Martin v. D.C. Metropolitan Police Dept.

• Decision Date: 08 May 1987
• Docket Number: 85-6072,Nos. 85-6071,s. 85-6071
• Citation: 812 F.2d 1425,259 U.S.App.D.C. 31
• Parties: James T. MARTIN, Jr. v. D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT, et al., Richard Xander, et al., Appellants. James T. MARTIN, Jr. v. D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT, et al., Richard Xander, et al., Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

Page 1425

812 F.2d 1425

259 U.S.App.D.C. 31

James T. MARTIN, Jr. v. D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT, et al., Richard Xander,

et al., Appellants.

James T. MARTIN, Jr. v. D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT, et al., Richard Xander,

et al., Appellants.

Nos. 85-6071, 85-6072.

United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued Sept. 12, 1986.

Decided Feb. 10, 1987.

Rehearing En Banc Granted May 8, 1987. ^*

Appeals from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (Civil Action No. 85-00624).

John D. Bates, Asst. U.S. Atty., with whom Joseph E. diGenova, U.S. Atty., Royce C. Lamberth and R. Craig Lawrence, Asst. U.S. Attys., Washington, D.C., were on the brief, for appellant.

Kerry W. Kircher, with whom James E. Coleman, Jr., Washington, D.C., was on the brief, for appellee.

Before EDWARDS, GINSBURG and STARR, Circuit Judges.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge GINSBURG.

Concurring opinion filed by Circuit Judge EDWARDS.

Opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part filed by Circuit Judge STARR.

RUTH BADER GINSBURG, Circuit Judge:

This case concerns the "absolute" immunity of federal law enforcement officers from common law tort liability, and their "qualified" immunity from "constitutional tort" liability. In a civil action for compensatory and punitive damages, plaintiff-appellee James T. Martin charged officers of the United States Capitol Police ¹ with malicious prosecution, abuse of process, and violation of rights guaranteed him under the fifth amendment to the United States Constitution. ² The federal officers moved to dismiss Martin's claims on immunity grounds. Citing Barr v. Matteo, 360 U.S. 564, 79 S.Ct. 1335, 3 L.Ed.2d 1434 (1959), the officers asserted absolute immunity from suit on Martin's common law claims; featuring Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982), they asserted qualified immunity from suit for constitutional torts. The district court denied the officers' threshold, immunity-based dismissal motions and ordered the parties to proceed with discovery. ³

We hold that Martin's common law tort claims must be dismissed because the federal officers legitimately asserted absolute immunity and were not tenably charged with action beyond the outer perimeter of their law enforcement responsibilities. We remand Martin's constitutional claims for reconsideration in light of the pleading directions for qualified immunity cases indicated in Hobson v. Wilson, 737 F.2d 1 (D.C.

Cir.1984), cert. denied sub nom. Brennan v. Hobson, 470 U.S. 1084, 105 S.Ct. 1843, 85 L.Ed.2d 142 (1985), and in this opinion.

I.

On November 27, 1982, the Ku Klux Klan held a march in Washington, D.C. The event attracted public controversy and media attention. Plaintiff Martin became a figure in the day's incidents. As Martin alleged in the instant litigation, local and national news media captured on film an assault on him by District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers wherein Martin was "shoved ... through a plate glass window [and beaten] with nightsticks about the head, shoulders, and arms." ⁴ Martin does not claim that any of the present defendants, all U.S. Capitol Police officers, participated in the November 27, 1982 incident. He does assert, however, that after photographs of the MPD officers' assault were broadcast, various MPD officers and the Capitol Police defendants "conspired to develop an unlawful scheme to deflect attention from their actions and to deter plaintiff from seeking to vindicate the violation of his rights." ⁵ Allegedly in furtherance of this scheme, Capitol Police officers arrested Martin and charged him with burglary, destruction of a police cruiser and theft of police property; he was subsequently acquitted of the latter two offenses and convicted, at his trial for burglary, of the lesser included offense of unlawful entry.

On February 21, 1985, Martin commenced this action. His suit in the district court included in the array of defendants the District of Columbia, MPD officers alleged to have participated in the assault or its aftermath, and Capitol Police officers alleged to have conspired with MPD officers to impede Martin's access to justice. While the instant appeal was sub judice, Martin reached a settlement with the District of Columbia and the MPD defendants, and all claims against those defendants have been voluntarily dismissed.

The federal officer (Capitol Police) defendants had promptly moved in the district court for dismissal of all claims asserted against them. First confronting the common law tort claims, the Capitol Police officers cited Barr v. Matteo, 360 U.S. 564, 79 S.Ct. 1335, 3 L.Ed.2d 1434 (1959), as the pathmarking precedent establishing their absolute immunity. The district judge denied the officers' request for instant dismissal of the common law tort claims. She pointed to Martin's allegations that the federal defendants had "exceeded their authority by conspiring to violate the plaintiff's rights," ⁶ and had "resorted to 'manifestly excessive means' to achieve their objectives." ⁷ The court further remarked that "at this early stage, dismissal or summary judgment is plainly inappropriate"; "[h]aving asserted a claim that could potentially defeat the defendants' immunity claim, the plaintiff is entitled to conduct discovery to determine if an issue of material fact exists." ⁸

The Capitol Police officers also failed to gain early dismissal of Martin's claims of constitutional violations. Their plea to this branch of the complaint was qualified immunity. The district court stated that qualified immunity exonerates federal officials only when their conduct "does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional 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). Martin's allegations of "a police conspiracy whose aim was to deter plaintiff from seeking to vindicate his legal rights," taken as true for purposes of ruling on defendants' motion for summary judgment, indicated the deprivation of two clearly established constitutional rights: the right of access to the

                courts and due process. 9   When the law in question is clearly established, the district court observed citing this court's words, "the Government actor is presumed to have known about it [and] summary judgment in his favor must be denied."   Hobson, 737 F.2d at 25.  The Capitol Police officer defendants, by this appeal, seek reversal of the district court's rulings refusing to dismiss the action in response to the officers' pleas of absolute and qualified immunity. 10
                

II.

All parties, and the district court, agreed that if the Capitol Police were engaged in discretionary activity within the "outer perimeter of their line of duty," then plaintiff's common law claims for malicious prosecution and abuse of process would be barred by the doctrine of absolute immunity. See Barr, 360 U.S. at 575, 79 S.Ct. at 1341; McKinney v. Whitfield, 736 F.2d 766, 768-69 (D.C.Cir.1984). ¹¹

The district court, in refusing to dismiss the common law claims, emphasized Martin's allegations of an unlawful conspiracy among the federal and municipal defendants. The conspiracy theory, the court thought, placed the federal officers' conduct beyond the pale or "outer perimeter" of their authority, and thus let down the absolute immunity bar. In its initial order denying summary adjudication, the court stated: "[T]he plaintiff has clearly alleged that the federal defendants exceeded their authority by conspiring to violate the plaintiff's rights." ¹² In response to the defendants' renewed motion, the court further commented: "[T]he conspiracy allegations brought against the federal defendants, if true, constitute acts that fail to satisfy the 'functional' test set out in McKinney " insofar as the "immunity's justifying purpose [which] may best be defined as 'the effective functioning of government' [is not] 'related closely' to an alleged conspiracy to deprive an individual of basic constitutional No government officer, of course, can be "authorized" to act unlawfully. But if the scope of an official's authority or line of duty were viewed as coextensive with the official's lawful conduct, then immunity would be available only where it is not needed; in effect, the immunity doctrine would be "completely abrogate[d]." Briggs v. Goodwin, 569 F.2d 10, 15 (D.C.Cir.1977), cert. denied, 437 U.S. 904, 98 S.Ct. 3089, 57 L.Ed.2d 1133 (1978); see also Gregoire v. Biddle, 177 F.2d 579, 581 (2d Cir.1949) (proper inquiry is whether "the occasion [was] such as would have justified the act, if [the defendant] had been using his power for any of the purposes on whose account it was vested in him") (emphasis added), cert. denied, 339 U.S. 949, 70 S.Ct. 803, 94 L.Ed. 1363 (1950).

                rights." 13   We find the conspiracy theory inadequate to overcome the absolute immunity defense;  we set out our reasoning below
                

The core of Martin's complaint in this case, before one can reach his conspiracy theory, is that the defendants were animated by improper motives in deciding to pursue his arrest and indictment. While such official pursuit of an individual may indeed invade a recognized legal interest, we stress that the pursuer would not on that account lose his absolute immunity from common law tort liability, for immunity of the absolute kind adheres "even when the [officer] is accused of acting maliciously and corruptly." Pierson v. Ray, 386 U.S. 547, 554, 87 S.Ct. 1213, 1218, 18 L.Ed.2d 288 (1967); see also Barr, 360 U.S. at 575, 79 S.Ct. at 1341. So long as the officer "performed the kind of act not 'manifestly or palpably beyond his authority,' but rather 'having more or less connection with the general matters committed by law to his control or supervision,' " Briggs, 569 F.2d at 11-16, quoting Spalding v. Vilas, 161 U.S. 483, 498, 16...