Ortega v. Reyna

• Decision Date: 22 January 1998
• Docket Number: No. 27592,27592
• Parties: Annette ORTEGA, Appellant, v. Trooper Daniel REYNA, individually and in his official capacity, Respondent.
• Court: Nevada Supreme Court

Page 18

953 P.2d 18

114 Nev. 55

Annette ORTEGA, Appellant, v. Trooper Daniel REYNA, individually and in his official

capacity, Respondent.

No. 27592.

Supreme Court of Nevada.

Jan. 22, 1998.

Potter Law Offices, Las Vegas, for Appellant.

Frankie Sue Del Papa, Attorney General, and Laurel A. Duffy, Deputy Attorney General, Carson City, for Respondent.

OPINION

SHEARING, Justice.

Appellant Annette Ortega filed a complaint against respondent Daniel Reyna individually, and in his official capacity as a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper, to recover for injuries sustained after a traffic stop. Appellant's complaint alleged causes of action for unlawful arrest and detention in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. ¹ Appellant also raised state law claims of false arrest, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, malicious prosecution, and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

The trooper filed a motion for summary judgment, relying on the doctrine of qualified immunity with respect to appellant's section 1983 claim, and on the exception to the waiver of state sovereign immunity pursuant to NRS 41.032 with respect to appellant's state law claims. The district court granted the trooper's motion for summary judgment, concluding that there was no dispute as to the fact that the trooper arrested appellant because she refused to sign the citation. We conclude that the district court properly granted summary judgment in respondent's favor and affirm.

FACTS

On July 5, 1992, at approximately 11:00 p.m., Trooper Reyna stopped a car driven by appellant. The trooper's version of what happened after the stop differs from appellant's. According to the trooper's affidavit, he stopped appellant for making a left hand turn where there was a "no left turn" sign. Appellant, in her complaint, contends that there was no sign prohibiting a left hand turn at the intersection. ² According to the trooper, he informed appellant that he was going to give her a ticket for making a left hand turn and explained the citation to her. Appellant does not contradict this statement. The trooper states that he told appellant that her signature on the citation was not an admission of guilt. According to appellant's affidavits, however, the trooper never told her that signing the citation was not an admission of guilt. Appellant states that she questioned the trooper about whether signing the citation was an admission of guilt. The trooper states that appellant refused to sign the citation; appellant states that she never refused to sign.

According to the trooper, he then advised appellant that if she did not sign the citation, he would arrest her and take her to jail, to which appellant responded, "Go ahead and take me to jail." Appellant does not dispute that the trooper told her that he would arrest her if she did not sign the citation, and does not deny responding in the manner that the trooper alleges. ³ The trooper arrested appellant, handcuffed her, and transported her to the Las Vegas jail where she was booked for violating NRS 484.335, making a left turn where there was a "no left turn" sign. Appellant states that after she was arrested, she pleaded with the trooper to allow her to sign the citation, but the trooper would not permit her to sign, and told her that once she was arrested he could not "unarrest" her. Appellant states that she never saw the citation, the trooper never issued her the citation, and she never had an opportunity to sign it. Appellant's husband, who was in the car with her at the time of the stop, corroborates appellant's account of what took place.

DISCUSSION

We review de novo the district court's order granting summary judgment in respondent's favor. Day v. Zubel, 112 Nev. 972, 977, 922 P.2d 536, 539 (1996). Summary judgment is only appropriate when, after a review of the record viewed in a light most favorable to the nonmoving party, there remain no genuine issues of material fact. NRCP 56(c); Butler v. Bogdanovich, 101 Nev. 449, 451, 705 P.2d 662, 663 (1985). "Properly supported factual allegations and all reasonable inferences of the party opposing summary judgment must be accepted as true. However, conclusory statements along with general allegations do not create an issue of material fact." Michaels v. Sudeck, 107 Nev. 332, 334, 810 P.2d 1212, 1213 (1991) (citation omitted). Further, "[i]f the facts set forth in support of a motion for summary judgment are not controverted by the opposing party, then those facts are presumed to be true." Tamsen v. Weber, 166 Ariz. 364, 802 P.2d 1063, 1067 (Ariz.Ct.App.1990). Thus, we must accept appellant's properly supported allegations and make all reasonable inferences in her favor in determining whether respondent is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. However, where appellant has not controverted the trooper's account of what happened, we have taken his facts as undisputed.

Section 1983 claim

To state a cause of action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, appellant must show that (1) the trooper acted under color of state law, and (2) the trooper deprived her of rights secured by the United States Constitution or federal law. ⁴ Cummings v. Charter Hospital, 111 Nev. 639, 647, 896 P.2d 1137, 1142 (1995); Boulder City v. Cinnamon Hills Assocs., 110 Nev. 238, 245, 871 P.2d 320, 324 (1994). The parties do not dispute that the trooper was acting under color of state law when he arrested appellant; rather, the parties focus on whether the trooper deprived appellant of her constitutional rights. Appellant contends that her arrest was in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, under which the right to be free from an unreasonable seizure and the use of excessive force is clearly established. Appellant argues that the trooper arrested her because she questioned his authority, and adds that the trooper violated NRS 484.795 in arresting her. Appellant contends that a genuine issue of material fact exists as to whether the trooper told her that her signature on the citation was not an admission of guilt and that if she did not sign the citation he would arrest her. Respondent, on the other hand, contends that appellant failed to show a deprivation of a clearly established federal right.

In granting summary judgment in favor of respondent, the district court found that (1) it was undisputed that the trooper arrested appellant because she refused to sign the citation, and (2) appellant's argument that she refused to sign the citation because she was not informed that her signature was not an admission of guilt is unfounded because the statement printed below the signature line gave her that information. The court did not discuss its findings in the context of qualified immunity, and did not explicitly determine that the trooper was immune from suit as to either the federal or the state claims. We assume that the court impliedly concluded that the trooper was immune from suit as to both the state and federal claims.

Police officers who are sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for false arrest have qualified immunity. Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 340, 106 S.Ct. 1092, 1095-1096, 89 L.Ed.2d 271 (1986). Under the qualified immunity doctrine, "government 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). The pertinent inquiry in determining whether an officer is entitled to qualified immunity for a Fourth Amendment violation is whether a reasonable officer could have believed his conduct lawful under the clearly established principles of law governing that conduct. Alexander v. County of Los Angeles, 64 F.3d 1315, 1319 (9th Cir.1995). An allegation of malice is not sufficient to defeat immunity if the officer acted in an objectively reasonable manner. Hansen v. Black, 885 F.2d 642, 644 (9th Cir.1989).

In determining whether the law is clearly established, "[t]he operation of this standard ... depends substantially upon the level of generality at which the relevant 'legal rule' is to be identified." Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 639, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 3038-3039, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987). The right which the official is alleged to have violated "must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right." Id. at 640, 107 S.Ct. at 3039. The issue is "the objective (albeit fact-specific) question whether a reasonable officer could have believed [appellant's] warrantless [arrest] to be lawful, in light of clearly established law and the information the ... officer[ ] possessed." Id. at 641, 107 S.Ct. at 3040. Stated another way, we look not at whether there was an arrest without probable cause, but rather whether the trooper reasonably could have believed that his conduct was lawful in light of clearly established law and the totality of the circumstances. Alexander, 64 F.3d at 1319. Under this approach, we conclude that the trooper is entitled to qualified immunity.

Accepting as true appellant's properly supported allegations, as well as the trooper's uncontroverted facts, the trooper stopped appellant because he believed that she had made a left turn at an intersection where there was a "no left turn" sign. The trooper told appellant that he was going to give her a ticket and explained the citation to her. The trooper did not tell appellant that signing the citation was not an admission of guilt, and appellant questioned the trooper about this. The trooper advised appellant that if she did not sign the citation, he would arrest her and take her to jail. Appellant responded that the trooper should take her to jail, whereupon the trooper did so. Although we accept as true appellant's assertion that she never actually...