Fuqua v. Turner

• Decision Date: 06 May 2021
• Docket Number: No. 19-13877,19-13877
• Citation: 996 F.3d 1140
• Parties: Douglas FUQUA, Plaintiff – Appellant, v. Brett TURNER, Federal ATF Agent, Adam Nesmith, Federal ATF Agent, Jimmy Collier, Alabama State Fire Marshall, Defendants – Appellees, Frank Williamson, Colbert County Sheriff, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

996 F.3d 1140

Douglas FUQUA, Plaintiff – Appellant,

v.Brett TURNER, Federal ATF Agent, Adam Nesmith, Federal ATF Agent, Jimmy Collier, Alabama State Fire Marshall, Defendants – Appellees,Frank Williamson, Colbert County Sheriff, Defendant.

No. 19-13877

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

May 6, 2021

Nathaniel Martin, Law Offices of Nathaniel Martin, Cordova, AL, Kyle David Sawyer, K. David Sawyer - Attorney at Law, Montgomery, AL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Elizabeth Holt, U.S. Attorney's Office, Birmingham, AL, U.S. Attorney Service - Northern District of Florida, U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Florida, Pensacola, FL, for Defendants-Appellees Brett Turner, Adam Nesmith, Federal ATF Agents.

Bettie J. Carmack, Edmund Gerard LaCour, Jr., Alexander Barrett Bowdre, Steven Marshall, Jack Wallace, Jr., Alabama Attorney General's Office, Montgomery, AL, for Defendant-Appellee Jimmy Collier.

Before WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, GRANT and TJOFLAT, Circuit Judges.

TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge:

Douglas Fuqua sued Alabama Deputy Fire Marshal Jimmy Collier and several law enforcement officers—Colbert County Sheriff Frank Williamson, Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ("ATF") Agents Adam Nesmith and Brett Turner, and other unnamed officers—in connection with a fire inspection Collier performed on Fuqua's nightclub. The District Court dismissed the claims against the law enforcement officers and entered summary judgment for Collier on qualified immunity grounds. Fuqua appeals the judgment dismissing the claims against the ATF Agents and the entry of summary judgment for Collier. We affirm.

I.

A.

The facts construed in the light most favorable to Fuqua are as follows.

Fuqua owned an unlicensed nightclub in Colbert County, Alabama known as "The Pig." The Pig had a large assembly area with a bar and an entertainment system, a game room with a gambling table, a kitchen, and a private bedroom that served as Fuqua's residence. Sheriff Williamson estimated that he received a complaint about The Pig "at least once a week," usually about overcrowding, loud music and noise, cars blocking the road, illegal alcohol and drug sales, fights, and gun shots.

On September 16, 2015, Sheriff Williamson asked Deputy Collier to conduct an inspection of The Pig for reported problems of "overcrowding." The two visited The Pig that same day and brought along additional officers from the Sheriff's Department due to "safety concerns" Collier had about The Pig. Fuqua was elsewhere when they arrived, but came to The Pig shortly after when two men¹ inside called him on the phone. Collier told Fuqua he was with the Alabama Fire Marshal's Office and that he "need[ed] to do a fire inspection." He also asked Fuqua to accompany him throughout The Pig as he conducted the inspection. Fuqua did not expressly consent nor expressly refuse, but allowed Collier to conduct the inspection while Fuqua accompanied him. According to Collier, Fuqua was "agreeable" and "polite."

Collier inspected the large assembly area where he noted several electrical code and fire code violations, then he proceeded to the kitchen where he noticed a shotgun propped up next to a deep fryer, then the game room where he documented still more violations. Finally, Collier came to a locked door which Fuqua told him led to Fuqua's bedroom. Collier either asked Fuqua to unlock it or told Fuqua "I need to get in there, open the door," which Fuqua did. Collier wanted to inspect the bedroom because the adjacent game room contained two "extreme hazards"—a 20-pound tank of liquid propane gas and a deep fryer—and he wanted to be sure there was nothing similar in the bedroom. Upon entering the room, Collier saw a second shotgun propped up beside the door.

All in all, Collier recorded nineteen or twenty code violations. He plugged the violations into a program that then generated an official inspection report with a reinspection scheduled for no later than October 5th, 2015. Collier sent a copy of the inspection report to Fuqua by mail.

Collier returned to The Pig for a reinspection on October 21, 2015—the delay having been caused by an illness in Collier's family. Collier arrived unaccompanied by law enforcement officers this time; his interaction with Fuqua during the first inspection was sufficiently "friendly" that he no longer felt the need for protection. When Collier arrived, he called Fuqua on the phone and Fuqua agreed to drive to The Pig to meet him. When Fuqua arrived, he let Collier into The Pig and Collier inspected the same rooms as last time, including Fuqua's private bedroom. Collier did not notice any shotguns in The Pig this time, but his reinspection showed that Fuqua had corrected only three of the violations flagged on the first inspection. Accordingly, the inspection report generated by Collier's program stated that a third inspection would be conducted no later than November 17, 2015.

On November 3, 2015, Deputy Collier, Sheriff Williamson, and agents from various law enforcement agencies² —including ATF Agents Nesmith and Turner—convened to discuss The Pig. Collier told the Agents he had observed two shotguns on his first inspection of The Pig and was planning another follow-up inspection within the month. It was agreed that Collier's follow-up inspection would take place on November 16th—that being a day on which both Collier and the Agents were available—and that Collier would tell Nesmith if he saw any more firearms.

Fuqua was not at The Pig on November 16, 2015, when Collier arrived to conduct the follow-up inspection, so Collier called him, told him he "needed to reinspect" The Pig, and waited for him to arrive. After about twenty minutes, Fuqua arrived and let Collier into The Pig. As on the last occasion, Collier was not accompanied by law enforcement. Collier observed several outstanding code violations and also noticed the first shotgun was back in its old place beside the deep fryer. Collier again gained access to Fuqua's bedroom after telling Fuqua to "open the door," and upon entering Collier saw the second shotgun. Collier took pictures of the shotguns and told Nesmith about them by text message.

Within hours, Nesmith obtained a search warrant for The Pig based in part on Collier's observation of the shotguns. Nesmith then searched The Pig and found three shotguns, a pistol, and ammunition. Fuqua was arrested and on March 30, 2016 was indicted in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama for being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). See United States v. Fuqua , 3:16-cr-83-VEH-TMP (N.D. Ala.). Following his indictment, Fuqua moved the district court to suppress the seized firearms and ammunition on the ground that they were the fruit of a poisonous tree: Collier's warrantless search of The Pig on November 16, 2015 in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The District Court granted his motion and on September 1, 2016, entered an order granting the Government's motion to dismiss Fuqua's indictment with prejudice.

B.

On November 13, 2017, Fuqua filed the present lawsuit in the District Court against Collier, Williamson, Nesmith, Turner, and several unnamed sheriff's deputies and federal agents, in their individual and official capacities. His complaint sought compensatory and punitive damages and injunctive relief against Defendants under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for conspiring to violate and violating his Fourth Amendment rights when Collier searched The Pig and Fuqua's private bedroom without a warrant.³ His complaint sought the same relief under Alabama law for unlawful entry and search, false arrest, and false imprisonment. And his complaint sought additional relief under 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3) for conspiracy to deprive him of equal protection rights.

On December 8, 2017, Sheriff Williamson moved the District Court to dismiss Fuqua's complaint pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and (b)(6), arguing that Fuqua's claims against him were barred by the statute of limitations to the extent they arose from the September search and that he was entitled to qualified immunity and Eleventh Amendment immunity for the federal claims and state-law immunity for the state claims.⁴ The District Court agreed and on January 22, 2018, granted Williamson's motion.

On December 22, 2017, Collier also moved the Court to dismiss Fuqua's complaint under Rule 12(b)(1) and (b)(6), arguing that Fuqua's claims against him were barred by the statute of limitations and the Eleventh Amendment. The District Court granted Collier's motion in part and denied it in part, concluding that the statute of limitations and the Eleventh Amendment barred all but Fuqua's claims against Collier in his individual capacity arising from the November 16, 2015 search.

On February 27, 2018, the ATF Agents moved the Court to dismiss Fuqua's complaint pursuant to Rule 12(b)(1), (b)(5), and (b)(6). The Agents argued that Fuqua's individual-capacity claims should be dismissed because Fuqua failed to serve them with process consistent with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4. They also argued that the claims were barred by a combination of the statute of limitations, qualified immunity, absolute immunity,⁵ and failure to state a claim. The District Court agreed that the Agents had not been properly served and that, even if they had been, they were entitled to qualified immunity for the individual-capacity claims. The Court accordingly dismissed the claims against the Agents.

On April 18, 2019, Collier moved the Court to enter summary judgment on the claims Fuqua brought against him in his individual capacity, arguing that qualified immunity and state-law immunity⁶ barred the claims. As exhibits to his motion, Collier attached materials from Fuqua's § 922(g)(1) prosecution: the suppression-hearing transcript containing testimony from Collier and Williamson⁷ and a copy of the order⁸ suppressing the firearms and ammunition seized...