied Francis v. Crafts, 74 S.Ct. 43 and the Supreme Court in Tenney v. Brandhove, 341 U.S. 367, 71 S.Ct. 783, 95 L.Ed. 1019, decided that the Civil Rights Act could not have intended to deprive state legislators of their pre-existing and well-established complete immunity from civil liability for official acts done within the sphere of legislative activity, and in that case made it clear that the literal and unqualified language of the Civil Rights Act did not subject every person in an official, executive, judicial, or legislative position who, under color of state law, subjected or caused to be subjected any person to the deprivation of civil rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States.

There is no question from the affidavits filed that the acts of the defendant Nerney complained of by the plaintiff were performed within the sphere of her official duties as a probation officer of the Bristol Court, and the questions here are: (1) Is there a long-standing and recognized doctrine that public officials are immune from civil liability for consequences in the performance of their official duties and (2) Did Congress intend to destroy that immunity in the passage of the Civil Rights Act?

It is apparent from the decided cases that the first question must be answered in the affirmative. The Civil Rights Act stems from 1871. In 1845, in Kendall v. Stokes, 3 How. 87, 44 U.S. 87, 97, at page 98, 11 L.Ed. 506, 833, a suit against a postmaster acting in his official capacity for the suspension by the postmaster on the books of the post office department of certain credits for transporting mail in favor of Kendall, the court stated: "But a public officer is not liable to an action if he falls into error in a case where the act to be done is not merely a ministerial one, but is one in relation to which it is his duty to exercise judgment and discretion; even although an individual may suffer by his mistake. A contrary principle would indeed be pregnant with the greatest mischiefs. It is unnecessary, we think, to refer to the many cases by which this doctrine has been established. It was fully recognized in the case of Gidley, Exec. of Holland v. Ld. Palmerston, 7 J. B. Moore, 91, 3 B. & B. 275."

Through a long line of cases this principle of immunity with respect to official acts has been recognized as firmly entrenched in the common law. In Spalding v. Vilas, 161 U.S. 483, at page 498, 16 S.Ct. 631, 637, 40 L.Ed. 780, a suit against the postmaster general for libel, the court stated: "We are of opinion that the same general considerations of public policy and convenience which demand for judges of courts of superior jurisdiction immunity from civil suits for damages arising from acts done by them in the course of the performance of their judicial functions apply, to a large extent, to official communications made by heads of executive departments when engaged in the discharge of duties imposed upon them by law." (Emphasis mine.) See Yaselli v. Goff, 2 Cir., 12 F.2d 396, suit against assistant attorneys general, quasi-judicial officers, for malicious prosecution; Standard Nut Margarine Co. of Florida v. Mellon, 63 App.D.C. 339, 72 F.2d 557, suit against secretary and assistant secretaries of the treasury for erroneous construction of statute causing taxable loss to plaintiff's oleomargarine product; Booth v. Fletcher, 69 App.D.C. 351, 101 F.2d 676, suit for procuring plaintiff's disbarment against judges, assistant clerks, and committee on grievances for the Supreme Court; Gibson v. Reynolds, 8 Cir., 172 F.2d 95, suit against draft board members for improper classification; Lang v. Wood, 67 App.D.C. 287, 92 F.2d 211, suit against attorney general,...