Wall v. King

• Citation: 206 F.2d 878
• Decision Date: 31 July 1953
• Docket Number: No. 4725.,4725.
• Parties: WALL v. KING.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (1st Circuit)

206 F.2d 878 (1953)

WALL v. KING.

No. 4725.

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

July 31, 1953.

Herbert E. Tucker, Jr., Boston, Mass. (George P. Lordan and Cardozo, Lordan, Katz & Tucker, Boston, Mass., on brief), for appellant.

Henry M. Leen, Sp. Asst. to Atty. Gen. of Commonwealth of Mass., for appellee.

Before MAGRUDER, Chief Judge, and WOODBURY and HARTIGAN, Circuit Judges.

MAGRUDER, Chief Judge.

William F. Wall, having had a motor vehicle driver's license suspended by action of the Massachusetts Registrar of Motor Vehicles — which license was subsequently restored to him by decree of the Supreme Judicial Court — filed in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts a complaint against the registrar, seeking damages in tort in the sum of $10,000.

The complaint is founded upon 8 U.S. C.A. § 43 reading as follows:

"Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory, 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 in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress."

The foregoing provision was derived from Rev.Stat. § 1979 which, in turn, was derived, with some embellishments not now material, from § 1 of the old Civil Rights Act of April 20, 1871, 17 Stat. 13, entitled "An Act to enforce the Provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and for other Purposes." The jurisdiction of the court below to entertain the civil action rests upon 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3); or, since more than $3000 is claimed in the ad damnum, the jurisdiction may be rested upon the more general provision of 28 U.S.C. § 1331.

The complaint alleged that on July 31, 1951, "in utter and complete disregard and violation of the constitutional and legal rights" of the plaintiff, the defendant in his capacity as Registrar of Motor Vehicles "did without a hearing suspend the license of the plaintiff to operate a motor vehicle upon the roads of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts"; that by virtue of the suspension order plaintiff surrendered his license to the defendant and thereafter was unable to operate his motor vehicle; that as the result of such deprivation, without due process of law, of plaintiff's right to operate a motor vehicle, he was unable to pursue his occupation of salesman, all to his great damage. The complaint further alleged that on August 9, 1951, plaintiff applied to the defendant for a reissuance of his license, which the defendant did deny; whereupon plaintiff took his case to the courts of Massachusetts, and the Supreme Judicial Court on May 29, 1952, held that the registrar was not justified in suspending the plaintiff's license and ordered the same restored to him, which was done on or about June 15, 1952.

Since the complaint referred to the decision of the Supreme Judicial Court, we have looked to that case for amplification of what happened. Wall v. Registrar of Motor Vehicles, 1952, 329 Mass. 70, 106 N.E.2d 425.

The registrar suspended the driver's license pursuant to Mass.G.L. (Ter.Ed.) c. 90, § 22, as amended. That section authorizes the registrar to suspend, without a hearing, a license to operate motor vehicles "whenever he has reason to believe that the holder thereof is an improper or incompetent person to operate motor vehicles, or is operating improperly or so as to endanger the public". Such license shall not be reissued "unless, upon examination or investigation, or after a hearing, the registrar determines that the operator should again be permitted to operate." It is further provided that upon such suspension of a driver's license, the registrar shall forthwith send written notice thereof to the licensee, and that such notice, "in case of the suspension of a license to operate a motor vehicle because of the improper operation thereof, shall specify the time and place of such improper operation." Section 28 of the act provides that any person aggrieved by a ruling or decision of the registrar may, within ten days thereafter, appeal therefrom to the board of appeal, which board may, after a hearing, order such ruling or decision to be affirmed, modified or annulled; "but no such appeal shall operate to stay any ruling or decision of the registrar."

It appears that the suspension notice which the registrar sent on July 31, 1951, stated that "it has been reported officially to me that you operated a motor vehicle after drinking intoxicating liquor, on July 7, 1951, in Cambridge." After the registrar's denial of August 9, 1951, of the application for return of the license, Wall appealed to the board of appeal from this official ruling. On September 11, 1951, the appeal was heard by the board. At this hearing no further evidence was introduced by the registrar in explanation of his official action; nor did Wall offer any evidence, he being content to rest upon the point that as a matter of law the ground recited in the registrar's notice was not sufficient to warrant a suspension of the driver's license. At no stage in the state proceedings, nor in the present complaint, has Wall claimed either (1) that the registrar had not in fact received any official report that Wall had operated a motor vehicle after drinking intoxicating liquor, on July 7, 1951, in Cambridge; or (2) that such official report was untrue. On September 14, 1951, the board of appeal entered an order affirming the decision of the registrar.

Thereafter Wall filed in the Superior Court for the County of Middlesex a petition for a writ of certiorari quashing the order of the board of appeal. The Superior Court entered judgment dismissing the petition as a matter of law. On appeal, the Supreme Judicial Court on May 29, 1952, reversed the judgment of the Superior Court, and directed the entry of judgment quashing the order of the board of appeal and ordering entry by that board of an order annulling the decision of the registrar denying the application of the petitioner for reissuance of his license.

The Supreme Judicial Court did not rest its decision upon any constitutional ground, but took the view that under the facts stated the registrar was not warranted, under the authority of § 22, in suspending the driver's license. This appears from the following discussion in the opinion:

"The cause for the suspension of the petitioner\'s license by the registrar was stated in the notice. This notice did not state that the holder of the license was an improper or incompetent person to operate motor vehicles or that the licensee did operate so as to endanger the public. It apparently referred to `improper operation\' as that is the only reason for suspension respecting which the statute requires a statement in the notice of `time and place.\' Wide discretion is vested in the registrar as to the revocation or suspension of licenses of persons who operate motor vehicles on the public ways, but his discretion is not to be exercised arbitrarily or without regard to the purpose for which his authority to revoke or suspend is granted. The operation of a motor vehicle by one under the influence of intoxicating liquor is a criminal offence, G.L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 90, § 24(1) (a, b), as amended, and on conviction of such offence the revocation of the offender\'s license is required. Here no assertion of the operator\'s intoxication was stated in the registrar\'s notice. The intoxicating liquor alleged to have been consumed so far as it appears might have been of trivial amount, and have been taken at a time substantially earlier than the operation of the motor vehicle on July 7, 1951. From the facts stated in the notice, the registrar did not, in our opinion, have `reason to believe\' that the licensee was operating improperly on that date. He was therefore not justified in suspending the petitioner\'s license." 329 Mass. 70, 106 N.E.2d 427

Wall having got back his driver's license by order of the highest court of the state, it remains to consider whether he can maintain a federal tort action against the registrar, under 8 U.S.C.A. § 43, to recover damages sustained by reason of the improper suspension of his license. The court below granted a motion by defendant to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted, and this appeal is from the ensuing judgment of dismissal, 109 F.Supp. 198.

Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment provides: "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." Section 5 of the same Amendment gives Congress power to enforce these prohibitions by appropriate legislation. It was in pursuance of that authority that Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of April 20, 1871, 17 Stat. 13.

It is clear that the complaint does not set forth the abridgement of any privilege or immunity possessed by the plaintiff as a citizen of the United States, within the meaning of the first clause quoted above from § 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment. In re Slaughter-House Cases, 1872, 16 Wall. 36, 21 L.Ed. 394; Hendrick v. State of Maryland, 1915, 235 U.S. 610, 624, 35 S.Ct. 140, 59 L.Ed. 385. See Hague v. CIO, 1939, 307 U.S. 496, 518 et seq., 59 S.Ct. 954, 83 L.Ed. 1423, opinion by Mr. Justice Stone. As to denial of the equal protection of the laws, the plaintiff does not even claim that; and the cases make clear that such a claim would be unfounded. Snowden v. Hughes, 1944, 321 U.S. 1, 64 S.Ct. 397, 88 L.Ed. 497; Everlasting Development Corp. v. Sol Luis Descartes, 1 Cir., 1951, 192 F.2d 1, 7, certiorari denied 1952...