Radcliffe v. Rainbow Construction Company
| Decision Date | 13 July 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. 99-15020,DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES,N,PLAINTIFFS-APPELLANTS,99-15020 |
| Citation | 254 F.3d 772 |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
| Parties | (9th Cir. 2001) RICHARD ROBERT RADCLIFFE; CHARLES MELVIN TAYLOR; ANDREW SLIVKA, JR.; JAY STREETS,, v. RAINBOW CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, A PARTNERSHIP; PETER A. RICHARDSON; DOUGLAS V. ANDERSON; CLIFFORD MICHAEL MCCLURE; MELON L. CHICHESTER; JAMES W. LAMBERT; CHRISTIAN HANS WEISSLEDER; UKIAH UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT; JACK DANIELS, INDIVIDUALLY IN HIS PERSONAL CAPACITY, AND AS ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS AND CONSULTANT TO THE UKIAH UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT,RICHARD ROBERT RADCLIFFE; CHARLES MELVIN TAYLOR; ANDREW SLIVKA, JR.; JAY STREETS,, v. RAINBOW CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, A PARTNERSHIP; PETER A. RICHARDSON; DOUGLAS V. ANDERSON; CLIFFORD MICHAEL MCCLURE; MELON L. CHICHESTER; JAMES W. LAMBERT; CHRISTIAN HANS WEISSLEDER; MENDOCINO COUNTY; SUSAN MASSINI, INDIVIDUALLY IN HER PERSONAL CAPACITY; ALLEN F. BAZZANI, INDIVIDUALLY IN HIS PERSONAL CAPACITY AND AS MANAGER OF BUILDING & GROUNDS OF THE COUNTY OF MENDOCINO; JACK DANIELS, INDIVIDUALLY IN HIS PERSONAL CAPACITY, AND AS ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS AND CONSULTANT TO THE UKIAH UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT,o. 99-17151 |
Sandra Rae Benson, Theodore Franklin, Amy D. Martin, Van Bourg, Weinberg, Roger & Rosenfeld, Oakland, California, for the plaintiffs-appellants.
Bradford K. Newman, Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro, Llp, San Francisco, California; Jeanine B. Nadel, Deputy County Counsel, Ukiah, California; Richard W. Clopine, Halkides & Morgan, Redding, California, for the defendantsappellees.
Khin Mai Aung, Asian Law Caucus, San Francisco, California, for the amici curiae.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California Charles A. Legge, District Judge, Presiding D.C. No. CV-96-01852CAL/MJ D.C. No. CV-96-01852-CAL
Before: William C. Canby, Jr., Stephen Reinhardt, and Ferdinand F. Fernandez, Circuit Judges.
OPINION
Opinion by Judge Canby; Partial Concurrence and Partial Dissent by Judge Reinhardt
This appeal is an outgrowth of a dispute over the right of union representatives to visit the construction sites of a nonunion general contractor in order to inspect for unsafe conditions or violations of prevailing wage policies applicable to governmental construction contracts. The plaintiffs are four representatives of the Bay Counties District Council of Carpenters ("Carpenters Union") located in Northern California. The plaintiffs entered the construction sites of the defendant, Rainbow Construction Company, and refused to depart when asked by Company officials. Rainbow's president effected citizen's arrests of three of the plaintiffs, and all four plaintiffs were subsequently prosecuted for trespass and acquitted.
The plaintiffs then brought this action against Rainbow, its president, the Mendocino County District Attorney, a local school official, and other defendants no longer in issue. The plaintiffs asserted claims for violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983, on a theory that the private defendants had conspired with the County District Attorney to bring unfounded prosecutions in violation of the plaintiffs' rights under federal labor law and the Constitution. The plaintiffs also alleged state-law claims of false arrest, false imprisonment, and malicious prosecution.1 The district court granted summary judgment for the defendants on all claims, and assessed sanctions of $75,000 against the plaintiffs' attorneys under Fed. R. Civ. P. 11. The plaintiffs appealed. We now affirm the district court's dismissal of all claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. We reverse the dismissal of the state-law claims of false arrest,2 false imprisonment, and malicious prosecution against Rainbow and its president, and remand for further proceedings. We also reverse the award of Rule 11 sanctions against the plaintiffs' attorneys.
The facts underlying this appeal are rendered more understandable if three legal considerations are kept in mind. First, the plaintiffs in visiting construction sites were relying on In re Catalano, 29 Cal.3d 1, 10, 623 P.2d 228, 234 (1981), in which the Supreme Court of California held that, under a statutory exception, the general trespass statute did not apply to "lawful union activity" on the job site. Second, Rainbow and its president are private parties who ordinarily do not act "under color of state law" within the meaning of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The viability of the plaintiffs' § 1983 claim against the Rainbow defendants accordingly depends entirely upon proof of conspiracy or joint action between the Rainbow defendants and the District Attorney that violated the plaintiffs' federal rights. See United Steel Workers v. Phelps Dodge Corp., 865 F.2d 1539, 1540-41 (9th Cir. 1989) (en banc). And third, the plaintiffs recognize that the Mendocino County District Attorney enjoys absolute immunity for decisions made within her prosecutorial authority, see Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 422-23 (1976); their§ 1983 claim against the District Attorney thus requires proof that she acted outside of her prosecutorial function to the injury of the plaintiffs. With these considerations in mind, we turn to the facts.
In May 1995, the plaintiffs visited two of Rainbow's job sites. One of these sites was the Pomolita Middle School; the other was the Mendocino County Administration Building. The plaintiffs assert that there were two purposes of these visits. First, the plaintiffs were seeking to enforce prevailing wage rates applicable to public construction contracts. Second, the plaintiffs were inspecting health and safety conditions as authorized by the Carpenter's Master Agreement, which they assert was applicable because Rainbow had retained at both sites the services of a union subcontractor that had signed the Carpenter Union's Agreement.3
The first visit occurred on May 16, 1995, and it involved no arrests. Three of the plaintiffs, Richard Radcliffe, Charles Taylor, and Jay Streets, went to the Pomolita Middle School site. Prior to their visit, the plaintiffs had been informed by defendant Jack Daniels, a school district official, that they were required to register at the school office whenever they visited a school site; the plaintiffs accordingly signed in at the Pomolita principal's office. They then proceeded to the job site, where their presence was challenged by Rainbow's president, defendant Peter Richardson. Richardson told the plaintiffs (incorrectly) that there were no union contractors scheduled to perform work on the job, and said that he was leaving to call the police.
Several minutes later, Richardson appeared with police officers, and inquired about the purpose of the plaintiffs' visit. To this inquiry, plaintiff Radcliffe responded only that he was there to conduct "lawful union business." Defendant Daniels of the School District then appeared on the site, responding to a call from Richardson, and stated that he had not given the plaintiffs permission to enter the site. Daniels volunteered to call the Superintendent in an attempt to resolve the situation, and he left to do so. By the time Daniels had returned, the plaintiffs had voluntarily left the site after the police persuaded Richardson not to effect a citizen's arrest on this occasion. The police told the plaintiffs that if Richardson wanted to make a citizen's arrest on such an occasion in the future, they would be obligated to carry out that arrest.
Three days later, plaintiffs Radcliffe and Streets visited another Rainbow site, the Mendocino County Administration Center. Defendant Richardson appeared and asked them to leave. Radcliffe repeated, again without additional explanation, that he was engaged in "lawful union business" and that he would not leave until his business was completed. Richardson told them that they would be arrested if they did not leave, and Streets then left the premises. Radcliffe remained and ultimately the police arrived and took custody of him pursuant to a citizen's arrest by Richardson.4 He was booked and promptly released without bail.
Less than two weeks later, Radcliffe and Taylor returned to the Pomolita Middle School site to conduct another, nearly identical visit. They stated only that they were on"lawful union business" and refused to leave when asked. Richardson then effected a citizen's arrest of both Radcliffe and Taylor. They were transported to the Ukiah police department, where they were booked and quickly released without bail.
The District Attorney's office subsequently declined to prosecute the trespasses leading to the two arrests, because the two Assistant District Attorneys who had examined the case concluded that the plaintiffs' conduct was not unlawful.
On September 11, 1995, plaintiffs Radcliffe and Andrew Slivka visited Rainbow's Construction site at the Mendocino County Administration Building, apparently to monitor Rainbow for potential violations of the state prevailing wage laws. After checking in at the Administration Building, Radcliffe and Slivka entered the job site. When challenged, Radcliffe stated that he was "engaged in lawful union activities." Richardson arrived and told Radcliffe, "If you'd just tell us what you want, I'll take you through and let you do it. " Radcliffe simply repeated that he was on "lawful union business"; both Radcliffe and Slivka refused to leave, and Richardson placed them under citizen's arrest. A county police officer caused them to be jailed for a short time when he learned of the prior arrests.
Following the third arrest, Richardson went to the County District Attorney's Office to seek reconsideration of the District Attorney's decision not to prosecute...
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