Emery v. Holmes, 86-1486
| Decision Date | 09 October 1986 |
| Docket Number | No. 86-1486,86-1486 |
| Citation | 824 F.2d 143 |
| Parties | Richard EMERY, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. Peter Bradford HOLMES, et al., Defendants, Appellants. . Heard |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
Timothy M. Burke, Boston, Mass., for defendants, appellants.
Harold Resnic, Springfield, Mass., with whom Susan B. Persky, Brookline, Mass., was on brief, for plaintiff, appellee.
Before BOWNES, Circuit Judge, BROWN, * Senior Circuit Judge, and TORRUELLA, Circuit Judge.
Richard Emery filed this action under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 against several police officers for damages resulting from their seizure of his Peugeot automobile during a search of his neighbor's property. The police officers who executed an arrest warrant for Emery's neighbor and obtained a search warrant for the neighbor's property recognized Emery's car as the same car identified in a search warrant for its previous owner's property. The earlier search warrant had expired by its own terms five months earlier. The officers seized the car under the incorrect belief that its seizure was supported by the search warrant for the neighbor's property which specifically authorized the search of "all vehicles" on the property and additionally by the plain view doctrine.
The officers' motion for summary judgment asserting (i) the officers were entitled to qualified immunity, and (ii) the seizure of the automobile did not violate Emery's Fourth Amendment rights was denied. The District Court held that the officers failed to demonstrate that, as a matter of law, the seizure of Emery's automobile was authorized by either a warrant or the plain view doctrine and thus were not entitled to summary judgment on qualified immunity. We affirm the District Court's denial of the officers' summary judgment motion finding that when construed in a light most favorable to Emery, there remains genuine issues of material fact as to whether Emery's Fourth Amendment rights were violated and whether such alleged conduct would be outside the officers' qualified immunity. Emery is entitled to a trial for a fact finder to determine whether the officers acted outside their qualified immunity and violated Emery's Fourth Amendment rights by seizing his automobile.
A denial of a motion for summary judgment is interlocutory in character and is normally not appealable as a final decision. Agromayor v. Colberg, 738 F.2d 55, 57 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1037, 105 S.Ct. 515, 83 L.Ed.2d 405 (1984); 28 U.S.C. Secs. 1291, 1292. However, in Krohn v. United States, 742 F.2d 24, 28 (1st Cir.1984), this Court furrowed an exception to the final judgment rule to allow appeals from interlocutory denials of summary judgment on the issue of qualified immunity, because the entitlement not to stand trial conferred on government officials through qualified immunity is "effectively lost if the case is erroneously permitted to go to trial." Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 526, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 2816, 86 L.Ed.2d 411, 425 (1985); Bonitz v. Fair, 804 F.2d 164, 174 (1st Cir.1986); De Abadia v. Izquierdo Mora, 792 F.2d 1187, 1189 (1st Cir.1986); see also, Stevens v. Corbell, 798 F.2d 120, 121 (5th Cir.1986); Helton v. Clements, 787 F.2d 1016, 1017 (5th Cir.1986). At the same time, we held that "qualified immunity differs from absolute immunity in that it is not so readily decided by motion; obviously on some occasions officials possessing only qualified immunity must stand trial." Krohn, 742 F.2d at 28. Both parties agree that the District Court's denial of summary judgment on the issue of qualified immunity is properly before this Court under Krohn.
Granting that summary judgment denying qualified immunity is appealable, Emery challenges our jurisdiction to review the District Court's denial of the officers' motion for summary judgment on whether the Fourth Amendment was violated as a nonappealable interlocutory decision. "The fact that we have jurisdiction over a district court order on an interlocutory basis does not permit us to review other claims raised below." Bonitz v. Fair, 804 F.2d 164, 173 (1st Cir.1986). The legality of the officers' seizure of the automobile is a necessary component of qualified immunity and is reviewed here only to the extent necessary as an element of that ruling on summary judgment. 1
On March 20, 1981, the officers went to the home of David Nissenbaum to execute a warrant for his arrest. When the officers arrived, they recognized the red 1979 Peugeot sedan parked in front of Nissenbaum's house as subject to a search warrant issued October 20, 1980, for Theodore A. Adler. 2 Officer Branscombe, who obtained the October 20, 1980 warrant for Adler's residence, located in Bolton, Massachusetts, approximately forty miles from Emery's and Nissenbaum's, was also involved in the seizure of Emery's Peugeot from Nissenbaum's. That warrant specifically identified the red Peugeot as among the property to be searched and seized. When Branscombe attempted to execute that warrant, the Peugeot was not found. The October 1980 warrant expired on its own terms seven days later.
Three weeks after the October search warrant was issued, Adler sold the car to Emery. 3 Emery did not change the title, registration, or license plates to reflect the transfer of ownership. Thus, all state records available to the police officers would reflect Adler as the true owner of the vehicle.
Following an extended drug trafficking investigation, the officers obtained an arrest warrant for David Nissenbaum and his wife. 4 When the officers went to execute the arrest warrant for David Nissenbaum, they recognized the Peugeot parked in front of Nissenbaum's house as the same Peugeot identified as an item subject to search in the October 1980 search warrant for Adler's residence. They also observed marijuana plants growing in Nissenbaum's greenhouse through a window. Based on this observation, Officers Holmes and O'Brien left the scene to obtain a search warrant for Nissenbaum's residence. The search warrant they obtained specifically authorized a search of Nissenbaum's house and "all ... vehicles on the property." It did not specifically describe any particular vehicle to be searched. The warrant specifically authorized the seizure of marijuana, money or proceeds derived from the distribution, transportation and sale of marijuana, any records pertaining to the transportation and distribution of marijuana, any technical devices, and any devices used in the manufacture, cultivation, and manicuring of marijuana. The warrant did not authorize the seizure of any vehicle in either general or specific terms.
When Holmes and O'Brien returned to Nissenbaum's house with the search warrant, the Peugeot was now parked next door in front of Emery's house. 5 There is no dispute that the Peugeot was seized after Holmes and O'Brien returned with the Nissenbaum search warrant or that Holmes discovered marijuana and $5,000 in cash when he searched the Peugeot six days later. 6 However, the manner in which the car was seized and which officers participated in its seizure is disputed. Because this case is presently before us on a motion for summary judgment, we must constrict our analysis to view the facts in a light most favorable to the nonmoving party, Emery. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); Voutour v. Vitale, 761 F.2d 812, 817 (1st Cir.1985), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 106 S.Ct. 879, 88 L.Ed.2d 916 (1986); Emery v. Merrimack Valley Wood Products, 701 F.2d 985, 986 (1st Cir.1983); Santoni v. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., 677 F.2d 174, 177 (1st Cir.1982).
Emery asserts that Officers Holmes and O'Brien came to his house, refused to show him a search warrant, and told him that they were taking the Peugeot. Emery protested that the car no longer belonged to Adler and tried to show the officers his bill of sale and applications for title and registration. Emery claims the officers refused to examine the papers showing Adler no longer owned the automobile and threatened to arrest him if he did not turn over the car. Emery removed his personal belongings from the car and had a friend drive it over to the Nissenbaums' house where the police eventually impounded it. 7
"[G]overnment officials performing discretionary functions generally are shielded from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2738, 73 L.Ed.2d 396, 410 (1982).
The Supreme Court eliminated considerations of the officials' subjective state of mind in Harlow. The current standard for when an official is acting within the limits of qualified immunity focuses on the objective reasonableness of the officials' conduct. "Under this standard, the reasonableness of the official's conduct is not measured against the official's actual knowledge of constitutional standards and the probable constitutionality of his or her action, but rather against a relatively uniform level of 'presumptive knowledge' of constitutional standards." Floyd v. Farrell, 765 F.2d 1, 4-5 (1st Cir.1985) (footnote omitted); see also Harlow, 457 U.S. at 815, 102 S.Ct. at 2736-37, 73 L.Ed.2d at 408-09.
Our analysis, like the District Court's, is two-fold. Whether there is a genuine issue of material fact that (i) Emery's constitutional rights were violated; and if so, (ii) whether those rights were clearly established so a police officer could reasonably have thought his/her conduct was consistent with those rights. See Anderson v. Creighton, --- U.S. ----, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987).
The officers make two arguments in support of their position that they were entitled to...
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