William C. Whitler v. Gerald T. Mcfaul, Sheriff, Etc.
| Decision Date | 09 March 2000 |
| Docket Number | 75163,00-LW-0978 |
| Parties | WILLIAM C. WHITLER, Plaintiff-Appellant v. GERALD T. McFAUL, SHERIFF, ETC., ET AL., Defendants-Appellees CASE |
| Court | Ohio Court of Appeals |
Civil appeal from Common Pleas, Court Case No. CV-301658.
For Defendants-Appellees: William D. Mason, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor, Jeffrey I. Sherwin, Assistant County Prosecutor The Justice Center, 1200 Ontario Street, Cleveland, Ohio 44113.
For Plaintiff-Appellant: Cary J. Zabell, Cary J. Zabell Co., 2360 Mercantile Road, Beachwood, Ohio 44122-5915.
At the close of plaintiff-appellant William C. Whitler's case in chief on claims of intentional false imprisonment and 42 U.S.C. 1983 violations made against appellees Cuyahoga County and Sheriff Gerald T. McFaul, Judge Thomas Patrick Curran granted a directed verdict in favor of McFaul and the county. Whitler asserts that the judge erred: (1) by allowing McFaul and the county to file the answer to his complaint, with an affirmative defense of qualified immunity pursuant to R.C. 311.05, after Whitler rested his case; (2) by failing to order McFaul to produce a material witness; (3) by granting the motion for directed verdict after improperly weighing the evidence; and (4) by precluding the fair resolution of the merits at trial through "prejudging" the case and "formulat[ing] a preconceived notion of the result." We disagree and affirm.
In June 1992, Whitler was under sentences of probation for two misdemeanor domestic violence offenses against his ex-wife: one imposed by the Lakewood Municipal Court, the other by the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. Maura Mueller, his probation officer for the Lakewood court, also supervised his probation for the common pleas court. Because Whitler had missed several reporting dates, she caused arrest warrants for probation violations to be issued by both Lakewood and the county.
Whitler was arrested on the Lakewood capias on July 1, 1992, and appeared before Judge Patrick Carroll the following day. At that hearing, he was granted a continuance until July 10, 1992, to obtain counsel and was released on his own recognizance. As a result of the county capias, Lakewood police kept him in custody and, later that day, the Cuyahoga County Deputy Sheriffs took Whitler from Lakewood and booked him into the Cuyahoga County Jail.
On July 15, 1992, Whitler appeared before Judge Joseph McManamon at a hearing on that probation violation. The judge found him to be a probation violator, terminated both Whitler's probation and sentence, entered an order referring Whitler to Lakewood for whatever actions deemed proper by the Lakewood Municipal Court and ordered Whitler be "remanded to Cuyahoga County Jail for Lakewood authorities."
Michael Bajorek of the Cuyahoga County Probation Department notified Mueller, by letter, that Whitler's probation had been terminated and he was to be turned over to Lakewood authorities. Whitler remained in the jail until August 12, 1992 when, as a result of a letter from Mueller explaining that Lakewood had no "holders" on Whitler and was awaiting his release, Judge McManamon issued a court order dated August 11, 1992 and filed August 13, 1992, requiring Whitler's release forthwith.
On July 15, 1993, Whitler filed suit against McFaul, Cuyahoga County and several John Doe sheriff's department employees, alleging negligent and intentional false imprisonment, and violations of Section 1983, Title 42, U.S. Code. The answer of McFaul and the county was a general denial and affirmative defenses of sovereign immunity, qualified immunity, good faith immunity, actions under court order, Civ.R. 12(B)(6), and Civ.R. 19. Whitler failed to amend his complaint to properly identify and serve the three "John Does" before July 15, 1994. This complaint was voluntarily dismissed under Civ.R. 41(A)(1) on January 18, 1995, and refiled on January 16, 1996.
McFaul and the County did not file an answer to this second complaint but, rather, filed a motion for summary judgment on May 30, 1996. Again, the "John Doe" defendants were never identified in an amended complaint or personally served. Judgment in favor of McFaul and the County on Whitler's negligence claim was granted on July 29, 1996, and. the judge dismissed the remaining counts with prejudice on October 28, 1996. Whitler appealed.
In Whitler v. McFaul (1997), 123 Ohio App.3d 199, 703 N.E.2d 866, appeal not allowed (1998), 81 Ohio St.3d 1457, 690 N.E.2d 550, we concluded that R.C. Chapter 2744 did not provide Whitler with an exception from immunity for alleged acts of negligence by McFaul and the County because the act of detaining an individual at a county jail constituted a governmental function rather than a proprietary function. We further held that Whitler need not seek habeas corpus relief before bringing a § 1983 action and noted that a question of fact existed on deprivation of Whitler's constitutional rights and "as to whether the continuation of confinement under these circumstances rises to the level of `intentional conduct' for which [defendants] would be liable." Whitler, at 206. On October 27, 1997, we reversed in part and remanded for further proceedings.
At an April 28, 1998 pretrial, the case was scheduled for trial on August 3, 1998, and a discovery deadline for answers to interrogatories, answers to requests for admissions, and responses to requests for production of documents set for June 1, 1998. On June 25, 1998, Whitler filed his motion to compel answers to interrogatories and production of documents, acknowledging receipt on June 11, 1998 of only partial answers and requesting an extension of the discovery deadline. McFaul did not file a response to the motion and, at the pretrial held on July 27, 1998, was ordered to respond more fully to Whitler's requests. The transcript reveals that McFaul produced the requested discovery on July 29, 1998, five days before trial.
Before the start of trial on August 3, 1998, Whitler's lawyer pointed out that, although McFaul and the county had filed a motion for summary judgment in response to Whitler's complaint, no answer had ever been filed. On that basis, he argued, all of their defenses, including affirmative defenses, were waived. He specifically pointed to R.C. 311.05, which provides a sheriff with qualified immunity for the "neglect of duty or misconduct in office" of his deputies, explaining that he had no knowledge that McFaul would raise that specific defense until he received McFaul's trial brief on July 31, 1998. In the alternative, he argued, R.C. 311.05 would not apply because false imprisonment is an intentional tort.
In response, McFaul's lawyer, an assistant county prosecutor, apologized to the judge and indicated that he had inadvertently mistaken the answer from the first case for one he thought he had filed in the pending case. Whitler's lawyer agreed he had filed the exact complaint in both actions. The judge then granted McFaul's oral motion for leave to file an answer instanter, which was a copy of the answer filed in the 1993 case and contained the six affirmative defenses referenced, supra, including that "defendants are immune under the doctrine of qualified immunity."
At trial Whitler testified that, on July 17, 1992, he contacted the court-appointed lawyer who handled his hearing before Judge McManamon and told him he had not been released from the jail. According to Whitler, the lawyer replied that, because he was court appointed, he no longer had anything to do with the case but, nevertheless, promised to look into it. Whitler also contacted his mother, asking her to contact Mueller. He claimed that he was unable to contact anyone else by telephone about his continued incarceration because the only calls he could make from the jail were collect calls.
In addition to his telephone calls, Whitler also testified he complained verbally and in writing to the guards ."at least every couple of days," telling them that there were no warrants for his arrest and asking them to find out why he was still in jail. He also claimed to have requested the help of a priest and a social worker. After three or four weeks of waiting, the guards gave him a "kite." A "kite," according to the testimony of Deputy Sheriff David E. Miller, was a formal "interoffice type memo" wherein an inmate might, for example, request to see a chaplain, ask for a haircut, or inquire as to why the inmate was still incarcerated in the jail when he had been sentenced to a halfway house. The August 8, 1992 "kite" composed by Whitler on a specific form asked an unnamed social worker why he was still in the jail, given that the case was dismissed on July 15th and that Lakewood authorities did not have a holder on him. Although Whitler said that he spoke to a social worker a couple of times, the kite" does not indicate that the Sheriff's Department Division of Inmate Services took any action upon it. Whitler also acknowledged that he did not believe
that either McFaul or any Cuyahoga County Commissioner specifically
knew that he was in jail and he never requested anyone outside of
the jail to contact McFaul.
Mueller testified that she received multiple telephone calls from Whitler's mother advising that her son was not being released from the jail and that they did not know why. Mueller repeatedly called Bajorek, and later Judge McManamon's bailiff, and asked them to look into the matter. She also reviewed the files of both the Lakewood Court and the Lakewood Police Department, and learned that there had been no holders or warrants placed upon Whitler. Bajorek finally suggested that Mueller write a letter to him and she complied. According to Mueller, when Bajorek received the letter, he took it...
To continue reading
Request your trial