Lane v. Dist. of Columbia

• Decision Date: 13 April 2018
• Docket Number: No. 15-7023,15-7023
• Parties: Bridzette LANE, Individually and as the Personal Representative of the Estate of Ralphael Briscoe, Appellant v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, a Municipal Corporation and Chad Leo, District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department Officer, Appellees
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

887 F.3d 480

Bridzette LANE, Individually and as the Personal Representative of the Estate of Ralphael Briscoe, Appellant

v.DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, a Municipal Corporation and Chad Leo, District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department Officer, Appellees

No. 15-7023

United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued October 6, 2017

Decided April 13, 2018

Billy Ponds, Washington, DC, argued the cause and filed the brief for appellant.

Carl J. Schifferle, Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, argued the cause for appellees. With him on the brief were Karl A. Racine, Attorney General, Todd S. Kim, Solicitor General, and Loren L. AliKhan, Deputy Solicitor General.

Before: Srinivasan and Wilkins, Circuit Judges, and Sentelle, Senior Circuit Judge.

Sentelle, Senior Circuit Judge:

Appellant Bridzette Lane brought this action on her own behalf and as the personal representative of the estate of her deceased son Ralphael Briscoe for wrongful death and survivorship against the District of Columbia and three Metropolitan Police Department officers. Of the twenty counts alleged in the amended complaint, several counts were voluntarily dismissed, summary judgment was entered in favor of the defense as to some counts, and some counts went to trial, ending in a jury verdict for the remaining defendants, the District of Columbia and Officer Chad Leo. Lane appeals from the judgments in favor of the District and Officer Leo. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the judgment of the district court.

I. BACKGROUND

The events giving rise to this action occurred in April 2011, when appellee Leo and three other officers were on patrol as part of the Gun Recovery Unit of the Metropolitan Police Department ("MPD"). The officers encountered Briscoe in an apartment parking lot. When one of the officers asked Briscoe if he was carrying a gun, Briscoe fled. Two of the officers pursued Briscoe on foot, while Leo and another officer pursued in a police vehicle. A portion of the chase was captured on a Police Department video camera.

While there is some conflict in the evidence, we relate the further events in the light most favorable to the defendant-appellees as we must in reviewing a jury verdict. See Pitt v. Dist. of Columbia , 491 F.3d 494, 502 (D.C. Cir. 2007). Leo testified that he saw Briscoe's right hand moving toward his waistband, causing Leo to fear that he was reaching for a gun. Briscoe repeatedly looked over his left shoulder, toward the pursuing officers, and turned toward the police vehicle, pointing what appeared to Leo to be a gun. Leo fired two shots. One struck Briscoe in the back and one in the buttocks. Briscoe was transported to the hospital where he died as a result of the wounds

.

A police search of the scene of the shooting recovered no actual firearm, but it did produce a broken BB gun, which closely resembled an actual firearm, specifically a Walther PPK pistol. No fingerprints were found on the weapon. Police technicians swabbed the BB gun for DNA, but there is no evidence that the swabs were ever tested.

Lane brought the present action against the District of Columbia and MPD Officers Chad Leo, Jeremy Sharpton, and Guillermo Rivera on behalf of herself and Briscoe's estate. Lane's complaint alleged twenty counts for: violations of the Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments, including municipal liability for the failure to train, supervise, and negligent hiring under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 ; assault; battery; false arrest; negligent infliction of emotional distress; common law negligence in hiring, training, supervision, and retention; common law negligence; and survival and wrongful death under the D.C. Code. The defendants moved to dismiss Lane's amended complaint. The district court granted in part and denied in part the motion to dismiss, dismissing Lane's Fourteenth Amendment claim. Additionally, Lane agreed to dismiss her claims against Rivera and Sharpton without prejudice.

The remaining defendants, the District and Officer Leo, moved for summary judgment. In her response to the summary judgment motion, Lane voluntarily dismissed nine of her claims. The district court granted in part the District's motion for summary judgment and dismissed Lane's claims against the District for municipal liability under § 1983, for common law negligence in hiring, training, supervision, and retention, and for violation of due process under the Fifth Amendment. Lane v. Dist. of Columbia , 72 F.Supp.3d 215, 219 (D.D.C. 2014). The case proceeded to trial on the remaining causes of action against Officer Leo for excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment and against the District and Officer Leo for false arrest, assault, battery, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and common law negligence.

Ten days before the start of the trial, Lane learned that a fingerprint report from the BB gun was not turned over during discovery. The district court permitted Lane to depose David Murray, an officer knowledgeable about the results of the search and the report. During the deposition, Lane learned that DNA swabs were taken from the BB gun, which also had not been disclosed during discovery. Following this revelation, Lane filed a motion for sanctions based on these late disclosures seeking a default judgment or a five-day continuance, leave to amend the witness list to include Officer Murray, time to allow additional depositions on fingerprinting and biological testing, permission to name experts on this subject, a bar on the defendants eliciting testimony from Officer Murray or other witnesses about this subject matter, an instruction to the jury on the substantial delay caused, and attorney's fees. The district court verbally admonished the defendants, but did not grant Lane's motion for sanctions.

Before trial, the defendants moved in limine to exclude some items of evidence that the plaintiff anticipated offering, two of which are relevant for this appeal. First, they moved to exclude Briscoe's cell phone bill covering the time of the shooting incident. Second, they sought to exclude Lane's anticipated testimony that Briscoe suffered from ADHD and bipolar disorder

. As to the phone bill, the court granted the motion but accepted a stipulation from the defendants that Briscoe was on the phone when the officers encountered him. As to the evidence concerning Briscoe's alleged mental conditions, the court excluded the evidence except insofar as it might be relevant to Briscoe's earning capacity should the jury reach the issue of damages.

The case proceeded to trial. During the trial, Lane voluntarily dismissed her claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress. Following the six-day trial and two days of deliberations, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendants on the remaining counts. In answer to a special interrogatory, the jury found that Briscoe "had an object in his hand that reasonably looked like a real gun to Defendant Leo at the time" of the shooting. Following trial, Lane moved for a new trial, arguing that the jury's verdict was against the weight of the evidence. The district court denied Lane's motion. Lane v. D.C ., 104 F.Supp.3d 7-8 (D.D.C. 2015). Lane timely filed this appeal.

II. ANALYSIS

Lane contends on appeal that the district court erred in excluding the cell phone bill and the testimony regarding Briscoe's alleged mental condition; denying Lane's motion for sanctions; and denying Lane's motion for a new trial. She further contends that the court erred in the grant of summary judgment in favor of the District on her failure-to-train and negligent training claims. For the reasons set forth below, we reject each of her contentions.

A. Trial Proceedings

1. Exclusion of Evidence

We review the district court's grant of the motion in limine excluding the phone bill and the mental condition evidence for abuse of discretion. Huthnance v. Dist. of Columbia , 722 F.3d 371, 377 (D.C. Cir. 2013). We will reverse an erroneous evidentiary ruling only if it affects a party's substantial rights. Id. Neither of the exclusions in this case is reversible error.

a. Cell Phone Bill

The cell phone bill shows the phone in use between 2:22 pm and 2:25 pm at the time of the shooting, which other evidence established at 2:24:24 pm. Because the defense stipulated that Briscoe was on the phone when they encountered him, and there was no apparent relevance to the question of whether Briscoe affirmatively terminated his phone call within the next three minutes, we cannot say that the district court abused its discretion by excluding the cell phone bill as cumulative. Even if a call remained connected at the time Briscoe was shot, that evidence would have minimal relevance and its exclusion thus would not affect Briscoe's substantial rights, see Muldrow ex rel. Estate of Muldrow v. Re-Direct, Inc. , 493 F.3d 160, 168 (D.C. Cir. 2007), given that Briscoe may very well have put his phone away without hanging up when he began running.

Lane argues that the cell phone evidence became probative because two of the police witnesses, including appellee Leo, testified that they did not recall Briscoe talking on the phone. Nonetheless, in light of the defense stipulation, the evidence remains cumulative. Furthermore, even if we credit Lane's argument that the bill became relevant because of the testimony of two witnesses that they did not recall the circumstance to which the defense had stipulated, "when the court's initial [evidentiary] ruling, correct when made, is proved erroneous in the light of subsequent evidence," the objecting party must renew the objection. United States v. Sheehan , 512 F.3d 621, 627 (D.C. Cir. 2008) (quoting United States v. Lewis , 433 F.2d 1146, 1152 (D.C. Cir.1970) ). Because Lane did not seek to introduce the cell phone bill or renew her objection during the trial, we will not reverse the district court's decision to exclude the cell phone...