Santos v. Murdock

• Decision Date: 01 August 2000
• Docket Number: Docket No. 99-9468
• Parties: (2nd Cir. 2001) ANGEL SANTOS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. JOHN M. MURDOCK, LUISA ST. PIERRE, LINWORTH JONES, JOHN KOCH, ANDREW JAFFE, and JOHN DOE, Defendants-Appellees
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Page 681

243 F.3d 681 (2nd Cir. 2001)

ANGEL SANTOS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. JOHN M. MURDOCK, LUISA ST. PIERRE, LINWORTH JONES, JOHN KOCH, ANDREW JAFFE, and JOHN DOE, Defendants-Appellees.

Docket No. 99-9468

August Term, 2000

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT

Submitted: March 13, 2001

Decided: March 23, 2001

Plaintiff-appellant appeals from an order of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (Dominic J. Squatrito, Judge) granting summary judgment to defendants-appellees. In opposition to defendants-appellees' motion for summary judgment, plaintiff-appellant submitted a non-party's affidavit, which contradicted testimony given by that witness in a prior judicial proceeding and at a subsequent deposition in plaintiff-appellant's action. Because the affidavit did not show that the witness would testify consistent with his affidavit at trial nor would the affidavit be admissible at trial as affirmative evidence in support of plaintiff's case, but only for impeachment purposes, we find that plaintiff-appellant failed to show that there was a genuine issue as to any material fact.

Affirmed.

M. DONALD CARDWELL, Cardwell, Cardwell & Smoragiewicz, Hartford, Connecticut, for plaintiff-appellant.

JEFFREY G. SCHWARTZ, Law Offices of Scott B. Clendaniel, Hartford, Connecticut, for defendants-appellees.

Before: McLAUGHLIN, SOTOMAYOR, Circuit Judges, and BERTELSMAN, District Judge.^*

PER CURIAM:

Plaintiff-appellant Angel Santos ("Santos") appeals from a decision of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (Dominic J. Squatrito, Judge) granting summary judgment to defendants-appellees, five named Hartford police officers and other unidentified officers. Because we find that the sole piece of evidence proffered by Santos in opposition to defendants' motion for summary judgment -- an affidavit by a non-party witness -- would be inadmissible at trial for substantive purposes and did not show that the witness would testify in support of Santos's case at trial, we affirm the district court's determination that Santos failed to show that there was a genuine issue as to any material fact.

This case arose from the March 1994 murder of a seven-year-old girl, for which Santos was a suspect. On the day of the murder, the police questioned Santos and performed physical tests on him, but they did not place him under arrest. Later, on April 7, 1994, while investigating an unrelated robbery, the police arrested Ernesto Diaz Gonzalez, Santos's step-uncle, on an outstanding, unrelated warrant. While in custody, Gonzalez provided the police with a sworn statement that implicated Santos in the murder. According to Gonzalez, Santos admitted to Gonzalez that he had killed the girl.

Based on Gonzalez's sworn statement, defendants submitted an application for an arrest warrant. The warrant was granted, and Santos was arrested on April 26, 1994. He was held in jail throughout the criminal proceedings. At a probable cause hearing held after Santos's arrest, Gonzalez again implicated Santos in the murder. However, in an affidavit of October 17, 1994, Gonzalez recanted his earlier statements and claimed that the police had coerced him into implicating Santos by threatening him with a nine-year prison term. This affidavit was based on oral statements that Gonzalez made at a meeting with Santos's lawyer and was prepared by that lawyer. Because of this affidavit, the State dropped the murder charge against Santos and released him from custody. Gonzalez was subsequently convicted of perjury for falsely testifying at the probable cause hearing.

Santos brought this action under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1988 alleging that defendants violated his Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights by knowingly submitting an arrest warrant application containing false statements and by arresting him without probable cause. During the course of discovery, defendants twice deposed Gonzalez, asking him about the circumstances surrounding the original police statement that led to Santos's arrest. Santos's counsel was present at both depositions and cross-examined Gonzalez on both occasions. At the first deposition, Gonzalez invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege and refused to testify about the events that gave rise to his first statement incriminating Santos. At the second deposition, however, Gonzalez testified that he had not been coerced by the officers but had falsely implicated Santos in order to secure favorable treatment in connection with the criminal charges against him.

The officers moved for summary judgment. Santos's only evidence in opposition to the motion was the affidavit in which Gonzalez claimed he had been coerced into implicating Santos, showing, according to Santos, that Gonzalez might testify consistent with the affidavit at trial. The district court granted the summary judgment motion, finding that the evidence was too "speculative" to raise genuine issues of material fact. Santos now appeals.

Our review of a district court's grant of summary judgment is de novo, and we apply the same principles as are applied by the district courts. Howley v. Town of Stratford, 217 F.3d 141, 151 (2d Cir. 2000). On appeal, we may affirm a district court's grant of summary judgment on any ground upon which the district court could have rested its decision. See Leon v. Murphy, 988 F.2d 303, 308 (2d Cir. 1993).

Summary judgment is appropriate where "the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact." Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c). Once a party moving for summary judgment has made the requisite showing that there is no factual dispute, the nonmoving party bears the burden of presenting evidence to show that there is, indeed, a genuine issue for trial. See Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323-24 (1986). Such evidence may be, and frequently is, presented in the form of affidavits which, when used, "shall be made on personal knowledge, shall set forth such facts as would be admissible in evidence, and shall show affirmatively that the affiant is competent to testify to the matters stated therein." Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(e). Affidavits submitted to defeat summary judgment must be admissible themselves or must contain evidence that will be presented in an admissible form at trial. See Celotex Corp., 477 U.S. at 324 (stating that nonmoving party need not "produce evidence in a form that would be admissible at trial" but must "by her own affidavits... designate...