Meier v. St. Louis

• Decision Date: 19 August 2019
• Docket Number: No. 18-1597,18-1597
• Citation: 934 F.3d 824
• Parties: Mary R. MEIER Plaintiff - Appellant v. ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, CITY OF ; Doc’s Towing, Inc. Defendants - Appellees St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners; Richard H. Gray, Member, St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners, in his official capacity; Thomas Irwin, Member, St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners, in his official capacity; Erwin Switzer, Member, St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners, in his official capacity; Bettye Battle-Turner, Member, St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners, in her official capacity; Francis G. Slay, in his official capacity as a member ex officio of the St. Louis City Board of Police Commissioners; St. Louis P.O. House, DSN 219 Defendants
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

934 F.3d 824

Mary R. MEIER Plaintiff - Appellant

v. ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, CITY OF ; Doc’s Towing, Inc. Defendants - AppelleesSt. Louis Board of Police Commissioners; Richard H. Gray, Member, St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners, in his official capacity; Thomas Irwin, Member, St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners, in his official capacity; Erwin Switzer, Member, St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners, in his official capacity; Bettye Battle-Turner, Member, St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners, in her official capacity; Francis G. Slay, in his official capacity as a member ex officio of the St. Louis City Board of Police Commissioners; St. Louis P.O. House, DSN 219 Defendants

No. 18-1597

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: April 15, 2019

Filed: August 19, 2019

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied September 25, 2019

Gregory Fenlon, GREGORY G. FENLON LAW FIRM, Saint Louis, MS, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

J. Brent Dulle, Erin K. McGowan, Assistant City Counselor, CITY COUNSELOR'S OFFICE, Saint Louis, MO, for Defendant-Appellee.

Before SMITH, Chief Judge, ARNOLD and KELLY, Circuit Judges.

KELLY, Circuit Judge.

Mary Meier sued the City of St. Louis and Doc’s Towing, Inc., claiming that both defendants violated her rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments when her car was towed and stored without her consent or a warrant. The district court granted summary judgment in the defendants’ favor, concluding that neither defendant was a party who could be held liable for any alleged constitutional violation under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Because we conclude that Meier has adduced evidence sufficient to establish both defendants’ liability, we reverse and remand for further proceedings.

I

In December 2015, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department (SLMPD) Officer Ashley Kelly responded to a hit-and-run accident. Based on information received from the victim, she suspected that the vehicle that left the scene was a Ford F-150 truck registered to Meier. So she asked a SLMPD clerk to report the truck as "wanted" for an ordinance violation on the Regional Justice Information Service (REJIS) network. REJIS is a computer network established by a cooperative agreement between the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County. It allows law enforcement agencies within the county to share information with each other.

On the early morning of March 17, 2016, Maryland Heights Police Department (MHPD) Officer Cliff House saw Ben Meier (Mary Meier’s son) and a companion sitting in a truck in a hotel parking lot. House looked up the truck’s license plate number on REJIS and saw that it was wanted by SLMPD. He approached the truck’s occupants and eventually arrested them for reasons unconnected to the wanted report. He directed dispatch to arrange for the truck to be towed because of the wanted report, among other things. MHPD dispatch arranged for Doc’s Towing to pick up the truck. When a driver from Doc’s Towing arrived, House indicated that the truck was wanted by the City of St. Louis. The driver wrote "Maryland Heights Police Department," "Hold," and the date on the truck’s back window and then towed it to Doc’s Towing, where it was stored.

MHPD dispatch sent SLMPD a message through REJIS: "We have located this vehicle and we are towing it to Doc’s Towing due to an arrest." SLMPD responded, "Please notify our First District Detective Bureau in the morning with arrest information." In the morning, SLMPD followed up with another message to MHPD: "Advise driver/owner of vehicle to respond to the First District Detective Bureau regarding release of vehicle." MHPD mailed Meier a notice that the truck had been towed to Doc’s Towing.

On March 18, Meier and her son went to Doc’s Towing to get the truck back. An employee told them that MHPD had "released" the truck but that SLMPD still had a "hold" on the truck, and therefore it could not be released. Later that month, Ben Meier contacted SLMPD Detective John Russo to figure out how to remove the wanted hold on the truck. Russo explained that Ben would have to answer SLMPD’s "questions relative to the accident."

Eventually, Meier hired a lawyer, Jeff Rath, to help her get the truck back. After numerous phone calls, Rath obtained a boilerplate "release order" form from SLMPD that "rescinded" the March 17 "hold order" on the truck. Rath faxed the release order to Doc’s Towing on April 29. Doc’s Towing then allowed Meier to retrieve the truck after paying a tow fee and a separate storage fee based on the number of days in storage. Unfortunately, the truck had been damaged during its time in storage, and an employee who mistakenly believed that the truck had been abandoned by its owner had already applied for salvage title. Doc’s Towing attempted to remedy this error, but at the time briefing was completed on this appeal, Meier still had not obtained clean title for the truck.

II

Meier sued various defendants under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a statute that establishes a cause of action against a person who, under color of law, causes a violation of the plaintiff’s constitutional rights. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of St. Louis and Doc’s Towing, concluding that these two defendants could not be held liable under § 1983 because Meier had not adduced evidence establishing that either defendant acted pursuant to an official policy or that Doc’s Towing had acted under color of law. "We review the grant of a summary judgment motion de novo and examine the record in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party." Smith v. Insley’s Inc., 499 F.3d 875, 879 (8th Cir. 2007). "Summary judgment is only appropriate if the evidence viewed in this manner demonstrates that there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Id. We address each appellee’s liability in turn.

A

Municipalities like St. Louis may be held liable under § 1983 only if the alleged constitutional violation was caused by an "action pursuant to official municipal policy of some nature." Szabla v. City of Brooklyn Park, 486 F.3d 385, 389 (8th Cir. 2007) (en banc) (quoting Monell v. Dep’t of Soc. Servs., 436 U.S. 658, 691, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978) ). Meier claims that SLMPD has a policy, albeit an unwritten one, of reporting vehicles as wanted on REJIS in hopes of detaining the vehicle against the owner’s wishes and without a warrant. To establish the existence of such an "unwritten or unofficial policy," Meier must demonstrate "(1) the existence of a continuing, widespread, persistent pattern of unconstitutional misconduct by the [municipality’s] employees; (2) deliberate indifference to or tacit authorization of such conduct by the [municipality’s] policymaking officials after notice to the officials of that misconduct; and (3) that [she] was injured by acts pursuant to the [municipality’s] custom, i.e., that the custom was a moving force behind the constitutional violation." Brewington v. Keener, 902 F.3d 796, 801 (8th Cir. 2018) (quoting Corwin v. City of Independence, 829 F.3d 695, 700 (8th Cir. 2016) ).

We conclude that Meier has adduced evidence from which a reasonable juror could find that each of these three elements is met. Rath testified during a deposition that in his experience as a criminal defense attorney, SLMPD "regularly" detains vehicles suspected of criminal involvement in hopes of identifying the owner or driver of the vehicle. Cynthia Jennings, the REJIS training officer, teaches officers throughout St. Louis County that "[w]anted means ... once you stop that vehicle and confirm the status of it, that vehicle would then be held if it meets the criteria from the originating agency." SLMPD Captain Steven Mueller, whom SLMPD designated as its representative under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 30(b)(6), also understands that reporting a vehicle as wanted on REJIS is a request that the investigating officer "[d]etain [the vehicle] for us." These statements, if believed, would demonstrate SLMPD employees’ continuing, widespread, persistent practice of using wanted reports to seize vehicles without a warrant as an investigative tool. St. Louis does not contest that Jenning and Mueller are policymaking officials, so their statements also demonstrate that SLMPD’s policymaking officials are aware of this practice. See Dahl v. Rice County, 621 F.3d 740, 743 (8th Cir. 2010) ("A policy can be inferred from a single decision taken by the highest officials responsible for setting policy in that area of the government’s business.").

A jury could also find that this policy resulted in Doc’s Towing’s retention of Meier’s car. SLMPD reported Meier’s truck wanted, and after it received MHPD’s notice that the truck had been located, it instructed MHPD to "[a]dvise driver/owner of vehicle to respond to the First District Detective Bureau regarding release of vehicle." When Ben Meier contacted SLMPD, Detective Russo believed that there was a "hold placed [on the truck] as it is wanted for...