Ramirez v. Webb

• Decision Date: 17 March 1988
• Docket Number: No. 86-1291,86-1291
• Citation: 835 F.2d 1153
• Parties: Jesus RAMIREZ; et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Jack E. WEBB; Gregory Kowalski; Michael Went; John D. Helgeson; Michael T. Hawes; George Dahl; Robert Wallis; Daniel Moritz; Timothy Houghtaling; Manfred Zarfl; Gregory Bednarz; John Dam; Frank Falowksi; James Wellman and Oscar Gonzalez, both individually and in their official capacities as agents of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; James Montgomery; Paul E. McKinnon; Edward Short; Robert Wagus; Jerald D. Jondall; Emil Orsack; Ricky Dixon; James D. Kunkle; Brian F. Munson; James F. Gilmore; Stanley R. DeSonia; Donald C. Teeple; Stephen E. Nusbaum; Edward T. Farley; Ronald Dowdy; Edwin W. Earl; Charles L. Huffman; Robert J. McNamara; James J. Higgins; Kenneth S. Harris; and Larry G. Launder in their official capacities; The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service, Defendants-Appellants. . Cause
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 1153

835 F.2d 1153

Jesus RAMIREZ; et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Jack E. WEBB; Gregory Kowalski; Michael Went; John D Helgeson; Michael T. Hawes; George Dahl; Robert Wallis Daniel Moritz; Timothy Houghtaling; Manfred Zarfl Gregory Bednarz; John Dam; Frank Falowksi; James Wellman and Oscar Gonzalez, both individually and in their official capacities as agents of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; James Montgomery; Paul E. McKinnon; Edward Short; Robert Wagus; Jerald D. Jondall; Emil Orsack Ricky Dixon; James D. Kunkle; Brian F. Munson; James F. Gilmore; Stanley R. DeSonia; Donald C. Teeple; Stephen E. Nusbaum; Edward T. Farley; Ronald Dowdy; Edwin W. Earl; Charles L. Huffman; Robert J. McNamara; James J. Higgins; Kenneth S. Harris; and Larry G. Launder in their official capacities; The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 86-1291.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Cause Argued Sept. 21, 1987.

Decided Dec. 23, 1987.

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied March 17, 1988.

Anne Vandermale Tuuk (argued), Asst. U.S. Atty., Grand Rapids, Mich., Agnes Kempker-Cloyd, Asst. U.S. Atty., Morris Deutsch, Office of Immigration Litigation, Washington, D.C., for defendants-appellants.

Philip R. Riley (argued), Michigan Migrant Legal Assis. Project, Inc., St. Joseph, Mich., Edward F. Preston, East Lansing, Mich., Gary Gershon, Michigan Migrant Legal Assis. Project, Inc., Grand Rapids, Mich., for plaintiffs-appellees.

Before KENNEDY and KRUPANSKY, Circuit Judges; and BROWN, Senior Circuit Judge.

BAILEY BROWN, Senior Circuit Judge.

Defendants, agents of the Immigration and Naturalization Service ("INS"), appeal the district court's denial of their motions for partial summary judgment on the grounds of qualified immunity. Plaintiffs contend, in this Bivens -type action, that the defendant INS agents are liable to them for damages for violation of their fourth amendment rights by authorizing or obtaining invalid search warrants directed to buildings on the Brown and Basore farms in the Western District of Michigan or by attending searches pursuant to such invalid warrants. Plaintiffs further contend that, irrespective of the validity of the warrants, some of the defendants are liable to them for illegal conduct in participating in these searches and other searches or incidents.

Defendants concede that there is an issue of fact yet to be resolved as to whether some of them were guilty of illegal conduct in executing the searches pursuant to the Brown and Basore warrants. However, all of the defendants contend that they are entitled to qualified immunity on the issue of the validity of the Brown and Basore warrants. Some of the defendants contend, supported by affidavits, that they are entitled to additional qualified immunity in that they did not participate in the alleged illegal conduct in executing these searches and other searches, or that they were not present at the other searches or incidents. ¹

The district court held, on cross-motions for summary judgment, that the search warrants were facially invalid, which the defendants should have known, and that therefore plaintiffs, and not defendants, were entitled to summary judgment on the qualified immunity issue with respect to the validity of the warrants. ² We conclude that, whether or not the Brown and Basore warrants were facially valid, at the time they were obtained in 1980, the warrants did 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). With respect to some of the defendants' contentions that they are entitled to summary judgment based on affidavits that they were not involved in the allegedly improper conduct, we conclude that the district court did not precisely decide this question and, therefore, the issue is not ripe for review.

I.

This class action was brought on September 4, 1981, by thirty named plaintiffs in Michigan against INS agents, in both their individual and official capacities, and sought damages and injunctive relief. A preliminary injunction regarding defendants' vehicle stop procedures was granted on December 10, 1984, and upheld on appeal. Ramirez v. Webb, 599 F.Supp. 1278 (W.D.Mich.1984), aff'd, 787 F.2d 592 (1986). On May 31, 1985, the district court dismissed the claims for damages against defendants in their official capacities.

The current appeal deals primarily with the validity of the search warrants issued for the INS searches at the Basore and Brown migrant worker farm camps. These searches occurred in August of 1980. Both warrants were obtained by defendant Jack Webb. Plaintiffs do not contend that there was not probable cause for obtaining the warrants. The Brown warrant, drawn against the farm, provided for the search of "a red barn consisting of four separate levels, to wit: three levels with living accommodations plus an attic, with illegal aliens living in the third level (# 3) and attic (# 4)," for "persons and property, namely, aliens not legally in the United States, records, books, papers, and documents relating to nationality, citizenship, and/or the lack thereof, which are subject to arrest in violation of Title 8, United States Code, Section 1252(a)." Joint Appendix (JA) at 449. Neither the warrant nor the supporting affidavit named the persons the defendants were searching for or described them other than "hispanic-type males" who "spoke no English" or "between 25 and 30 undocumented aliens ... living on the above described property on the third and fourth floors." JA at 449-52. The search was attended by six defendants and sixteen undocumented aliens were apprehended. The Brown plaintiffs in this appeal are United States citizens or lawful permanent residents of Hispanic descent who lived in an apartment or separate living unit located on the third floor of the barn. The district court held that the Brown warrant was invalid as a matter of law, which defendants should have known, because it did not describe with particularity the place to be searched and the persons to be searched for. Therefore, the district court held that the defendants who authorized or procured the warrant, or participated in this search, were not entitled to dismissal or partial summary judgment based on qualified immunity on the issue of the validity of the warrant.

The Basore warrant, also drawn against the farm and not against individual undocumented aliens, provided for the search of "(1) a one-story green metal barracks-type building, (2) a one-story white cafeteria-type building." JA at 453. The description of the persons to be searched for and the property to be searched for and seized was much like in the Brown warrant. The supporting affidavit described "numerous young males of Hispanic descent" and "more than thirty illegal aliens." JA at 455. Nineteen defendants participated in the Basore search. Eighteen undocumented aliens and various counterfeit documents were seized. The Basore plaintiffs with whom this appeal is concerned are all American citizens who lived in the dormitory described in the warrant. The district court likewise ruled that the Basore warrant was invalid as a matter of law, which defendants should have known, for its failure to describe more particularly the persons to be searched for. Therefore, the defendants who authorized or obtained the warrant or attended the search were not entitled to dismissal or partial summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity on the issue of the validity of the warrant.

The district court, for the same reasons that it denied the defendants' motions, granted the plaintiffs' motion for partial summary judgment with respect to the Brown and Basore warrants. The court reaffirmed these decisions in its oral disposition of motions to reconsider, and defendants appealed.

The final issue concerns various other activities of some defendants for which they are also seeking dismissal or partial summary judgment based on qualified immunity. These defendants claim that, as shown by affidavits, they have no knowledge of and took no part in the allegedly illegal acts. Although the district court considered that it had decided these claims, we conclude that it actually did not since the affidavits in support of the claims were not addressed by the court.

II.

In Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982), the Supreme Court established that officials are denied qualified immunity only when their alleged acts violate "clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." 457 U.S. at 818, 102 S.Ct. at 2738. "The contours of the right must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right. This is not to say that an official action is protected by qualified immunity unless the very action in question has previously been held unlawful, but it is to say that in the light of preexisting law the unlawfulness must be apparent." Anderson v. Creighton, --- U.S. ----, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 3039, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987) (citations omitted). Accordingly, defendant INS agents have qualified immunity unless plaintiffs' "rights were so clearly established when the acts were committed that any officer in the defendant's position, measured objectively, would have clearly understood that he was under an affirmative duty to have refrained from such conduct." Dominque v. Telb, 831 F.2d 673, 676 (6th Cir.1987). Harlow and its progeny are to be applied retroactively. Wolfel v. Sanborn, 691 F.2d 270, 272 (6th Cir.1982).

Since we conclude that these warrants were not invalid under clearly established constitutional or statutory law when the warrants were issued in 1980 (or even under such law at the present time), defendants are entitled to summary...