Joyce v. Mavromatis
| Decision Date | 10 February 1986 |
| Docket Number | No. 84-3509,84-3509 |
| Citation | 783 F.2d 56 |
| Parties | Tara JOYCE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John G. MAVROMATIS; George Mavromatis; City of Wintersville, Ohio; Victor Calabrese, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
James D. McNamara (argued), Louis A. Jacobs, Columbus, Ohio, for plaintiff-appellant.
Thomas S. Wilson, Steubenville, Ohio, William Farrall, Paul Donohue (argued), Cleveland, Ohio, for defendants-appellees.
Before MERRITT and WELLFORD, Circuit Judges, and EDWARDS, Senior Circuit Judge.
In this action under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983, defendants Calabrese and G. Mavromatis are the Police Chiefs of Wintersville and Steubenville, Ohio, respectively. Plaintiff alleges that she was injured in an automobile intersection accident in Wintersville caused by the Steubenville Chief's son, John. She filed a Sec. 1983 complaint alleging that the defendants, acting in concert, sought to defeat her state court damage suit by revoking a traffic citation issued to the son in Wintersville in connection with the accident and by altering the police report filed by the Wintersville police officer who investigated the accident and by having new lines painted on the street at the intersection. District Judge Duncan granted defendants' motion to dismiss for failure to state a constitutional claim. On appeal plaintiff argues these constitutional claims: (1) that such conduct by state actors for the purpose of obstructing justice in the state courts constitutes a violation of the First Amendment by denying access to the state courts and hence abridges her right to petition for redress of grievances; (2) that the conduct constitutes a deprivation of a property interest without procedural due process of law; and (3) that the conduct denied her equal protection of the law.
The procedural due process claim must fail under Hudson v. Palmer, 468 U.S. 517, 104 S.Ct. 3194, 82 L.Ed.2d 393 (1984), because there is no allegation or showing that the state's judicial process does not provide fair procedures which would remedy the wrong alleged, if proved. See also Vicory v. Walton, 721 F.2d 1062 (6th Cir.1983). In order to make out an equal protection claim for denial of access to courts, the discrimination must be based on poverty, see, e.g., Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U.S. 12, 76 S.Ct. 585, 100 L.Ed. 891 (1956) (), or race, or some other...
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...those made by Plaintiffs in this litigation, could not form the basis of a Section 1983 access to the courts claim. See Joyce v. Mavromatis, 783 F.2d 56 (6th Cir. 1986). The individual and Bivens Defendants' reliance on Joyce is misplaced. In Joyce, the plaintiff alleged that two police chi......
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