Gora v. Costa, 88-2709

• Decision Date: 07 August 1992
• Docket Number: No. 88-2709,88-2709
• Citation: 971 F.2d 1325
• Parties: 36 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 455 Amelia GORA, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John COSTA and Thomas Ginoza, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 1325

971 F.2d 1325

36 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 455

Amelia GORA, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John COSTA and Thomas Ginoza, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 88-2709.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued May 21, 1992.

Decided Aug. 7, 1992.

Charles F. Smith (argued), Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiffs-appellants.

Sharon M. Sullivan, Ruth M. Moscovitch, Asst. Corp. Counsels, Office of Corp. Counsel, Appeals Div., Judson H. Miner, Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, John F. McGuire, Jean Dobrer (argued), Nina Puglia, Asst. Corp. Counsels, Chicago, for defendants-appellees.

Before CUMMINGS and FLAUM, Circuit Judges, and WOOD, Jr., Senior Circuit Judge.

HARLINGTON WOOD, Jr., Senior Circuit Judge.

Various members of the Gora family brought a Section 1983 action against two Chicago police officers, John Costa and Thomas Ginoza. 42 U.S.C. § 1983. In the complaint and at trial the Goras alleged that these police officers entered the Gora house without permission or a warrant and proceeded without provocation to assault numerous members of the Gora family. The Goras alleged that these actions violated the Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The jury found for the defendants on all counts. Plaintiff Amelia Gora appeals.

Two issues are raised by this appeal: (1) Does Amelia Gora have standing to bring this Section 1983 claim and (2) was evidence of Edmund Gora's past felony convictions and current incarceration properly admitted? We affirm.

I.

The plaintiffs in this case were Amelia Gora and Mitchell Gora, individually and on behalf of Gregory Gora and Raymond Gora, both minors; Edmund Gora; Steven Gora; John Gora; Elaine Gora; and Nancy Gora. Amelia and Mitchell Gora are the heads of the Gora household and the parents of the other plaintiffs. Officers Costa and Ginoza presented evidence that they went to the Gora home on the night of March 5, 1980, in response to an emergency 911 call. This evidence indicated that Mitchell Gora made an emergency 911 telephone call asking for assistance because of a family fight. Ginoza and Costa testified that when they arrived at the Gora residence Mitchell Gora was waiting outside and that he motioned them to come into the house, asking the police to arrest "him." According to the defense, without identifying "him," Mitchell Gora said he would sign a complaint against "him" and that he wanted "him" locked up before "they kill each other." According to the officers, they followed Mitchell Gora into the house.

The officers testified that when they entered, Edmund Gora appeared on the staircase holding a baseball bat in a threatening way. According to the defense, Officer Costa told Edmund Gora he was under arrest and to put down the bat. Under the defense's version of the events, Edmund Gora then approached Costa with the bat and attempted to strike Costa. Then the two, according to the defense, began to struggle for the bat, and during the struggle Costa hit Edmund Gora in the head with the bat, causing bleeding.

Apparently, Officers Costa and Ginoza left the house and radioed for backup. Under the defense's version of events, some officers entered the house to handcuff Edmund Gora and walk him outside to the police wagon. And under the defense's version, Steven Gora physically attacked Ginoza in an attempt to prevent Edmund Gora's arrest. Ginoza testified that after he and other officers subdued Steven Gora, Raymond Gora began to pull on Ginoza, urging the officers not to lock up Steven Gora. Ginoza then said he had Raymond arrested and put into the police wagon. After Steven, Raymond, and Edmund Gora were inside the police wagon, Costa testified that Mitchell Gora came up to him and grabbed him, screaming that the police had arrested the "wrong ones." Mitchell Gora was then arrested, according to Costa.

The Goras tell a different version of the events that transpired on March 5, 1980. The Goras alleged in their complaint and at trial that on the night of March 5, 1980, shortly before midnight, Costa and Ginoza burst into their home without permission or warrant. The Goras put on evidence that when the officers entered there was a short exchange of words between Costa and Edmund Gora, and then Costa picked up a baseball bat that was lying in the corner and struck Edmund Gora with this bat. According to the Goras, after Edmund was hit and after the police backup arrived, Costa and Ginoza came back into the house. At this time, they claim Steven was tending to Edmund Gora whose head wound was bleeding profusely. The Goras then claimed that Costa and Ginoza began to beat Steven Gora with their billy clubs and fists, handcuffed him, and dragged him down the stairs feet first allowing his head to hit the stairs on the way down. The Goras claim that Costa and Ginoza further beat Edmund Gora, handcuffed him, and dragged him feet first and unconscious out of the house. Moreover, the Goras further allege that Raymond Gora was unjustifiably and unreasonably beaten. That is, Amelia Gora testified that numerous police officers hovered around Raymond who was curled up in the middle of the street and that these officers repeatedly hit Raymond Gora with billy clubs. The Goras also testified that other officers purposefully held the storm door to the Gora house closed while Nancy Gora's hand was in the door.

The jury returned a verdict in favor of defendants. On August 19, 1988, counsel for the plaintiffs filed a notice of appeal naming "Amelia Gora et al." As we stated in a prior court order, this notice of appeal gives us jurisdiction over Amelia Gora but does not give us jurisdiction over the other plaintiffs.

II.

Amelia Gora appeals on evidentiary grounds. Nonetheless, the defendants argue for the first time on appeal that as a matter of law Amelia Gora has no triable Section 1983 claim because she has failed to show that the complained-of conduct deprived her of her rights, privileges, or immunities under the Constitution. ¹ More specifically, defendants argue that Amelia Gora's sole complaint is that the actions of Officers Costa and Ginoza in arresting her husband and sons caused her to suffer emotional distress. The defendants argue that in order to recover under Section 1983, Amelia Gora had to show that the conduct deprived her of her rights, privileges, or immunities under the Constitution. And the defendants argue that because Amelia Gora has failed to allege that she was seized or searched, prosecuted or subjected to punishment, the Fourth, Fifth, and Eighth Amendments could not be the basis for her claim but that her only basis for a Section 1983 claim could be the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause. The defendants argue that Amelia Gora's status as a bystander who witnessed police misconduct does not give her grounds for such a claim.

The complaint in this case was first filed in 1982, yet, rather than raising this issue sometime within the nearly ten years between the filing of the complaint and this appeal, the defense waited until appeal to make this argument. Nonetheless, to the extent that the defense is arguing that Amelia Gora lacked standing to sue under Article III of the United States Constitution, we cannot say that the defense waived this argument.

Under Article III's case and controversy requirement, only parties with a real interest or stake in the litigation have standing to sue in federal court. Because these constitutional standing requirements bear on the court's power to entertain a party's claim, Northside Sanitary Landfill, Inc. v. Thomas, 804 F.2d 371, 380-81 (7th Cir.1986), an argument that a party lacks standing can be raised at any stage of the proceedings. See National Fidelity Life Ins. Co. v. Karaganis, 811 F.2d 357, 360 (7th Cir.1987) ("A ground for reversal may be presented for the first time on appeal only if it involves a question of jurisdiction or if there are exceptional circumstances requiring as a matter of justice that the waiver rule be set aside.").

The standing doctrine does not turn on the merits of the legal claim, but it turns on the question of who is the appropriate party to raise such a claim. Looking to the complaint, we find that Amelia Gora had standing to proceed in this case.

Contrary to the defendants' position, Amelia Gora's claims of injury are not based solely on her status as a bystander to the beatings of her family members. Rather, the complaint alleges that Officers Costa and Ginoza violated the plaintiffs' various constitutional rights when they wrongfully entered the Gora home and when they unjustifiably beat the family members within the home. The complaint indicates that Amelia Gora lived in the family home. In alleging that the police officers wrongfully entered her home, Amelia Gora alleged a personal intrusion into her rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. Such an allegation is sufficient to give her standing to bring a cause of action under Section 1983 for this intrusion. Contrast Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 99 S.Ct. 421, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978) (petitioners who failed to demonstrate that they had a legitimate expectation of privacy in the area searched did not have standing to invoke the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule).

We further note that for purposes of determining whether Amelia Gora was a proper party in this case, we need not decide whether she could have recovered damages for the emotional distress resulting from the allegedly unconstitutional beatings of her family members that occurred in her presence within and without her home after the police allegedly wrongfully entered this home. Furthermore, considering that the issue of whether Amelia Gora could recover such damages was never raised before or decided by the trial court and considering we have no judgment awarding such damages, there is no judgment or order for us to review on this issue. For these reasons, we cannot...