Whiting v. Tunica County

• Decision Date: 19 July 2002
• Docket Number: No. 2:02CV136-P-B.,2:02CV136-P-B.
• Parties: Donna WHITING, Plaintiff, v. TUNICA COUNTY, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Mississippi

222 F.Supp.2d 809

Donna WHITING, Plaintiff, v. TUNICA COUNTY, et al., Defendants.

No. 2:02CV136-P-B.

United States District Court, N.D. Mississippi, Delta Division.

July 19, 2002.

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Edward Peacock Connell, Jr., Merkel & Cocke, Clarksdale, MS, Nathan J. McMullen, Clarksdale, MS, for Plaintiff.

Holly Stubblefield Mathews, James Arden Barnett, Jr., John Samuel Hill, Mitchell, McNutt & Sams, Oxford, MS, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

PEPPER, District Judge.

This cause is before the Court on the Defendant's Motion to Dismiss and for Qualified Immunity.¹ The Court, having considered the motion, the responses thereto, and the briefs and authorities cited, is prepared to rule. The Court finds as follows, to-wit:

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The plaintiff, Donna Whiting, filed this action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging various theories of liability against Tunica County, Mississippi, Tunica County Sheriff Jerry Ellington, individually and in his official capacity, Deputy Sheriff Brenda Johnson, individually and in her official capacity, and the Tunica County Sheriff's Department. The action arises out of the treatment Whiting allegedly received by Johnson in connection with her arrest and transport following an automobile accident in the Fall of 2000.

On October 26, 2000, Donna Whiting was involved in a motor vehicle collision. Tunica County Deputy Sheriff Brenda Johnson arrived on the scene of the collision as the investigating officer. During the course of her investigation, the plaintiff alleges that a heated argument ensued between Johnson and Whiting. The argument, according to the plaintiff, finally caused Johnson to believe that proper respect was not being shown for her authority. Subsequently, Johnson arrested Whiting for driving under the influence. After handcuffing her, Whiting alleges that Johnson "verbally threatened the safety and welfare of the plaintiff placing her in imminent fear for her well-being." Whiting also contends that Johnson recklessly shoved the plaintiff into the backseat of the police cruiser causing her injury. Finally, Whiting claims that, as she was being transported in the police car to jail, Johnson continued to verbally threaten her with physical harm and intentionally drove in such a manner that Whiting was tossed about the rear passenger compartment causing her "serious bodily injury."

Based on these events, Whiting advances a litany of claims against the defendants including violations of the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Whiting also alleges a failure to supervise and train theory against Sheriff Ellington and seeks liability against him for his decision to hire Johnson. Additionally, Whiting asserts several state law claims. The defendants now seek qualified immunity for Sheriff Ellington and dismissal of various claims against all parties.

LEGAL ANALYSIS

I. Summary Judgement Based on Qualified Immunity

A.

Summary judgment is appropriate "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); see also Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-23, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). A genuine issue of material fact exists when, after viewing the record and all reasonable inferences drawn from it in a light most favorable to the non-moving party, a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the non-movant. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). On the other hand, if a rational trier could not find for the non-moving party based on the evidence presented, there is no genuine issue for trial. Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 584-88, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986). Finally, it should be noted that summary judgment is not a "disfavored procedural shortcut;" rather, it is an important procedure "designed to secure the just, speedy and inexpensive determination of every action." Celotex, 477 U.S. at 327, 106 S.Ct. 2548 (quoting Fed.R.Civ.P. 1).

B.

Qualified immunity is a doctrine that operates to shield government officials, acting within the scope of their employment, from individual liability "insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). The doctrine protects "all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law." Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 341, 106 S.Ct. 1092, 89 L.Ed.2d 271 (1986). Qualified immunity is more than a mere defense to liability —if a defendant is entitled to it, he is immune from suit altogether. Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 526, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985). In other words, qualified immunity operates as an entitlement of an official to be free from, not just liability, but the burdens of litigation in general, including broad-reaching discovery. As a result, a valid defense based on it must be recognized at the earliest possibly stage of the proceeding. See Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 121 S.Ct. 2151, 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001).

For purposes of a summary judgment motion within a qualified immunity context, the burden of proof shifts to the plaintiff.

The defendant must initially plead his good faith and establish that he was acting within the scope of his discretionary authority. Once the defendant has done so, the burden shifts to the plaintiff to rebut this defense by establishing that the official's allegedly wrongful conduct violated clearly established law.

Salas v. Carpenter, 980 F.2d 299, 306 (5th Cir.1992) (citations omitted). See also, Pierce v. Smith, 117 F.3d 866, 872 (5th Cir.1997) ("We do not require that an official demonstrate that he did not violate clearly established federal rights; our precedent places that burden on plaintiffs").

A two-step sequential inquiry is applied to evaluate whether a particular defendant is entitled to qualified immunity. First, it must be decided whether the plaintiff has alleged a violation of a clearly established constitutional right. Siegert v. Gilley, 500 U.S. 226, 231, 111 S.Ct. 1789, 114 L.Ed.2d 277 (1991). To be "clearly established," the contours of the right must be "sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right." Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 640, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987).

If the first prong is satisfied, it must next be determined whether the conduct of the official was objectively reasonable in light of clearly established law. Rankin v. Klevenhagen, 5 F.3d 103 (5th Cir.1993). For qualified immunity purposes, a defendant's acts will be held to be objectively reasonable unless it can be said that all reasonable officials in the defendant's circumstances, which include facts known to the defendant, would have then realized that the defendant's conduct violated the Constitution or federal statute. Thompson v. Upshur County, Tex., 245 F.3d 447, 457 (5th Cir.2001) (other citations omitted). Accordingly, qualified immunity turns only on the objective reasonableness of a particular official's actions. The defendant's subjective state of mind is irrelevant on the question of whether he is entitled to qualified immunity. Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987). At bottom, this means that "even law enforcement officials who reasonably but mistakenly commit a constitutional violation are entitled to immunity." Glenn v. City of Tyler, 242 F.3d 307, 312 (5th Cir.2001).

C.

1. Failure to Train or Supervise

The plaintiff alleges that Sheriff Ellington is liable for failure to supervise and train his deputies, namely Brenda Johnson. When analyzing qualified immunity in such a context, the Court is mindful of the interplay between the subordinate's actions and supervisory liability. The Fifth Circuit has directed that courts faced with such a scenario first examine the conduct of the subordinate's action to see if the first prong is satisfied. Next, it must also be demonstrated that the theory by which the plaintiff seeks to hold Sheriff Ellington liable was clearly established at the relevant time. In other words, the "clearly established" prong becomes a bifurcated analysis in which one branch probes the underlying violation and the second assesses potential supervisory liability. See Doe v. Taylor Independent School Dist., 15 F.3d 443, 454 (5th Cir. 1994). See also, Poe v. Leonard, 282 F.3d 123, 134 (2nd Cir.2002); Camilo-Robles v. Hoyos, 151 F.3d 1, 6 (1st Cir.1998); Shaw v. Stroud, 13 F.3d 791, 801 (4th Cir.1994). Finally, if those two requirements are met, it must be ascertained whether the Sheriff's actions were objectively reasonable.

Turning now to the subordinate's actions, it is clear, as the defendants appear to concede, that the plaintiff has alleged a constitutional violation which was clearly established at the time. If proven true, Deputy Johnson's acts in shoving Whiting into the backseat of the police cruiser could, at minimum, constitute excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment. It is clearly established law in this circuit that in order to state a claim for excessive force, a plaintiff must allege (1) an injury, which (2) resulted directly and only from the use of force that was clearly excessive to the need; and the excessiveness of which was (3) objectively unreasonable. Ikerd v. Blair, 101 F.3d 430, 433-34 (5th Cir.1996). Moreover, the allegations against Johnson with regard to her driving in such a fashion as to injure Whiting state a claim under either the Fourth or Fourteenth Amendment, clearly established at the relevant...