Parker v. District of Columbia

• Decision Date: 17 June 1988
• Docket Number: No. 87-7039,87-7039
• Parties: Donald R. PARKER, et al. v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

Page 708

850 F.2d 708

271 U.S.App.D.C. 15

Donald R. PARKER, et al. v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Appellant.

No. 87-7039.

United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued Nov. 16, 1987.

Decided June 17, 1988.

Donna M. Murasky, Asst. Corp. Counsel, with whom Frederick D. Cooke, Jr., Acting Corp. Counsel, and Charles L. Reischel, Deputy Corp. Counsel, Washington, D.C., were on the brief for appellant.

William W. Taylor, III, with whom Roger E. Zuckerman and Christine Nicholson, Washington, D.C., were on the brief for appellees. Michael R. Smith, Washington, D.C., also entered an appearance for appellees.

Before MIKVA and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges, and GORDON, ^* Senior District Judge.

Opinion for the Court filed by Senior District Judge MYRON L. GORDON.

Dissenting Opinion filed by Circuit Judge WILLIAMS.

MYRON L. GORDON, Senior District Judge:

Don R. Parker sustained serious injuries after being shot by an officer of the District of Columbia metropolitan police department Repeat Offenders Project [ROP]. This is an appeal from a judgment based upon a jury verdict that awarded Mr. Parker $425,046.67 in damages and nominal loss of consortium damages to his wife, Betty. The Parkers sued the District of Columbia and the ROP officers involved; they alleged state law assault and battery and violations of 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 arising out the District's failure adequately to train, discipline and supervise its ROP officers in matters of extrajurisdictional arrest and disarmament. Prior to trial, the Parkers dropped their claims against the individual officers and proceeded only against the District.

At the close of all the evidence in the trial, the court denied the District's motion for a directed verdict. The case went to the jury, which found in favor of the District on the state law claims, but against the District with respect to the section 1983 claim. The District moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, but the court denied this motion. The District now challenges the court's ruling on the motion for judgment n.o.v. and aspects of the charge tendered to the jury. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

This case is the result of confusion and a series of mistakes leading to tragic consequences. On the morning of November 15, 1982, two ROP officers, William Hayes and Ronnie Motley, set out to locate Don Parker, for whom an armed robbery felony warrant was outstanding.

To begin their search, the officers traveled to suburban Maryland in plain clothes and in an unmarked car, a 1974 Pontiac station wagon. There they intended to interview Betty Parker. The officers did not bring the Parker warrant because they mistakenly assumed that their arrest authority in Maryland was curtailed and that Don and Betty Parker did not live together. When they arrived at the Parker address, they unsuccessfully attempted to contact their dispatcher by radio. Unfortunately, the officers were parked in a radio "dead spot," and they could not communicate with the ROP.

When the officers went to the door and identified themselves to Ms. Parker, she brought Mr. Parker to the door. Mr. Parker invited the officers into the house. The officers described the purpose of their visit and requested that Mr. Parker voluntarily accompany them to the D.C. police department. Mr. Parker denied any wrongdoing indeed, the armed robbery charge was eventually dropped. Mr. Parker also refused to leave with the two men who were not in possession of a warrant. Because his phone was disconnected, Mr. Parker asked the officers to radio either the local police or their ROP supervisors regarding the warrant, but the officers' dead radio barred that procedure. Finally, Mr. Parker ostensibly agreed to accompany the officers but asked for the opportunity to change his clothes. Officers Hayes and Motley granted this request; Mr. Parker went into his bedroom and escaped through the window into the neighboring woods.

Once the officers realized that they had been duped, they jumped into their station wagon and chased Mr. Parker around the surrounding neighborhood. To escape, Mr. Parker commandeered a late model Volvo, one that had just careened into the rear end of the officers wagon. Officer Hayes rushed out of his vehicle and tried to extricate Mr. Parker from the Volvo, but he was unable to accomplish this task. Operating under the erroneous assumption that Mr. Parker was threatening the driver of the car and that he was armed, Officer Hayes yelled: "Freeze Parker, don't do it." Transcript at 200. Mr. Parker continued to turn towards Officer Hayes, and the officer shot at him four times. Don Parker was hit twice, once in the abdomen and once in the spine, causing serious and permanent injury.

II. ANALYSIS

A. Standard of Review

In reviewing Judge Green's ruling on judgment n.o.v., we apply the standard applied when reviewing directed verdict rulings. See Vander Zee v. Karabatsos, 589 F.2d 723, 726 (D.C.Cir.1978), cert. denied, 441 U.S. 962, 99 S.Ct. 2407, 60 L.Ed.2d 1066 (1979). A directed verdict or judgment n.o.v. is inappropriate unless there is only one reasonable conclusion to be drawn from the evidence and that conclusion is inconsistent with the verdict rendered. Morgan v. District of Columbia, 824 F.2d 1049, 1056 (D.C.Cir.1987). Our task on review is not to weigh or reconsider the evidence.

[W]e are required to evaluate the evidence under the presumption that the jury resolved all factual disputes in favor of the prevailing party. Moreover, we must give the advantage of every fair and reasonable inference to the prevailing party. Finally, we may not assess the credibility of the witnesses; that function is reserved exclusively for the jury. Our function is limited to certifying "only that fairminded jurors could reach the verdict rendered."

Id. (quoting Grogan v. General Maintenance Service Co., 763 F.2d 444, 447 (D.C.Cir.1985)).

Despite strong factual underpinnings and clear precedent to the contrary, the District is, in effect, urging us to impose a less onerous standard for overturning jury awards in municipal liability cases under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. As the Morgan opinion illustrates with eloquent detail, jury awards are always "given the utmost of deference and respect." Id. at 1056. There is no authority to veer from this standard in cases involving awards against municipalities; we decline to adopt the District's implied suggestion to do so.

Our colleague's dissent is primarily based on his own interpretation of the facts, which is contrary to that of the jury. In our view, the dissent is seriously flawed by its failure to apply the "utmost ... deference" standard referred to above.

B. Substantive Law

In Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 691, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 2036, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978), the Supreme Court held that a municipality is liable under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 only when execution of its policy or custom causes a plaintiff to suffer constitutional injury. Since Monell, the Court has continued to explore the contours of municipal liability under Sec. 1983. In a case involving a police shooting allegedly caused by inadequate training, the Court determined that "[p]roof of a single incident of unconstitutional activity is not sufficient to impose liability under Monell, unless proof of the incident includes proof that it was caused by an existing, unconstitutional municipal policy, which policy can be attributed to a municipal policymaker." Oklahoma City v. Tuttle, 471 U.S. 808, 823-24, 105 S.Ct. 2427, 2436, 85 L.Ed.2d 791 (1985).

The District contends that inadequate training cannot amount to a custom or policy giving rise to liability under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 as required by Monell and that even if it could, the Parkers' proof does not support a finding of such a custom or policy. We disagree. Unlike Tuttle, this case does not involve a single incident that gives rise to an inference of inadequate training. It involves a sad series of mishaps linked to a policy of sorely deficient training, supervision and discipline.

Although the Supreme Court has not yet resolved the question, the issue of whether liability can arise for injuries caused by a policy of inadequate training has come to the attention of the Court. See City of Springfield v. Kibbe, 480 U.S. 257, 107 S.Ct. 1114, 94 L.Ed.2d 293 (1987); Tuttle, supra, 471 U.S. at 814 n. 2, 105 S.Ct. at 2431 n. 2. In Kibbe, for example, the Court originally granted certiorari to address the question of inadequate training and liability under Monell, but dismissed such certiorari as improvidently granted upon determining that the petitioner failed to preserve the "fairly included" question, see Supreme Court Rule 21.1(a), of whether more than negligence in training is required in order to establish such liability.

In Tuttle, the Court rejected a finding of Sec. 1983 municipal liability for inadequate training based on a single incident of police misconduct. Whether the facts of a particular case could contain sufficient examples of misconduct to infer a policy of inadequate training was a question left unresolved by Tuttle. The Supreme Court has, however, recently accepted for review the sixth circuit case of City of Canton v. Harris; the issue of inadequate training for law enforcement officers and its relationship to municipal policy would appear intrinsic to that case. See City of Canton v. Harris, 798 F.2d 1414 (6th Cir.1986), cert. granted, --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 1105, 99 L.Ed.2d 267 (1988).

Until we receive contrary direction from the Court, we believe that Sec. 1983 liability may be found under Monell when there is evidence of deliberate indifference manifest by systemic and grossly inadequate training, discipline, and supervision. We also believe that the standard articulated in the instruction proffered to the jury in this case reflects a proper standard. Limiting Monell to affirmative policies that...