Santana-Castro v. Toledo-Davila

• Decision Date: 27 August 2009
• Docket Number: No. 08-1964.,08-1964.
• Citation: 579 F.3d 109
• Parties: Charles SANTANA-CASTRO; Félix Santana-Carmona; Aida Santana-Castro, Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. Pedro TOLEDO-DÁVILA, Superintendent of the Puerto Rico Police Department; José Ramos-González, Commander of the Fajardo Region; José Lebrón-Alicea, Supervisor; Nelson Torres-González, Commander of the Special Operations Unit; Jesús Sánchez-Zavala, Police Officer; Israel Candelaria-Vélez, Police Officer; John Doe; Dionisio Molina-Padró, Police Officer, Defendants, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

579 F.3d 109

Charles SANTANA-CASTRO; Félix Santana-Carmona; Aida Santana-Castro, Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. Pedro TOLEDO-DÁVILA, Superintendent of the Puerto Rico Police Department; José Ramos-González, Commander of the Fajardo Region; José Lebrón-Alicea, Supervisor; Nelson Torres-González, Commander of the Special Operations Unit; Jesús Sánchez-Zavala, Police Officer; Israel Candelaria-Vélez, Police Officer; John Doe; Dionisio Molina-Padró, Police Officer, Defendants, Appellees.

No. 08-1964.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard June 1, 2009.

Decided August 27, 2009.

Guillermo Ramos-Luiña, with whom Harry Anduze-Montaño and José A. Morales-Boscio, were on brief for appellants.

Rosa Elena Pérez-Agosto, Assistant Solicitor General, with whom Irene S. Soroeta-Kodesh, Solicitor General, Leticia Casalduc-Rabell, Deputy Solicitor General, and Zaira Z. Girón-Anadón, Deputy Solicitor General, were on brief for appellees.

Before LYNCH, Chief Judge, TORRUELLA, Circuit Judge, and EBEL,^* Senior Circuit Judge.

TORRUELLA, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff-appellants Charles Santana-Castro ("Santana") and his grandparents Félix Santana-Carmona and Aida Santana-Castro filed an action in the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico against defendant-appellees Puerto Rico Police Department ("PRPD") officers and their supervisors. Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, plaintiffs alleged violations of their constitutional rights under the First, Fourth, Fifth, Tenth, and Fourteenth Amendments as well as claims under Puerto Rico's constitution and civil law.

In their complaint, plaintiffs specifically alleged that four PRPD officers illegally arrested, beat, and incarcerated Santana, causing him physical injuries, and causing him and his grandparents emotional distress. They also claimed that PRPD supervisors were liable under a theory of supervisory liability and that Santana was illegally fired from the PRPD in retaliation for bringing legal action against the PRPD. In response, defendants filed a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim. The district court initially dismissed some of the claims, and upon a subsequent motion for reconsideration, it dismissed all remaining claims as time-barred. Plaintiffs appeal. After careful consideration, we affirm the district court's dismissal of plaintiff's complaint as untimely.

I. Background

As this case comes to us as a motion to dismiss, "`we must take all the factual allegations in the complaint as true.'" Maldonado v. Fontánes, 568 F.3d 263, 266 (1st Cir.2009) (quoting Ashcroft v. Iqbal, ___ U.S. ___, ___, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 1950, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009)). The following facts are based on Santana's complaint and the extrajudicial claim letter he sent to PRPD Superintendent Pedro Toledo-Dávila ("Toledo"), which was attached to the complaint. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 10(c) ("A copy of a written instrument that is an exhibit to a pleading is a part of the pleading for all purposes."); Blackstone Realty LLC v. FDIC, 244 F.3d 193, 195 n. 1 (1st Cir.2001).

Santana worked as a police officer in the PRPD from 2002 to 2007. On June 8, 2006, while off-duty, he had dinner at a restaurant in Luquillo, Puerto Rico. While at dinner, his car was vandalized and his car radio stolen. Upon discovering the damage to his car, Santana met an individual on the street named Angel Cruz-García ("Cruz"), who informed Santana that he had seen two suspicious men in the area with a bag. Thinking they might have been the individuals who damaged the car, Santana and Cruz went to a housing project to look for the men Cruz had seen.

When they could not find the two men Cruz suspected vandalized the car, Santana and Cruz left the housing project. They were then pulled over by Officers Jesús Sánchez-Zavala ("Sánchez") and Israel Candelaria-Vélez ("Candelaria"). A few minutes later, Officers Dionisio Molina-Padró ("Molina") and José Lebrón-Alicea ("Lebrón") also arrived at the scene. The four officers searched Santana's car and arrested him and Cruz for possession of crack cocaine. During the arrest, Sánchez and Molina allegedly hit Santana and handcuffed him tightly, causing Santana severe pain and several hematomas. The officers also humiliated Santana, calling him a corrupt officer and a junkie. The officers then brought Santana to the Luquillo Police Station where they kept him incarcerated for fifteen hours without food or medical attention.

The following day, on June 9, 2006, Santana was taken to San Juan Superior Court and charged with possession of illegal drugs and driving without a vehicle registration plate. On July 21, 2006, Santana was suspended from the PRPD without pay. He never returned to work.¹ On February 7, 2007, in a preliminary hearing, a state court judge held that the PRPD officers who stopped Santana and searched his car lacked probable cause. The court dismissed the charges against Santana.

On May 18, 2007, Santana and his grandparents sent a letter through their lawyer to PRPD Superintendent Toledo, who received the letter on May 21, 2007. The letter described the events of June 8 and 9, 2006, including Santana's arrest, beating, and incarceration by the four officers at the scene, who are all mentioned by name. It also noted that Santana was "summarily expelled" from his job "as a result" of the charges filed against him. The letter stated that "[t]hese actions and/or omissions by the aforementioned agents caused damages and losses," including "severe mental anguish" to Santana's grandparents who had to witness "the injustices committed against their grandson." The letter alleged that "[t]he blows that [Santana] received, the filing of unfounded criminal charges against him, and the publication of all this in the news media, constitute a violation of his civil rights."² The letter then requested $1.5 million in damages "as an indemnity for the damages and losses caused by the police officers referred to above."

On September 7, 2007, Santana and his grandparents filed a complaint in federal court against the four officers who had been at the scene of the arrest and also against three supervising officers — Superintendent Toledo, José Ramos-González ("Ramos"), Commander of the Fajardo Region of the PRPD, and Nelson Torres-González ("Torres"), Commander of the Special Operations Unit of the PRPD. On November 21, 2007, the three supervising officers filed a motion to dismiss. On December 21, 2007, plaintiffs filed an opposition to the motion to dismiss and leave to file an amended complaint, which was granted by the district court. On January 4, 2008, plaintiffs filed the amended complaint, which again stated claims against the on-scene officers for violating Santana's civil rights and against the supervising officers for supervisory liability. It also included a claim alleging that Santana was fired as a result of his arrest and the charges brought against him, which constituted an illegal termination because the PRPD did not investigate the events of June 8 and 9, 2006 prior to terminating Santana. On April 4, 2008, Lebrón and Molina joined their co-defendants' earlier filed motion to dismiss. On May 7, 2008, Candelaria and Sánchez also joined the motion to dismiss.

On or about May 12, 2008, the district court issued a partial dismissal of the complaint, dismissing the following claims: (1) all claims alleged against the supervising officers; (2) all claims brought under the First, Fifth, and Tenth Amendments; (3) all claims brought against the on-scene officers in their official capacities as police officers; and (4) all claims brought by Santana's grandparents pursuant to § 1983. This order left the claims against the on-scene officers in their personal capacities, pursuant to § 1983 for violations of Santana's Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights, as well as all claims brought under Puerto Rico law against the on-scene officers.³

Following the partial dismissal, both parties filed motions for reconsideration. The district court granted defendants' motion and issued an amended opinion and order, dismissing all of plaintiffs' remaining claims with prejudice as time-barred. Plaintiffs timely appeal. For the reasons stated below, we affirm the district court and hold that plaintiffs' extrajudicial letter did not toll the statute of limitations under Puerto Rico law, rendering his complaint untimely.

II. Discussion

We first consider whether plaintiffs' complaint was properly time-barred. Defendants argue that plaintiffs filed the original complaint after the applicable statute of limitations had run. They further argue that the extrajudicial letter plaintiffs sent to Toledo failed to toll the limitations period. Defendants contend that the letter notified Toledo that he might be sued only in his official capacity as an employee of the PRPD, which is precluded by the Eleventh Amendment. We agree with defendants that the complaint was time-barred, albeit for different reasons.

A. Applicable Law Governing Statute of Limitations

We review de novo the district court's dismissal of a complaint for failure to state a claim based on statute of limitations grounds. López-González v. Municipality of Comerío, 404 F.3d 548, 551 (1st Cir.2005). "Affirmative defenses, such as the statute of limitations, may be raised in a motion to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), provided that the facts establishing the defense [are] clear `on the face of the plaintiff's pleadings.'" Trans-Spec Truck Serv., Inc. v. Caterpillar, Inc., 524 F.3d 315, 320 (1st Cir.2008) (quoting Blackstone Realty LLC, 244 F.3d at 197). "Where the dates included in the complaint show that the limitations period has been exceeded and the complaint fails to `sketch a factual predicate' that would warrant the application of either a different statute of limitations period or equitable estoppel, dismissal is appropriate." Id.

Plaintiffs' complaint brought claims under § 1983, which...