Grider v. City of Auburn, Civil Action No. 3:07cv1031-MHT.
| Decision Date | 18 June 2009 |
| Docket Number | Civil Action No. 3:07cv1031-MHT. |
| Citation | 628 F.Supp.2d 1322 |
| Parties | Patrick James GRIDER, et al., Plaintiffs, v. CITY OF AUBURN, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Middle District of Alabama |
Davis Butterfield Whittelsey, William David Dawson, Jonathan Keith Corley, Robert Garnder Poole, Whittelsey & Whittelsey & Poole P.C., Opelika, AL, for Plaintiffs.
Elizabeth Brannen Carter, Randall C. Morgan, William Michael Hill, Jr., Hill Hill Carter Franco Cole & Black, Montgomery, AL, for Defendants.
The plaintiffs, Patrick James Grider and Daniel Joseph Grider (as well as a company in the restaurant and bar business, The Fourth Quarter, wholly owned by the Griders), charge that the defendants, the City of Auburn and several city officials and employees, improperly enforced various laws against them in myriad ways over a period of several years. The Griders assert claims under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, as enforced by 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The Griders also assert related claims under state tort law. Jurisdiction is proper under 28 U.S.C. § 1331 (federal question), 28 U.S.C. § 1343 (civil rights), and 28 U.S.C. § 1367 (supplemental).
This case is now before the court on the defendants' motion for summary judgment. For the reasons discussed below, that motion will be granted in part and denied in part.
Summary judgment is appropriate "if the pleadings, the discovery and disclosure materials on file, and any affidavits show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). In deciding whether summary judgment should be granted, the court must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party and draw all reasonable inferences in favor of that party. Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986).
Patrick and Daniel Grider own and operate several bar and restaurant businesses in Auburn, Alabama. They allege a wide-ranging conspiracy targeting their businesses. They name the following as defendants: the City of Auburn, Mayor William Ham Jr., City Manager Charles M. Duggan, Jr., Public Safety Director William James, Deputy Public Safety Director Andrew Meeks, Fire Inspector Thomas Massey, and Police Officers James Terry Neal III, Jason Crook, Christopher Carver, and Slone Maddox.1 The conspiracy, as described below, consisted of efforts to use criminal laws, building-code inspections, verbal intimidation, city ordinances, and a variety of other legal and illegal means to affect the Griders negatively and destroy the vitality of their business interests, particularly their interest in a business called The Skybar Café.
In 2005, Edwin Lewis, a private developer and contractor, purchased land in Auburn with the goal of developing condominiums and retail space in the downtown area. Some of the newly purchased land included several parcels immediately surrounding Skybar. Prior to purchasing the property, Lewis had private meetings with Mayor Ham and Auburn's Economic Development Director, Phillip Dunlap. Later in 2005, the City of Auburn, at Lewis's initiation, began a partnership of sorts to advance Lewis's goals. According to then-City Manager David Watkins, high-ranking city officials insisted repeatedly that, because of the relationship with Lewis, they had to "get the Skybar out." Pl.'s Ex. P at 278, 285. After more meetings that included Ham, Dunlap, and Lewis, Dunlap asked what could be done to get rid of the Skybar and stated that, in order for the Lewis project to work, "we have to get them out." Id. at 129. Ham agreed. High-ranking city officials then considered the use of eminent domain to get rid of the Skybar, including discussions about how to justify such a removal as a "public purpose"—an idea with which Watkins quickly disagreed because of the political and legal consequences of condemning a viable business in order to hand over property to another private business. Ham and Dunlap eventually suggested that condemning the property would be significantly less costly if Skybar, as the tenant in the building and source of income, were removed. Lewis became close with both Ham and Dunlap and, in 2006, Lewis purchased the remainder of the property immediately surrounding the Skybar. Dunlap, Lewis, and Duggan (who was appointed Assistant City Manager at Ham's suggestion and became City Manager after Watkins) then attempted to convince the owner of the property that Skybar rented to exchange the property for a nearby parcel. The owner refused, and the eminent-domain approach was apparently not pursued at the time.
City officials and employees instead opted for a different approach. The Griders argue that the city began enforcing its laws in a discriminatory manner in an effort to harass them and put them out of business. These efforts included placing their businesses under special surveillance, improperly calculating occupancy numbers pursuant to building-safety codes, issuing improper criminal citations and charges, and passing specifically targeted city legislation concerning alcohol sales.
Police conducted video surveillance a number of times on Skybar, a practice that was unprecedented for any other establishments in Auburn and which was not contemporaneously undertaken for any other business. Moreover, while officers wrote "Incident/Offense Reports" for liquor law violations, the videos associated with those reports do not show any violations. The majority of the tapes created during that surveillance have not been produced to the Griders and are, apparently, unavailable.
Several police officers were engaging in one such instance of video surveillance in the early morning hours of September 29, 2005. While other officers videotaped, Officers Crook and Carver made their way to the rear entrance of Skybar. Upon hearing that the officers were peeking through the back door, Patrick Grider exited the bar and went around to find out what was happening. The officers told Grider that the back door was open and that they were "checking things out." Pl.'s Ex. A at 5. After a brief conversation with officers, Grider reentered the bar.
Later in the morning, Officer Neal entered Skybar and said to Grider, "We got you." Grider asked what Neal was talking about, and Neal responded, "I told you that we would get your license." Grider again asked Neal to explain, and Neal replied, "You will find out." Id. at 6.
The next day, Grider was asked to go to the Auburn Police Department. Grider was told that he was being charged with attempting to bribe a police officer. Grider then signed a statement, written by a detective, denying the allegations, and he was arrested.
Grider had a preliminary hearing on the bribery charge on November 29, 2005. At the conclusion of the hearing, the judge dismissed the case for lack of probable cause.
The Griders have also produced a sworn statement from a city resident detailing Officer Neal's attempts to get her to cooperate with an investigation into the Griders. Neal told her that he had been trying to shut the Griders down for four years, and he threatened her with arrest for underage drinking if she did not cooperate in implicating Patrick Grider in serving alcohol to minors. She claimed that Grider did not serve her any alcohol.
Even though officers, under the direction of Police Officer Maddox, had compiled at least ten Incident/Offense Reports throughout the course of this surveillance operation, the surveillance was terminated at the direction of Lieutenant Keith Howell shortly after the bribery charge against Patrick Grider was dismissed, and the investigation into the alleged violations was not pursued.
The Griders and their employees were subsequently cited repeatedly for overcrowding violations. Neither the Griders nor any of their employees were ever convicted of an overcrowding offense. Orders to patrol bars for overcrowding often came from very high levels within the city government, particularly from Duggan, who as Assistant City Manager, directed employees to conduct occupancy checks without the knowledge or permission of his supervisor, Watkins. On October 14, 2006, for example, Patrick Grider was issued an overcrowding citation by Fire Inspector Massey. Grider was found guilty of the offense by a municipal judge and sentenced to a six-month suspended sentence. Grider stated to the judge his intention to appeal, and the judge then immediately sentenced Grider to six months in jail instead. When Grider appealed to circuit court, the charge was nolle prosequied.
The court case involving the overcrowding citation represents the culmination of a lengthy dispute between the Griders and several city employees concerning the occupancy calculations at their establishments, particularly Skybar. The Griders maintain that the initial occupancy calculations for Skybar were arbitrarily low and that, despite renovations increasing the size of the building, the occupancy numbers given to Skybar upon its opening in 2005 were the same as the calculations from 1998. The city also, for the first time in the building's history, divided the occupancy number into a front and rear portion and required that a fire-alarm system be installed. Fire Inspector Massey and Deputy Public Safety Director Meeks then informed the Griders that the occupancy number could not be increased until a sprinkler system was installed and that the Skybar would be closed if such a system was not installed by the end of 2005. The Griders argue that these requirements were improper based on local building-safety codes because the renovations they had made did not...
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