Mouille v. City of Live Oak

• Decision Date: 06 December 1990
• Docket Number: No. 89-5662,89-5662
• Citation: 918 F.2d 548
• Parties: Ken MOUILLE, Plaintiff, Laurie Rollins, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. CITY OF LIVE OAK, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 548

918 F.2d 548

Ken MOUILLE, Plaintiff, Laurie Rollins, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. CITY OF LIVE OAK, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 89-5662.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

Dec. 6, 1990.

Rehearing Denied Jan. 8, 1991.

Tom Joseph, San Antonio, Tex., for plaintiffs-appellants.

Wallace B. Jefferson, Thomas W. Gendry, Groce, Locke & Hebdon, San Antonio, Tex., for defendants-appellees.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.

Before CLARK, Chief Judge, REAVLEY and KING, Circuit Judges.

CLARK, Chief Judge:

This civil rights action arises out of incidents that occurred in and around San Antonio, Texas on January 9, 1987. Plaintiffs Kenneth Mouille (Mouille), Leroy Liberda (Liberda), Grace Rollins, and Laurie Rollins sued Timothy Britt (Britt), Mark Jackley (Jackley), Douglas Faesler (Faesler), and the City of Live Oak, Texas alleging violations of 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. At the time of the incident, Britt was a Live Oak police officer, Jackley was the Chief of Police of Live Oak, and Faesler was Live Oak's City Manager.

The case was tried to a jury. At the close of the evidence, all defendants moved for directed verdicts. The district court granted each defendant's motions against all claims by Liberda, Grace Rollins, and Laurie Rollins. The district court also directed a verdict for Faesler against all claims by Mouille, but denied the directed verdict motions by Britt, Jackley and the City of Live Oak against Mouille. The jury returned a verdict in favor of Britt, Jackley, and the City of Live Oak against Mouille's claims. Mouille does not appeal. Liberda, Grace Rollins, and Laurie Rollins appeal the directed verdicts against them. We affirm the district court's judgment against Grace Rollins and Laurie Rollins. We vacate the judgment against Liberda and remand.

I. Background Facts.

Grace Rollins and Liberda were partners in a San Antonio insurance agency called L & R Associates (L & R). Mouille was an independent insurance broker with L & R. Laurie Rollins was an insurance salesperson at L & R. A large sign in the yard outside the L & R building indicated that it was an insurance agency.

Mouille arrived at the L & R office at approximately 10:30 a.m. and left a few minutes later in a blue Corvette. He testified that he returned to the office at approximately 11:00 a.m. and parked the Corvette near the office. At approximately 11:30 a.m., Officer Britt entered the office with his night stick drawn. The main entrance to the office opens into Grace Rollins' office. When Officer Britt entered, Laurie Rollins was in that front office, and Grace Rollins was entering it.

According to the plaintiffs, Britt burst in and slammed the front door against a wall dislodging some plaques. As he entered, he was yelling about a sports car. Britt then pushed Laurie Rollins, who was pregnant at the time, into a wall. Laurie began to cry, and Liberda and Mouille entered the room. Britt threw down his night stick, drew his gun, pushed it against Liberda's throat, and yelled expletives at him. To avoid the gun, Liberda jumped back and hit a wall. Britt had not identified himself as a police officer, but he was swinging his gun wildly and screaming about chasing someone in a sports car. Britt then saw Mouille, arrested him, and took him away. All plaintiffs claim that no one challenged Britt's authority in any way.

Officer Britt's version of the facts is only slightly different. He claims that he had been chasing the blue Corvette at a high rate of speed. The chase ended at the L & R building. Britt admits that he pushed Laurie Rollins into the wall, but he claims that Liberda entered the room and challenged his authority. He does not dispute pointing his gun at Liberda. Britt maintains that the incident ended peaceably when he arrested Mouille.

Appellants Grace Rollins, Laurie Rollins, and Liberda allege that Officer Britt used excessive force in violation of section 1983. They further allege that defendants Jackley, Faesler, and the City of Live Oak are liable under section 1983 because they failed to train and supervise Britt, ratified his actions, and did not have policies in place to prevent incidents like this. The district court's bases for the directed verdicts were a finding that Liberda, Grace Rollins, and Laurie Rollins did not suffer significant injuries and a determination that Officer Britt was qualifiedly immune.

II. Section 1983 Claims.

A trial court must review the evidence in the light most favorable to the party opposing the motion for a directed verdict. Boeing Co. v. Shipman, 411 F.2d 365, 374 (5th Cir.1969) (en banc). If the material evidence is such that reasonable minds could differ as to the relevant facts, the district court erred in directing a verdict. The same standard applies on appellate review. Hinshaw v. Doffer, 785 F.2d 1260, 1263 (5th Cir.1986).

Appellants claim that Britt used excessive force which injured them in the course of arresting Mouille. The Supreme Court has stated that "all claims that law enforcement officers have used excessive force--deadly or not--in the course of an arrest, investigatory stop, or other 'seizure' of a free citizen should be analyzed under the Fourth Amendment...." Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 109 S.Ct. 1865, 1871, 104 L.Ed.2d 443 (1989) (emphasis in original). It is now clearly established law in this circuit that a section 1983 plaintiff claiming that a law enforcement officer used excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment must prove each of the following elements: "(1) a significant injury, which (2) resulted directly and only from the use of force that was clearly excessive to the need; and the excessiveness of which was (3) objectively unreasonable." Johnson v. Morel, 876 F.2d 477, 480 (5th Cir.1989) (en banc) (per curiam) (footnote omitted).

When a defendant raises the defense of qualified immunity, however, we must determine whether the defendant's conduct was qualifiedly immune before reaching the merits of the section 1983 claim. Britt argues, and the district court agreed, that his conduct was qualifiedly immune. At the time of the incident, Britt was a public safety official. As such, he is entitled to assert the defense of qualified immunity. See Gagne v. City of Galveston, 805 F.2d 558, 559 (5th Cir.1986), cert. denied, 483 U.S. 1021, 107 S.Ct. 3266, 97 L.Ed.2d 764 (1987).

Substantively, qualified immunity shields government officials performing discretionary functions "from civil damages liability as long as their actions could reasonably have been thought consistent with the rights they are alleged to have violated." Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 638, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 3038, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987). Whether a defendant asserting qualified immunity may be personally liable turns on the objective legal reasonableness of the defendant's actions assessed in light of clearly established law. See id. at 639, 107 S.Ct. at 3038. When a plaintiff invokes a clearly established right such as freedom from excessive force, the appropriate inquiry is whether "[t]he contours of the right [were] sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates the right." Id. at 640, 107 S.Ct. at 3039.

The objective reasonableness of an official's conduct must be measured with reference to the law as it existed at the time of the conduct in question. See Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818-19, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2738, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). The conduct in question occurred in 1987. At that time, the standards set forth in Shillingford v. Holmes, 634 F.2d 263 (5th Cir. Unit A Jan. 1981) were clearly established law in this circuit.

In Shillingford, we held that to maintain an excessive force claim a plaintiff must prove that the defendant's action "caused severe injuries, was grossly disproportionate to the need for action under the circumstances and was inspired by malice rather than merely careless or unwise excess of zeal so that it amounted to an abuse of official power that shocks the conscience...." Id. at 265. In this case, Britt is entitled to qualified immunity against the appellants' claims if a reasonable peace officer could conclude that Britt's conduct did not violate each appellant's right to be free from excessive force as enunciated in Shillingford. See Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 341, 106 S.Ct. 1092, 1096, 89 L.Ed.2d 271 (1986).

As to each appellant, our inquiry does not end if we determine that Britt's conduct was qualifiedly immune because we must then determine whether the other defendants may still be liable. The qualified immunity defense shields a defendant from individual liability when the defendant's actions are objectively reasonable. A defendant's conduct may in fact violate a plaintiff's civil rights under section 1983, but the defendant may nevertheless avoid individual liability by successfully asserting the qualified immunity defense. See Melear v. Spears, 862 F.2d 1177, 1188 (5th Cir.1989) (Higginbotham, J., concurring). In other words, a defendant whose conduct in fact violates a plaintiff's civil rights under current law is qualifiedly immune from individual liability if the defendant's conduct was objectively reasonable in light of clearly established law at the time of the conduct. Thus, a plaintiff whose civil rights were in fact violated may be able to recover from defendants who do not invoke qualified immunity even though the plaintiff may not recover from an individual officer who successfully invokes it. After determining whether Officer Britt is entitled to qualified immunity as to an appellant's claim, we must determine whether the district court correctly directed a verdict against that appellant in favor of the other defendants.

A. Liberda.

When Liberda jumped back from Officer Britt's actions, he fell against a door. He testified that this caused him to suffer injuries to his...