White v. Balderama

• Decision Date: 31 August 1998
• Docket Number: No. 97-50612,97-50612
• Citation: 153 F.3d 237
• Parties: Donald Ray WHITE, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Armando BALDERAMA, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 237

153 F.3d 237

Donald Ray WHITE, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Armando BALDERAMA, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 97-50612.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

Aug. 31, 1998.

Joseph Andrew Turner, Terrence W. Kirk, Law Office of Joseph A. Turner, Austin, TX, for White.

Robin Elizabeth Sanders, Austin, TX, for Balderama.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.

Before KING, SMITH and PARKER, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

Defendant-appellant Armando Balderama appeals the district court's order denying his motion for summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity as to plaintiff-appellee Donald Ray White's claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. For the reasons set forth below, we retain jurisdiction and remand with instructions that the district court set forth the factual scenario that it assumed in construing the summary judgment evidence in the light most favorable to plaintiff-appellee Donald Ray White.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Plaintiff-appellee Donald Ray White, proceeding pro se, initiated this action against defendant-appellant Armando Balderama, a police officer in the Austin Police Department, in July 1996, claiming that Balderama used excessive force in attempting to effect White's arrest on August 3, 1994. ¹ The parties agree that, on August 3, 1994, around 8:30 or 9:00 p.m., Balderama, while on duty, responded to a complaint of reckless driving in South Austin. Balderama came upon the suspect vehicle on the side of the road and, as it was dark out, shined his spotlight on the vehicle and exited his patrol car. The vehicle had two occupants--White was in the driver's seat, and another individual was in the passenger seat. White does not dispute that Balderama was aware that the vehicle White was driving was stolen, that he was a forgery suspect who had fled from another officer the previous day, and that he was suspected of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and reckless driving. At this point, the parties' versions of the facts underlying this case diverge.

According to White's sworn pro se complaint, he "attempted to pull up next to the police car to try and 'play-it-cool' and ask [Balderama] what the problem was." He claims that, as he moved his vehicle forward, Balderama commenced shooting at him. Believing his life was in danger, White claims that he drove off, as Balderama continued shooting at him. White states in his affidavit that Balderama fired two shots after White's vehicle had already passed him. He received a bullet wound to the right leg.

Balderama claims in his affidavit that, after shining his spotlight on White's vehicle, the motor of which was still running, he yelled for the occupants to show him their hands. Balderama claims that, instead of complying with his order, White gunned the engine and aimed the vehicle toward him. Fearing that White's vehicle would either run into him head-on or crush him against his patrol car in the event that it spun out, Balderama fired three shots from his .38 caliber service revolver at White. He claims that he fired all three shots as the vehicle approached him and that he did not fire the first shot until White's vehicle had cleared twenty of the initial forty feet between it and Balderama.

On May 7, 1997, Balderama filed a motion for summary judgment, claiming that he was entitled to qualified immunity. White filed his response to Balderama's motion for summary judgment on July 7, 1997, and, on July 18, 1997, the district court entered an order denying the motion on the following grounds:

Balderama's initial reaction is beyond reproach. White has not denied that Officer Balderama issued a verbal order for the vehicle occupants to raise their hands. Nor has he controverted Balderama's estimate that the vehicle was approximately forty feet from Balderama before it left its original position. Under these circumstances, Officer Balderama arguably acted reasonably in deciding to shoot when the driver of the car, a suspected felon, failed to obey his order and instead drove the vehicle in his direction, regardless of whether plaintiff's or defendant's version of the manner in which the vehicle was driven is believed. Plaintiff's allegation that Balderama fired two shots after the vehicle had already passed is more troubling, however. While the Court can conceive of circumstances in which continuing to fire at the vehicle after it passed would be reasonable, it can also conceive of circumstances in which it would not. The evidence before the Court does not conclusively rule out those possibilities and thus Balderama is not entitled to qualified immunity.

On June 21, 1997, Balderama filed a "response" to White's response to his motion for summary judgment, which the district court treated as a motion for reconsideration. Along with his "response," Balderama submitted a drawing prepared by an accident investigator that purported to represent the scene of the confrontation between White and Balderama along with the investigator's affidavit. Balderama contended that this evidence conclusively established that the first shot fired by Balderama was the round that struck White, which rendered the possibility that Balderama acted unreasonably in firing the second and third shots immaterial. On July 22, the district court entered an order reaffirming its earlier order denying summary judgment on the following grounds:

The Court has reconsidered its order of July 18, 1997 in light of [Balderama's] newly proffered summary judgment evidence and concludes that summary judgment is still not appropriate in this case. The newly proffered summary judgment evidence, while otherwise persuasive, includes a reconstruction drawing ... that, when considered with Plaintiff White's affidavit, confirms that a fact issue remains as to whether Officer Balderama could reasonably have considered himself endangered to the extent that the level of force he used in response was objectively reasonable. Defendant is still, therefore, not entitled to qualified immunity as a matter of law.

Balderama timely filed a notice of appeal from these two orders of the district court.

II. DISCUSSION

On appeal, Balderama contends that the district court erred in denying his summary judgment motion on the basis of qualified immunity because the summary judgment evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to White, indicates that Balderama is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Because of the nature of the district court's orders denying summary judgment, it is not altogether clear whether we possess jurisdiction over Balderama's appeal.

In Colston v. Barnhart, 146 F.3d 282 (5th Cir.1998), denying reh'g in 130 F.3d 96 (5th Cir.1997), we recently observed that when a district court denies summary judgment on the basis that genuine issues of material fact exist, it has made the following distinct legal conclusions:

First, the court has concluded that the issues of fact in question are genuine, i.e., the evidence is sufficient to permit a reasonable factfinder to return a verdict for the nonmoving party [with respect to the particular fact issues]. Second, the court has concluded that the issues of fact are material, i.e., resolution of the issues might affect the outcome of the suit under governing law.

Id. at 284 (citations omitted). The Supreme Court's recent jurisprudence on interlocutory appeals from denials of summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity indicates that we possess jurisdiction to hear an interlocutory appeal challenging the materiality of the fact issues that led the district court to deny summary judgment but that we lack jurisdiction to hear interlocutory appeals challenging the genuineness of those fact issues. See Johnson v. Jones, 515 U.S. 304, 307, 115 S.Ct. 2151, 132 L.Ed.2d 238 (1995) ("The order [denying summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity] resolved a fact-related dispute about the pretrial record, namely whether or not the evidence in the pretrial record was sufficient to show a genuine issue of fact for trial. We hold that the defendants cannot immediately appeal this kind of fact-related district court determination."); see also Behrens v. Pelletier, 516 U.S. 299, 313, 116 S.Ct. 834, 133 L.Ed.2d 773 (1996) (noting that "Johnson permits petitioner to claim on appeal that all of the conduct which the District Court deemed sufficiently supported for purposes of summary judgment [was objectively reasonable]," i.e., that the factual issues that the district court resolved in favor of the nonmovant are immaterial to his right of recovery); Colston, 146 F.3d at 284 ("Johnson makes clear that an appellate court may not review a district court's determination that the issues of fact in question are genuine.... Behrens, on the other hand, makes clear that an appellate court is free to review a district court's determination that the issues of fact in question are material.").

We further observed in Colston that the specificity of the district court's order denying summary judgment dramatically affects the ease with which we can apply the Johnson /Behrens rule:

When the district court denies a motion for summary judgment and merely states that "genuine issues of material fact remain" without identifying those issues,...