Hatch Jr v. RI Dept for Children & Families

• Decision Date: 07 November 2001
• Docket Number: No. 01-1442,01-1442
• Citation: 274 F.3d 12
• Parties: (1st Cir. 2001) RICHARD H. HATCH, JR., Plaintiff, Appellant, v. DEPARTMENT FOR CHILDREN, YOUTH AND THEIR FAMILIES (STATE OF RHODE ISLAND), Defendant, Appellee, STEVEN BROWN AND MARY MCKEE, Proposed Defendants, Appellees. Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 12

274 F.3d 12 (1st Cir. 2001)

RICHARD H. HATCH, JR., Plaintiff, Appellant, v. DEPARTMENT FOR CHILDREN, YOUTH AND THEIR FAMILIES (STATE OF RHODE ISLAND), Defendant, Appellee, STEVEN BROWN AND MARY MCKEE, Proposed Defendants, Appellees.

No. 01-1442

United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit

Heard Nov. 7, 2001

Decided December 17, 2001

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF RHODE ISLAND. Hon. Ernest C. Torres, U.S. District Judge

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Joseph R. Palumbo, Jr., for appellant.

Linn F. Freedman, Deputy Chief, Civil Division, with whom Sheldon Whitehouse, Attorney General, State of Rhode Island, was on brief, for appellees.

Before Selya, Circuit Judge, Coffin, Senior Circuit Judge, and Saris,^* District Judge.

SELYA, Circuit Judge.

This case comes before us following the district court's entry of summary judgment adverse to plaintiff-appellant Richard H. Hatch, Jr., and the court's concomitant refusal to grant leave to amend. On appeal, Hatch challenges only the latter ruling. Concluding, as we do, that amendment would be futile because the qualified immunity of the prospective defendant would render nugatory the proposed amended complaint, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

We divine the following account of the facts from the record below, drawing all reasonable inferences in the appellant's favor.

In the spring of 1997, the appellant inquired about adopting a child. Two months later, he accepted an emergency placement of John Doe, then age seven, at the behest of the Rhode Island Department for Children, Youth and their Families (DCYF). While in the appellant's custody, John exhibited serious behavioral and emotional problems stemming from past abuse -- problems that the appellant alleges were known to DCYF at the time of the placement. In particular, John tended to be deceitful and to fly into tantrums (often hurting himself during bouts of uncontrolled rage). Despite these problems, the appellant adopted John in August of 1998.

In the two years following his adoption, John's demeanor improved, and the appellant attributes that improvement to his parenting skills. Then came a chain of events that culminated in John's temporary removal from the appellant's custody. That chain was forged when the appellant left John with a friend for seven weeks to participate in the television show "Survivor." John gained weight during that interval and the appellant, upon his return, decided to institute a fitness regime.

The first step in this initiative occurred at 4:30 a.m. on April 27, 2000, when the appellant directed John to accompany him on a four-or-five-mile run. During this excursion, John began to complain. The appellant responded by declaring that the length of the run would be extended. John then threw a tantrum and the appellant pulled back his arms and jacket to keep him from harming himself. At some point, John fell to the ground and bumped his forehead. After things had quieted down, the appellant took John to school.

At the start of class, John's teacher noticed the bump and questioned John about its origins. John replied that he had fallen on cement. The teacher sent John to the school nurse, who applied an ice pack and inquired about the bump. John repeated the same story. The nurse also observed red marks across John's neck and asked about those as well; John told her that he had scraped himself during the run. Although the nurse doubted this account, she sent the lad back to the classroom with the ice pack and instructions that he report to her at recess.

Within the hour, John's teacher also remarked the red marks on his neck. John told her that he had been scraped by branches during the run. The teacher and the nurse conferred later that morning, and the nurse indicated that she would telephone the appellant to secure his explanation of what had happened. For whatever reason, she did not make the call.

John returned to the nurse at noon with a very different version of the facts. He stated bluntly: "You saw all this stuff that happened to me, my father did it." When asked to amplify, he claimed that, during the run, he could not continue and fell to the pavement as his father pulled him by the earlobe. John further claimed that his father compelled him to do pushups by manipulating his neck and pushing his head into the cement surface. He added that he had been hit in the past and that he was afraid to return home.

Alarmed by this account, the nurse took John to the principal's office. John told the principal what he had told the nurse. The principal then sent John back to class, but telephoned DCYF and related the details of John's statement.

DCYF assigned appellee Steven Brown, an investigator, to follow up on John's allegations of abuse. Brown called the school shortly before 2:30 p.m. and spoke with the principal. She advised Brown that the school was closing soon and expressed fear that the appellant might come for his son before DCYF had a chance to interview the boy. Brown advised the principal to put matters in the hands of the local constabulary pending his (Brown's) arrival.

The principal followed this advice and called the police. The officers responded immediately. John again related his tale of abuse and the officers transported him to the Middletown police station. Brown arrived at the station at approximately 3:30 p.m. He intended to interview John there, but the boy complained of dizziness and headaches, so Brown arranged for him to be taken to Newport Hospital. John told the rescue personnel essentially the same story that he had told to the nurse, the principal, and the police. The appellant appeared at the police station at about the same time as Brown. He was unceremoniously arrested for felony child abuse.

Meanwhile, Brown had followed John to Newport Hospital. John was seen by an on-call physician, Dr. Altreuter, who found his injuries consistent with his tale of abuse. Dr. Altreuter placed John under a "physician's hold" pending the institution of proceedings before the Family Court. See R.I. Gen. Laws § 40-11-5(a) (granting to physicians who encounter injuries consistent with abuse the right, without parental consent, to place an injured child on a seventy-two hour hold pending an adjudicative hearing). The doctor then notified Brown of his action and gave Brown a copy of his report. Brown immediately placed the child under the protective custody of DCYF.¹

Brown proceeded to interview the boy, heard his account of abuse at first hand, and took photographs of his injuries. Brown also learned of the appellant's involvement in "Survivor," prompting him to call his supervisor, Mary McKee, to warn her that this might prove to be a "high-profile case." He then attempted to interview the appellant -- whether before or after he repaired to the courthouse is not clear -- but the appellant refused to speak with him on advice of counsel. At the close of his investigation, Brown sought the aid of the Family Court, which issued an ex parte order of temporary custody.

John remained in DCYF's custody pending a further adjudication. On May 24, 2000, the Family Court heard testimony and determined that there was no probable cause to believe that John had been abused. The court therefore concluded that returning home would not place John at risk, rescinded the order granting provisional custody to DCYF, and restored John to the appellant's care.

The matter did not end there. On July 3, 2000, the appellant filed suit against DCYF in the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island. The complaint sought monetary damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for, inter alia, DCYF's alleged violation of the appellant's constitutional rights to familial integrity and to freedom from undue interference in the care, custody, and control of his child. After the completion of pretrial discovery, DCYF moved for summary judgment on the ground that the Eleventh Amendment protects states (and, therefore, state agencies) from section 1983 liability. Relying on the Supreme Court's decision in Will v. Michigan Department of State Police, 491 U.S. 58, 70 (1989), the district court granted this motion.

The appellant sought to resuscitate his action by moving to amend his complaint, essentially by substituting Brown and McKee as parties defendant. The district court denied the motion to amend as futile, emphasizing that the doctrine of qualified immunity safeguarded the proposed defendants against liability for money damages. This timely appeal followed. In it, the appellant challenges only the district court's denial of leave to file an amended complaint against Brown.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

As a general rule, we will reverse a district court's decision granting or denying a motion to amend a complaint only for abuse of discretion. See Aoude v. Mobil Oil Corp., 892 F.2d 1115, 1121 (1st Cir. 1989). We view the court's exercise of discretion in this area of the law through the prism of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(a), which indicates that leave to amend a complaint "shall be freely given when justice so requires." In practice, this means that the denial of such a motion will be upheld so long as the record evinces an arguably adequate basis for the court's decision (e.g., futility, bad faith, undue delay, or a dilatory motive on the movant's part). Grant v. News Group Boston, Inc., 55 F.3d 1, 5 (1st Cir. 1995); Correa-Martinez v. Arrillaga-Belendez, 903 F.2d 49, 59 (1st Cir. 1990).

Here, the district court cited the first of these rationales -- futility -- as the linchpin of its ruling. In the abstract, futility is fully sufficient to justify the denial of a motion to amend. See Correa-Martinez, 903 F.2d at 59 ("Where an amendment would be futile or would serve no legitimate purpose, the district court should not needlessly prolong matters."). The question, then, is...