Joseph v. Allen

• Decision Date: 15 April 2013
• Docket Number: No. 12–2411.,12–2411.
• Citation: Joseph v. Allen, 712 F.3d 1222 (8th Cir. 2013)
• Parties: Stanley JOSEPH, Plaintiff–Appellant v. Kenneth L. ALLEN; Latavia Jones; Edward J. Harper, Defendants–Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

712 F.3d 1222

Stanley JOSEPH, Plaintiff–Appellant

v.Kenneth L. ALLEN; Latavia Jones; Edward J. Harper, Defendants–Appellees.

No. 12–2411.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: March 12, 2013.

Filed: April 15, 2013.

Matthew Joseph Devoti, argued, Saint Louis, MO, for Appellant.

Dana Walker Tucker, AAG, argued, Saint Louis, MO, for Appellee.

Before MURPHY, SMITH, and GRUENDER, Circuit Judges.

GRUENDER, Circuit Judge.

This case arises out of a verbal and physical altercation between Stanley Joseph and Latavia Jones and Joseph's subsequent arrest on an assault charge. Joseph appeals the district court's ¹ grant of summary judgment in favor of arresting officers Kenneth L. Allen and Edward J. Harper of the St. Louis Police Department (collectively, “the officers”) on Fourth Amendment claims Joseph brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Joseph contends that the district court erred in concluding that the officers were entitled to qualified immunity. He also challenges the district court's grant of summary judgment on his state-law claims against the officers and the dismissal of his state-law claim against Jones. For the following reasons, we affirm the district court.

I. BACKGROUND

At 4:55 p.m. on February 3, 2008, Joseph called 9–1–1 from his residence in the Gentry's Landing apartment complex in downtown St. Louis and told the dispatcher, “A lady is going crazy in my house.” Officer Allen arrived at Joseph's apartment, with Lieutenant Harper arriving a short time later. When Officer Allen arrived, he heard loud arguing and saw Joseph standing in the hallway in front of his apartment.² Officer Allen observed that Jones was wearing a ripped shirt and had lacerations on her hands and a two-inch cut on her left arm. He also observed that Jones was yelling and appeared upset.

Jones told Officer Allen that the altercation began when she informed Joseph she wanted to end their relationship. According to Jones, Joseph shouted obscenities at her, and then, after she went into another room to collect her belongings, Joseph approached her and grabbed her around the neck. Jones claimed that when she tried to break free, Joseph cut her left arm with a kitchen knife. Officer Allen found a kitchen knife on the floor inside the apartment, and he seized the knife after Jones told him that it was the knife that cut her. Officer Allen did not observe any injuries to Joseph, although Joseph later testified that he had several scratches.

Jon Jordan lived in an apartment across the hall from Joseph's apartment. Jordan averred that shortly before 5:00 p.m. he heard yelling coming from inside Joseph's apartment. The noise prompted him to go out into the hallway, and although Joseph's door was closed, Jordan said that he could hear banging noises and a woman yelling inside the apartment. Jordan then returned to his apartment but continued to look into the hallway through his peephole. A short time later, he saw Joseph's apartment door open, and he watched Joseph and Jones through his peephole for about ten minutes. Jordan observed Jones throw a pot of water, but he never saw Joseph with a knife. Jordan also reported that he continued to hear Jones yelling. He stated that Jones appeared angry, rather than frightened or scared, while Joseph appeared frustrated. However, Jordan did not see any part of the altercation that took place inside Joseph's apartment. The officers did not obtain a statement from Jordan and did not list him as a witness in their report of the incident.

The officers arrested Joseph and charged him with first-degree assault, a charge that was later amended to second-degree domestic assault. Joseph ultimately was acquitted of the second-degree domestic assault charge. Then, in August 2010, Joseph filed this lawsuit, alleging Fourth Amendment violations as well as state-law claims against the officers based on false arrest and malicious prosecution. Joseph also brought a state-law claim against Jones for malicious prosecution. The officers moved for summary judgment, which the district court granted, concluding that qualified immunity shielded them from suit on Joseph's Fourth Amendment claims and that the existence of probable cause and the doctrine of official immunity shielded them from Joseph's state-law claims. Having granted summary judgment on the claims against the officers, the district court declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the state-law claims against Jones and dismissed them without prejudice. Joseph appeals.

II. DISCUSSION

This court reviews the district court's grant of summary judgment de novo, viewing all evidence and drawing all reasonable inferences in favor of the nonmoving party. Green v. Dormire, 691 F.3d 917, 921 (8th Cir.2012). Summary judgment is proper when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(a).

A. Fourth Amendment Claims

As a preliminary matter, we must address Joseph's argument that the officers waived the defense of qualified immunity by failing to plead it in a timely fashion. Joseph contends that the officers waived the qualified immunity defense because they did not plead it until they filed their amended answer to Joseph's amended complaint, which they filed after Joseph filed his response to their motion for summaryjudgment. However, a defense is not waived if defendants properly amend their answer to include it. Groninger v. Davison, 364 F.2d 638, 639–40 (8th Cir.1966). Here, the officers moved for leave to amend their answer to include the defense of qualified immunity, and the district court granted that motion. Joseph did not oppose the motion before the district court; rather he raises the issue for the first time on appeal. Therefore, the argument is waived. See Orr v. Wal–Mart Stores, Inc., 297 F.3d 720, 725 (8th Cir.2002).³

We now turn to the substance of Joseph's arguments concerning the district court's grant of qualified immunity. Qualified immunity shields law enforcement officers from suit if they “[did] not violate [a] clearly established statutory or constitutional right[ ] of which a reasonable person would have known.” Gorra v. Hanson, 880 F.2d 95, 97 (8th Cir.1989) (first alteration in original) (quoting Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982)). Under this “objective legal reasonableness standard,” courts may not delve into the officers' subjective motivation for their actions. Id. (quoting Harlow, 457 U.S. at 819, 102 S.Ct. 2727). However, qualified immunity allows officers to make reasonable errors, Habiger v. City of Fargo, 80 F.3d 289, 295 (8th Cir.1996), and protects “all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law,” Walker v. City of Pine Bluff, 414 F.3d 989, 992 (8th Cir.2005) (quoting Hunter v. Bryant, 502 U.S. 224, 229, 112 S.Ct. 534, 116 L.Ed.2d 589 (1991)). In this case, Joseph brings two Fourth Amendment claims against the officers pursuant to § 1983, one for false arrest and the other for malicious prosecution. We address each in turn.

1. False Arrest

Joseph argues that the district court erred in concluding that qualified immunity bars his Fourth Amendment false arrest claim because the officers lacked probable cause to arrest him. “It is well established that a warrantless arrest without probable cause violates an individual's constitutional rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.” Marksmeier v. Davie, 622 F.3d 896, 900 (8th Cir.2010) (quoting Hannah v. City of Overland, Mo., 795 F.2d 1385, 1389 (8th Cir.1986)). An officer, however, is entitled to qualified immunity for a warrantless arrest if the arrest was supported by at least “arguable probable cause.” Borgman v. Kedley, 646 F.3d 518, 522–23 (8th Cir.2011) (quoting Walker, 414 F.3d at 992). Probable cause exists when “the totality of the circumstances at the time of the arrest ‘[is] sufficient to lead a reasonable person to believe that the defendant has committed or is committing an offense.’ ” Id. at 523 (quoting Fisher v. Wal–Mart Stores, Inc., 619 F.3d 811, 816 (8th Cir.2010)). “Arguable probable cause exists even where an officer mistakenly arrests a suspect believing it is based on probable cause if the mistake is ‘objectively reasonable.’ ” Id. (quoting Amrine v. Brooks, 522 F.3d 823, 832 (8th Cir.2008)). The fact that the person arrested is later found innocent is not material. Linn v. Garcia, 531 F.2d 855, 861 (8th Cir.1976). Whether a law enforcement officer had probable cause at the time of arrest is a question of law. Fisher, 619 F.3d at 816.

Joseph contends that the officers did not have probable cause to arrest Joseph for first-degree assault, an offense requiring that, at minimum, a person “knowingly cause[ ] or attempt[ ] to cause serious physical injury to another person,” Mo.Rev.Stat. § 565.050. This is because, he argues, the totality of the circumstances did not establish that Joseph caused serious physical injury to Jones as the statute requires. Based on the undisputed parts of the record, however, we conclude that a reasonable officer could have believed that Joseph had attempted to cause serious physical injury to Jones. When Officer Allen arrived at Joseph's apartment complex, he heard loud arguing and saw Jones in a ripped shirt. Jones was yelling and appeared upset, and she had lacerations on her hands and a two-inch cut on her left arm. Jones told Officer Allen that she and Joseph had a verbal altercation and that during that altercation, Joseph grabbed her around the neck and cut her left arm with a kitchen knife as she attempted to break free. Officer Allen found a kitchen knife on the floor of the apartment, which Jones identified as the knife that cut her. Officer Allen also saw that Joseph did not appear injured. The officers were entitled to rely on what Jones told them about the incident. See Borgman, 646 F.3d at 523 (explaining that “[o]fficers may ...