Dunn v. State of Tenn.

• Decision Date: 18 April 1983
• Docket Number: No. 81-5217,81-5217
• Citation: 697 F.2d 121
• Parties: Edward Lee DUNN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The STATE OF TENNESSEE, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 121

697 F.2d 121

Edward Lee DUNN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The STATE OF TENNESSEE, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 81-5217.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued July 29, 1982.

Decided Dec. 30, 1982.

Certiorari Denied April 18, 1983.

See 103 S.Ct. 1778.

Mose J. Davie (argued), Nashville, Tenn., for plaintiff-appellant.

J. Andrew Hoyal, II, Asst. Atty. Gen. (argued), William Leech, Atty. Gen., John C. Zimmermann, Nashville, Tenn., for defendants-appellees.

John P. Branham, Mary M. Schaffner (argued), Howell & Fisher, Nashville, Tenn., for Wix and Hight.

Burney T. Durham (argued), David M. Amonette, William L. Small, Bone & Woods, Gallatin, Tenn., for Sumner County.

Before KEITH and MERRITT, Circuit Judges, and JOHNSTONE, ^* District Judge.

JOHNSTONE, District Judge.

Plaintiff appeals a judgment of the district court dismissing his complaint, seeking relief under 42 U.S.C. Secs. 1983 (1970) and 1985(3) (1970), for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). We are of the opinion that plaintiff states a claim actionable under 1983 against certain defendants, but agree with the district court's dismissal of the 1983 action against other parties and with the lower court's dismissal of the 1985 claim against all defendants.

Mr. Dunn's complaint alleges that at 10:00 P.M. on the night of December 26, 1978, David Wyllie, a Tennessee state trooper, and Phillip Hight, a deputy sheriff for Sumner County, Tennessee, came to his residence with a misdemeanor arrest warrant for his son. It was Wyllie's fourth trip and Hight's second to the Dunn home. The two officers requested Dunn's permission to enter the house to look for the son. Dunn, dressed in pajamas, told the officers that his son was living with Dunn's wife in Nashville. He stood in the doorway and passively, but firmly, denied the two officers entry. There is nothing in the record to indicate that Dunn was even impolite to the officers. ¹

At this point, the two officers forced entry, searched unsuccessfully for Dunn's son, and arrested Dunn for "interfering with the duty of a police officer." The officers handcuffed Dunn and drove him to the Sumner County Jail, where he was booked and required to post bail.

Both Wyllie and Hight testified at Dunn's criminal trial. Dunn was found guilty of interfering with the duty of a police officer. He appealed his conviction to the Sumner County Circuit Court and ultimately to the Tennessee Criminal Court of Appeals. The appellate court dismissed the charge finding no "interference." The state applied to the Tennessee Supreme Court for review of the dismissal, but the Court denied the application.

Dunn filed this action in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee against, among others, Wyllie, Hight, Sumner County and Mayo Wix, its Sheriff, alleging the arrest, imprisonment, and prosecution deprived him "... of his liberty and his rights and privileges of being secure in his person and property." That court dismissed plaintiff's complaint against all defendants. The district court found the allegations of malicious prosecution devoid of any violations of constitutional rights. In a footnote to the opinion, the Court noted that this claim "... may be time-barred in this Court ... [because] ... any claim under Sec. 1983 must be filed within one year from the actual date of the constitutional violation. 4A Tenn.Code Ann. Sec. 28-3-104."

Three issues are presented for review. First, whether under the facts alleged in the complaint, a claim of malicious prosecution is actionable under Sections 1983 and 1985. Second, if the claim is actionable, whether the cause of action accrued upon the date of the successful outcome of the underlying action. Finally, whether the defendants named in the appeal are immune from the action.

This Court agrees with the district court that plaintiff failed to state a cause of action under 1985(3). ² To state a claim actionable under this section, a complaint must allege two necessary elements: (1) the existence of a conspiracy, and (2) some "class-based discriminatory animus behind the conspirators' action." Griffin v. Breckenridge, 403 U.S. 88, 102, 91 S.Ct. 1790, 1798, 29 L.Ed.2d 338 (1971); Browder v. Tipton, 630 F.2d 1149, 1150 (6th Cir.1980). Dunn is a white male and his complaint contains no allegations that he was deprived of equal protection or equal privileges and immunities because of discrimination based upon a constitutionally protected classification nor that a conspiracy existed among the defendants. This claim was properly dismissed against all defendants. Macko v. Bryon, 641 F.2d 447, 450 (6th Cir.1981). However, the trial court erred, in part, in dismissing plaintiff's claim of malicious prosecution as actionable under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. ³

Dunn alleges that the "... defendants ... falsely, wrongfully, willfully, and maliciously prosecuted [Dunn] upon said alleged charge of interfering with a police officer, ... with the intent to deprive the plaintiff of his liberty and his rights and privileges of being secure in his person and property...." The district court accepted these allegations as true, but held that they were insufficient to raise a state tort claim of malicious prosecution to the level of an action cognizable under 1983.

The standard for reviewing the sufficiency of the allegations in a complaint for an action under 1983 was stated in Westlake v. Lucas, 537 F.2d 857, (6th Cir.1976), where we held:

[d]ismissals of complaints under the civil rights statutes are scrutinized with special care. A complaint need not set down in detail all the particularities of a plaintiff's claim against a defendant. Rule 8(a)(2) simply requires 'a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief....' Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(a)(2). All a complaint need do is afford the defendant 'fair notice of what the plaintiff's claim is and the grounds upon which it rests.' [cites omitted]. A motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) should not be granted 'unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief.' [cites omitted]. [emphasis added].

Id. at 858-859.

Neither the Fourteenth Amendment nor 1983 were designed to redress all injuries incurred by reason of unfounded or malicious claims brought in state court actions. Nevertheless, if the misuse of a legal proceeding is so egregious as to subject the aggrieved individual to a deprivation of constitutional dimension, and the tortfeasor is acting under color of state law, 1983 may be employed. Nesmith v. Alford, 318 F.2d 110, 126 (5th Cir.1963), cert. denied, 375 U.S. 975, 84 S.Ct. 489, 11 L.Ed.2d 420 (1964).

Two essential elements must be pled and proven by a plaintiff to recover under 1983. First, there must be a deprivation of plaintiff's "... rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws...." of the United States. Baker v. McCollan, 443 U.S. 137, 140, 99 S.Ct. 2689, 2692, 61 L.Ed.2d 433 (1970); Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527, 101 S.Ct. 1908, 1913, 68 L.Ed.2d 420 (1981). Second, the plaintiff must allege that the defendants deprived him of this constitutional right "under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory." Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167, 171-188, 81 S.Ct. 473, 476-484, 5 L.Ed.2d 492 (1961); Adickes v. S.H. Kress and Co., 398 U.S. 144, 150, 90 S.Ct. 1598, 1604, 26 L.Ed.2d 142 (1970).

The absence of the first element (deprivation of a right secured by the Constitution and laws of the United States) induced the district court to dismiss the malicious prosecution claim. ⁴ Certainly, the complaint is wanting in particulars. However, reading the complaint most favorably to plaintiff, it is arguable that Dunn's interest in being free from unreasonable search and seizure, as guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment, was impaired by the officers' search. ⁵ This Court recognized in United States v. Shye, 492 F.2d 886, 891 (6th Cir.1974), that when police officers seek to search a third party's home to execute an arrest warrant for another, "... a search warrant and not just an arrest warrant is necessary, ..." absent exigent circumstances as well as probable cause to believe the suspect is in the home. ⁶ United States v. Sumlin, 567 F.2d 684, 686, n. 1 (6th Cir.1977), cert. denied 435 U.S. 932, 98 S.Ct. 1507, 55 L.Ed.2d 529 (1978), discussing United States v. Shye, 492 F.2d at 891. Explaining our prior decision in United States v. McKinney, 379 F.2d 259, 263 (6th Cir.1967), noted in the Tennessee Criminal Court of Appeals opinion, we rejected the suggestion that the issuance of an arrest warrant is itself an exceptional circumstance obviating the need for a search warrant and required that "[a]s a constitutional minimum ..., an arrest warrant can authorize entry into a dwelling only where the officials executing the warrant have reasonable or probable cause to believe the person named in the warrant is within. [cites omitted] ..." United States v. Jones, 641 F.2d 425, 428 (6th Cir.1981). Moreover, the United States Supreme Court has held that, absent exigent circumstances or consent, law enforcement officers can not legally search for the subject of an arrest warrant in the home of a third party without first obtaining a search warrant. Steagald v. United States, 451 U.S. 204, 215, 101 S.Ct. 1642, 1649, 68 L.Ed.2d 38 (1981); see Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980).

In our view the complaint can be fairly interpreted to allege that the defendants Wyllie and Hight, acting under color of law, deprived plaintiff of his constitutional right under the Fourth Amendment, as incorporated in the Fourteenth Amendment, to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures. They did so by arresting and prosecuting him because he attempted to exercise that...