Smith v. Ambrogio

• Decision Date: 22 September 1978
• Docket Number: Civ. No. N-76-247.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Connecticut
• Parties: Glendale SMITH v. John AMBROGIO et al.

456 F. Supp. 1130

Glendale SMITH v. John AMBROGIO et al.

Civ. No. N-76-247.

United States District Court, D. Connecticut.

September 22, 1978.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

John R. Williams, New Haven, Conn., for plaintiff.

Donald G. Walsh, New Haven, Conn., for defendants.

RULING ON MOTION TO RECONSIDER DISMISSAL OF CLAIM AGAINST TOWN OF HAMDEN

NEWMAN, District Judge.

This motion presents the issue of what allegations are sufficient to state a claim of municipal liability for deprivation of constitutional rights in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's decision in Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978), and the Second Circuit's decision in Turpin v. Mailet, 579 F.2d 152 (2d Cir. 1978).

Plaintiff filed his complaint on July 14, 1976. Invoking jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1343 (3), he alleged claims against two police officers of the Town of Hamden, the acting chief of police, and the Town. On motion of the Town to dismiss, this Court granted the motion ruling that § 1343 (3) did not supply jurisdiction for suit against the Town under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and that, while § 1331 supplied jurisdiction for an implied cause of action against the Town founded on the Fourteenth Amendment, the complaint did not sufficiently plead a claim on which relief against the Town could be granted. Ruling on Motions to Dismiss (May 16, 1977). Entry of judgment under Fed.R. Civ.P. 54 (b) was not ordered, since judgment had been entered in favor of the Town of West Haven in Turpin, and appeal of that decision seemed likely to provide sufficient guidance for pending cases such as this one.

After the decisions in Monell and Turpin, plaintiff moved for reconsideration of the dismissal of the claim against the Town. Since no valid judgment had been entered,¹ that dismissal is "subject to revision at any time," Fed.R.Civ.P. 54 (b), and the motion to reconsider is therefore properly before the Court.

The complaint alleges that plaintiff was arrested by the defendant police officers without warrant and without probable cause on charges subsequently dismissed by the State court. The arrest is alleged to have been made "at the express direction" of the defendant chief of police. There is no dispute that these allegations state a claim under § 1983 against the officers and a supervisor alleged to be directly responsible for the episode in question. The pending issue concerns the allegations against the Town, which are set out in the margin.²

The Second Circuit determined in Turpin that a cause of action for damages against a municipality for deprivation of civil rights can be grounded directly on the Fourteenth Amendment when unconstitutional actions by municipal employees have been "authorized, sanctioned or ratified by municipal officials or bodies functioning at a policy-making level." 579 F.2d at 164. The Court of Appeals also ruled that Turpin's complaint pleaded sufficient facts meeting the announced standard to withstand a motion to dismiss. Turpin alleged that he had successfully sued police officers of the Town of West Haven for police brutality, that his successful suit had received extensive publicity and resulted in widespread animosity against him among officers of the West Haven Police Department, that the Town's Board of Police Commissioners had specifically considered the episode on which the successful police brutality suit was grounded, that the Board had decided against disciplining the officer found liable, that the Board has subsequently promoted this officer, and that this series of events led directly to a second episode in which other West Haven officers arrested Turpin without probable cause on charges subsequently nolled. As the Court of Appeals viewed the complaint, "Turpin's suit is premised on the contention that the Board of Police Commissioners knowingly encouraged members of the department to violate Turpin's civil rights." 579 F.2d at 166.

The Supreme Court's decision in Monell, decided one day after Turpin, also upheld municipal liability for denial of constitutional rights, though proceeding along a doctrinally different route. The Court revised its construction of § 1983 to hold that municipalities can be sued for damages under § 1983 when "the action that is alleged to be unconstitutional implements or executes a policy statement, ordinance, regulation, or decision officially adopted and promulgated by that body's officers" or is "visited pursuant to governmental `custom' even though such a custom has not received formal approval through the body's official decisionmaking channels." 436 U.S. at 690, 98 S.Ct. at 2036. The contrary holding of Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167, 81 S.Ct. 473, 5 L.Ed.2d 492 (1961), was explicitly overruled. The plaintiffs in Monell, pregnant municipal employees, alleged that they had been required to take unpaid leaves of absence before such leaves were medically necessary. Since the action claimed to be unconstitutional in Monell was taken pursuant to what was alleged to be official policy of municipal decision-making bodies, the Court had no occasion to consider the circumstances under which specific instances of unconstitutional deprivations by municipal employees could evidence an implicit policy that could be the basis of municipal liability. The Court did specifically disclaim the doctrine of respondeat superior for a § 1983 cause of action, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, as the Second Circuit had also done with respect to a cause of action grounded on the Fourteenth Amendment, 579 F.2d at 166.

It is against this background that the sufficiency of the plaintiff's complaint must be assessed. At the outset, it would appear appropriate to consider the complaint solely as a claim under § 1983, rather than under the Fourteenth Amendment. It seems apparent that the Court of Appeals would never have proceeded to the constitutional question of an implied cause of action under the Fourteenth Amendment if it had known that a day later a statutory cause of action would be held to have been created under § 1983 by the 42nd Congress. Indeed, Justice Powell, concurring in Monell, explicitly points out the "better course" is to correct the prior misinterpretation of § 1983 "rather than constitutionalize a cause of action against local government." 436 U.S. at 713, 98 S.Ct. at 2047. However, while the Supreme Court and the Second Circuit grounded municipal liability on different sources of authority, it appears that both courts announced similar standards for determining when a municipality would be liable for deprivations of constitutional rights.³

To assess the sufficiency of plaintiff's claim against the Town of Hamden, careful consideration must be given to the elements of a cause of action for municipal liability. Broadly speaking, as Monell and Turpin make clear, there must be conduct by the town that subjects a person to a denial of constitutional right or causes him to be subjected to such a denial. The municipality is to be liable for its own wrongful action, or perhaps knowing omission, distinct from the wrongful action of a municipal employee.

Monell makes clear that conduct is the action of a town when the conduct executes or implements official policy of the town. The policy can be found in an ordinance, regulation, policy statement, or decision officially adopted by the town's officers, or in a pattern of "persistent practices" sufficiently known to and approved by town officials to constitute a custom of equivalent though unofficial authoritativeness. See Adickes v. S.H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144, 167, 90 S.Ct. 1598, 26 L.Ed.2d 142 (1970). The promulgation of such policy is not limited to the town's law-makers, but is also actionable when made by "those whose edicts or acts may fairly be said to represent official policy." Monell, supra, 436 U.S. at 694, 98 S.Ct. at 2038. Turpin refers to authorization by "municipal officials or bodies functioning at a policy-making level." 579 F.2d at 164. Presumably, Turpin refers to those making what can realistically be considered the policy of the town, rather than all officials at any level of authority within the town government exercising discretion and thereby in some sense creating policy guiding the actions of subordinates.

Once it is shown that there is a policy established and maintained by the town, the town is liable for any deprivation of constitutional right caused by conduct pursuant to that policy. The causal link may be immediate, as in Monell, where the policy commands the injury of which the plaintiff complains. Or the causal link may be supplied by the tort principle that holds a person liable for the natural consequences of his actions. Monroe v. Pape, supra, 365 U.S. at 187, 81 S.Ct. 473. Whether a deprivation of constitutional right is commanded by a policy of a town or is the natural consequence of a town's policy, the first inquiry concerns the existence of the policy. That inquiry is clouded in a case such as this where the town's policy is not articulated but alleged to be reflected in the acts and principally the omissions of the town's agents, presumably those in sufficiently senior policy-making roles to promulgate town policy.

The ascertainment of an unarticulated policy of a town is similar to the inquiry concerning the liability of supervisory officials accused of responsibility for unconstitutional conduct taken by subordinates. Respondeat superior in unavailable to hold either the supervisory official or the town liable for the misconduct of the subordinate. Instead, the liability of the supervisor or the town depends on whether they have commanded the result or adopted a policy, a natural consequence of which is the denial of constitutional right.

The major uncertainty in determining when a supervisor is liable for the misconduct of his subordinates arises when the policy of the supervisor, alleged to have caused the...