Reeves v. City of Jackson, Miss.

• Decision Date: 21 December 1979
• Docket Number: No. 77-1456,77-1456
• Citation: 608 F.2d 644
• Parties: John C. REEVES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CITY OF JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 644

608 F.2d 644

John C. REEVES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CITY OF JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 77-1456.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

Dec. 21, 1979.

William M. Bost, Jr., Vicksburg, Miss., for plaintiff-appellant.

John E. Stone, Jackson, Miss., for defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi.

Before TUTTLE, TJOFLAT and HILL, Circuit Judges.

TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge:

In this diversity and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1976) action for false arrest and imprisonment, the district court directed a verdict, at the close of all the evidence, for the City of Jackson, Mississippi and nine City police officers or jailers. While the court was correct in entering judgment for some of the defendants, as to others a jury question was presented. Accordingly, we affirm in part and reverse and remand in part.

I

On January 23, 1974, at approximately 9:30 p. m., Officer C. W. Harvey of the Jackson, Mississippi police department discovered John C. Reeves slumped over the steering wheel of a Chevrolet automobile that was partially blocking an entrance ramp leading onto Interstate 20. The Chevrolet's engine was running. Reeves was in a semi-conscious state. Harvey called for assistance, and Officer R. A. Johnson soon arrived. Harvey and Johnson helped Reeves from the Chevrolet to Johnson's patrol car, and Johnson transported him to the Jackson City Jail, where Reeves was booked for public intoxication and placed into the drunk tank. The time was 10:30 p. m.

Reeves remained in the drunk tank nineteen and one-half hours. He was observed frequently by jail officials, who checked the drunk tank approximately hourly, and was asked on two occasions by Lt. J. H. Wells, the jail commander, if he was all right or needed anything. While in the jail, Reeves spoke in a slurred fashion, walked in a shuffling manner, had a glassy stare, and frequently slept. He was never given an intoxication test, although an intoximeter was available to jail personnel.

Richard Bodker and Phillip Scheuth, employees of the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad (ICG), Reeves's employer, arrived at the jail around 6:00 o'clock in the evening of January 24. Reeves, who was driving an ICG vehicle at the time of his arrest, had been reported missing by one of his superiors, and Bodker, an ICG security agent, had traced him to the Jackson City Jail. When Bodker and Scheuth addressed Reeves in the drunk tank, both believed that something was wrong with him. They signed for his release from custody and conveyed him to St. Dominic-Jackson Memorial Hospital. During Reeves's release and the drive to the hospital Bodker and Scheuth questioned him, but he did not know where he was and could recognize neither Bodker nor Scheuth, both whom he had known for several years.

When Reeves was examined at the hospital, he was found to have suffered a massive stroke the night before. He was hospitalized for some time, and failed to regain full cognitive abilities for some six months. Even at trial, Reeves had no memory of anything that occurred between 7:30 p. m. on January 23, 1974, and sometime in July or August 1974. He was compelled by his physical condition to retire from ICG on a disability pension.

In 1975 Reeves brought suit against the City of Jackson, the City's insurer, and the police officers and jailers on both diversity and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 grounds. On October 22, 1975, the district court dismissed the cause with prejudice for failure to state a claim. An appeal was taken, and this court reversed and remanded the case for further proceedings. Reeves v. City of Jackson, 532 F.2d 491 (5th Cir. 1976). We held that the complaint stated claims on both diversity and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 grounds and further observed that a 28 U.S.C. § 1331 (1976) federal question claim might also lie. We said:

(T)he District Court should give the plaintiff the full fanfare of a federal court claim at least until it can see what the real facts are. If, after a full development of the facts the plaintiff's cause is too weak to string the Constitution's bow or unsheath the sword provided for the redress of such grievances under Mississippi law, it may be washed out on summary judgment, or if it gets beyond that, by motion for directed verdict either at the end of the plaintiff's case, or at the close of the evidence, or by J.N.O.V. after verdict.

532 F.2d at 494 (citations omitted).

On remand, the case proceeded to trial. At the close of all the evidence, the district court granted a directed verdict on behalf of all remaining defendants, and Reeves took this appeal. We must now determine whether a case for the jury was presented as to any of the defendants.

II

The standard for district court determination whether a party's evidence is sufficient to defeat a motion for a directed verdict is well-settled in this circuit:

(T)he Court should consider all of the evidence not just that evidence which supports the non-mover's case but in the light and with all reasonable inferences most favorable to the party opposed to the motion. If the facts and inferences point so strongly and overwhelmingly in favor of one party that the Court believes that reasonable men could not arrive at a contrary verdict, granting of the motions is proper. On the other hand, if there is substantial evidence opposed to the motions, that is, evidence of such quality and weight that reasonable and fair-minded men in the exercise of impartial judgment might reach different conclusions, the motions should be denied, and the case submitted to the jury . . . . (I)t is the function of the jury as the traditional finder of the facts, and not the Court, to weigh conflicting evidence and inferences, and determine the credibility of witnesses.

King v. Ford Motor Co., 597 F.2d 436, 439 (5th Cir. 1979) (quoting Boeing Co. v. Shipman, 411 F.3d 365, 374-75 (5th Cir. 1969) (en banc) (footnote omitted)). This standard applies to both federal and diversity claims. King v. Ford Motor Co., 597 F.2d at 439. Thus, Reeves is entitled to a reversal of the directed verdict for a given defendant if the state of the evidence in the court below was such that reasonable men might differ about the facts that gave rise to Reeves's arrest and subsequent incarceration for public drunkenness and the verdict that should result therefrom. As to certain defendants, the evidence was in such a state.

Both Officers Harvey and Johnson testified at trial that when they found, and subsequently arrested, Reeves he was in an intoxicated condition. They stated that Reeves had the Chevrolet's heater turned on full force, causing the vehicle to be extremely warm. They further said that Reeves had both vomited and urinated upon himself and the car, and that he smelled strongly of alcohol. Harvey referred to a stream of mucus flowing from Reeves's nose. The officers claimed that the odor from the vehicle was extremely strong due to the heat and the mixture of alcohol, urine, and vomit inside. When they roused and arrested Reeves, he allegedly cursed at them and put up some resistance before he was placed in Johnson's patrol car and transported to the jail.

Testimony was offered by Reeves that called many of these statements into question. No one recalled any sign of either urine or vomit on any of Reeves's clothing when he was released from the jail or at any time during his incarceration. There was no evidence that Reeves or anyone else, whether jailer or inmate, had washed his clothing during his stay in the drunk tank, and in light of Reeves's condition during that time, the jury could reasonably have inferred that he was incapable of doing so. ¹ When the Chevrolet was recovered by ICG employees from the Jackson police impoundment lot, where it had been taken following Reeves's arrest, there was no sign of vomit or urine and no unusual odor inside. Several police officials testified that the vehicle would not have been cleaned while it was being held. Though medical testimony indicated that it was not improbable that a stroke victim might have vomited and urinated upon himself with the onset of his attack, there was ample reason to disbelieve the testimony of Harvey and Johnson that such was the case when they found Reeves slumped over in the automobile.

More importantly, severe doubt was cast upon the testimony that Harvey and Johnson smelled alcohol when they arrested Reeves. Reeves may have exhibited behavior typical of an inebriant at that time, since he later had the shuffling walk, glassy stare, and slurred speech commonly associated with the pixilated. The arresting officers stated emphatically, however, that he was in fact drunk and that they smelled alcohol when they arrested him. Reeves, who was an ICG trainmaster at the time of his disability and had worked for the railroad for thirty-seven years, testified that on January 23 he was ordered by a superior to drive the ICG Chevrolet from Jackson to another city. He was considered on duty at his job while en route. ICG Rule G required the dismissal of any employee using alcohol, narcotics, or intoxicants while on duty; Reeves testified that he never violated Rule G during his years with the company and did not do so on January 23. A number of ICG employees, some of whom had known Reeves for as long as twenty-six years, testified on his behalf, and they all indicated that the company vigorously enforced Rule G, to their knowledge Reeves had never violated it, and Reeves had a good reputation. Further, a series of witnesses who had seen Reeves on January 23 took the stand and tended to establish that from 2:00 p. m. to 7:30 p. m. he drank no liquor. Thus, while Reeves presented no direct evidence that between 7:30 p. m. (the onset of his amnesia) and 9:30 p. m. (his arrest) he had not imbibed beer or liquor, he did show that prior to that time he was sober, and it could well have been inferred that he...