Gates v. City Of Chicago
| Citation | 623 F.3d 389 |
| Decision Date | 27 September 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. 08-1455.,08-1455. |
| Parties | Elton GATES and Luster Nelson, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. CITY OF CHICAGO, Philip J. Cline, James Echols, et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (7th Circuit) |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Kevin Peters, Thomas Peters (argued), Attorneys, Mary F. DeSloover, Chicago, IL, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.
Myriam Z. Kasper, Attorney, Office of the Corporation Counsel, J. Mark Powell (argued), Attorney, City of Chicago Law Department, Kim R. Walberg, Attorney, Shefsky & Froelich, Chicago, IL, for Defendants-Appellees.
Before KANNE, ROVNER and WOOD, Circuit Judges.
Persons who are arrested by Chicago police officers often are carrying small amounts of cash which the officers seize 1 and inventory at the time of arrest. The plaintiffs here were arrestees from whom police officers confiscated small amounts of cash. The arrestees unsuccessfully sought the return of their money and challenged the City's policies governing the return of seized funds. They also challenged the notice the City provided of those policies. The district court granted summary judgment to the City on the plaintiffs' federal due process claims and dismissed their state law restitution claims as moot. The plaintiffs appeal and we affirm in part, and vacate and remand in part.
Chicago police officers arrested Elton Gates for aggravated battery, in violation of 720 ILCS 5/12-4(b)(6), and Luster Nelson for manufacture or delivery of crack cocaine in violation of 720 ILCS 570/401(c)(2). The officers seized $113 in cash from Gates at the time of his January 14, 2003 arrest, and $59 from Nelson on February 4, 2004. Under procedures in place at the Chicago Police Department at that time, each man was issued 2 a property inventory receipt that listed the property seized, a court date, the charges, and the names and star numbers of the police officers effecting the seizures. In each instance, the officer filling out the inventory receipt indicated that the property would be held “for investigation and/or evidence.” Although the format of the inventory receipts changed slightly between the time Gates was arrested in 2003 and Nelson was arrested in 2004, one part of the form stayed essentially the same: the right-side column labeled “Notice to Property Owner or Claimant,” which we will refer to as the “Notice.” 3 In relevant part, the Notice states: 4
Property Release Order (CPD-34.554) Required
Return to the police station where your property was taken from you. Give this copy to the desk officer in charge for forms and instructions necessary for the return of your property.
Upon official notification that inventoried property is available for release, the subject owner or claimant must pick up the property within 30 days of notification or the property will be legally disposed of according to the direction of the law.
* * *
Seizure without search warrant-(Ill.Rev.Stat. Chap. 38, Sec. 108-2): (725 ILCS 5/108-2)
Give this copy to arrestee. If not accepted, attach to Copy 5.
Seizure with search warrant-(Ill.Rev.Stat. Chap. 38, Sec. 108-10) (725 ILCS 5/108-10)
Attach this copy to search warrant.
R. 214-2, Ex. 2 (“Gates Receipt”) and Ex. 3 (“Nelson Receipt”). 5
Gates later pled guilty to aggravated battery of a police officer and was sentenced to two years' probation. After unsuccessfully seeking the return of his $113, Gates filed a class action law suit against the City of Chicago, the Superintendent of the Police Department (then Philip Cline, and now Jody Weis), and the officers involved in his arrest. 6 Gates alleged that the notice given on the inventory receipt was misleading because it advised arrestees that they would be notified when their property was available for release but the City never sends such a notice and he did not receive one. He also alleged that he went to the City of Chicago's Evidence and Recovered Property Section (“ERPS”) several times between July 2003 and February 2004, each time demanding the return of his money. On each occasion, he was told by a Chicago police officer that he could not retrieve his property unless he secured a signed release from the arresting officer. Gates asserted that he repeatedly attempted to secure a signed release from the arresting officers but was told every time that the officers were not available and that no one else could authorize the release of his property.
The charges against Nelson were dismissed approximately one month after his arrest. Nelson's experience seeking the return of his money paralleled that of Gates. Like Gates, he alleged that he went to ERPS several times and was told he needed a release order from the arresting officer before his money would be returned to him. Like Gates, he sought out the arresting officers on multiple occasions but the officers were unavailable. He sued the City, the Superintendent and the arresting officers alleging that the notice on the inventory receipt was misleading because it indicated he would be notified when his property was ready for release even though the City never issues such a notification and he did not receive one.
Both Gates and Nelson asserted that they were deprived of their property without due process of law because: (1) the defendants seized the property and retained it for months without instituting forfeiture proceedings wherein they could establish their right to the return of their property; (2) the inventory receipt falsely represented that they would be notified when their property was available for release; (3) the defendants continued to retain the property after conclusion of the criminal proceedings even though there was no basis in law or fact to seek forfeiture of the funds at that point; (4) after seizing property without prior judicial authorization, the defendants retained the property without seeking forfeiture or simply returning the property; and (5) the City's policy to retain seized property, to provide a false and misleading inventory receipt, and to refuse to promptly return the property at the conclusion of criminal proceedings is designed to delay the return of non-forfeitable property to its rightful owners. For these alleged violations of 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (hereafter “Section 1983”), both plaintiffs sought the return of their property, unspecified reasonable damages, and an award of costs and reasonable attorneys' fees. The defendants also sought to certify a class of persons arrested after March 23, 2002, from whom the defendants seized property pursuant to the City's policy. Gates and Nelson later added state law claims for conversion, replevin, unjust enrichment and constructive trust, among other things, seeking damages and the return of their money.
Two days after Gates filed suit, the General Counsel to the Superintendent of Police sent a check for $113 to Gates' attorney with a letter offering to pay interest. Gates' attorney returned the check. Approximately one month after Nelson was added as a plaintiff, the General Counsel sent a check for $59 to counsel for Nelson (both men are represented by the same attorney), also accompanied by a letter offering to pay interest. The plaintiffs' lawyer returned that check as well.
The district court eventually certified two classes of persons who, between March 23, 2002 and December 14, 2004, had property taken from them at the time of their arrests, whose criminal cases had been resolved in the trial court, where no forfeiture action had been initiated and the time for filing a forfeiture action had expired, where the property was not inventoried as evidence in any criminal investigation, where the arrestee was issued an inventory receipt that indicated the arrestee would be notified when the property was available for release, and where the money had not yet been returned to the arrestee. One class consisted of narcotics arrestees and the other class was comprised of persons arrested for offenses not related to narcotics. The defendants petitioned for interlocutory review of the class certification. We granted that petition and affirmed. See Gates v. Towery, 430 F.3d 429 (7th Cir.2005) (hereafter “ Gates I ”).
In Gates I, we rejected the City's argument that class certification was improper because the case was mooted by the City's offer to return the funds to the named plaintiffs. We agreed with the district court that the claims of the class representatives were not moot because the City's tender to Gates and Nelson was incomplete.
The plaintiffs sought for themselves (and the class) the return of the seized property, prejudgment interest, compensatory damages for any injury attributable to the loss of the property's use, and compensation for the value of their time spent trying to retrieve their property. We noted that a tender is insufficient unless it makes a plaintiff whole and thus must include filing fees and other costs. 430 F.3d at 431. We also noted that a promise of interest later is not the same as cash today, especially in light of the City's history of delay in making payments. As for compensatory damages, we remarked that a person whose rights have been violated under the due process clause may receive nominal damages if he or she cannot show out-of-pocket loss or other concrete injury. Yet the City offered nothing for fees and costs of filing the suit, nothing for compensatory damages (not even a dollar for nominal damages), and only a promise of interest, to which a “prudent litigant may attach a steep discount,” especially because the City denied owing interest but offered to pay it only as a good will gesture. 430 F.3d at 431. To eliminate the controversy and render the case moot, we held that a defendant must meet the plaintiff's demands, which the City here was unwilling to do. To the extent the plaintiffs sought an injunction requiring the City to compensate them for past losses, we remarked that they...
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