Harris v. Deveaux

• Decision Date: 21 January 1986
• Docket Number: No. 84-8581,84-8581
• Citation: 780 F.2d 911
• Parties: Stephanie HARRIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Clint DEVEAUX, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 911

780 F.2d 911

54 USLW 2418

Stephanie HARRIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Clint DEVEAUX, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 84-8581.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

Jan. 21, 1986.

Dorothy Y. Kirkley, Atlanta, Ga., for defendant-appellant.

Elizabeth A. Edelman, Joseph M. Winter, Atlanta, Ga., for plaintiff-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

Before KRAVITCH and HATCHETT, Circuit Judges, and WRIGHT ^*, Senior Circuit Judge.

KRAVITCH, Circuit Judge:

Clinton Deveaux, a judge of the Municipal Court of the City of Atlanta and defendant in a section 1983 action, appeals from the district court's denial of his motion for summary judgment on the ground of absolute judicial immunity. We hold: (1) this court has jurisdiction to hear an appeal from the denial of a motion for summary judgment on the ground of absolute judicial immunity and (2) a judge does not lose immunity by directing the entry of charges against a witness appearing before the judge in a pending case and based upon evidence before him. Accordingly, we reverse the decision of the district court.

I. BACKGROUND

As a judge of the Municipal Court, Judge Deveaux presides over bond hearings, probable cause hearings, nonjury trials on ordinance violations, and requests for warrants.

On September 1, 1982, Phillip Jones, charged with rape and false imprisonment, appeared before Judge Deveaux for a preliminary hearing. At the hearing the prosecutor called only the complainant, Stephanie Harris. Harris testified that she met Jones at a night club and he offered her a ride to another club. According to Harris, Jones took her to a park and raped her. On cross-examination, Harris admitted that she had known Jones prior to the night of the alleged rape and that Jones had given her $5 at the night club. Counsel for Jones called Nona Tiedge, the investigating detective. Tiedge's testimony relayed the statement Jones had made to her at the police station: Jones' version was that Harris had propositioned him, that while in the park a male accomplice of Harris attacked Jones, and that Harris robbed Jones of $200 and ran off.

After hearing the testimony of Harris and Detective Tiedge, Judge Deveaux ordered the rape case against Jones transferred to the Superior Court of Fulton County but dismissed the false imprisonment charge. Judge Deveaux then stated that he was "going to insist that the victim of this case be charged with armed robbery." Despite the prosecutor's statement that the City Solicitor did not wish to arrest Harris and no charges would be brought against her unless Jones swore out a warrant, Judge Deveaux directed the detective to arrest Harris and ordered her charged with robbery.

Harris was arrested and detained. In chambers, the prosecutor, counsel for Jones, and Judge Deveaux discussed bond for her. Judge Deveaux was willing to release Harris on her own recognizance if the prosecutor would agree to the same reduction for Jones; the prosecutor refused. Harris obtained counsel, and several hours later a different municipal court judge permitted her release on her own recognizance.

On September 2, Harris appeared before Judge Deveaux for a preliminary hearing on the robbery charge. Judge Deveaux granted a continuance so that counsel for Harris could review the case. Upon learning that Harris had been released on her own recognizance, Judge Deveaux ordered the charges against Jones reduced to aggravated assault and released him on his own recognizance. The prosecutor objected both to the reduction of the charges and to Jones' release.

The prosecutor removed the case against Jones from the jurisdiction of the municipal court by taking it directly to the Fulton County grand jury. On September 16, the preliminary hearing on the charges against Harris was reconvened before Judge Deveaux. The Solicitor moved to dismiss the charges on the ground that Harris was a juvenile. The court agreed to the dismissal, but then ordered Harris detained so that custody could be transferred to juvenile authorities. Counsel for Harris objected on the ground that the charges before Judge Deveaux had been dismissed and no proceedings were pending in juvenile court. The prosecutor also objected to Judge Deveaux's order to hold Harris, stating that the proper procedure was for Jones to file a petition with the juvenile court. Harris was detained at the municipal court four hours and then transferred to the juvenile authorities.

On September 15, Harris initiated the current action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. The district court identified five separate acts of which Harris complained:

(1) ordering the arrest of Harris on September 1;

(2) ordering or permitting her to be detained with Jones;

(3) ordering her arrest on September 16 and

(4) refusing to allow her counsel to take her to the juvenile authorities;

(5) releasing Jones on his own recognizance.

The district court concluded that judicial immunity was inapplicable to the first four of these actions. We disagree.

II. JURISDICTION

This court has jurisdiction under the "collateral order" doctrine of Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 69 S.Ct. 1221, 93 L.Ed. 1528 (1949). This doctrine allows immediate appeal of interlocutory orders which "conclusively determine the disputed question, resolve an important issue completely separate from the merits of the action, and [are] effectively unreviewable on appeal from a final judgment." Coopers & Lybrand v. Livesay, 437 U.S. 463, 468, 98 S.Ct. 2454, 2458, 57 L.Ed.2d 351 (1978). In Nixon v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 731, 743, 102 S.Ct. 2690, 2697, 73 L.Ed.2d 349 (1982), the Supreme Court held it had jurisdiction from an order denying absolute immunity to a former president of the United States, noting prior decisions that found orders denying absolute immunity to be within the Cohen doctrine. Helstoski v. Meanor, 442 U.S. 500, 99 S.Ct. 2445, 61 L.Ed.2d 30 (1979); Abney v. United States, 431 U.S. 651, 97 S.Ct. 2034, 52 L.Ed.2d 651 (1977).

There is a sound reason why orders denying absolute immunity fall within the collateral order doctrine. Absolute immunity is meant to protect not only from liability, but from going to trial at all. Mitchell v. Forsyth, --- U.S. ----, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 2815, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985); 15 Wright, Miller & Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure Sec. 3911 (supp. 1985). Accordingly, after trial the defendant cannot obtain effective review of an order denying immunity. "Thus, the denial of a substantial claim of absolute immunity is an order appealable before final judgment." Mitchell, 105 S.Ct. at 2815. We think it clear that Judge Deveaux's immunity claim is substantial.

Nevertheless, Harris contends that not all orders denying claims of absolute immunity are appealable. Harris argues that two circuits have required that the claim of absolute immunity raise a "serious and unsettled" question. Smith v. McDonald, 737 F.2d 427 (4th Cir.1984), aff'd, --- U.S. ----, 105 S.Ct. 2787, 86 L.Ed.2d 384 (1985); Chavez v. Singer, 698 F.2d 420, 421 (10th Cir.1983). Harris, however, does not cite any case in which a court found it lacked jurisdiction on this ground and indeed it would be unusual for an order denying a "substantial" claim of immunity to not raise a "serious and unsettled" question. In any event, Judge Deveaux's appeal does raise such a question.

Harris also contends that denials of absolute immunity are appealable only if there are no questions of fact. Williams v. Collins 28 F.2d 721 (5th Cir.1984); Evans v. Dillahunty, 711 F.2d 828, 830 (8th Cir.1983). Once again, however, Harris cites no cases in which an appellate court declined review on this ground. Absolute immunity does not depend on good faith or reasonableness; thus it would be unlikely to find a case where disputed factual questions precluded review. Harris notes only one factual dispute: Judge Deveaux contends that Jones wanted to press charges, while Harris claims that only Judge Deveaux wished to do so. This dispute, however, is irrelevant to our consideration of Judge Deveaux's claim of absolute immunity. Accordingly we find no material factual dispute.

III. IMMUNITY

In enacting 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983, Congress did not abrogate the doctrine of judicial immunity. Stump v. Sparkman, 435 U.S. 349, 98 S.Ct. 1099, 55 L.Ed.2d 331 (1978). Judicial immunity is an absolute immunity; it applies even where a judge acts maliciously. Id. at 356, 98 S.Ct. at 1104. In Stump, the Supreme Court established a two-part test for determining whether a judge enjoys immunity from money damages under section 1983. First, whether the judge dealt with the plaintiff in a judicial capacity. Id. at 362, 98 S.Ct. at 1107. If not, then judicial immunity does not apply. If so, then the question is whether the judge acted in the "clear absence of all jurisdiction." Id. at 357, 98 S.Ct. at 1105. Here the district court ruled that Judge Deveaux's actions were in his judicial capacity, but that he acted in the clear absence of all jurisdiction.

A. Whether Judge Deveaux Acted in his Judicial Capacity

In Harper v. Merckle, 638 F.2d 848 (5th Cir. Unit B), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 816, 102 S.Ct. 93, 70 L.Ed.2d 85 (1981), ¹ the court focused on the following factors in determining whether a judge's conduct constituted a judicial act:

(1) the precise act complained of ... is a normal judicial function; (2) the events involved occurred in the judge's chambers; (3) the controversy centered around a case then pending before the judge; and (4) the confrontation arose directly and immediately out of a visit to the judge in his official capacity.

638 F.2d at 858. In the current case, three of these factors are clearly present. All of the events complained of occurred in Judge Deveaux's courtroom, the controversy centered around a case pending before Judge Deveaux, and the events arose directly and immediately out of the testimony before...