Hartline v. Clary

• Decision Date: 05 May 1956
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 3688,3689.
• Citation: 141 F. Supp. 151
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of South Carolina
• Parties: P. F. HARTLINE, Plaintiff, v. H. P. CLARY and Edward Carswell, Defendants. James L. CARNER, Plaintiff, v. H. P. CLARY and Edward Carswell, Defendants.

141 F. Supp. 151

P. F. HARTLINE, Plaintiff, v. H. P. CLARY and Edward Carswell, Defendants.

James L. CARNER, Plaintiff, v. H. P. CLARY and Edward Carswell, Defendants.

Civ. A. Nos. 3688, 3689.

United States District Court E. D. South Carolina, Charleston Division.

May 5, 1956.

Long, McCrae, Rittenberg & Seymour, Harold I. Lindsey, Charleston, S. C., for plaintiff.

N. Welch Morrisette, Jr., U. S. Atty., Columbia, S. C., Arthur G. Howe, Asst. U. S. Atty., Charleston, S. C., for defendants.

WILLIAMS, District Judge.

These two actions were brought in the State Court against the defendants and were removed to this court on the ground that the defendants were special agents of the Alcohol & Tobacco Tax Division of the United States Treasury Department, and were acting as such at the times mentioned in the complaints.

The complaints alleged that while the plaintiffs were on duty as officers of the Charleston County Police Department, the defendants as special agents of the Alcohol & Tobacco Tax Division of the United States Treasury did with malice and without proper cause and without any authority apprehend the plaintiffs, take them into custody without proper cause and subjected them to physical abuse, including an assault upon one of them, took them to the Charleston County Jail and charged them before a United States Commissioner with the crime that the plaintiffs by threat endeavored to influence, intimidate, and impede a witness of the Government.

It is further alleged that the charges against the plaintiffs were dismissed by the United States Commissioner at a preliminary hearing for failure to show probable cause. The complaints further allege that the plaintiffs were damaged by further unlawful acts on the part of the defendants and that the acts on the part of the defendants constitute malice, false imprisonment and prosecution for which there was no probable cause.

The cases are now before me on defendants' motion that the actions be dismissed on the grounds that the complaints fail to state a claim against the defendants upon which relief can be granted.

It is conceded in the briefs of both parties that judicial officers, quasi judicial officers, judges, prosecuting attorneys, executive and ministerial officials of the government are immune from civil suit for acts committed by them in the performance of their official duties. Yaselli v. Goff, 2 Cir., 12 F.2d 396, 56 A.L.R. 1239; Spalding v. Vilas, 161 U.S. 483, 16 S.Ct. 631, 40 L.Ed. 780; Cooper v. O'Connor, 69 App.D.C., 100, 99 F.2d 135, 118 A.L.R. 1440; Gregoire v. Biddle, 2 Cir., 177 F.2d 579; Laughlin v. Garnett, 78 U.S.App.D.C. 194, 138 F. 2d 931.

In the case of Cooper v. O'Connor, 99 F.2d 135, the plaintiff brought an action for malicious prosecution against the Comptroller of the Currency of the United States, the Receiver of the Commercial National Bank of Washington, the General Counsel for the Division of Insolvent Banks of the Treasury Department, the Deputy Comptroller of the Currency of the United States, the United States Attorney, an Assistant United States Attorney and a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for having appeared before a grand jury and falsely and maliciously accused plaintiff of having committed crimes in violation of the banking laws and thereby obtained indictments against him. After citing with approval Yaselli v. Goff, 2 Cir., 12 F.2d 396, 56 A.L.R. 1239, affirmed 275 U.S. 503, 48 S.Ct. 155, 72 L.Ed. 395, and Spalding v. Vilas, 161 U.S. 483, 16 S.Ct. 631, 40 L.Ed. 780, which cases apply to the doctrine of immunity of judicial officers, the Court said 99 F.2d 142:

"Appellant seeks to avoid the effect of this widespread extension of the rule by pointing out that in some of the cases the rule of immunity — as applied to executive officers — was limited to heads of departments. Spalding v. Vilas, supra 161 U.S. 483, 16 S.Ct. 631, 40 L. Ed. 780; Mellon v. Brewer, supra 57 App.D.C. 126, 18 F.2d 168, 53 A.L.R. 1519. During recent years, however, a trend is definitely observable extending the application of the rule to minor executive officers. It is obvious that the effect of this trend is to cut down proportionately the scope of the general rule which makes officials liable for tortious injuries and which denies to them the immunity of the sovereign. It may be argued that if this trend is allowed to prevail, it will too greatly imperil the rights of the individual citizen. Just as it is the `hard-boiled top-sergeant' who — in his interpretation of the orders of the high command — makes life miserable for the private in the rear rank, so it is the comparable minor official who — in civil life — is largely responsible for long-existing impressions in the minds of private citizens concerning `the insolence of office.'

"On the other hand, to hold that only the heads of departments should be immune from liability under the rule would defeat its purpose. We know that heads of the Federal departments do not themselves engage in such activities as are here involved. Their administrative duties make such participation impossible. There must be, necessarily, delegation of authority for such purposes. When the act done occurs in the course of official duty of the person duly appointed and required to act, it is the official action of the department; and the same reason for immunity applies as if it has been performed by the superior officer himself. De Arnaud v. Ainsworth, supra 24 App.D.C. 167 at pages 177, 181 5 L.R.A.,N.S., 163; United States, to Use of Parravicino v. Brunswick, supra 63 App.D.C. 65, 69 F.2d 383. To hold otherwise would disrupt the government's work in every department. `Its head can intelligently act only through subordinates.' Farr v. Valentine, 38 App.D.C. 413, 420, Ann.Cas. 1913C, 821. The fact that our country has grown so great as to require a multiplication of governmental officials in some small measure proportionate thereto, cannot obscure the fact that the duties performed are the same as those once performed by heads of departments, and that fearless performance of official duty is as essential today as it was yesterday.

"Therefore, we conclude that as the acts of appellees were performed in the discharge of their official duties, the motives with which those duties were performed are immaterial, and appellant's contention must fail."

Cooper v. O'Connor, supra, clearly holds that minor ministerial officers, such as the defendants, share the same cloak of immunity while acting within the scope of their authority.

Our own Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a very able opinion by Chief Judge John J. Parker, in the case of Papagianakis v. The Samos, 186 F.2d 257, 260, affirmed an opinion of District Judge Albert V. Bryan dismissing so much of a libel action against an immigration inspector which alleged that he unlawfully detained the plaintiff aboard a ship. In discussing the question of immunity, Judge Parker said:

"It has long been settled that judicial officers may not be held liable in damages for acts performed in the discharge of their duties. Randall v. Brigham, 7 Wall. 523, 535, 19 L.Ed. 285; Bradley v. Fisher, 13 Wall. 335, 350-351, 20 L.Ed. 646. Some of the older decisions drew a distinction between judicial officers and executive officers exercising quasi judicial functions, holding as to the latter that there was not absolute immunity but immunity only so long as they were not actuated by malice or other sinister motive. See Wilkes v. Dinsman, 7 How. 89, 130-131, 12 L.Ed. 618; Gould v. Hammond, 10 Fed.Cas. page 874, No. 5,638; Bailey v. Berkey, C.C., 81 F. 737 and cases there cited. See also Gibson v. Reynolds, 8 Cir., 172 F.2d 95. This distinction was repudiated, at least so far as heads of executive departments are concerned, in Spalding v. Vilas, 161 U.S. 483, 16 S.Ct. 631, 637, 40 L.Ed. 780, where the court used language which in logical application would require that the rule of absolute immunity be applied to all officers of the government when exercising discretionary power in the line of official duty. The court said: `We are of opinion that the same general considerations of public policy and convenience which demand for judges of courts of superior jurisdiction immunity from civil suits for damages arising from acts done by them in the course of the performance of their judicial functions apply, to a large extent, to official communications made by heads of executive departments when engaged in the discharge of duties imposed upon them by law. The interests of the people require that due protection be accorded to them in respect of their official acts. * * * In exercising the functions of his office, the head of an executive department, keeping within the limits of his authority, should not be under an apprehension that the motives that control his official conduct may at any time become the subject of inquiry in a civil suit for damages. It would seriously cripple the proper and effective administration of public affairs as intrusted to the executive branch of the government, if he were subjected to any such restraint. He may have legal authority to act, but he may have such large discretion in the premises that it will not always be his absolute duty to exercise the authority with which he is invested. But if he acts, having authority, his conduct cannot be made the foundation of a suit against him personally for damages, even if the circumstances show that he is not disagreeably impressed by the fact that his action injuriously affects the claims of particular individuals.'

"As noted above, the argument upon which the Supreme Court bases its decision in Spalding v. Vilas, supra, applies in principle in the case of other executive officers as well as heads of departments; and it was so applied in the case of a special assistant to the Attorney General in Yaselli v. Goff, 2 Cir., 12 F.2d 396, 403, 56 A.L.R. 1239, affirmed per curiam 275 U.S. 503, 48

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