Sweaney v. Ada County, Idaho

• Decision Date: 15 July 1997
• Docket Number: No. 96-35156,96-35156
• Citation: 119 F.3d 1385
• Parties: , 120 Ed. Law Rep. 149, 97 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 5594, 97 Daily Journal D.A.R. 9062 Sherie SWEANEY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. ADA COUNTY, IDAHO, a political subdivision of the State of Idaho; Vaughn Killeen, in his official capacity as Sheriff of Ada County; Joyce Michie, individually, and in her official capacity as Deputy Sheriff of Ada County; John Does, 1-10 and Jane Does 1-10, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 1385

119 F.3d 1385

38 Fed.R.Serv.3d 1129, 120 Ed. Law Rep. 149,

97 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 5594,

97 Daily Journal D.A.R. 9062

Sherie SWEANEY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. ADA COUNTY, IDAHO, a political subdivision of the State of Idaho; Vaughn Killeen, in his official capacity as Sheriff of Ada County; Joyce Michie, individually, and in her official capacity as Deputy Sheriff of Ada County; John Does, 1-10 and Jane Does 1-10, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 96-35156.

United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted June 25, 1997.

Decided July 15, 1997.

Eric S. Rossman, White, Peterson, Pruss, Morrow & Gigray, Nampa, ID, for plaintiff-appellant.

Cary B. Colaianni, Ada County Prosecutor's Office, Boise, ID, for defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Idaho; B. Lynn Winmill, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV 94-00490-BLW.

Before: ALARCON, T.G. NELSON and THOMAS, Circuit Judges.

ALARCON, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiff-appellant Sherie Sweaney ("Sweaney") appeals from the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of defendant-appellees Ada County, Ada County Sheriff Vaughn Killeen, and Ada County Deputy Sheriff Joyce Michie on her 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim and supplemental state claims. Sweaney contends that the district court erred in holding that Deputy Michie was shielded from liability in this matter under the doctrine of qualified immunity and in denying her motion to amend her complaint. We affirm the dismissal of Sweaney's federal claim because we conclude that Sweaney did not have a clearly established right under federal constitutional or statutory law to strike her son with a belt on school grounds without law enforcement investigation of her conduct and the filing of a report with the county prosecutor at the time of the alleged misconduct. We further affirm the district court's dismissal of Sweaney's federal claims against Ada County and Sheriff Killeen and hold that the district court did not abuse its discretion in dismissing the supplemental state law claims. We also affirm the district court's denial of Sweaney's motion to amend the complaint because her proposed amendments would have been futile.

I.

While walking home from Lake Hazel Middle School on January 11, 1993, Brian Sweaney was shot at by another student with a .22 caliber handgun. On that date, Joyce Michie was an Ada County deputy sheriff assigned to the Lake Hazel Middle School as a resource officer. As a resource officer, Deputy Michie spent 20 hours per week at the school and investigated all crimes that happened there. Deputy Michie investigated the shooting incident. Sweaney became upset with Deputy Michie because the suspects were allowed to remain at school for three days. Sweaney confronted her on at least one occasion.

On March 15, 1993, Brian failed to return home after basketball practice. Brian attempted to speak to his sister on the phone but the call was disconnected. He did not attempt a second call. When informed by her daughter that Brian had not returned from school, Sweaney went to the school to look for him. She took her daughter's leather belt.

Sweaney found Brian in the gym and led him to the hallway. Brian was wearing basketball shorts and a shirt. She yelled at him and struck him three or four times with the belt. Brian laughed at her and told her it did not hurt him. Sweaney hit him two or three more times and asked him if he had learned his lesson. After Brian said "no," Sweaney told him to go back to the gym and finish his practice. Sweaney returned later to pick up Brian after the practice session ended.

Bill Page, the basketball coach, and Michelle Peterson, a teacher at Lake Hazel Middle School, observed Sweaney strike her son with the belt. Peterson reported the incident to John Castain, a school counselor. Castain reported the incident to Deputy Michie.

Deputy Michie interviewed Brian Sweaney about the incident on March 16, 1993. Deputy Michie observed a bruise on Brian's arm and photographed it with a Polaroid camera. She destroyed the photographs because they did not accurately portray the bruise. Brian told Deputy Michie that the bruise "could have been from the belt or it could have been from something else." Deputy Michie described the bruise as "red outlined" and "about 1 1/4 [inches] long and 1/4 inch wide." Deputy Michie did not observe any other bruises on Brian's body.

Deputy Michie interviewed Sweaney over the telephone. Sweaney explained that she had been concerned for Brian's safety in light of the shooting incident and was scared when he failed to return home from school. Sweaney further stated that she struck Brian with a belt after he had "smarted off." Sweaney informed Deputy Michie that "if her son were to act again in the same manner, she would handle the matter in the same way." Deputy Michie prepared a report summarizing her investigation and submitted it to the Ada County Prosecutor's Office for a determination whether criminal proceedings should be instituted.

After reviewing Deputy Michie's report, Ada County prosecutor Alan White filed a misdemeanor complaint against Sweaney for willfully causing her son to be injured pursuant to Idaho Code § 18-1501(2). ¹ The case was assigned to prosecutor Patrick Owen. In an affidavit filed in support of the motion for a summary judgment, Owen alleged that the

fact that there was apparently a mark on Brian Sweaney's wrist was not determinative in my decision to pursue this case. The fact that there was an eyewitness was important to my decision; ... the fact that Ms. Sweaney told Deputy Michie that she should mind her own business and that she would do the same thing again (with respect to hitting Brian with a belt) if she felt it necessary, strengthened my desire to prosecute this matter.

Sweaney was not arrested or incarcerated pending trial. Instead, she was issued a citation ordering her to appear for trial. A jury trial was held on October 25, 1993. The jury acquitted Sweaney.

On November 1, 1994, Sweaney filed this action against Deputy Michie, Ada County, and Ada County Sheriff Vaughn Killeen. The defendants filed a motion for summary judgment on October 17, 1995. They argued that the doctrine of qualified immunity compelled dismissal of this action against Deputy Michie. They also asserted that Sweaney's reliance on the doctrine of respondeat superior to support her claims against Ada County and Sheriff Killeen was misplaced. ² The district court agreed and granted the motion. Sweaney filed this timely appeal.

II.

Sweaney contends that the district court erred in concluding that a parent did not have a clearly established right under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment to discipline her son by striking him with a belt on public school grounds on the date Deputy Michie filed her report with the Ada County Prosecutor's Office. Specifically, she argues that the right to "familial privacy" is "firmly rooted in the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution." She argues that parents have a federally protected constitutional "right to incorporate reasonable corporal punishment as a manner of disciplining their children." We disagree.

The doctrine of qualified immunity shields government officials from civil liability "insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2738, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). In determining whether an official is entitled to qualified immunity, we must consider (1) whether the plaintiff has identified a specific federal statutory or constitutional right that has been allegedly violated, (2) whether that right was so clearly established as to alert a reasonable official to its parameters, and (3) whether a reasonable officer could have believed his or her conduct was lawful. Newell v. Sauser, 79 F.3d 115, 117 (9th Cir.1996).

The plaintiff bears the initial burden of proving that the right was clearly established. Romero v. Kitsap County, 931 F.2d 624, 627 (9th Cir.1991). To be clearly established, "[t]he contours of the right must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right." Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 640, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 3039, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987) (emphasis added). Further, the right asserted must be "clearly established at the time of the challenged actions." Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 528, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 2816, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985) (emphasis added). Under this test Sweaney has not cited any case that holds that the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment protect a parent's right to inflict corporal punishment upon a child. The absence of any authority directly on point is not fatal to a section 1983 claim. Blueford v. Prunty, 108 F.3d 251, 255 (9th Cir.1997). A right is clearly established "[i]f the only reasonable conclusion from binding authority were that the disputed right existed." Id.

the plaintiff must "offer more than general conclusory allegations" that the defendants violated a constitutional right. Backlund v. Barnhart, 778 F.2d 1386, 1389 (9th Cir.1985). Thus, to support a judgment, the plaintiff "must show that the particular facts of his case support a claim of clearly established right." Id.

Sweaney relies on several Supreme Court decisions in support of her argument that the only reasonable conclusion from the case law published prior to the date Deputy Michie filed her report is that a parent has a clearly established right to inflict corporal punishment on his or her child. First, she argues that the Supreme Court "has repeatedly held that the right to familial integrity embodied in the fourteenth amendment is a substantial right and one that is, in fact, clearly established." Sweaney refers us to Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 43 S.Ct. 625, 67 L.Ed. 1042 (1923); Prince v....