Steen v. Myers
| Decision Date | 21 May 2007 |
| Docket Number | No. 06-1771.,No. 06-1772.,06-1771.,06-1772. |
| Citation | 486 F.3d 1017 |
| Parties | Floyd STEEN, personal representative of the estate of Brandon S. Hilbert, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Robert MYERS, Brad Ridenour, and City of Portland, Indiana, Defendants-Appellees. Richard Philebaum and Teresa Philebaum, as legal guardians of Robyn A. Philebaum, and Robyn A. Philebaum individually, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. City of Portland, Indiana, Portland Police Department, Robert Myers, and Brad Ridenour, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Thomas E. Hastings, Brown, Hastings, Baldwin & Clutter, Indianapolis, IN, P. Gregory Cross (argued), Muncie, IN, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.
James S. Stephenson (argued), Stephenson, Morow & Semler, Indianapolis, IN, for Defendants-Appellees.
Before BAUER, FLAUM, and KANNE, Circuit Judges.
The plaintiffs in this combined appeal represent the interests of a young man who was killed and a young woman who was rendered disabled in a motorcycle accident that occurred during a police chase. They brought suit in the state courts of Indiana, combining both federal and state law claims. The defendants removed the cases to the federal court. The district court entered summary judgment in favor of the defendants on the federal claims and remanded the state law claims to the state courts. The plaintiffs appeal. We affirm.
Because this appeal comes to us after a grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendants, we will recount the facts in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 255, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). In the early morning hours of July 18, 2003, Portland, Indiana police officers Robert Myers and Brad Ridenour were on duty. Myers observed Brandon Hilbert and an unknown woman (now known to have been plaintiff Robyn Philebaum) sitting on a parked motorcycle among a crowd of other young people on Main Street in Portland. Suspecting that Hilbert's license was suspended, and further suspecting that he did not possess a valid motorcycle endorsement, Myers proceeded past the motorcycle and parked his patrol car while running a check on the status of Hilbert's license. Either on his own or acting pursuant to information from Ridenour (the details are unclear), Myers drove a few blocks South and East to find the motorcycle parked at a new location. He drove past the parked motorcycle and the two youths at least once, and perhaps twice or more. He parked out of sight again and awaited confirmation about the status of Hilbert's license via computer. He had positioned himself, he says, to be in a location to notice the motorcycle if it returned to the original Main Street location. While waiting, he received confirmation that Hilbert's license was suspended and that he had no motorcycle endorsement.
We should note here the context in which these events occurred—events which the appellants characterize as a cat-and-mouse game. Hilbert and Myers had a prior history. A few months before the night in question, Myers and another officer had handcuffed Hilbert and held him at gunpoint in the course of investigating an armed assault. Although Hilbert's physical description seems to be a far stretch from the description of the assault suspect, his pick-up truck was similar to a vehicle associated with that assault. Myers and the other officer eventually released Hilbert when it became apparent that he was not the suspect wanted in connection with the assault. Nevertheless, it appears from testimony of relatives that this run-in with Myers had the effect of leaving Hilbert in fear of Myers, and the appellants suggest that the prior events provide important context for the events of July 18.
Not seeing Hilbert and his passenger returning to Main Street, Myers started to drive back to Hilbert's last known location. He saw Hilbert and Philebaum riding on the motorcycle. Hilbert looked at him, and then turned East on Water Street (Indiana Highway 26) and sped away. Myers testifies that he turned on his lights and siren and attempted to complete a traffic stop, but Hilbert did not pull over. Myers gave chase, and Ridenour joined him, trailing some distance behind.
The chase would end tragically. Within minutes, the chase had reached speeds between 100 and 130 miles per hour. Approximately six minutes after Hilbert and Philebaum had fled, the chase ended with the motorcycle leaving the road. Hilbert died, and Philebaum received extensive injuries. The chase was witnessed by ten people. Four are parties to the current lawsuit: defendants Myers and Ridenour, and plaintiffs Hilbert (through his estate) and Philebaum (through her parents). Two additional people were eyewitnesses to the chase: Barbara Ashcraft lives near the city limits and saw the vehicles as they were leaving town and Rhonda Bartle passed the chase while driving westbound (into Portland) on Highway 26. In addition, four people were "ear-witnesses" to the chase: the Campbells and the Schweitermans live along Highway 26 between Portland and the crash site.
Myers's report of the chase and his affidavit estimate that the distance between his car and the motorcycle ranged from one block behind the motorcycle at the inception of the traffic stop to as much as one-quarter or one-half a mile throughout the remainder of the chase. Myers's in-car video camera was not operating at the time of the chase, and thus provides no useful evidence. It appears that the video recorder was repaired the morning before the chase, and Myers was unaware that it was usable once again. Ashcraft and Bartle (the only non-party eyewitnesses) estimate that the distance between the vehicles to have been between one car length as the chase left town, to three or four car lengths toward the end of the chase. The witnesses who only heard the chase, but did not see all three vehicles, estimated that the time between the sound of the motorcycle passing and the sound of the pursuing police car was about ten seconds.
About four minutes into the chase, and about two minutes before its eventual tragic end, Myers suggested that the dispatch operators call across the state line to the Mercer County (Ohio) sheriff and inform them that the chase would be entering their jurisdiction. Myers received a radio call from the Jay County (Indiana) sheriff's department reminding him that he was approaching a point where the highway makes a right-hand curve. He testifies that he slowed, and observed the motorcycle braking ahead of him before leaving the highway, having failed to make the right-hand turn. The accident reconstruction report calculated that Hilbert was traveling seventy-four miles per hour when he left the highway in a straight line, and that the tires left skid marks for over forty-six feet before leaving the pavement.
Hilbert's estate and Philebaum's parents (as her legal guardians) brought suit in Indiana state court against Myers, Ridenour, the City of Portland, and the Portland Police Department. Their complaints alleged federal causes of action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for depriving the plaintiffs of their constitutional rights under the Fourth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment and various state law claims. The defendants removed the case to the federal court and eventually moved for summary judgment. The plaintiffs acknowledged the insufficiency of the evidence to support any claim against Ridenour and did not oppose summary judgment on the claims against him. The plaintiffs also withdrew their claims against the City of Portland and conceded that the Portland Police Department is not a separate entity subject to suit. The district court entered summary judgment in favor of the defendants on the § 1983 claims and remanded the state law claims to the state court. The plaintiffs appeal. Their statement of issues for our consideration, as well as their arguments, are confined to whether summary judgment was appropriate with respect to defendant Myers. Although they do not say so explicitly, we take it from the absence of any discussion of Ridenour or the City that they have abandoned their federal claims against those defendants. Luellen v. City of E. Chicago, 350 F.3d 604, 612 (7th Cir.2003) ().
We review a decision to enter summary judgment de novo. Barrows v. Wiley, 478 F.3d 776, 779 (7th Cir.2007). We view the facts and draw all inferences in the light most favorable to the non-moving party—in this case the plaintiffs. Liberty Lobby, 477 U.S. at 255, 106 S.Ct. 2505. Summary judgment is appropriate where the evidence in the record shows no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. FED.R.CIV.P. 56(c).
The Fourth Amendment provides that "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated." U.S. CONST. amend. IV. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the states not "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." U.S. CONST. amend. XIV. A person who, "under color of [law] . . . subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured." 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The parties agree that our consideration of § 1983 claims in the context of a police chase of a motorcycle is largely controlled by the Supreme Court's holding in County of Sacramento v. Lewis, 523 U.S. 833, 118 S.Ct. 1708, 140 L.Ed.2d 1043 (1998).
In the context of a police pursuit, a Fourth Amendment seizure does not occur unless an officer intentionally and forcibly halts the fleeing suspect. Id. at 844,...
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