Mendez v. County of San Bernardino
| Decision Date | 27 August 2008 |
| Docket Number | No. 06-56424.,No. 05-56118.,No. 07-56029.,05-56118.,06-56424.,07-56029. |
| Citation | 540 F.3d 1109 |
| Parties | Evangelina MENDEZ; Angel Mendez, Plaintiffs, and Arturo Jorge Gonzalez, Appellant, v. COUNTY OF SAN BERNARDINO; San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department; City of Hesperia; James Martinez; Rod Medley; Marion Browne; Cesar Reyes, Defendants-Appellees. Evangelina Mendez; Angel Mendez, Plaintiffs-Appellants, and Jose Mendez; Tiffany Autrey, Plaintiffs, v. County of San Bernardino; San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department; City of Hesperia; James Martinez; Rod Medley; Marion Browne; Cesar Reyes; Steven Lawyer, Defendants-Appellees. Evangelina Mendez; Angel Mendez, Plaintiffs-Appellants, and Arturo Jorge Gonzalez, Appellant, v. County of San Bernardino; San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department; City of Hesperia; James Martinez; Rod Medley; Marion Browne; Cesar Reyes, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Shirley M. Hufstedler (argued), Morrison & Foerster, LLP, Los Angeles, CA; Arturo J. Gonzalez, Tony West (argued), and Geoffrey Graber, Morrison & Foerster, LLP, San Francisco, CA, for the plaintiffs-appellants.
Eugene P. Ramirez, Manning & Marder, Kass, Ellrod, & Ramirez, LLP, Los Angeles, CA; Patrick L. Hurley (argued), Manning & Marder, Kass, Ellrod, & Ramirez, LLP, San Francisco, CA, for the defendants-appellees.
Brad Seligman, The Impact Fund, Berkeley, CA; Robert Rubin, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, San Francisco, CA, for the amici curiae The Impact Fund and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California; George P. Schiavelli, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-04-07131-GPS.
Before: STEPHEN S. TROTT, HAWKINS and RAYMOND C. FISHER, Circuit Judges.
Plaintiff-Appellant Evangelina Mendez ("Mendez") and members of her family brought this suit against the County of San Bernardino, the City of Hesperia, the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department and various individual defendants (collectively, "the County") under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and state law, alleging violations of their civil rights. This case arose from the aftermath of an officer-involved shooting that resulted in the death of Mendez's deafmute son, Ignacio, in July 2002. Although the legality of the shooting itself was not challenged, Mendez and another of her sons, Angel, alleged that the County falsely arrested them after the shooting, illegally searched the Mendez home and was negligent in the supervision and training of its officers. Some of Mendez's claims were resolved on summary judgment and others were voluntarily dismissed before trial; the remainder were tried before a jury, which found in Mendez's favor on the false arrest and illegal search claims and awarded her nominal and punitive damages. In this consolidated appeal, Mendez challenges the district court's decisions limiting the jury's consideration of her emotional damages, remitting her punitive damages award and granting summary judgment to the County on her state law negligent training claim. She also appeals the court's rulings denying her all attorney's fees and costs and sanctioning her attorney. She requests reassignment of the case to a different judge on remand. We affirm in part, reverse in part and remand without reassignment.
Mendez's son Ignacio was shot and killed by a police officer on the evening of July 2, 2002, during an armed standoff with police on the driveway of the Mendez's neighbor's home. Neither Mendez nor Angel was considered a suspect in any crime, but both were witnesses to the event. Shortly after the shooting, Mendez was placed in the back of a police car on the scene. The officer who first placed her in the car testified that he "opened the door and asked her to have a seat." After about 10 minutes, Mendez began to hit the windows, asking to be released. An officer then transferred Mendez to a different police car parked nearby. She again beat on the windows in an attempt to ask for air; an officer eventually cracked open a window for her. After about two hours, Mendez and Angel were driven to the police station in separate cars for questioning. Mendez was not asked whether she consented to being brought to the station and the officer who brought her there never told her that she was free to leave.
At the station, Mendez was placed in a room with a closed door and questioned by two police officers, one of whom was Deputy Cesar Reyes. Reyes translated in Spanish for Mendez, who does not speak or read English and has minimal education. Reyes admitted that he did not tell Mendez that she was free to leave the station. When Mendez told Reyes that she wanted to see Ignacio, whom she did not yet know had been shot fatally, Reyes told her that she could not see him. While Mendez was being questioned, she was told to sign a form written in English, giving the police consent to search her home. Reyes did not translate the consent form for her, including a statement that would have informed her that her consent was voluntary and that she had a right to refuse. When Mendez questioned whether searching her home was necessary, Reyes put the paper in front of her and told her, "This is a paper you need to sign." Mendez then signed the form. Relying on Mendez's signed consent, police officers conducted a search of the Mendez residence without a warrant.
Mendez and Angel were released from the police station at around five or six in the morning on July 3. When Mendez returned home, she was at first blocked from entering because police were still investigating the shooting scene. When she was allowed to reenter later that morning, she saw that the house had been searched and noted that "the closets were all out of order, and there were clothes thrown around and papers thrown around." Mendez's husband testified that Mendez was "crying uncontrollably" when she returned home and was having difficulty speaking. One of the officers who questioned Mendez admitted that she was upset during some points of the interview and that at times it was difficult for her to speak, although he attributed her anguish to her son's shooting. Mendez later explained to the jury that she felt "[l]ike a prisoner" while at the police station, because she did not know what had happened to Ignacio and was afraid for Angel's life.
Mendez and four family members brought this suit against the County of San Bernardino, the City of Hesperia, the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department and five individual defendants, including Deputy Reyes, the two police officers who drove Angel and Mendez to the police station, the supervisor in charge of the shooting scene and an officer who responded to an incident at the Mendez home on October 5, three months after the shooting. The plaintiffs later voluntarily dismissed their claims as to the October 5 incident, which removed this latter defendant and three Mendez family members — all but Mendez and Angel — from the case. The remaining claims alleged false arrest of Mendez and Angel under state law and the Fourth Amendment, illegal search under the Fourth Amendment, negligent failure to train the police officers under state law, and alleged that the County was liable for the constitutional violations under Monell v. Dep't of Soc. Servs., 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978), for failing to adequately train its officers. Prior to trial, the district court granted summary judgment to the County on the state law negligence claim and the Monell claim. The remaining claims proceeded to trial, where the jury found against Reyes for Mendez's false arrest under state and federal law and against Reyes for the illegal search of her home under federal law. The jury awarded Mendez $1 in nominal damages on each of these claims, plus $250,000 in punitive damages against Reyes, based on its finding that he acted recklessly in depriving her of her constitutional rights. The jury found for the County as to Angel's claims.
This case was brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983; the district court had jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1331. The district court entered final judgment in June 2007, and Mendez timely appealed. The court denied Mendez's request for attorney's fees and costs under 42 U.S.C. § 1988(b) in a separate order, and Mendez timely appealed that order. The court also sanctioned Mendez's attorney in a separate order and Mendez and her attorney timely appealed the sanctions order. These three appeals have been consolidated for our review and we have jurisdiction over them under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We shall consider Mendez's arguments concerning the trial itself first, followed by her arguments as to the court's denial of attorney's fees and entry of sanctions against her attorney.
Mendez first contends that the district court erred when it issued a sua sponte instruction to the jury limiting its consideration of her emotional damages. The jury initially received an instruction that Mendez's damages should be "the amount of money which would reasonably and fairly compensate the plaintiff for any injury you find was caused by the defendant." The district court later recalled the jury in the midst of deliberations and — over Mendez's objections — instructed it "that the evidence does not support an award of damages for any period after July 3, 2002," the day Mendez was released from the police station. It is well established that "[a] party is entitled to an instruction about his or her theory of the case if it is supported by law and has foundation in the evidence." Jones v. Williams, 297 F.3d 930, 934 (9th Cir.2002). We review a district court's formulation of jury instructions for abuse of discretion. Id. Mendez contends that the district court abused its...
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