Riley v. St. Louis County of Mo.

• Citation: 153 F.3d 627
• Decision Date: 30 September 1998
• Docket Number: No. 97-2424,97-2424
• Parties: Sharon RILEY, Appellant, v. ST. LOUIS COUNTY OF MISSOURI; Ronald A. Battelle, St. Louis County Police Chief; Stygar and Sons Chapel, doing business as Stygar Family of Funeral Services; Robert Robinson, St. Louis County Police Officer, Appellees.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (8th Circuit)

Page 627

153 F.3d 627

Sharon RILEY, Appellant, v. ST. LOUIS COUNTY OF MISSOURI; Ronald A. Battelle, St. Louis County Police Chief; Stygar and Sons Chapel, doing business as Stygar Family of Funeral Services; Robert Robinson, St Louis County Police Officer, Appellees.

No. 97-2424.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Dec. 10, 1997.

Decided Aug. 13, 1998.

Rehearing and Suggestion for Rehearing En Banc Denied Sept.

30, 1998.

Henry T. Vogt, St. Louis, Missouri, argued, for Appellant.

Christopher J. McCarthy, Associate County Counselor, Clayton, Missouri, argued (John A. Ross and Gary P. Paul, on the brief), for Appellee.

Before BOWMAN, ¹ FLOYD R. GIBSON, and LOKEN, Circuit Judges.

FLOYD R. GIBSON, Circuit Judge.

Sharon Riley brought this suit against St. Louis County, Missouri; St. Louis County Police Chief, Ronald A. Battelle; St. Louis County Police Officer, Robert Robinson (collectively, "the Department"); and Stygar and Sons Chapel, doing business as Stygar Family of Funeral Services ("Stygar," or collectively, "Appellees"). In count I, Riley sought relief under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1994) for Appellees' alleged violations of her Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. In counts II and III, Riley alleged pendent state claims of negligence and breach of contract against Stygar. The district court ² dismissed count I with prejudice based on Riley's failure to state a claim. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). After declining to exercise its supplemental jurisdiction, the district court dismissed counts II and III without prejudice. See 28 U.S.C. § 1367(c)(3) (1994). For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

When reviewing a Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal for failure to state a claim, we look only to the facts alleged in the complaint and construe those facts in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. See Double D Spotting Serv., Inc. v. Supervalu, Inc., 136 F.3d 554, 556 (8th Cir.1998). In Riley's First Amended Complaint, Riley states that her son, Anthony Riley, committed suicide on September 6, 1995 at the age of eighteen years old. Riley contracted with Stygar for a funeral package for her son. Riley contends that Stygar conspired with the St. Louis County Police Department to violate her Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights by allowing the Department to photograph the deceased, without Riley's knowledge or permission, while the deceased remained in Stygar's lawful possession and control. Specifically, Riley claims that Officer Robert Robinson, acting under Chief Ronald Battelle's authority and control, photographed the deceased as he lay in his coffin after the funeral services ended. Riley further contends that the Department later displayed these photographs at a public gathering and commented that the decedent's involvement in gang-related activities had caused his death.

As a result, Riley filed a three-count complaint against Appellees. In count I, Riley claimed that the Appellees' actions violated section 1983 by denying her ³ Fourth ⁴ and Fourteenth Amendment rights. In counts II and III, Riley raised state law claims of breach of contract and negligence against Stygar. Appellees moved to dismiss count I for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6). The district court granted Appellees' motion and dismissed count I with prejudice and, after declining to exercise its supplemental jurisdiction, dismissed counts II-III without prejudice. Riley appeals the dismissal of her complaint.

I. DISCUSSION

We review de novo the district court's grant of a motion to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). See Double D Spotting Serv., Inc., 136 F.3d at 557. Applying the same standard as the district court, we accept the complaint's factual allegations as true and construe the complaint in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. See id. We affirm a Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal if "it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of [her] claim which would entitle [her] to relief." Id. (internal quotation and citation omitted).

Riley first argues that Appellees' conduct violated her Missouri common law right of sepulchre and that the district court erred in failing to recognize the right of sepulchre as a constitutionally protected property interest. We disagree.

"Section 1983 relief is predicated on the denial of a right or interest protected by the Constitution." Dover Elevator Co. v. Arkansas State Univ., 64 F.3d 442, 445 (8th Cir.1995) (internal quotation and citation omitted). Riley alleges that Appellees deprived her of her property without due process of law in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. "Analysis of either a procedural or substantive due process claim must begin with an examination of the interest allegedly violated." Id. at 445-46. Section 1983 does not create substantive rights, see Wilson v. Garcia, 471 U.S. 261, 278, 105 S.Ct. 1938, 85 L.Ed.2d 254 (1985); rather, state law establishes the property interest while federal constitutional law determines whether the state law property interest rises to a constitutionally protected property interest. See Dover Elevator Co., 64 F.3d at 446.

Riley urges this court to recognize a constitutionally protected property interest based upon Missouri's common law right of sepulchre. ⁵ However, "Missouri courts have abandoned the early fiction that the cause of action for interference with the right of sepulchre rested on the infringement of a quasi property right of the nearest kin to the body." Lanigan v. Snowden, 938 S.W.2d 330, 332 (Mo.Ct.App.1997) (internal quotation and citation omitted). Instead, Missouri courts base the cause of action on the mental anguish of the person claiming the right of sepulchre. See id. Nonetheless, we need not consider whether Riley's right of sepulchre constitutes a constitutionally protected property interest because Riley fails to allege facts sufficient to support her claim that Appellees violated her right to sepulchre. Our analysis of the Missouri common law right of sepulchre reveals that the deprivation of this right typically involves a physical intrusion, mishandling, or manipulation of the deceased's body. See, e.g., Golston v. Lincoln Cemetery, Inc., 573 S.W.2d 700, 703 (Mo.Ct.App.1978); Crenshaw v. O'Connell, 235 Mo.App. 1085, 150 S.W.2d 489, 493 (1941); Wilson v. St. Louis & S.F.R. Co., 160 Mo.App. 649, 142 S.W. 775, 777 (1912). In the instant case, Riley does not allege any physical insult to the deceased nor any interference with the visitation, funeral, or burial. We therefore conclude that photographing the deceased's body after the visitation and later displaying the photograph at a public assembly did not deprive Riley of her right of sepulchre under Missouri law. As such, Riley fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted under section 1983. See Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527, 535, 101 S.Ct. 1908, 68 L.Ed.2d 420 (1981).

Riley next argues that Appellees' photographing the deceased, displaying the picture at a public assembly, and making slanderous comments regarding the deceased's alleged gang activities violated her substantive due process rights as well as her right to privacy. We disagree.

"[S]ubstantive due process prevents the government from engaging in conduct that shocks the conscience or interferes with rights implicit in the concept of ordered liberty." United States v. Salerno, 481 U.S. 739, 746, 107 S.Ct. 2095, 95 L.Ed.2d 697 (1987) (internal citations and quotations omitted). A substantive due process claim can be stated two different ways. One, substantive due process is violated when the state infringes "fundamental" liberty interests without narrowly tailoring that infringement to serve a compelling state interest. See Weiler v. Purkett, 137 F.3d 1047, 1051 (8th Cir.1998) (en banc). Two, substantive due process is offended when the state's actions either "shock[ ] the conscience" or "offend[ ] judicial notions of fairness ... or ... human dignity." Id. (internal quotation and citation omitted). We are generally hesitant to extend substantive due process into new arenas. See id.

In the present case, Riley has failed to allege either type of substantive due process claim. First, no fundamental liberty interest of Riley has been infringed because Riley's right for the Department to refrain from photographing the deceased, displaying his picture at a public assembly, and making slanderous comments regarding the deceased's alleged gang activities is not "so rooted in the traditions and conscience of our people as to be ranked as fundamental." Reno v. Flores, 507 U.S. 292, 303, 113 S.Ct. 1439, 123 L.Ed.2d 1 (1993) (internal quotation and citation omitted). Second, we cannot conclude that the Department's actions, despite being insensitive and the result of poor judgment, rise to the level of sufficiently outrageous conduct that shocks the conscience. Therefore, Riley has not alleged a violation of her constitutional right to substantive...