Hooper v. Guthrie

• Decision Date: 13 March 1975
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 72-673.
• Citation: 390 F. Supp. 1327
• Parties: David HOOPER v. Lt. Dwight GUTHRIE et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania

390 F. Supp. 1327

David HOOPER v. Lt. Dwight GUTHRIE et al.

Civ. A. No. 72-673.

United States District Court, W. D. Pennsylvania.

March 13, 1975.

Samuel J. Pasquarelli, Pittsburgh, Pa., for plaintiff.

Cosmos J. Reale, Pittsburgh, Pa., for defendants.

OPINION

SCALERA, District Judge.

This civil rights complaint comes before the court on defendants' motion for summary judgment.

Plaintiff avers in his pro se complaint that on August 19, 1970 at approximately 1:00 a. m., he and two friends, Robert Hooper, a cousin, and James McDermott, were at his home, the White Oak Apartments, Ross Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. He left his apartment to drive his car from a parking area to the front of the apartment building. As he was driving in the parking area, his vehicle was stopped by the defendants. He was arrested, handcuffed, and placed in the police car. Plaintiff avers that he saw his two companions handcuffed and being led by other police officers and the superintendent of the White Oak Apartments, Langis, from the front door of the building toward the police cars.

Defendants aver that they had gone to the White Oak Apartments to serve an arrest warrant on Theresa Arrigo, alleged to be a tenant of Apartment 402, and to investigate a complaint filed by Langis about a disturbance. Defendants state that they arrived at Apartment 402 while a disturbance was in progress and were refused entry into the apartment. The officers gained entry into the apartment by Langis' pass key. Upon entry, defendants encountered McDermott and Robert Hooper. Plaintiff had fled from the apartment by a porch door which faces the parking area and attempted to escape in his car. Plaintiff was apprehended when the squad car blocked his path.

It is undisputed that incident to plaintiff's arrest, defendants searched plaintiff's car and his apartment. After plaintiff was taken to the police station, he was incarcerated, and, following a police investigation, charges of passing worthless checks and false pretenses were lodged against him. Plaintiff has never been prosecuted for any offense growing out of the disturbance at the White Oak Apartments which immediately preceded his arrest.

On November 10, 1970, plaintiff filed a motion to suppress evidence in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County¹ and sent copies to the district attorney and to plaintiff's counsel, the public defender. The motion sought the suppression of blank checks and check identification cards of a person named Beere, and other evidence seized by the defendants during the August 19, 1970 search of plaintiff's automobile. On February 9, 1971, when plaintiff's case was called for trial, plaintiff's motion to suppress was mistakenly returned to the record room of the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas in the erroneous belief that the trial had been continued. In fact, the trial had not been postponed and the trial commenced that day. Apparently, neither the public defender, the district attorney, nor the presiding judge were aware of plaintiff's suppression motion. On the following day, February 9, 1971, the jury returned a guilty verdict and plaintiff was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 7½ to 15 years.

On March 23, 1971, after plaintiff had obtained new counsel, a motion was filed requesting leave to file a motion for a new trial out of time. The basis of the motion was that plaintiff's pro se motion to suppress evidence had been overlooked by the court and the attorneys. On April 30, 1971, a hearing was held on the motion for a new trial and the issue was taken under advisement. The state court reversed plaintiff's conviction for the worthless check and false pretenses offenses and granted a new trial for the reason the plaintiff's motion to suppress evidence had been overlooked. On February 11, 1972, plaintiff pleaded guilty to the worthless check and false pretenses charges and was sentenced to a 1 to 2-year term on each of the counts, the sentences to run concurrently.

Plaintiff's complaint in the case sub judice, accompanied by a motion to proceed in forma pauperis, was received by this court on June 21, 1972 and was ordered filed with the clerk on August 15, 1972, when plaintiff's motion to proceed in forma pauperis was granted.

Plaintiff avers that his action arises under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, the Civil Rights Act of 1871, specifically 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983, 1985, and the laws of the United States of America.²

Mindful that allegations of a pro se complaint are to be held to less stringent standards than formal pleadings drafted by lawyers, Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 92 S.Ct. 594, 30 L.Ed.2d 652 (1972), we construe the plaintiff's complaint to state three separate causes of action: (1) false arrest accompanied by a false imprisonment; (2) unlawful search of plaintiff's car and apartment; and (3) an unlawful state conviction. For these civil rights violations, plaintiff seeks $250,000 from the defendants.

By early October, 1972, the plaintiff had retained a lawyer to represent him.³ Counsel filed pretrial narratives pursuant to this court's Local Rule 5. In the pretrial narrative filed by plaintiff, the only legal theory advanced is that of a cause of action for damages because of an unlawful arrest, unlawful detention, and false imprisonment. There is no suggestion that plaintiff continues to pursue his second and third causes of action, those based on an unlawful search and unlawful conviction.

At a pretrial conference, defendants moved for summary judgment on the following grounds: (1) the statute of limitations bars plaintiff's claim; (2) the plaintiff is collaterally estopped from raising these claims by virtue of his guilty plea in the state courts; (3) the plaintiff's claim was extinguished by his death; and (4) the complaint fails to state a cause of action upon which relief may be granted. Both parties have filed briefs.

I

The Civil Rights Act of 1871, 42 U.S.C. § 1983 et seq., contains no statute of limitation. The limitation to be applied is that which would be applicable in the courts of the state in which the federal court is sitting had the action been brought in the state. The court in Ammlung v. City of Chester, et al., 494 F.2d 811 (3d Cir. 1974) said:

"Since there is no federal statute of limitations with respect to civil rights actions arising under 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983, the court below properly held that the Pennsylvania statute of limitations for analogous actions should be applied. O'Sullivan v. Felix, 1914, 233 U.S. 318, 34 S.Ct. 596, 58 L.Ed. 980; Hileman v. Knable, 3 Cir. 1968, 391 F.2d 596; Henig v. Odorioso, 3 Cir. 1967, 385 F.2d 491, cert. denied, 390 U.S. 1016, 88 S.Ct. 1269, 20 L.Ed. 2d 166, rehearing denied 1968, 391 U. S. 929, 88 S.Ct. 1814, 20 L.Ed.2d 671; Hughes v. Smith, D.N.J.1967, 264 F. Supp. 767, aff'd 3 Cir. 1968, 389 F.2d 42. The limitation period to be applied is that which the state would apply if the action had been brought in a court of that state. Funk v. Cable, M.D.Pa.1966, 251 F.Supp. 598, 599. There being no Pennsylvania statute of limitations of general applicability to actions involving invasions of constitutional rights, the applicable statute of limitations must be determined from the nature of the conduct alleged. Conard v. Stitzel, E.D.Pa.1963, 225 F. Supp. 244, 247."

With respect to plaintiff's first cause of action, that based on false arrest and false imprisonment, the applicable Pennsylvania statute of limitations is 12 P.S. § 51 (Act of 1935, P.L. 503, § 1),⁴ which covers false arrest, slander, malicious prosecution and certain actions for false imprisonment, and which requires that such actions be brought within one year.

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in Gagliardi v. Lynn, 446 P. 144, 285 A. 2d 109 (1971) has held that 12 P.S. § 51 governs false imprisonment causes of action where a false arrest precedes or is inextricably intertwined with the imprisonment.⁵ In accord, Henig v. Odorioso, supra, 385 F.2d at 493, n. 5; Hileman v. Knable, supra, 391 F.2d at 597; Hughes v. Swinehart, 376 F.Supp. 650, 652 (E.D.Pa.1974).

The statute of limitation commences to run when the cause of action arises. The cause arises when the final significant event occurs, which event is necessary to make the claim suable. Mack Trucks, Inc. v. Bendix-Westinghouse Auto A. B. Co., 372 F.2d 18 (3d Cir. 1966); Foley v. Pittsburgh-Des Moines Co., 363 Pa. 1, 68 A.2d 517 (1949). In this case, the statute of limitation began to run on August 19, 1970—the day plaintiff was arrested and then incarcerated.⁶ Because 12 P.S. § 51—the applicable statute of limitation for a claim of false arrest coupled with one for false imprisonment—has a one-year period of limitation, plaintiff had until August 20, 1971 to file his complaint. Plaintiff's complaint was not received by this court until approximately ten months after the one-year period had elapsed, that is, June 21, 1972. Defendants' motion for summary judgment as to the false arrest/false imprisonment claim should be granted.

It is plaintiff's contention that the claim for false imprisonment is governed not by the one-year statute of limitation in 12 P.S. § 51, but rather by the two-year statute of limitation provided in 12 P.S. § 31 (Act of 1713, 1 Sm.L. 76, § 1).⁷ Plaintiff cites Funk v. Cable, 251 F.Supp. 598 (M.D.Pa.1966), for the argument that in a civil rights action where a cause of action (apparently the false arrest claim) governed by the one-year period provided in 12 P.S. § 51 is joined with a cause of action (presumably the false imprisonment claim) governed by the two-year statute of limitation provided in 12 P.S. § 31,⁸ a motion for summary judgment based upon the one-year statute should be denied.

Plaintiff's reliance on Funk is misplaced. In Funk, plaintiff filed a civil rights action based upon 42 U.S.C. § 1983 twenty-three months after the statute of limitation began to run. Funk argued...