Fletcher v. Town of Clinton

• Citation: 196 F.3d 41
• Decision Date: 08 September 1999
• Docket Number: No. 99-1377,99-1377
• Parties: (1st Cir. 1999) LORI FLETCHER, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. TOWN OF CLINTON, DEAN BESSEY, and TODD GENEST, Defendants, Appellants. Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 41

196 F.3d 41 (1st Cir. 1999)

LORI FLETCHER, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. TOWN OF CLINTON, DEAN BESSEY, and TODD GENEST, Defendants, Appellants.

No. 99-1377

United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit

Heard September 8, 1999

Decided November 8, 1999

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Edward R. Benjamin, Jr., with whom Thompson & Bowie was on brief, for appellants.

C.H. Spurling for appellee.

Before Stahl, Circuit Judge, John R. Gibson, Senior Circuit Judge,^* and Lynch, Circuit Judge.

LYNCH, Circuit Judge.

On July 17, 1997, Lori Fletcher obtained an ex parte domestic violence restraining order against her abusive boyfriend, William McDonald. McDonald was ordered to stay away from Fletcher and her residence. Informed that McDonald had been seen in Fletcher's home recently, two Clinton, Maine police officers drove by her house on July 31, 1997. They saw McDonald there. Aware of the restraining order and past occasions on which Fletcher sought police help, the police entered her home, despite her objections and her assertion that McDonald was not in the house. A fracas resulted during which Fletcher was arrested and McDonald escaped. McDonald turned himself in the next day. No charges were ever prosecuted against Fletcher.

Fletcher then brought a federal civil rights action against the officers, the Town, and the bail commissioner. A Magistrate Judge denied the defendants' motion for summary judgment on the grounds of qualified immunity, and they appeal. We affirm in part and reverse in part, hold that the officers have qualified immunity as to Counts I and II of the complaint, and find the defendants have waived their appeal from the denial of immunity as to Count III. We vacate the Magistrate Judge's denial of summary judgment as to the Town of Clinton, and remand for further proceedings.

I

Fletcher filed suit against police officers Dean Bessey and Todd Genest, bail commissioner William Cyr,¹ and the Town of Clinton, Maine on May 15, 1998, alleging violations of 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and state tort and criminal laws.² Count I of the complaint alleges violations of § 1983 stemming from the officers' first entry into her home and her subsequent arrest; Count II concerns the officers' second entry into her home that night and "her subsequent detention and interrogation." Finally, Count III alleges a § 1983 violation stemming from the bail process.

The Magistrate Judge³ denied the motion for summary judgment as to the officers and the Town, concluding that the officers violated Fletcher's clearly established Fourth Amendment rights in circumstances in which no reasonable officer could have believed that his or her actions were not in violation of such rights. In concluding that there were no exigent circumstances justifying the officers' actions, the Magistrate Judge relied on the officers' "lack of haste" in going to Fletcher's home after hearing that McDonald had been seen there earlier, the lack of a history of physical violence in the pair's relationship, and the fact that the police "saw nothing to suggest Plaintiff was in danger" that evening.

II

We briefly address the question of appellate jurisdiction. Fletcher argues that this court is without jurisdiction to hear the defendants' appeal, as that appeal is "based on allegations of factual error by the court below."

The jurisdictional rules in this area are clear. Ordinarily, appeals from denials of summary judgment will not be entertained. See Buenrostro v. Collazo, 973 F.2d 39, 41 (1st Cir. 1992). There is, however, a narrow exception for denials of pretrial motions based on claims of qualified immunity. See Johnson v. Jones, 515 U.S. 304, 311-12 (1995). Such denials are reviewable "only to the extent that the qualified immunity defense turns upon a 'purely legal' question." Daz v. Daz Martnez, 112 F.3d 1, 3 (1st Cir. 1997); see also Tang v. Rhode Island, 120 F.3d 325, 326 (1st Cir. 1997). "[A] district court's pretrial rejection of a qualified immunity defense is not immediately appealable to the extent that it turns on either an issue of fact or an issue perceived by the trial court to be an issue of fact." Daz, 112 F.3d at 3 (quoting Stella v. Kelley, 63 F.3d 71, 74 (1st Cir. 1995)) (internal quotation marks omitted).

Fletcher is correct that there would be no appellate jurisdiction here if summary judgment were properly denied because there were material facts in dispute. Fletcher is also correct that there are disputes of fact concerning many of the details of the events in question. But the Magistrate Judge clearly based his decision on a determination that summary judgment was not available as a matter of law. See id. ("If the pretrial rejection of the qualified immunity defense is based on a purely legal ground, such as a finding that the conduct described by the plaintiff, assuming it occurred, transgressed a clearly established right, then the denial may be challenged through an interlocutory appeal."). Our independent review of the record shows that the disputed facts are not material and that the issue of immunity may properly be decided on the basis of the undisputed facts.

III

The essentials of the event are undisputed. We view the facts in the light most favorable to Fletcher. See Swain v. Spinney, 117 F.3d 1, 8 (1st Cir. 1997).

Before the night of July 31, 1997, Fletcher had called the police for help with McDonald three separate times before she obtained a restraining order. On May 22, 1997, Fletcher called the police and complained that McDonald was extremely angry, was refusing to leave her home, and had thrown her kitten across her apartment. Officer Genest went to Fletcher's home, where Fletcher told him that things were now under control. A pastor from Fletcher's church had arrived and McDonald had agreed to leave with him. The police left once McDonald did.

About two weeks later, on June 6, 1997, Fletcher called the police again. She told the dispatcher that McDonald was drunk, had refused to leave, and was stealing her property and threatening to damage her car. The dispatcher heard McDonald tell Fletcher to hang up the phone and call someone to come pick him up; the dispatcher urged Fletcher to stay on the line until officers arrived. The dispatcher heard an escalating argument and got McDonald on the phone. Officers Genest and Bessey arrived shortly thereafter and found McDonald outside the home. Despite their orders not to do so and their warnings of arrest if he persisted, McDonald tried to go back into Fletcher's home. McDonald was arrested and charged with criminal trespass. McDonald was later released on bail on the condition that he not have any direct or indirect contact with Fletcher or her home.

On July 16, 1997, Fletcher again called the police, this time from the home of Clinton Police Sergeant Steve Trahan (or his mother). Fletcher said that her "ex-boyfriend" McDonald was in her home in violation of his bail conditions and that she had been forced to flee to call for help. Fletcher told the police that McDonald had been at her home when she returned from work, that they had argued, and that Fletcher had fled to her car. She was talking to McDonald's ex-girlfriend (who had called to speak with McDonald) on her cordless phone. McDonald had been "screaming in the background." When Fletcher asked McDonald's ex-girlfriend to call for help, McDonald had grabbed the phone away and thrown it into a field. Fletcher went for help and the ex-girlfriend called the police. Fletcher did not know Sergeant Trahan, but she had seen a police car parked outside of the house and was "just taking a chance hoping someone was there that could help [her]."

Officers picked up Fletcher and took her home. McDonald was gone. They saw that McDonald had damaged Fletcher's property, and noted that her kitten's eye was swollen shut. McDonald telephoned Fletcher while the police were with her; he told her that he was in Fairfield, Maine. It was a ruse. When the police left to find him, McDonald appeared outside of Fletcher's house. Fletcher once again called the police. McDonald was arrested later that evening, his bail was revoked, and he was returned to jail.

The next day, July 17, Fletcher applied for an ex parte temporary restraining order against McDonald in the state district court. Under Maine law at the time,⁴ temporary ex parte orders of protection could be granted on a showing of "[i]mmediate and present danger of physical abuse to the plaintiff." Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 19, § 765(2). In her application, Fletcher swore that she was "in immediate and present danger of abuse by the defendant." She described the previous day's events -- the same events she had described to the police the night before -- and reported that she had "called for help on previous occassions [sic] because [she] was freightened [sic] for [her] safety and for the safety of [her] property." Fletcher also told the court that McDonald had "threatened [her] on several occassions, [sic] that if I leave him he will wreck my car and my belongings." The court issued an order that prohibited McDonald from, among other things, entering Fletcher's home and having any contact, direct or indirect, with her. The order was served on McDonald in jail. A copy was also delivered to the Clinton Police Department, as the agency responsible for enforcing the order.

On the evening of July 31, 1997, the date of the incidents in question, Officers Genest and Bessey went on duty at 6 p.m. Shortly before going on duty, Trahan informed Genest that he had seen McDonald at Fletcher's home, when Fletcher was not there, earlier in the day or the day before. Both Genest and Bessey were aware of the history of problems between Fletcher and McDonald. Genest had responded to Fletcher's May 22 and June 6 calls for help, and Bessey had responded to the June 6 call. Additionally, both officers were aware of the events of July 16 and knew that...