Parker v. Williams
| Decision Date | 20 September 1988 |
| Docket Number | 86-7369,Nos. 86-7233,s. 86-7233 |
| Citation | 855 F.2d 763 |
| Parties | 26 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 1276 Lolita PARKER, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. James Michael WILLIAMS, individually and as Chief Jailer, Macon County, Alabama, et al., Defendants, Lucius Amerson, individually and as Sheriff, Macon County, Alabama and Macon County, Alabama, Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
Baxley, Beck, Dillard & Dauphin, William J. Baxley, Joel E. Dillard, Charles Dauphin, Birmingham, Ala., for Amerson.
Gray, Langford, Sapp, Davis & McGowan, Edwin L. Davis, Tuskegee, Ala., Charles S. Conley, Montgomery, Ala., for Macon County.
Jerry B. Kurz, Hall & Kurz, Chicago, Ill., Griffin Sikes, Jr., Montgomery, Ala., James J. Friedman, Waukegan, Ill., for plaintiff-appellee.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama.
Before HILL and JOHNSON, Circuit Judges, and ESCHBACH *, Senior Circuit Judge.
This appeal arises from a jury award of compensatory and punitive damages for liability under state tort law and 42 U.S.C.A. Sec. 1983. We resume our consideration of this case after receiving a response to the question we certified to the Supreme Court of Alabama. 519 So.2d 442 (Ala.1987).
Lolita Parker spent the night in the Macon County jail after a bar scuffle in which she hit a woman on the head with a glass. The following morning, on July 1, 1984, the chief jailer, James Williams, offered to help Parker get home. Williams agreed to arrange for Parker's bond if she would pose nude for "Hustler-type" photographs. Parker undressed for Williams in the cell so he could check for any scars or marks on her body.
Williams arranged for Parker's bond. Although Williams had instructed Parker to meet him at a nearby store, she took a cab to a friend's house instead. Not long thereafter Williams, having learned Parker's location from the cab driver, knocked on the friend's door. Williams was still in uniform. He persisted when told that Parker was not there and eventually found her in the bedroom. Williams informed Parker that her bond had been revoked and she would have to return with him to the jail. They entered the cab, but Williams directed the driver to take them to Williams' house. Once inside his house, Williams raped Parker.
Williams was convicted of rape and kidnapping. Parker suffered post-traumatic stress disorder. She had difficulty finding work because her work experience was in sales and waiting tables and she now shunned crowded public settings. She had difficulty sleeping because she dreamt regularly of a man chasing her. Her desensitization was estimated to require two years of active therapy.
On June 28, 1985, Parker filed suit against former chief jailer James Williams, Macon County sheriff Lucius Amerson, Macon County itself, and the individual Macon County commissioners. The complaint alleged violations under Alabama tort law and 42 U.S.C.A. Sec. 1983. The individual commissioners were dismissed as defendants, and trial was held February 3-6, 1986. The jury found the chief jailer, the sheriff, and the county all liable under both the state and the federal claims, and it awarded compensatory damages of $100,000. The jury additionally awarded punitive damages of $100,000 against the sheriff and the county.
Sheriff Amerson and Macon County appealed the jury verdict and the damages award. This panel heard oral argument in December 1986 and withheld judgment pending certification of the following question to the Alabama Supreme Court: "Whether the sheriff of a county may be considered an 'employee' of the county for purposes of imposing liability on the county under a theory of respondeat superior?" The Alabama Supreme Court has answered the certified question, the parties have filed supplemental briefs, and we now reconsider and decide this case.
The district court instructed the jury that both Macon County and sheriff Amerson could be liable on the state law claims if the jury found that Amerson had been grossly negligent or wanton in hiring and retaining Williams and that the gross negligence or wantonness was a proximate cause of Parker's injury. The jury consequently found for Parker and against sheriff Amerson and Macon County on the state law claims, while Williams was held liable on the state law claims by the court because of his prior criminal conviction for rape. 1 On appeal Macon County argues that sheriff Amerson was not an employee for whose acts it could be vicariously liable. Sheriff Amerson argues that he was immune from liability as an agent of the state.
In answering our certified question, the Alabama Supreme Court has agreed with Macon County and sheriff Amerson. In pertinent part, the state supreme court held:
A sheriff is not an employee of a county for purposes of imposing liability on the county under a theory of respondeat superior. A sheriff is an executive officer of the State of Alabama, who is immune from suit under Article I, Sec. 14, Alabama Constitution of 1901, in the execution of the duties of his office.... That portion of Sec. 14-1-6 [sic], Code of Alabama 1975, which purports to make a sheriff civilly liable for the acts of his jailer is unconstitutional under Article I, Sec. 14, and Article III, Sec. 42 of the Alabama Constitution of 1901.
Parker v. Amerson, 519 So.2d at 442-43. In light of the clarifications that an Alabama county does not employ its sheriff and that Alabama sheriffs are executive officers of the state, we must now decide the issues raised by appellants.
The state law claims are easily decided. The Alabama Supreme Court's answer disposes of the state law claims raised in this case. Those claims based on section 14-6-1 are eliminated to the extent that Parker's interpretation of section 14-6-1 has been expressly deemed unconstitutional. Amerson is not liable as the employer of Williams because state law holds him immune from suit. Macon County cannot be vicariously liable as the employer of Amerson because they shared no employer-employee relationship. Williams, who is not appealing, remains liable on the state law claims.
The federal claims require more extensive discussion. All defendants in this case were sued in both their official and individual capacities. We hold that sheriff Amerson is not liable in his official capacity on the federal claim. As decreed by the Alabama Supreme Court, Amerson is covered by state immunity and we conclude that he is protected from official liability under section 1983. 2 Although Amerson is protected in his official capacity, he could nonetheless be sued in his individual capacity. Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. 232, 94 S.Ct. 1683, 40 L.Ed.2d 90 (1974). State immunity does not protect Macon County from section 1983 liability. Lincoln County v. Luning, 133 U.S. 529, 530, 10 S.Ct. 363, 363, 33 L.Ed. 766 (1890). We discuss the county's and the sheriff's federal claim liability in turn.
In 1978, the United States Supreme Court departed from precedent and held that local governing bodies could be sued directly under section 1983 for monetary damages for constitutional deprivations. Monell v. Department of Social Services of New York City, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978). Monell expressly rejected respondeat superior theories of liability as bases for section 1983 claims against municipalities. Instead, "it is when execution of a government's policy or custom, whether made by its lawmakers or by those whose edicts or acts may fairly be said to represent official policy, inflicts the injury that the government as an entity is responsible under Sec. 1983." 436 U.S. at 694. Monell also said that an act can satisfy the causation requirement of section 1983 municipal liability when it "involves official policy as the moving force of the constitutional violation." Id. Although the Monell outline gave little contour to the scope of official policy or the moving force requirement, many courts over the last decade have given fuller expression to what constitutes municipal liability under section 1983.
To incur liability under section 1983, Macon County must be causally linked to and at fault for the constitutional deprivation. The jury in this case had before it two possible predicates for section 1983 liability against Macon County: (1) that sheriff Amerson in hiring Williams without conducting a reasonable background investigation was acting pursuant to an official policy or established custom on behalf of Macon County, or (2) that sheriff Amerson, as the ultimate authority in employment matters for the jail, was grossly negligent in hiring and retaining Williams. If in accord with the applicable legal standards, the jury's determination of liability under section 1983 must stand if supported by substantial evidence. Manufacturing Research Corp. v. Graybar Elec. Co., 679 F.2d 1355 (11th Cir.1982).
As a preliminary matter, we have no difficulty concluding that Parker's rape was caused by Amerson's hiring and training of Williams as Macon County's chief jailer. The record shows that Williams had a history of mental problems and was a convicted sex offender. In 1975, Williams underwent voluntary treatment at the East Alabama Mental Health Center. In 1981, Williams again underwent treatment, this time involuntary, at the Center. Williams chose the treatment over a jail term for a conviction of indecent exposure earlier that year. Williams' diagnostic report from the 1981 treatment characterized his condition as chronic paranoid schizophrenic. The treatment was terminated by mutual agreement in 1981. Williams became a jailer in early 1984; later that year he was promoted to chief jailer. As chief jailer, Williams was placed in a position of authority over both male and female prisoners. Williams proceeded to oversee jail operations with no more than...
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