Was v. Young

• Decision Date: 22 May 1992
• Docket Number: No. 91-CV-73726-DT.,91-CV-73726-DT.
• Citation: 796 F. Supp. 1041
• Parties: Joanne WAS, Antoinette Was, Melina Was, Deborah Sweeney and Debbie Jermanus, Plaintiffs, v. Coleman YOUNG, Stanley Knox, Cassandra Rutherford, City of Detroit and Dayton Hudson Corporation, a Minnesota corporation, Jointly and Severally, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Michigan

796 F. Supp. 1041

Joanne WAS, Antoinette Was, Melina Was, Deborah Sweeney and Debbie Jermanus, Plaintiffs, v. Coleman YOUNG, Stanley Knox, Cassandra Rutherford, City of Detroit and Dayton Hudson Corporation, a Minnesota corporation, Jointly and Severally, Defendants.

No. 91-CV-73726-DT.

United States District Court, E.D. Michigan, S.D.

May 22, 1992.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Larry Bennett, Detroit, Mich., for plaintiffs.

John P. Quinn, City of Detroit, Law Dept., Detroit, Mich., for defendants City of Detroit, Young and Knox.

Mark Willmarth, Detroit, Mich., for defendant Dayton Hudson Corp.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANTS' MOTIONS TO DISMISS

EDMUNDS, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

This case arises out of beatings which allegedly occurred during the 1991 Freedom Festival Fireworks display held on June 28, 1991 at the Hart Plaza in downtown Detroit. Plaintiffs Joanne Was, Antoinette Was, Melina Was, Deborah Sweeney and Debbie Jermanus contend that the City of Detroit and the Dayton Hudson Corporation, co-sponsors of the event, are responsible for the injuries they incurred as a result of the beatings. Plaintiffs claim that Defendants violated their Fourteenth Amendment due process rights by inducing them to come downtown without providing adequate control of the area, and by failing to protect or assist them during and after the fireworks display. Defendants have moved to dismiss Plaintiffs' complaint for failure to state a claim under federal law. Having heard the arguments of counsel, and having reviewed the parties' submissions and the applicable law, the Court concludes that Plaintiffs have not stated a claim for which they are entitled to relief from this Court. The Court therefore grants Defendants' motions to dismiss, as follows:

A. Facts

The following facts are derived from Plaintiffs' First Amended Complaint. Plaintiffs attended the fireworks display, which was held in the Hart Plaza area. They parked their car near the Millender Center. After viewing the fireworks display, Plaintiffs prepared to walk back to their vehicles, when they were attacked by a group of people, including Defendant Cassandra Rutherford; and at the time of the attack, there were several hundred thousand people in the Hart Plaza area. Plaintiffs state that the police ignored their requests for assistance both during and after the attack; and that they refused to identify or arrest the perpetrators of the attack, take a report of the incident, or provide protection or safe transportation to the Plaintiffs. Plaintiffs then left the scene and took Plaintiff Joanne Was to the hospital for medical care. Plaintiffs claim that their injuries include physical injuries from being beaten; fear; embarrassment; pain and suffering; and emotional distress.

B. Claims

As a basis for imposing liability on Defendants City of Detroit, Mayor Coleman Young, Chief of Police Stanley Knox (hereafter "City Defendants") and Defendant Dayton Hudson Corporation, Plaintiffs allege that the City of Detroit and Dayton Hudson Corporation jointly sponsored, financed, and presented the fireworks display. Plaintiffs state that Defendants had knowledge that at least several thousand people would be attending the fireworks display, and that as a result of this knowledge, Defendants implemented street closures and blockades to accommodate the anticipated crowd. It is also alleged that Defendants took actions to give the public the appearance that it was safe to attend the display, including deliberate efforts to prevent public knowledge of crimes during previous fireworks displays. Further, Plaintiffs assert that there was excessive illegal activity occurring during the event, which the police deliberately ignored; and that Defendants had permitted such conditions to exist at prior fireworks displays. Finally, Plaintiffs maintain that Defendants failed to train or equip a security or police force to protect invitees to the festival.

Plaintiffs' Complaint has four counts. Count I alleges a violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Count II alleges that conditions at the fireworks display amounted to a public nuisance which caused their injuries. Count III alleges that Plaintiffs were invitees of Dayton Hudson at the fireworks, and that Dayton Hudson owed Plaintiffs a duty based upon premises liability to warn of dangers at the site. Finally Count IV asserts that Defendants obstructed their access to the courts in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1985.

The City Defendants and Dayton Hudson Corporation have each filed motions to dismiss. The City Defendants argue that they owed no duty to Plaintiff under the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution; and that they did not obstruct Plaintiffs' access to the courts. In addition, Defendants Knox and Young assert that Plaintiffs have failed to plead facts sufficient to establish direct responsibility for the alleged acts; and that in any event they are protected from liability under the doctrine of qualified immunity. Defendant Dayton Hudson argues that it was never properly added as a defendant to the case; that Plaintiffs have failed to allege a constitutional violation; that it is not a state actor and that it did not willfully participate in any actions of the City which allegedly violated Plaintiffs' constitutional rights. Finally, Dayton Hudson maintains that Plaintiffs' claims of public nuisance and premises liability fail under the law and facts of this case.

C. Procedural Posture

This case is presently before the Court on motions to dismiss under Fed.R.Civ. A complaint should not be dismissed under Rule 12(b)(6) "unless it appears beyond doubt that the Plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief." Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 102, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957). The court must accept as true all factual allegations in the complaint. Windsor v. The Tennessean, 719 F.2d 155, 158 (6th Cir.1983), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 826, 105 S.Ct. 105, 83 L.Ed.2d 50 (1984).

II. LEGAL STANDARDS GOVERNING CLAIMS UNDER 42 U.S.C.1983

To prevail in a civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983,¹ a plaintiff must plead and prove that the defendants, acting under color of state law, deprived the Plaintiff of a right secured by the Constitution and law of the United States. Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527, 535, 101 S.Ct. 1908, 1912, 68 L.Ed.2d 420 (1981), overruled on other grounds, Daniels v. Williams, 474 U.S. 327, 106 S.Ct. 662, 88 L.Ed.2d 662 (1986). Section 1983 alone creates no substantive rights; rather it is a vehicle by which a plaintiff may seek redress for deprivations of rights established in the Constitution or federal laws. Baker v. McCollan, 443 U.S. 137, 144 n. 3, 99 S.Ct. 2689, 2694 n. 3, 61 L.Ed.2d 433 (1979). The statute applies only if there is a deprivation of a constitutional right. See e.g., Paul v. Davis, 424 U.S. 693, 699-701, 96 S.Ct. 1155, 1159-1160, 47 L.Ed.2d 405 (1976); Baker, 443 U.S. at 146-47, 99 S.Ct. at 2695-96; Cornelius v. Town of Highland Lake, 880 F.2d 348, 352 (11th Cir.1989), cert. denied, 494 U.S. 1066, 110 S.Ct. 1784, 108 L.Ed.2d 785 (1990); Bowers v. DeVito, 686 F.2d 616, 618 (7th Cir.1982). Thus, "the first inquiry in any § 1983 suit ... is whether the plaintiff has been deprived of a right `secured by the Constitution and laws'" of the United States. Baker, 443 U.S. at 140, 99 S.Ct. at 2692.

The claimed constitutional basis for liability in this case is the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which provides that "no State shall ... deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." Specifically, Plaintiffs contend that Defendants deprived them of their liberty interest when they failed to adequately inform and protect them from a known risk, which Defendants played a part in creating.

In general, state officials are not constitutionally obligated to protect members of the public at large from crime. See DeShaney v. Winnebago County of Dept of Social Servs, 489 U.S. 189, 195-197, 109 S.Ct. 998, 1003-1004, 103 L.Ed.2d 249 (1989); Martinez v. California, 444 U.S. 277, 284-85, 100 S.Ct. 553, 558-59, 62 L.Ed.2d 481 (1980); Balistreri v. Pacifica Police Dept., 901 F.2d 696, 700 (9th Cir. 1990); Bowers, 686 F.2d at 618. This is because "the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties; it tells the state to let people alone; it does not require the federal government or the state to provide services, even so elementary as maintaining law and order." Bowers, 686 F.2d at 618. The Supreme Court has observed:

Nothing in the language of the Due Process Clause itself requires the State to protect the life, liberty, and property of its citizens against invasion by private actors. The Clause is phrased as a limitation on the State's power to act, not as a guarantee of certain minimal levels of safety and security. It forbids the State itself to deprive individuals of life, liberty, or property without "due process of law," but its language cannot fairly be extended to impose an affirmative obligation on the State to ensure that those interests do not come to harm through other means.... As a general matter, then, we conclude that a State's failure to protect an individual against private violence simply does not constitute a violation of the Due Process Clause.

DeShaney, 489 U.S. at 195-197, 109 S.Ct. at 1003-1004 (internal citations omitted). In other words, the due process clause it not usually implicated by government inaction, but rather by government action. See generally, MARTIN A. SCHWARTZ, JOHN E. KIRKLIN, SECTION 1983 LITIGATION: CLAIMS, DEFENSES, AND FEES (2d ed. 1991). Thus, the most frequent situation in which a constitutional deprivation occurs is when a state official himself takes affirmative action to violate the protected right. See, e.g., Screws v. United States, 325 U.S. 91, 65 S.Ct. 1031, 89 L.Ed. 1495 (1945) (where local law enforcement officials...