Elder v. Holloway
| Decision Date | 31 January 1995 |
| Docket Number | Civ. No. 88-1329-HLR. |
| Citation | 874 F. Supp. 278 |
| Parties | Charles K. ELDER and Beverly S. Elder, husband and wife, Plaintiffs, v. R.D. HOLLOWAY; Other Unknown Employees and/or Agents, individually and in their official capacity as police officers for the Ada County Sheriff's Office, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Idaho |
John C. Lynn, Lynn Scott Hackney & Sullivan, Boise, ID, for plaintiffs.
James J. Davis, Boise, ID, for defendants.
ORDER GRANTING MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT
On remand from the United States Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals entered an order remanding the above-entitled proceeding to this court. In so doing, the court of appeals directed this court to reconsider the qualified immunity issue herein in light of United States v. Al-Azzawy, 784 F.2d 890 (9th Cir.1985), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1144, 106 S.Ct. 2255, 90 L.Ed.2d 700 (1986), and all other relevant authority. Elder v. Holloway, 22 F.3d 897 (9th Cir.1994). Like the Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit expressed no view as to whether Al-Azzawy's holding with respect to exigent circumstances, entitles defendants herein to qualified immunity. Id. See also Elder v. Holloway, 510 U.S. ___, 114 S.Ct. 1019, 127 L.Ed.2d 344 (1994).
To facilitate consideration of this limited issue on remand, the parties were given an opportunity to submit briefs. On June 20, 1994, Holloway's Memorandum in Support of Motion for Summary Judgment After Remand was filed.1 On June 29, 1994, Plaintiff's Memorandum in Opposition to Holloway's Motion for Summary Judgment was filed. And, on July 15, 1994, Holloway filed a brief in reply.
Having fully reviewed the record with respect to Defendant Holloway's Motion for Summary Judgment, the court finds that oral argument would only delay, and would not significantly aid, the decision-making process. Therefore, no oral argument shall be entertained and based on the analysis to follow, defendant's motion shall be granted.
In support of his motion for summary judgment, Defendant Holloway essentially contends that he is entitled to qualified immunity based on the fact that: (1) the law was not so clearly established that he could not have believed Elder's arrest was lawful; and/or (2) that he could have reasonably believed that exigent circumstances warranted Elder's arrest.
In response, Plaintiff Elder argues that Holloway is not entitled to qualified immunity. Plaintiff maintains that the law was clearly established at the time of his arrest and that "ordering a person inside his house to come out and surrenmder sic is an arrest within a residence and requires a warrant." Plaintiff's Memorandum in Opposition to Holloway's Motion for Summary Judgment, filed June 29, 1994, 13-14. Plaintiff maintains further that the exigency needed to excuse a warrant is generally a factual matter and is not appropriate for summary judgment.
As more fully developed by the record herein, Plaintiff Elder was arrested without a warrant after Idaho police officers, including Defendant R.D. Holloway, surrounded the home where he was staying and ordered him to come out. After Elder exited his brother's house, Defendant Holloway placed him under arrest. Elder filed this action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 essentially claiming that in the absence of an Idaho arrest warrant, his arrest was unconstitutional.
In United States v. Al-Azzawy, 784 F.2d 890 (9th Cir.1985), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1144, 106 S.Ct. 2255, 90 L.Ed.2d 700 (1986), police surrounded the suspect's house and, with weapons drawn, ordered him to come outside. When he emerged, he was taken into custody. The Ninth Circuit determined that "even though the suspect had exited the house and was physically seized outside, he was in fact `arrested inside his residence without a warrant.'" Elder v. Holloway, 975 F.2d 1388, 1391 (9th Cir.1991) (quoting United States v. Al-Azzawy, 784 F.2d at 893). In so concluding, the Ninth Circuit "reaffirmed the rule that `it is the location of the arrested person, and not the arresting agents, that determines whether an arrest occurs within a home.'" Id. (citations omitted). Ultimately, however, the court of appeals upheld the warrantless arrest in Al-Azzawy finding that it was justified by exigent circumstances.
This court did not discuss Al-Azzawy in its previous decision, Elder v. Holloway, 751 F.Supp. 858 (D.Idaho 1990). Accordingly, the focus of this court on remand is whether Defendant R.D. Holloway is entitled to qualified immunity, despite the fact that the Al-Azzawy decision was in existence at the time of Elder's arrest. Having revisited the record herein in light of Al-Azzawy and all other relevant authority, this court still believes that Holloway is entitled to qualified immunity.
As the Ninth Circuit recently recognized:
The rule of qualified immunity "`provides ample support' to all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law." Burns v. Reed, 500 U.S. 478, 494-95, 111 S.Ct. 1934, 1943-44, 114 L.Ed.2d 547 (1991) (quoting Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 341, 106 S.Ct. 1092, 1096, 89 L.Ed.2d 271 (1986)). "Therefore, regardless of whether the constitutional violation occurred, the officer should prevail if the right asserted by the plaintiff was not `clearly established' or the officer could have reasonably believed that his particular conduct was lawful." Romero v. Kitsap County, 931 F.2d 624, 627 (9th Cir.1991) (emphasis supplied). Furthermore, "the entitlement is an immunity from suit rather than a mere defense to liability; ... it is effectively lost if a case is erroneously permitted to go to trial." Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 526, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 2815, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985).
Schroeder v. McDonald, 41 F.3d 1272, 1278-79 (9th Cir.1994).
Despite the existence of Al-Azzawy at the time of Elder's arrest, this court does not find that the law was "clearly established" that Defendant Holloway had to secure an Idaho warrant before arresting Elder outside of his brother's house. Moreover, given the circumstances on the date of Elder's arrest, this court finds that Defendant Holloway "could have reasonably believed that his particular conduct was lawful."
As it considered this particular case, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was even willing to acknowledged that:
... Assuming that Elder's failure to proffer Al-Azzawy was inadvertent, and the district judge did not find it either, we are hard-pressed to say that the law was so clearly established that a reasonable law enforcement officer in Holloway's shoes would understand that what he was doing violated a constitutional right. See Ward v. County of San Diego, 791 F.2d 1329, 1332 (9th Cir.1986) (), cert. denied, 483 U.S. 1020, 107 S.Ct. 3263, 97 L.Ed.2d 762 (1987).
Elder v. Holloway, 975 F.2d at 1396.
Thus, in reconsidering the qualified immunity issue herein in light of Al-Azzawy and all other relevant authority, this court finds that Defendant Holloway is entitled to qualified immunity because the law was not clearly established and because Holloway reasonably believed that his conduct in arresting Elder was lawful.
In the alternative, even if the Al-Azzawy decision could be considered to have clearly established the law applicable to the situation presented in this case and put Defendant Holloway on notice that he should have obtained an Idaho warrant before arresting Elder at his brother's house, this court finds that the warrantless arrest was justified by exigent circumstances.
In its previous order, the court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants based on qualified immunity. The court stated in passing that questions of fact appeared to preclude entry of summary judgment on the grounds that exigent circumstances excused the warrant requirement. However, having conducted a second careful and thorough review of the entire record in this matter, and in light of the decision in Al-Azzawy, the court now finds that there are no genuine issues of material fact in dispute and that there is abundant evidence that exigent circumstances existed to excuse Elder's warrantless arrest.
Exigent circumstances are "`those in which a substantial risk of harm to the persons involved or to the law enforcement process would arise if the police were to delay a search or arrest until a warrant could be obtained.'" Al-Azzawy, 784 F.2d at 894 (alteration in original) (citation omitted). Exigent circumstances are present when "a reasonable person would believe that entry (or other relevant prompt action) was necessary to prevent physical harm to the officers or other persons, the destruction of relevant evidence, the escape of the suspect, or some other consequence improperly frustrating legitimate law enforcement efforts." United States v. McConney, 728 F.2d 1195, 1199 (9th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 824, 105 S.Ct. 101, 83 L.Ed.2d 46 (1984).
In Al-Azzawy, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that exigent circumstances existed on the sole basis that police officers had been informed by a reliable person that Al-Azzawy possessed explosives and was in an agitated and violent state. Al-Azzawy, 784 F.2d at 894.2 In this case, the police were informed by a reliable person, Elder's own brother, that Elder had access to weapons inside the house and would resist police. Indeed, many of the undisputed facts surrounding Elder's arrest are more egregious than those present in Al-Azzawy. For example:
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