Roland v. Phillips

• Decision Date: 15 April 1994
• Docket Number: No. 93-8233,93-8233
• Citation: 19 F.3d 552
• Parties: Geneva ROLAND, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. E.W. PHILLIPS; David Benjamin; Lin Harrell, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 552

19 F.3d 552

Geneva ROLAND, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. E.W. PHILLIPS; David Benjamin; Lin Harrell, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 93-8233.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

April 15, 1994.

William C. Sanders, Thomasville, GA, for defendants-appellants.

Leonard Farkas, Albany, GA, for plaintiff-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia.

Before BIRCH, Circuit Judge, RONEY and CLARK, Senior Circuit Judges.

BIRCH, Circuit Judge:

In this interlocutory appeal, we decide for the first time in our circuit whether a county sheriff and deputy sheriffs are accorded absolute quasi-judicial immunity for acts done to enforce valid judicial orders. The district court denied these county law enforcement officials summary judgment. We REVERSE and REMAND.

I. BACKGROUND

Plaintiff-appellee Geneva Roland is the president of Roland Well Drilling, Inc., which owns and operates a water distribution system in the Robinwood Subdivision of Bainbridge, Georgia. Following notice, at approximately noon on December 24, 1991, Roland Well Drilling disconnected all water service to the Robinwood Subdivision because some customers had failed to pay for previous service. A Decatur County Superior Court judge issued a temporary restraining order, which provides in pertinent part:

WHEREAS the Defendants ¹ are in immediate need of water service for their health, well being, and general preparations for the celebration of the Christmas holiday,

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Plaintiffs are restrained and enjoined from terminating water service to the Defendants until further order of this Court, and the Sheriff of Decatur County is instructed to locate Plaintiffs and accompany them back to Robinwood subdivision where the Plaintiffs are ordered to restore water service to each and every home where they disconnected water service earlier today. The Sheriff and his lawful deputies are hereby given all authority allowed them under Georgia law to carry out the directives of this Order. To the extent the Defendants are capable of doing so, they are hereby given the authority to restore the water service themselves.

R1-6-Affidavit of Charles L. Harrell, Ex. A at 2 (emphasis added).

An executed copy of the temporary restraining order was delivered on the afternoon of December 24, 1991, to defendant-appellant Lin Harrell, a deputy sheriff with the Decatur County Sheriff's Department. At approximately 5:30 P.M., Deputy Harrell was en route to Donalsonville, Georgia, where Roland resided, when he observed an automobile, occupied by Roland as a passenger, leave the Robinwood Subdivision. Deputy Harrell stopped the automobile, served a copy of the restraining order on Roland, and advised her of its contents.

When Deputy Harrell ordered Roland to return to Bainbridge and to reconnect water service to the Robinwood Subdivision, she refused, told him that she did not have the proper tools, and stated that it would be too dark by the time that she returned. Deputy Harrell advised that, if she persisted in her refusal to comply with the restraining order, then she would be obstructing him in performing his duties as a law enforcement officer. Roland responded that she would spend Christmas in jail rather than reconnect the water service to Robinwood Subdivision.

When Deputy Harrell asked Roland to exit the automobile, the driver, her son, drove away with Roland in the car. Roland's son drove her to the Decatur County Sheriff's Department in Bainbridge, and Deputy Harrell followed them there. Upon arrival, Roland exited the automobile and entered the sheriff's department, where defendant-appellant, Deputy Sheriff David Benjamin was present. Deputy Harrell informed Deputy Benjamin that Roland was to be charged with obstructing a law enforcement officer in the discharge of his duties. When Roland asked Deputy Benjamin whether she could leave the sheriff's department, he told her that she was not free to go because of the pending charge.

Subsequently, a conference call including Roland, her attorney, defendant-appellant Sheriff E.W. Phillips, the attorney for the defendants in the pending lawsuit, and a senior judge of the South Georgia Judicial Circuit, ² occurred. The judge asked Roland whether she was going to comply with the restraining order. Roland told him that she would not because she was unable to get the necessary parts to restore water service. The judge then told Sheriff Phillips to hold Roland in jail. To be certain that he correctly understood the judge's instruction, Sheriff Phillips asked for confirmation that he was to incarcerate Roland. The judge reiterated his instruction and told Sheriff Phillips to "lock her up." By affidavit, Sheriff Phillips explains that he interpreted the judge's instruction as requiring him to imprison Roland "for obstructing a law enforcement officer in the lawful discharge of his duties and for being in contempt of court." R1-6-Affidavit of E.W. Phillips at 2. She was held overnight and released the next morning.

Roland filed this civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. Claiming absolute quasi-judicial immunity, defendants-appellants moved for summary judgment and dismissal with supporting affidavits. Alternatively, defendants-appellants contended that they were entitled to qualified immunity. Without any analysis of absolute quasi-judicial immunity, the district court denied defendants-appellants' summary judgment motion in a two-paragraph order. This appeal ensued.

II. DISCUSSION

The denial of a claim of absolute immunity, including quasi-judicial immunity, is immediately appealable under the collateral order doctrine. Stewart v. Baldwin County Bd. of Educ., 908 F.2d 1499, 1507 (11th Cir.1990) (citing Nixon v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 731, 741-43, 102 S.Ct. 2690, 2697-98, 73 L.Ed.2d 349 (1982)). The rationale behind such an interlocutory appeal is that a pretrial order, which conclusively decides a claim of right separable and independent from the principal action, should not be deferred until adjudication of the entire case. Schopler v. Bliss, 903 F.2d 1373, 1377 (11th Cir.1990). "The proponent of a claim to absolute immunity bears the burden of establishing the justification for such immunity." ³ Antoine v. Byers & Anderson, Inc., --- U.S. ----, ----, 113 S.Ct. 2167, 2169, 124 L.Ed.2d 391 (1993).

Absolute quasi-judicial immunity derives from absolute judicial immunity. Turney v. O'Toole, 898 F.2d 1470, 1474 (10th Cir.1990). Judges are absolutely immune from civil liability under section 1983 for acts performed in their judicial capacity, provided such acts are not done in the " 'clear absence of all jurisdiction.' " Stump v. Sparkman, 435 U.S. 349, 357, 98 S.Ct. 1099, 1105, 55 L.Ed.2d 331 (1978) (quoting Bradley v. Fisher, 13 Wall. 335, 351, 20 L.Ed. 646 (1872)); see Pierson v. Ray, 386 U.S. 547, 553-54, 87 S.Ct. 1213, 1217-18, 18 L.Ed.2d 288 (1967). Nonjudicial officials are encompassed by a judge's absolute immunity when their official duties "have an integral relationship with the judicial process." Ashbrook v. Hoffman, 617 F.2d 474, 476 (7th Cir.1980). Like judges, these officials must be acting within the scope of their authority. See Property Management & Invs., Inc. v. Lewis, 752 F.2d 599, 603 (11th Cir.1985) (corporate receiver protected by judicial immunity in executing orders of appointing judge because complaint did not allege that he acted outside his authority). Thus, we determine the absolute quasi-judicial immunity of a nonjudicial official through a functional analysis of the action taken by the official in relation to the judicial process. See Antoine, --- U.S. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2171; Burns v. Reed, 500 U.S. 478, 485-86, 111 S.Ct. 1934, 1939, 114 L.Ed.2d 547 (1991); Forrester v. White, 484 U.S. 219, 227, 108 S.Ct. 538, 544, 98 L.Ed.2d 555 (1988); Ashbrook, 617 F.2d at 576; see also Schopler, 903 F.2d at 1380 (officials performing judicial functions traditionally are afforded absolute immunity).

Other circuits have held that law enforcement officials executing a facially valid court order are protected by absolute quasi-judicial immunity. See, e.g., Valdez v. Denver, 878 F.2d 1285 (10th Cir.1989) (sheriff and sheriff's deputies took plaintiff into custody pursuant to judicial order); Coverdell v. Department of Social & Health Servs., 834 F.2d 758 (9th Cir.1987) (child protective services worker removed newborn infant from hospital and placed her in temporary shelter pursuant to court order); Henry v. Farmer City State Bank, 808 F.2d 1228 (7th Cir.1986) (sheriff participated in execution of foreclosure sale pursuant to judgment of foreclosure); Tymiak v. Omodt, 676 F.2d 306 (8th Cir.1982) (per curiam) (sheriff evicted plaintiff from home in compliance with court order); Fowler v. Alexander, 478 F.2d 694 (4th Cir.1973) (sheriff and jailer confined plaintiff pursuant to a court order). "Enforcing a court order or judgment is intrinsically associated with a judicial proceeding." Valdez, 878 F.2d at 1288. These implementing individuals "are themselves 'integral parts of the judicial process.' " Coverdell, 834 F.2d at 765 (quoting Briscoe v. LaHue, 460 U.S. 325, 335, 103 S.Ct. 1108, 1116, 75 L.Ed.2d 96 (1983)).

The Tenth Circuit explained the rationale for absolute quasi-judicial immunity for law enforcement officials acting pursuant to court orders:

Absolute immunity for officials assigned to carry out a judge's orders is necessary to insure that such officials can perform their function without the need to secure permanent legal counsel. A lesser degree of immunity could impair the judicial process.

....

Tension between trial judges and those officials responsible for enforcing their orders inevitably would result were there not absolute immunity for both.... The public interest demands strict adherence to judicial decrees.... Absolute immunity will ensure the public's trust and confidence in courts' ability to...