Smith v. City of Oklahoma City

• Decision Date: 05 January 1983
• Docket Number: No. 81-1316,81-1316
• Citation: 696 F.2d 784
• Parties: Bailey M. SMITH, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The CITY OF OKLAHOMA CITY, A Municipal Corporation; Tom Heggy, Individual and as acting Chief of Police of the Oklahoma City Police Department; Larry Gleason, M.M. McPherson, and John A and D Does, individually and as acting Police Officers of the Oklahoma City Police Department, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 784

696 F.2d 784

Bailey M. SMITH, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The CITY OF OKLAHOMA CITY, A Municipal Corporation; Tom

Heggy, Individual and as acting Chief of Police of the

Oklahoma City Police Department; Larry Gleason, M.M.

McPherson, and John A and D Does, individually and as acting

Police Officers of the Oklahoma City Police Department,

Defendants-Appellees.

No. 81-1316.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

Jan. 5, 1983.

Forest N. Simon, Oklahoma City, Okl., for plaintiff-appellant.

Walter M. Powell, Municipal Counselor, and Grant E. Price, Asst. Municipal Counselor, City of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma City, Okl., for defendants-appellees.

Before BARRETT, McKAY and LOGAN, Circuit Judges.

LOGAN, Circuit Judge.

Bailey M. Smith brought this 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 action against the City of Oklahoma City and four individual police officers. He alleged that his arrest by the police officers for outstanding parking tickets violated his constitutional rights because the arrest was unlawful and the arrest warrant was invalid. During trial the police officers were dismissed as parties to the action. The jury returned a verdict in favor of Oklahoma City. Smith raises two issues on appeal. He argues (1) that the judge should have directed a verdict in Smith's favor because the arrest was made by city police officers outside the city's corporate boundaries, and (2) that the judge should have ruled that the arrest warrant was invalid and so instructed the jury.

The city admits, and the trial court instructed the jury, that the warrant was unlawfully served outside the corporate limits of Oklahoma City. That the arrest was unlawful did not entitle Smith to a directed verdict, however. Unless a municipality has a policy or custom that was the cause of a constitutional deprivation, the municipality will not be liable under section 1983 for the actions of its employees. A city is not liable under the doctrine of respondeat superior in a section 1983 suit. Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 690-91, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 2035-2036, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978). The evidence of municipal policy or custom on extraterritorial arrests was not sufficient to justify taking that question from the jury by way of directed verdict. See Black, Sivalls & Bryson, Inc. v. Keystone Steel Fabrication, Inc., 584 F.2d 946, 951 (10th Cir.1978).

Whether the arrest warrant was valid is a more difficult issue. Oklahoma City appears to follow a particular pattern of action to obtain arrest warrants for parking violations. Some time after a particular licensed automobile has acquired three or more delinquent parking tickets, the office of the court administrator notifies the city police department of the license plate number. The police then identify the registered owner of the vehicle through the Tax Commission computer. The computer tells who the registered owner of the vehicle is on the date the computer check is made. The issuing officer of each ticket then verifies before the deputy city clerk that he or she issued the particular ticket on the date indicated on its face. The tickets are then attached to an unsigned warrant, which is given to a municipal judge. If everything is in order, the judge will issue the warrant. Smith attacks this procedure on the grounds that the warrant is issued on hearsay evidence only and that the municipal judge executing the warrant has no independent knowledge or information as to whether a parking violation was committed, who committed the violation, or who was the owner of the automobile at the time the violation was committed.

We see no problem with the officers' verifications or the use of hearsay generally to support warrants. Hearsay evidence may be relied on if there are proper indicia that the hearsay evidence is reliable. United States v. Simpson, 453 F.2d 1028, 1029-30 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 408 U.S. 925, 92 S.Ct. 2504, 33 L.Ed.2d 337 (1972); accord Coleman v. Burnett, 477 F.2d 1187, 1203 n. 89 (D.C.Cir.1973); United States v. Schartner, 426 F.2d 470, 473 (3d Cir.1970). The evidence relied on in this case is obtained from the ownership registration records in the Tax Commission's computer. This type of hearsay is generally reliable and would not invalidate the warrant.

Here, however, the computer check establishes only who owns the vehicle at the time of the check, not who owned it at the time the underlying citation was issued. In Oklahoma a numbered license plate is issued to an automobile and "shall remain with the vehicle for a period of five (5) years unless a replacement plate is applied for." Okla.Stat.Ann. tit. 47, Sec. 22.4-3 (West Supp.1982). Each owner obtains a certificate of title to the automobile, id. Sec. 23.2a, which he or she transfers to any purchaser of the vehicle, who, within 20 days, must present it to the...