Hudson v. New York City
| Citation | 271 F.3d 62 |
| Decision Date | 21 September 1993 |
| Docket Number | PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT |
| Parties | (2nd Cir. 2001) DOROTHY HUDSON, PLAINTIFF, JOHN B. ELLISON,, v. NEW YORK CITY, ROBERT CIVIDANES, AND SEVERAL UNKNOWN NAMED CITY OF NEW YORK POLICE OFFICERS OF THE 105TH PRECINCT - QUEENS, N.Y. - WHO ENTERED THE PREMISES KNOWN AS 99-19 215TH STREET QUEENS VILLAGE, N.Y. ON THE NIGHT OF |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit) |
Plaintiff-appellant appeals from a jury verdict in favor of defendants-appellees on plaintiff's 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim that defendants searched his home in violation of the Fourth Amendment. We affirm in part, and vacate and remand in part, with instructions for the district court to conduct a new trial.
John B. Ellison, New York, Ny, for appellant.
Cheryl Payer (Stephen J. McGrath, of counsel), for Michael D. Hess, Corporation Counsel for the City of New York, for appellees.
Before: Walker, Chief Judge, Calabresi, Pooler, Circuit Judges.
John Ellison ("Ellison") appeals from a jury verdict in favor of current and retired officers of the New York City Police Department (collectively "police officers" or "defendants") on his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim that defendants searched his home in violation of the Fourth Amendment. In particular, Ellison challenges the district court's (Melancon, J.) instructions to the jury, claiming that in order to render a verdict favorable to Ellison the jury may have believed that it had to find that defendants intentionally violated plaintiff's rights.
In 1995, Ellison, pro se, filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Ross, J.)1 against the City of New York ("the City"), New York City Police Precinct Captain Robert Cividanes, and Police Officers Thomas Urban, Neil Hellers, Michael Rooney, Brian McGowan, Scott Olexa, and John Healy.2 Ellison alleged that defendants violated his Fourth Amendment rights by conducting a warrantless search of his apartment while looking for two men who were suspected of robbing, at gunpoint, a livery cab driver. He also asserted claims against the supervising police officers and the City for failure properly to supervise, investigate, discipline and/or remove the officers who conducted the putatively unconstitutional search.3
According to Ellison, the following events occurred on the night of September 21, 1993. Ellison was returning to his Queens apartment on 215th Street at approximately 9:30 p.m. when he noticed several police cars, with lights flashing, parked near his home. After observing the scene for some time with other onlookers, Ellison tried to get to his apartment. He was advised by a police officer that he could not do so, and he continued to wait. According to his complaint, after twenty to thirty minutes, Ellison saw officers place a hand-cuffed man in a police car. Ellison then informed a police officer that he was going to return to his apartment, and the officer told him not to come back outside that night. Ellison stated that shortly after he went into his apartment, he left it again, informing the officers that he would be right back. He said that he did not "slam lock" the outer back door that leads to the building's backyard, but that he did lock his apartment door.
When Ellison returned to his apartment, he discovered that, while he was gone, police officers had entered the apartment house, broken open the door to his individual apartment, and searched the apartment. Plaintiff found previously closed doors and dresser drawers opened, his bed overturned, and the entrance door to his apartment open and broken, with the doorframe molding damaged. In response to Ellison's inquiries, the officers on the scene told him that they had discovered the back door of the apartment house open and had gone into the building to look for the escaped suspect. The officers had also entered and searched at least one other apartment in the building.
The parties have never disputed that a warrantless search took place. Rather, throughout these proceedings they have differed as to whether the search was objectively reasonable. Defendants have claimed that this behavior was justified by the exigent circumstances of an armed suspect still at large. Thus, at trial, Ellison called as witnesses the police officers who were involved with the search of his apartment building. These officers said that Ellison's building was one of the last within the designated search grid to be inspected. The officers further testified that they entered the building without a warrant because, at the time: (1) they were searching for armed men (at the time they did not know that one had been apprehended already); (2) the door to Ellison's building, unlike the other's they had surveyed, was ajar and appeared to have been forced open; and (3) they were concerned that the armed suspects may have gone inside Ellison's building and may hurt innocent residents or take them hostage. The officers also stated that, once inside Ellison's apartment, they looked only in places where a person could hide; for example, under the bed or in a closet. Additionally, the officers testified that they were in Ellison's apartment five minutes or less.
As noted above, the officers participating in the search emphasized that marks were visible indicating that a forcible entry had been made through the outer door of Ellison's building. Those marks, in the officers' view, justified their belief that the suspect had gotten into the building. But Ellison has consistently maintained that no such marks were evident, and that the search was objectively unreasonable, and therefore constituted a violation of the Fourth Amendment.
In the district court, defendants moved for summary judgment pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 56. The court agreed with the City that Ellison had not adduced evidence that any of the City's practices or policies contributed to, or caused, the allegedly unconstitutional search. It therefore granted summary judgment for the City on the basis of Monell v. New York City Dep't of Soc. Servs., 436 U.S. 658 (1978). The court also granted summary judgment for defendants Cividanes and Olexa, who had not personally participated in the search. The court denied, however, a motion for summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds brought by officers Musmacher and Rooney. It concluded that "the key facts surrounding the question of whether there was sufficient basis upon which a reasonable officer might find probable cause to enter [Ellison's] apartment... remain in dispute."4
As a result of these rulings, the case went to trial with respect to Musmacher, Rooney, Urban, Hellers, McGowan, and Healy-the officers who had personally participated in the search. Judge Melancon presided. Before the close of evidence, the district court provided the parties copies of proposed jury instructions. Ellison, still representing himself, objected that the instructions incorrectly informed the jury that it had to find that the officers intentionally violated his constitutional rights. The government responded that "to prove any constitutional violation, there must be a showing of an intentional or malicious, certainly a reckless disregard for the person's rights." The court agreed:
Judge Melancon charged the jury:
In order to prove his claim under this statute, the plaintiff must establish by a preponderance of the evidence each of the following elements:
First, that the defendant acted under color of authority of the State of New York Second, that the defendant intentionally committed acts which operated to deprive the plaintiff of the right secured by the Constitution of the United States;
Three, that the defendant's act was the legal cause of the plaintiff's damages.
Though this part of the district court's instruction is probably not problematic,5 earlier in the instructions, the court had told the jury that:
In this case, the plaintiff claims that the defendants while acting under color of authority of the State of New York as police officers intentionally or with reckless disregard violated the plaintiff's constitutional rights by unlawfully searching his apartment without a warrant. As a result of the defendant's [sic] actions, the plaintiff claims that he suffered damages. The constitutional right that the plaintiff claims the defendants violated is the right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures.
Under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, a citizen has a right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures.
Section 1983 of Title 42 of the United States Code provides that any citizen may seek redress in this court by way of an action for money damages against any person who, under color of law, color of state law or custom, intentionally deprives that citizen of any rights, privileges or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.
After deliberation, the jury concluded that there had been no Fourth Amendment violation, and judgment was entered in favor of defendants.
Plaintiff appeals. His primary contention is that the district court erroneously instructed the jury that a plaintiff must prove that defendants intentionally violated his rights in order to make out a successful Fourth Amendment claim under § 1983.6
We review jury instructions de novo. See United States v. Bok, 156 F.3d 157, 160 (2d Cir. 1998). Instructions are erroneous if they "mislead[] the jury as to the correct legal standard or... [do] not adequately inform the jury of the law." Hathaway v. Coughlin, 99 F.3d 550, 552 (2d Cir. 199...
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