Ortega v. City of Kansas City, Kansas

• Decision Date: 18 March 1987
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 85-2054.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Kansas
• Parties: Philip ORTEGA, Plaintiff, v. CITY OF KANSAS CITY, KANSAS, a Municipal Corporation, et al., Defendants.

659 F. Supp. 1201

Philip ORTEGA, Plaintiff, v. CITY OF KANSAS CITY, KANSAS, a Municipal Corporation, et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 85-2054.

United States District Court, D. Kansas.

March 18, 1987.

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Richard T. Merker, Thomas D. Billam, Wallace, Saunders, Austin, Brown & Enochs, Overland Park, Kan., for plaintiff.

Maurice J. Ryan, J. Dexter Burdette, Kansas City, Kan., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

EARL E. O'CONNOR, Chief Judge.

This matter is before the court upon the following motions: (1) defendants' motions for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, new trial and/or remittitur; (2) plaintiff's motion for attorney's fees; and (3) defendants' motion for review of the clerk's taxation of costs.

Trial to a jury was held on December 17-22, 1986. Plaintiff presented evidence as to the following: In the fall of 1984, defendants initiated a sting operation entitled "Operation Express" to facilitate the arrest of a large number of suspects for which outstanding warrants existed. A computer operator for the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department was given a list of names for which outstanding warrants existed. She entered the suspects' names into the computer and it displayed an address for each suspect. Notices were then mailed to the suspects telling them to claim a package in Kansas City, Kansas. One of the outstanding warrants was for a "Philip Ortega," residing on Indiana Street in Kansas City, Missouri. Although the warrant did not so identify the suspect, he was a 35-year-old black male. When the computer operator entered Ortega's name into the computer, two addresses were displayed: one at the Indiana Street address and another at a 90th Terrace, Kansas City, Missouri address. Notices were sent to both addresses.

The plaintiff, Philip Ortega, a 65-year-old white male, received the notice at his home on 90th Terrace in Kansas City, Missouri, on December 24, 1984. On December 26, plaintiff crossed the Missouri-Kansas state line into Kansas City, Kansas, to pick up his package, whereupon he was arrested despite his protests that he was the "wrong" Philip Ortega. Plaintiff was booked at the Wyandotte County Jail, taken before a District Judge and released on bond. Several days later, after obtaining counsel, plaintiff convinced the judge that he was in fact not the same Philip Ortega sought in the warrant. Although the judge told plaintiff that the charges would be dismissed, no entry of dismissal was ever entered into the record.

At the close of plaintiff's evidence, the court directed a verdict on all claims except plaintiff's claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for a violation of his constitutional right to extradition. The jury was instructed that a criminal suspect has a right to extradition under Article IV, Sec. 2, cl. 2 of the United States Constitution and that this right is implemented by both state and federal extradition statutes which provide specific procedures for extraditing persons charged with a crime. The jury was further instructed that they could find a defendant liable under section 1983 if they found that the defendant lured plaintiff into Kansas and arrested and detained him in violation of the extradition laws.

The jury returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff against the City of Kansas City, Kansas, hereinafter "the City" and three of the individual defendants. The jury awarded compensatory damages in the amount of $12,500 and punitive damages totalling $70,000 against the individual defendants.

I. Defendants' Motions for Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdict, New Trial and/or Remittitur.

A. Motion for Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdict.

In Flood v. Wisconsin Real Estate Investment Trust, 503 F.Supp. 1157 (D.Kan. 1980) we discussed the proper standard to be applied to a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict:

In considering a motion for a judgment n.o.v. the evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the party against whom the motion is made. A judgment n.o.v. may not be granted unless the evidence points but one way and is susceptible to no reasonable inferences which may sustain the position of the party against whom the motion is made. It is not the Court's duty to weigh the evidence presented, or to pass on the credibility of witnesses, or to substitute its judgment of the facts for that of the jury.

Id. at 1159 (citations omitted).

The court has carefully reviewed the evidence presented at trial and the issues of fact that were to be determined. The court finds that the record contains sufficient evidence to support the jury's findings. Defendants' motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict will therefore be denied.

B. Motion for New Trial.

The standard for granting a new trial is less rigorous than the standard for granting judgment notwithstanding the verdict. In ruling on a motion for a new trial, the trial judge has extremely broad discretion. Allied Chemical Corp. v. Daiflon, Inc., 449 U.S. 33, 37, 101 S.Ct. 188, 191, 66 L.Ed.2d 193 (1980). We recently set forth the standard for granting a motion for a new trial in Commons v. Montgomery Ward & Co., 614 F.Supp. 443 (D.Kan.1985):

The trial judge has the obligation or duty to ensure that justice is done, and, when justice so requires, he has the authority to set aside the jury's verdict. He may do so when he believes the verdict to be against the weight of the evidence or when prejudicial error has entered the record. In considering a motion for new trial, the court is permitted to weigh the evidence and it may order a new trial even if there is evidence to support the jury's verdict.

Id. at 449 (citations omitted).

Defendants raise numerous arguments in support of their motion for new trial. The court will address each of these arguments individually.

1. Qualified Immunity.

Defendants argue that the court erred in holding that the individual defendants were not entitled to the defense of qualified immunity. The doctrine of qualified immunity provides that "governmental officials performing discretionary functions ... are shielded from liability for civil damages insofar as 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). In Harlow, the court reformulated the standard for determining qualified immunity. Prior to Harlow, the qualified immunity test had two prongs: one objective and one subjective. See, e.g., Wood v. Strickland, 420 U.S. 308, 322, 95 S.Ct. 992, 1000, 43 L.Ed.2d 214 (1975). Because the Court became concerned that the subjective or so-called "good faith" component entailed wide-ranging discovery into the official's motivation, the Court in Harlow eliminated the subjective prong and any need to inquire as to whether the official was acting in good faith. See Harlow, 457 U.S. at 816-17, 102 S.Ct. at 2737.¹

In Lutz v. Weld County School District, 784 F.2d 340 (10th Cir.1986), the Tenth Circuit analyzed the Harlow decision and set forth the steps for determining whether a defendant is entitled to the qualified immunity defense. Initially, defendants must properly raise the defense of qualified immunity, i.e., they must assert that they were performing discretionary functions. Id. at 342. Plaintiff then has the burden to convince the court that the law relied upon by plaintiff was clearly established at the time the defendants allegedly deprived plaintiff or his or her civil rights. Id. at 342-43. Whether the law was clearly established when the conduct complained of occurred is a legal issue to be resolved by the court. Id. at 343. If a plaintiff fails to convince the court that the law was clearly established, the defendants are qualifiedly immune and the court must enter judgment in favor of the defendants who have pled the defense. Id. If, on the other hand, the plaintiff convinces the court that the law was clearly established, the court must proceed to determine whether the defendants have raised a fact issue as to whether "exceptional circumstances" existed such that reasonable persons in their position would not have known of the relevant legal standard. Id. If the defendants raise such a fact issue, the defendants are entitled to a jury instruction on the defense. If no fact issue is raised, defendants are not entitled to the defense as a matter of law. Id.

We will proceed to apply each of these steps to determine whether the defendants were entitled to the defense of qualified immunity. Initially, the court finds that defendants properly raised the defense. Decisions as to when and how to execute arrest warrants and whether to initiate sting operations such as Operation Express are matters clearly within the discretionary authority of a police department and its officers.

We must next decide whether plaintiff has met his burden in convincing us that the law was "clearly established" at the time of the defendants' wrongful conduct. As a threshold matter, we must decide the standard for determining whether the law was "clearly established." In Harlow, the court declined to decide whether the state of the law is to be evaluated by reference to opinions of the Supreme Court, Courts of Appeals, or the local District Court. 457 U.S. at 818 n. 32, 102 S.Ct. at 2738 n. 32.

In the absence of clear-cut guidance from the Supreme Court, courts have taken varying approaches in defining the "clearly established" standard. According to the Ninth Circuit, the court should look for binding precedent on any level; in the absence of such precedent, the court should look to all available decisional law, including decisions of state courts, circuit courts and district courts. Chilicky v. Schweiker, 796 F.2d 1131, 1138 (9th Cir.1986); Capoeman v. Reed, 754 F.2d 1512, 1514 (9th Cir.1985). The court should also evaluate the...