White v. Walker
| Citation | 950 F.2d 972 |
| Decision Date | 30 December 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 90-1559,90-1559 |
| Parties | James WHITE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Hezikiah WALKER, X Bonding Company, and Town of Verona, Mississippi, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit) |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.
Before POLITZ, and DUHE, Circuit Judges. *
We withdraw the prior opinion of this panel appearing at 932 F.2d 1136 and substitute therefor the following.
A police officer stopped a fourteen year old driving his parents' car without a license and asked the young man to follow him to the police station. At the station, the officer told the two young women who had been riding in the car that the young man would be a bad influence on them, and he confiscated the young man's keys "for grand auto theft." The young man went home soon thereafter. He committed suicide less than an hour later. The young man's father brought various constitutional and state-law tort claims against both the officer and the town that employed him. The district court granted partial summary judgment for the defendants as to one claim and granted a directed verdict in favor of the defendants on the remainder. We reverse the district court's grant of qualified immunity to the officer, but affirm in all other respects.
Because the qualified immunity issue was disposed of on a directed verdict, we must consider all the evidence and draw all reasonable inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. 1 We therefore use this approach in summarizing the evidence.
On November 23, 1984, fourteen-year-old Mark White, without permission, took his parents' car for a drive around the small Mississippi town of Verona. Along the way, he picked up his girlfriend, Christy Armstrong, and his friends Steve Hill and Tracy Grubbs. As they headed up Highway 45, a police cruiser driven by Officer Hezikiah Walker pulled onto the road behind them. Nervous, Mark decided to try to circle back. He attempted a left turn at the next intersection, but oncoming traffic blocked the intersection; the light turned red while he was under it. Rather than proceed with his turn, Mark switched off his turn signal and went straight through the intersection. Walker turned on his vehicle's flashing lights, signaling Mark to stop.
After stopping, Mark got out of the car to meet the officer. Steve heard Mark tell the officer that he had a driver's license but had left it at home. Mark got back in the car a moment later and told his friends that they were going to follow the officer back to the police station.
Once there, Mark went into the station with the officer. Mark reemerged a few moments later and asked Steve if he knew anyone with a driver's license that they could call; Steve gave Mark the name of a friend who proved to be unavailable. Mark came back out and told his friends to lock the car and come in the station.
When Christy and Tracy entered the station, Walker told them that they "shouldn't be hanging around boys like [Mark and Steve] because they would get [the girls] in trouble" and were a "bad influence." The officer then asked Mark for the keys to the car, and when Mark asked why he wanted them, the officer said, "For grand auto theft." Instead of charging Mark with auto theft, however, the officer simply issued him a ticket for driving without a license.
Mark and Steve went to wait in the station's break room while Walker drove the girls home. Steve had called his brother, who agreed to pick Steve up. Mark told Steve that he was going to have to put on several pairs of sweat pants to protect himself from the spanking he was going to get and that he was afraid that Christy's father would not let him see Christy anymore.
Mark then said, "Man, I ought to kill myself." Steve asked him if he was serious, but Mark said that he was only kidding. Steve's brother arrived a few minutes later and took the boys home. Mark committed suicide within the hour.
Mark's father, James White, filed suit against Walker and the Town of Verona under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that Walker had violated Mark's rights under the Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. He also alleged two state-law claims for intentional infliction of emotional distress and violation of the Mississippi Youth Court Law. 2
The district court granted summary judgment against White on the claim that Walker had violated the Youth Court Law. The district court bifurcated the trial on the remaining issues in a rather unusual manner: In Phase I, as the court called it, White was limited to presenting evidence "on the liability of defendant Walker" and was specifically precluded from presenting evidence on causation, damages, or the liability of the Town of Verona. Such evidence would be allowed in Phase II, but only if White survived a motion for directed verdict after Phase I. The case was tried in accordance with the order.
The trial never reached Phase II. The district court directed a verdict against White on his remaining claims at the close of White's Phase I case. Neither Walker nor the Town of Verona had presented any evidence. White argues that the district court erred in (1) holding that Walker was entitled to qualified immunity, and therefore directing a verdict on White's § 1983 claim; (2) directing a verdict on his claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress; (3) granting summary judgment on his claim that Walker had violated the Mississippi Youth Court Law; (4) excluding the deposition testimony of Verona Deputy Police Chief Bill Yant; and (5) excluding the expert testimony of a child psychologist on the issue of causation.
Police officers "are shielded from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." 3 The question is not whether the law was settled, viewed abstractly, but whether, measured by an objective standard, a reasonable officer would know that his conduct is illegal. 4 The certainty of the law must be measured against an objectively reasonable view of the facts facing an official. 5
The entitlement to qualified immunity may be established as a matter of law by the district court. 6 But if there are triable issues of fact about whether an officer could reasonably believe that his conduct was legal, then a jury should evaluate the question. 7
A directed verdict in favor of Walker on the ground of qualified immunity was therefore appropriate only if the evidence introduced at trial would compel any reasonable jury to find that Walker reasonably could have believed that his stop of Mark's vehicle and his seizure of Mark's person were lawful, in light of clearly established law and the information Walker possessed at the time. 8
Viewing the evidence and all reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to White, we conclude that the district court erred in granting a directed verdict for Walker. The record reveals that Christy Armstrong, who was riding in the front seat of the car, testified that Mark had done nothing wrong at the time Walker stopped the car. A jury could believe the testimony of Christy Armstrong and could reasonably infer that she was familiar with traffic regulations.
More specifically, Steve Hill testified that when Mark entered the intersection, the light was green. Mississippi law provides the following rule for traffic approaching an intersection when the light is green:
Vehicular traffic facing the signal may proceed straight through or turn right or left unless a sign at such place prohibits either such turn. However, vehicular traffic shall yield the right-of-way to other vehicles and to pedestrians lawfully within the intersection at the time such signal is exhibited. 9
If the light changes to yellow as a car approaches the intersection, the following rule is applicable:
Vehicular traffic facing the signal shall stop before entering the nearest crosswalk at the intersection, but if such stop cannot be made in safety a vehicle may be driven cautiously through the intersection. 10
Viewing the facts in the light most favorable to White, then, and applying the law to those facts, a jury could have reasonably determined that Walker had no reasonable basis for believing that stopping the car was lawful under settled law. If the light was green when Mark entered the intersection and if no other oncoming vehicles were yet in the intersection, then under Mississippi law Mark could proceed into the intersection to make a turn. If the light then turned yellow while Mark was in the intersection, Mississippi law allowed him to drive cautiously through the intersection. Viewed in the light most favorable to White, the facts support the conclusion that Mark followed the law precisely and that Walker had no objectively reasonable basis for stopping him.
Similarly, there is no evidence on which to base a finding that Walker could have reasonably believed that his subsequent seizure of Mark's person was lawful. Nothing in the record indicates that Walker had discovered that Mark was in fact unlicensed and underage at the time of the seizure. The court could not conclude, therefore, that a reasonable officer could have believed that the seizure was justified on that basis. In addition, no other facts in the record provide a basis on which a reasonable officer could have concluded that the seizure was justified.
We recognize that qualified immunity provides "ample protection to all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the...
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