Torres v. McLaughlin

Citation163 F.3d 169
Decision Date15 December 1998
Docket NumberNo. 97-1476,97-1476
PartiesFelix TORRES, Appellee, v. John McLAUGHLIN, individually and in his capacity as an officer of the Police Department of the City of Philadelphia and in his capacity as an officer for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Bureau of Narcotics Investigations; John Sunderhauf, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General's Bureau of Narcotics Investigations; Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Office of Attorney General's Bureau of Narcotics Investigation; and The City of Philadelphia, John McLaughlin and John Sunderhauf, Appellants.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (3rd Circuit)

D. Michael Fisher, John O.J. Shellenberger (Argued), Calvin R. Koons, John G. Knorr, III, Office of Attorney General, Philadelphia, PA, Attorneys for Appellants.

Anthony L. Cianfrani, John Nivala (Argued), Philadelphia, PA, Attorney for Appellee.

Before: NYGAARD and ALITO, Circuit Judges, and DEBEVOISE, Senior District Judge. *

OPINION OF THE COURT

NYGAARD, Circuit Judge.

Felix Torres sued John McLaughlin, a Philadelphia police officer assigned to the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General Bureau of Narcotics Investigations Task Force, and John Sunderhauf, McLaughlin's supervisor, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging that the officers maliciously prosecuted Torres and thereby violated his constitutional rights. McLaughlin and Sunderhauf appeal the District Court's denial of their motion for summary judgment in which they claimed that their actions are protected by the qualified immunity doctrine. We have jurisdiction in this appeal because "an order rejecting the defense of qualified immunity at either the dismissal stage or the summary judgment stage is a 'final' judgment subject to immediate appeal." Behrens v. Pelletier, 516 U.S. 299, 307, 116 S.Ct. 834, 839, 133 L.Ed.2d 773 (1996). Our review is plenary, and we draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the non-movant, Torres. See Sharrar v. Felsing, 128 F.3d 810, 817 (3d Cir.1997); J.F. Feeser, Inc. v. Serv-A-Portion, Inc., 909 F.2d 1524, 1530, 1531 (3d Cir.1990). We will reverse.

I.

Officer McLaughlin arrested Torres while Torres was on his way to buy heroin. 1 The following day, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office issued a criminal complaint against Torres, charging him with the unlawful possession of eighty-seven vials of cocaine with the intent to deliver. 2 That same day Torres appeared at a preliminary hearing and was informed of the charges. He signed his own bond and was released from custody, and remained free until convicted.

At the preliminary hearing, pre-trial hearing and trial, McLaughlin was the government's sole witness against Torres. Torres testified on his own behalf at the trial and denied the charges, and his attorney argued to the jury that McLaughlin's testimony should not be believed. The jury returned a guilty verdict and the court immediately revoked Torres's bail. He was sentenced to three to six years in prison and assessed a $10,000 fine.

Approximately seven and one-half months later his attorneys moved for a new trial. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania did not oppose the motion and informed the court that if it granted the motion, the Commonwealth would move for a nolle prosequi. According to Torres, the Commonwealth sought a nolle prosequi because it believed that McLaughlin might have lied in a search warrant application in another, unrelated case. 3 The court granted both Torres's motion for a new trial and the Commonwealth's motion for a nolle prosequi, and Torres was released.

Torres alleged malicious prosecution and sued McLaughlin, Sunderhauf, the Bureau of Narcotics Investigations and the City of Philadelphia pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and state law. Torres claimed that the malicious prosecution violated his First, Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights and various state law rights. The District Court dismissed all claims against the Bureau and all state law claims against all parties. Specifically, the court held that: (1) all claims arising from the arrest were barred by the statute of limitations, and (2) all claims arising from McLaughlin's pre-trial and trial testimony were barred by the absolute immunity defense accorded trial testimony. The court then reviewed Torres's "inartfully drawn complaint" and concluded that only a claim rooted in the Fourth Amendment survived the motion to dismiss. The court then noted that Torres failed to demonstrate that the criminal proceeding terminated in his favor, a necessary element of a section 1983 malicious prosecution claim. Accordingly, the court dismissed the complaint without prejudice and gave him leave to amend the complaint within fifteen days.

Torres amended his complaint and reasserted all claims against all defendants alleging violations of rights guaranteed by the First, Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments and seeking damages pursuant to section 1983. Torres stated that the defendants violated his "rights to be secure in his person and property, to be free from excessive force, and from malicious prosecution and due process." (App. at 57a). Torres also asserted state law claims for assault, battery and official oppression against McLaughlin.

McLaughlin and Sunderhauf answered Torres's amended complaint, and moved for summary judgment claiming, inter alia, that their actions fall within the qualified immunity doctrine. The District Court rejected the officers' qualified immunity defense and denied the motion for summary judgment. McLaughlin and Sunderhauf now appeal the District Court's denial of qualified immunity and denial of summary judgment.

II.

McLaughlin and Sunderhauf contend that the District Court erred by rejecting the qualified immunity claim. Their argument is two-fold. First, McLaughlin and Sunderhauf argue that in the decision to prosecute Torres, McLaughlin violated no constitutional right. In the alternative, they submit that even if he violated Torres's constitutional rights, these rights were not clearly established at the time of McLaughlin's actions. In sum, they claim that the doctrine of qualified immunity appertains, and Torres's claim should be dismissed.

A.

When resolving issues of qualified immunity, we must first determine "whether the plaintiff has alleged a deprivation of a constitutional right," County of Sacramento v. Lewis, 523 U.S. 833, 118 S.Ct. 1708, 1714 n. 5, 140 L.Ed.2d 1043 (1998) (citing Siegert v. Gilley, 500 U.S. 226, 232, 111 S.Ct. 1789, 1793, 114 L.Ed.2d 277 (1991)), which we generally cannot "assume[ ], without deciding." See Siegert v. Gilley, 500 U.S. 226, 232, 111 S.Ct. 1789, 1793, 114 L.Ed.2d 277 (1991). It is only after satisfying that inquiry that we should then "ask whether the right allegedly implicated was clearly established at the time of events in question." Id.

Torres's original and amended complaints alleged violations of the First, Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. The District Court dismissed all constitutional claims except those grounded in the Fourth Amendment. Torres now insists that his sole claim is under the Fourth Amendment. This claim can be characterized as a claim based on McLaughlin's role in initiating the prosecution by conveying false information to the prosecutor. The harm resulting from this action is Torres's incarceration after the jury found him guilty.

The District Court construed Albright v. Oliver, 510 U.S. 266, 267-70, 114 S.Ct. 807, 815-16, 127 L.Ed.2d 114 (1994), to allow only malicious prosecution claims based on violations of the Fourth Amendment. Several other courts have interpreted Albright in the same manner. See, e.g., Uboh v. Reno, 141 F.3d 1000 (11th Cir.1998); Murphy v. Lynn, 118 F.3d 938 (2d Cir.1997), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 118 S.Ct. 1051, 140 L.Ed.2d 114 (1998); Taylor v. Waters, 81 F.3d 429, 436 & n. 5 (4th Cir.1996). We are not convinced by the reasoning of these courts. We instead believe that Albright stands for the broader proposition that a section 1983 claim may be based on a constitutional provision other than the Fourth Amendment. However, we note that Albright commands that claims governed by explicit constitutional text may not be grounded in substantive due process.

Moreover, to the extent that other courts of appeal seem to hold that Albright requires a Fourth Amendment violation as a basis for a section 1983 malicious prosecution claim, we note that those cases are factually distinct from Torres's. Albright and the subsequent courts of appeal cases that rely on the Fourth Amendment involved pre-trial deprivations of liberty. Torres's claim, however, arises from post-conviction incarceration.

Albright brought a malicious prosecution claim under section 1983 contending that an officer deprived Albright's Fourteenth Amendment substantive due process rights to be "free from criminal prosecution except upon probable cause." See Albright, 510 U.S. at 269, 114 S.Ct. at 810-11. Writing for a four justice plurality, Chief Justice Rehnquist commented that Albright's articulated claim was "a very limited one" that did not raise procedural due process or Fourth Amendment claims. See Albright, 510 U.S. at 271, 114 S.Ct. at 812. The Court plurality then noted that " 'as a general matter, the Court has always been reluctant to expand the concept of substantive due process' " preferring, instead, to limit substantive due process protections to "matters relating to marriage, family, procreation, and the right to bodily integrity." Id. at 271-72, 114 S.Ct. 807 (quoting Collins v. Harker Heights, 503 U.S. 115, 125, 112 S.Ct. 1061, 1068, 117 L.Ed.2d 261 (1992)). The plurality concluded that a malicious prosecution claim is "markedly different" from the Court's genre of substantive due process cases and announced that "[w]here a particular amendment 'provides an explicit textual source of constitutional protection' against a particular sort of government behavior, ...

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