Robinson v. Cook

• Citation: 706 F.3d 25
• Decision Date: 23 January 2013
• Docket Number: No. 12–1722.,12–1722.
• Parties: Robert F. ROBINSON et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. Timothy J. COOK, Sr. et al., Defendants, Appellees.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (1st Circuit)

706 F.3d 25

Robert F. ROBINSON et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants,

v.Timothy J. COOK, Sr. et al., Defendants, Appellees.

No. 12–1722.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Jan. 23, 2013.

Brendan C. Selby, with whom Valeriano Diviacchi was on brief, for appellants.

Joseph A. Padolsky, with whom Douglas I. Louison and Louison, Costello, Condon & Pfaff LLP were on brief, for appellees.

Before THOMPSON, STAHL, and LIPEZ, Circuit Judges.

STAHL, Circuit Judge.

This appeal stems from a police investigation of a 2007 hit-and-run that culminated in the arrests of father and son Robert and Mario Robinson and the seizure of Robert's car. After the resulting criminal charges against the Robinsons were dismissed, they filed state and federal claims against the City of Attleboro, Massachusetts and several Attleboro police officers. The district court granted summary judgment for the defendants, and the Robinsons now appeal. After careful consideration, we affirm.

I. Facts & Background

On July 12, 2007, two thirteen-year-old boys, Christopher Redlund and Nathan Chou, were riding their bicycles along Wilmarth Street in Attleboro when a car pulled up alongside them. The car's passenger (unknown to the boys) engaged Redlund in a verbal exchange, which may have involved shouting and swearing, an inquiry about whether the boys were involved in a recent incident in which a classmate had been beaten up, or both. (Redlund's descriptions of this altercation have varied somewhat.) After Redlund told the passenger to leave him and Chou alone, the car drove at Redlund and struck him, flipping him over his handlebars and onto the road, scraping his back, arms, and legs. The car then drove away.

Redlund called his father, Attleboro Detective Alex Aponte (who is not a defendant here), to report the incident. Aponte and two other police officers arrived at the scene. The boys described the car, which Redlund believed he had seen in the area before, as a silver or tan two-door compact in poor shape with a rubber strip hanging from the passenger side. Redlund suggested that the car might be Japanese in origin, and Chou apparently mentioned that it could be a Nissan, although he later said that he thought it was a Honda. The boys said that the car's occupants were three or four dark-skinned young men.

The officers soon located a 1989 Honda Accord coupe that apparently matched the boys' description in the Robinsons' driveway, about a mile from the hit-and-run location. The exterior of the car was in poor condition, and a strip of rubber molding was hanging from the side. The passenger door was ajar, and the seatbelt was hanging out the door opening. The engine was warm.

When Robert emerged from the house, the officers told him they were investigating a hit-and-run and inquired as to the whereabouts of Robert's nineteen-year-old son Mario (whom they knew from his previous encounters with police). Robert explained that Mario was getting a haircut. The parties dispute what Robert told the officers about the car: Robert claims that he told the officers that the car had been sitting in the driveway for ten or twenty minutes, whereas the officers claim that Robert initially denied that anyone had used the car for months, and then said that he and Mario had used the car to drive home from work earlier. The officers then asked Robert for the car keys, which he provided, and had the car towed to the police station. They asked Robert to come to the station with Mario for interviews.

Redlund and Chou were also summoned to the police station, where Redlund provided a written statement about the incident and described it to Attleboro Detective Timothy Cook, Sr. Aponte took Redlund and Chou (separately) to see a row of cars in the station parking lot, and asked each boy if he could identify the car that had struck Redlund. Both boys identified Robert's Honda. Chou was then shown a picture of Robert, but could not identify him.

When the Robinsons arrived at the station (whether this was before or after the boys arrived is unclear), they agreed to be interviewed. Mario was taken to an interrogation room, read his Miranda rights, and interviewed by Detective Cook. Redlund watched on closed-circuit video with his father and other officers. Redlund was initially unable to identify Mario, but recognized him as the car's passenger once he removed the hat he was wearing. Mario denied that he or his father had been involved in the hit-and-run, and said that his father had been the only person to drive the car that day. Detective Cook nevertheless arrested him for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

Robert was then taken to the interrogation room and read his Miranda rights. Redlund, watching on the monitor, could not identify Robert. Like Mario, Robert denied that he or Mario had been involved and said that only he had driven the car that day (to and from work in Boston). Detective Cook arrested Robert for leaving the scene of an accident, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

What happened next is sharply disputed. The Robinsons contend that Detective Cook and Patrolman Timothy Cook, Jr. (Detective Cook's son) assaulted Mario during the booking process, whereas the defendants contend that Mario refused to obey their orders and made as if to strike Detective Cook. The details of this altercation are not relevant to this appeal; by either account, Mario was not injured during the struggle. Prosecutors later added charges against Mario stemming from this incident, but all of the charges against both Mario and Robert were eventually dismissed by the state trial court.

The Robinsons subsequently filed suit against the City of Attleboro, Detective Cook, Patrolman Cook, and six other police officers who were present for or involved in various phases of the investigation, arrest, and detention. ¹ They raised state and federal constitutional claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act (MCRA), Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 12, § 11I, based on allegations of unlawful arrest, the use of excessive force, and the unreasonable seizure of the car. They also asserted state law claims for false imprisonment, assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, aiding and abetting, and civil conspiracy.

After discovery, the district court granted summary judgment to the defendants on most of the Robinsons' claims. Robinson v. Cook, 863 F.Supp.2d 49 (D.Mass.2012). The district court found that the arrests were supported by probable cause (and thus that the claim for false imprisonment must fail), id. at 64–69, 72, and that the warrantless seizure of the car was lawful, id. at 69–70. The court also found no evidence that could establish municipal liability, id. at 70–72, or support a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress, id. at 73–74. The court did, however, find that the disputed facts regarding the scuffle in the police station between Mario and the Cooks precluded summary judgment on the claims of excessive force, assault and battery, aiding and abetting, and civil conspiracy. See id. at 62–64, 74. And the court further concluded that qualified immunity could not shield the defendants from liability on the excessive force claim because “the unwarranted use of excessive force against an individual who was posing no threat and making no attempt to evade or resist arrest” would be clearly unlawful to a reasonable police officer. Id. at 64.

In a subsequent order clarifying its decision, the district court also granted summary judgment for three of the police officer defendants (Malhotra, MacDonald, and Fuoco) as to the civil conspiracy and aiding and abetting claims, leaving those claims alive only as to Detective Cook and Patrolman Cook. The parties then agreed that the court should enter judgment dismissing the remaining claims, with the Robinsons' right to appeal that dismissal waived, but “with the understanding that the Plaintiffs are preserving all rights of appeal from the summary judgment.”

As framed by the parties, the net result of this procedural muddle is that four issues remain: whether the seizure of the car was constitutional; whether the arrests were constitutional; whether these actions can give rise to municipal liability under Monell v. New York City Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978); and whether there is evidence to support a claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress.²

II. Analysis

We review a grant of summary judgment de novo, Manganella v. Evanston Ins. Co., 700 F.3d 585, 590 (1st Cir.2012), and will affirm if there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, seeFed.R.Civ.P. 56(a). We consider cross-motions for summary judgment separately, drawing all reasonable inferences in the nonmovant's favor. OneBeacon Am. Ins. Co. v. Commercial Union Assur. Co. of Can., 684 F.3d 237, 241 (1st Cir.2012).

A. The Seizure of Robert's Car

We begin with the Robinsons' contention that the defendants' seizure of Robert's Honda, from his own driveway and without a warrant, violated the Fourth Amendment's prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures, U.S. Const., amend. IV, and the Massachusetts Constitution's parallel guarantee, Mass. Const., pt. 1, art. XIV.³ This argument calls for us to apply the automobile exception to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement, under which police may conduct a warrantless search or seizure of a car if they have probable cause to do so. See Maryland v. Dyson, 527 U.S. 465, 466–67, 119 S.Ct. 2013, 144 L.Ed.2d 442 (1999) (per curiam); Pennsylvania v. Labron, 518 U.S. 938, 940, 116 S.Ct. 2485, 135 L.Ed.2d 1031 (1996) (per curiam).

The Robinsons argue that the police lacked probable cause to seize the car. They also contend that an additional requirement applies here: because Robert's car was...