Johnson v. Clifton

• Decision Date: 26 January 1996
• Docket Number: Nos. 94-3179,94-3180 and 94-3184,s. 94-3179
• Citation: 74 F.3d 1087
• Parties: George JOHNSON, Plaintiff, Sylvia Hill, Raymond Griffin, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Wayland CLIFTON, Defendant-Appellant, City of Gainesville, Defendant. Eugene ROSS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Wayland CLIFTON, Defendant-Appellant, City of Gainesville, Defendant, George Johnson, Respondent. Sylvia HILL, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Wayland CLIFTON, individually and as the Chief of Police and agent for the City of Gainesville, Defendant-Appellant, City of Gainesville, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1087

74 F.3d 1087

George JOHNSON, Plaintiff, Sylvia Hill, Raymond Griffin, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Wayland CLIFTON, Defendant-Appellant, City of Gainesville, Defendant.

Eugene ROSS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Wayland CLIFTON, Defendant-Appellant, City of Gainesville, Defendant, George Johnson, Respondent.

Sylvia HILL, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Wayland CLIFTON, individually and as the Chief of Police and agent for the City of Gainesville, Defendant-Appellant, City of Gainesville, Defendant.

Nos. 94-3179, 94-3180 and 94-3184.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

Jan. 26, 1996.

Elizabeth A. Waratuke, Asst. City Atty., City of Gainesville, Law Department, Gainesville, FL, H. Jack Klingensmith, Brown Clark & Walters, Sarasota, FL, for appellant in Nos. 94-3179, 94-3180.

H. Jack Klingensmith, Brown Clark & Walters, Sarasota, FL, for appellant in No. 94-3184.

Eric C. White, Huntley Johnson & Assoc., Gainesville, FL, Lloyd Vipperman, Jr., Gainesville, FL, for appellees in No. 94-3179.

Eric C. White, Huntley Johnson & Assoc., Gainesville, FL, for appellee in No. 94-3184.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida.

Before ANDERSON and BLACK, Circuit Judges, and FAY, Senior Circuit Judge.

FAY, Senior Circuit Judge:

This appeal arises from the District Court's denial of qualified immunity and denial of summary judgment to Wayland Clifton, Jr., the Police Chief for the City of Gainesville. Three former police officers, Sylvia Hill, Eugene Ross, and Raymond Griffin, brought suit against Clifton, alleging that they were disciplined for testifying about Clifton before a grand jury. Because Clifton is entitled to qualified immunity, we reverse.

I. BACKGROUND

Hill, Ross, and Griffin worked together in Internal Affairs at the Gainesville Police Department. Hill was the Unit Commander; Ross was Hill's immediate supervisor, while Griffin reported to Hill. Hill, Ross, and Griffin allege that Internal Affairs began an investigation of alleged misconduct by a group within the police department called Hallucinations 2000, and gave proper notice to the City Manager that Clifton might be involved; in response to this investigation, Clifton transferred the plaintiffs from Internal Affairs; after an audit of Internal Affairs revealed no wrongdoing, Clifton stated that the investigation was concluded and nothing would come of it; Clifton offered to transfer the plaintiffs to any position within the department that they desired; State Attorney Len Register then contacted Hill and asked who he should subpoena to enable the grand jury to make a decision as to whether the police department should be investigated regarding Hallucinations 2000; the plaintiffs testified before the grand jury regarding Hallucinations 2000; in retaliation for the grand jury testimony, Clifton re-opened the investigation into Internal Affairs and then disciplined the plaintiffs.

Clifton denies that he retaliated against the plaintiffs for their testimony before the grand jury. He claims that the plaintiffs initiated a secret investigation without notifying the City Manager; that he was not involved in any way with Hallucinations 2000 and that the group turned out to be innocuous in any event; that the grand jury and the independent investigator concluded that he had done nothing wrong; that an audit of Internal Affairs showed that investigative files were missing, some cases had not been completed, some investigations were untimely or unauthorized, and certain direct orders had been ignored; that in response to that misconduct he disciplined the plaintiffs; and that the plaintiffs had only gone to the grand jury in order to gain leverage over him and prevent the deserved discipline rather than out of any public concern about possible corruption.

It is undisputed that Hill was told in April of 1991, prior to any allegations or investigation concerning Hallucinations 2000, that she would be transferred from Internal Affairs; that in early April she was transferred; that in early April Ross and Griffin were "locked out" of Internal Affairs so that an audit could be conducted; that the audit was concluded in June; that in July Clifton offered to transfer Hill to any position within the police department (except Internal Affairs) if that was the end of the matter; that the plaintiffs went to the grand jury anyway; that after the plaintiffs went to the grand jury, the audit findings were reviewed and misconduct charges were filed.

Hill, Ross, and Griffin brought suit against Clifton and the City of Gainesville. The District Court granted summary judgment to the City on all charges, but denied Clifton's motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity. Clifton immediately appealed the denial of qualified immunity.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

We review de novo a District Court's ruling that a public official's conduct violated clearly established law so that the official is not entitled to qualified immunity. Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 530, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 2817-18, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985).

Summary judgment is proper if the pleadings, depositions, and affidavits show that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Celotex Corporation v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2552, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). The evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. Augusta Iron and Steel Works, Inc. v. Employers Insurance of Wausau, 835 F.2d 855, 856 (11th Cir.1988).

III. ANALYSIS

A. Jurisdiction: Johnson v. Jones

Public officials are entitled to qualified immunity from "liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established ... rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2738, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). A public official may immediately appeal a denial of qualified immunity where the disputed issue involves whether or not the defendant's conduct constitutes a violation of clearly established law. Mitchell, 472 U.S. at 528, 105 S.Ct. at 2816-17. The public official may appeal such a decision because it is considered a final, collateral order regarding qualified immunity. Id. at 528, 105 S.Ct. at 2816-17.

In Johnson v. Jones, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 2151, 132 L.Ed.2d 238 (1995), the Supreme Court further addressed the law of summary judgment in the context of qualified immunity. The issue in Johnson was whether there was any evidence in the record to support the District Court's ruling that a reasonable fact finder could find that the public officials were involved in the plaintiff's beating. ¹ Id. at ---- - ----, 115 S.Ct. at 2153-54. The defendants admitted that such a beating was unconstitutional and violated clearly established law; they only argued that the District Court had erred when it found a genuine issue of material fact in regard to their involvement in the unconstitutional conduct. Id. at ----, 115 S.Ct. at 2154. The Supreme Court held that such a ruling by the District Court could not be appealed as a final, collateral order. Id. at ---- - ----, 115 S.Ct. at 2156-58.

It seems clear to us that the Supreme Court was not changing the well-established law of qualified immunity in the context of summary judgment, just elaborating on it. When faced with a motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity, the District Court must determine whether there is a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the defendant committed conduct that violated clearly established law. This analysis can be broken down into two parts. First, what was the official's conduct, based on the pleadings, depositions, and affidavits, when viewed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party? Second, could a reasonable public official have believed that such conduct was lawful based on clearly established law?

The resolution of the second issue constitutes a final, collateral order. Mitchell at 528, 105 S.Ct. at 2816-17. A ruling on such an issue is immediately appealable. Id. When such a ruling is appealable, the first issue--the factual issue--may be addressed by an appellate court because it is a part of the core qualified immunity analysis. See Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 641, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 3039-40, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987). However, if only the first issue is appealed, namely what conduct the defendant engaged in based on the evidence viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, and not the second issue, namely whether that conduct violated clearly established law, then the appellate court has no jurisdiction to hear the case. See Johnson, --- U.S. at ----, 115 S.Ct. at 2159. The first issue--the factual issue--can only be heard because it is a necessary part of the core qualified immunity analysis, the resolution of which constitutes a final, collateral order; when the core qualified immunity issue is not appealed, then the factual issue may not be either. Id.

When the core qualified immunity issue is raised on appeal, the appellate court has two options regarding how to deal with the factual issue. "When faced with an argument that the district court mistakenly identified clearly established law, the court of appeals can simply take, as given, the facts that the district court assumed when it denied summary judgment for that (purely legal) reason." Id. at ----, 115 S.Ct. at 2159. Or, the court of appeals can conduct its own review of the record in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. First, the appellate court may have to do so because the trial court failed to state the facts it assumed. Id. Second, the appellate court can do so because such a determination is part of the core qualified immunity analysis, as discussed above. See Anderson, 483 U.S. at 641, 107 S.Ct. at 3039-40. Third, even if such a determination were not part of the core qualified immunity analysis,...