Williams v. Anderson

• Decision Date: 26 December 1990
• Docket Number: K-85-3088.,Civ. No. K-85-1646
• Citation: 753 F. Supp. 1306
• Parties: David M. WILLIAMS, etc. v. Lloyd A. ANDERSON, etc., et al. David M. WILLIAMS v. TALBOT COUNTY, MARYLAND, et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maryland

753 F. Supp. 1306

David M. WILLIAMS, etc. v. Lloyd A. ANDERSON, etc., et al.

David M. WILLIAMS v. TALBOT COUNTY, MARYLAND, et al.

Civ. Nos. K-85-1646, K-85-3088.

United States District Court, D. Maryland.

December 26, 1990.

David M. Williams, pro se.

J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Atty. Gen. of Md., and Steven D. Keller, Asst. Atty. Gen. of Md., Baltimore, Md., for defendants Anderson and Kent County Dept. of Social Services.

David R. Thompson and Earnest & Cowdrey, P.A., Easton, Md., for Talbot County and Chesapeake Publ. Corp.

George C. Nier, Denton, Md., for Caroline County.

Robert V. Jones, Elkton, Md., for Cecil County.

Patrick E. Thompson, Centreville, Md., for Queen Anne's County.

J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Atty. Gen. of Md., and James G. Klair, Asst. Atty. Gen. of Md., Baltimore, Md., for Bodine and Foster.

Alvin I. Frederick and Eccleston and Wolf, Baltimore, Md., for Hairston.

Michael T. Soberick, Gloucester County Atty., Gloucester, Va., and William J. Jackson

and Semmes, Bowen and Semmes, Baltimore, Md., for Baker.

Joan Turner, pro se.

FRANK A. KAUFMAN, Senior District Judge.

Plaintiff David Williams,¹ proceeding pro se, instituted the within cases on April 16, 1985 and July 22, 1985, seeking injunctive and monetary relief against numerous defendants² (a) for various alleged violations of constitutional rights pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983, 1985 and 1986, and (b) asserting pendent jurisdiction for tortious conduct under Maryland law arising out of a state court child custody case and various related events. Jurisdiction is premised on 28 U.S.C. §§ 1343 and 1332 and on the pendent jurisdiction of this Court.

In these two cases, Williams contends that defendants, individually and as co-conspirators, deprived him of the custody of his daughter pursuant to a policy favoring the mother in custody cases, or as retribution for his past representations of clients in matters adverse to defendants' interest. In addition, Williams asserts that he has been defamed on a number of occasions by several of the defendants.

On December 18, 1985, this Court filed a Memorandum and Order staying further proceedings in these cases pending resolution of the state child custody proceedings in Turner v. Williams, Equity No. 6201, and the state civil action in Williams v. Anderson, Case No. CV0129, both in the Circuit Court for Talbot County, Maryland.³ On March 31, 1988, this Court lifted that stay as to the judicial defendants and entered summary judgment in favor of them, i.e., defendants North, Rasin, Carter, Cole and Wise. See Williams v. North, 685 F.Supp. 502 (D.Md.1988). On January 10, 1990, plaintiff moved to lift the stay imposed by this Court as to the remaining defendants; the majority of defendants responding to that motion have stated that they have no objection to this Court lifting the stay and ruling on the outstanding motions pending before it. Under the circumstances, the stay imposed by this Court's aforementioned December 18, 1985 Memorandum and Order is hereby lifted, and this Court will herein rule with respect to certain of the motions now pending before it.⁴

I. FACTS

The following factual overview attempts to summarize, as accurately as possible, Williams' 131-page amended complaint and the affidavits and other materials submitted by the parties. In 1978, Williams was initially awarded custody of his daughter in Turner v. Williams, Equity No. 6201 (Circuit Court for Talbot County, Md.). However, on September 14, 1984, the Circuit Court for Talbot County, Judge North presiding, awarded temporary custody of the child to her mother, defendant Turner herein, permitting Turner to keep the child at her residence in Gloucester, Virginia. In her application for temporary custody, Turner alleged that Williams had physically abused the child on one or more occasions. On October 25, 1984, Williams petitioned the Circuit Court for Talbot County to permit him to regain custody of the child. In the course of denying that petition, Judge Rasin, sitting in the Circuit Court for Talbot County, ordered the child committed to a psychiatric institution for evaluation. The child was thereafter evaluated by that psychiatric institution and then returned to the custody of Ms. Turner. On January 18, 1985, in response to a further petition by Williams to regain custody, Judge North ordered the child placed in the temporary custody of the Department of Social Services of Kent County, Maryland (DSSKC) and directed DSSKC to place the child in a suitable foster home from which she could attend a school in Chestertown, Maryland. Williams' appeal of that order to an en banc panel of Maryland's Second Judicial Circuit was denied. Williams also appealed an allegedly ex parte order by Judge North dated February 11, 1984 in which Judge North apparently transferred custody of the child to Ms. Turner. The same en banc panel of the Second Judicial Circuit reversed that February 11, 1984 decision by Judge North and reinstated Judge North's earlier order which had, as aforesaid, placed the child in the custody of the DSSKC. In August of 1985, Judge North ordered the child placed in a boarding school in Pennsylvania, and on February 27, 1986, Judge North also ordered Williams, Turner and the child to undergo psychological evaluations. After those evaluations were submitted, Judge North followed the recommendations of psychologists Alice Dvoskin and Jonas Rappeport and, on March 31, 1987, again granted custody of the child to Turner. Williams filed an appeal to the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, challenging Judge North's refusal to recuse himself despite his status as a party defendant in certain of this litigation in this federal court. The Court of Special Appeals remanded the case to the Circuit Court for Talbot County for further proceedings.

The child reached the age of majority on November 10, 1989, her eighteenth birthday. As a result, the custody question is no longer an issue in the underlying state case. The remaining issues in Turner v. Williams, back child support and attorney's fees, were set for a hearing in the Circuit Court for Talbot County, Judge Shirley Jones presiding, on August 13-14, 1990. As a consequence of the child reaching the age of majority, it would appear that plaintiff's claims in this litigation in this Court for injunctive relief have been rendered moot, and that only plaintiff's within compensatory and punitive damages claims remain.

In connection with some of the state court proceedings held with respect to certain of the matters referred to supra, The Star Democrat and The Kent County News, two Maryland publications owned by defendant Chesapeake Publishing Corporation, published in their newspapers articles alleged by plaintiff to contain defamatory statements about him. Plaintiff further alleges that defendants Baker and Turner defamed him on several occasions, and that Turner intentionally inflicted emotional distress upon him.

II. LAW

A. The County Defendants

The defendant Maryland counties, i.e., Talbot, Caroline, Queen Anne's and Cecil, have each filed motions to dismiss plaintiff's complaint in Civil No. K-85-3088 for failure to state a claim against them pursuant to Federal Civil Rule 12(b)(6).⁵ In his complaint, plaintiff contends that each and all of the county defendants are liable for compensatory and punitive damages pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983, 1985 and 1986 as a result of alleged procedural and substantive violations of plaintiff's constitutional rights caused by the denial to plaintiff of due process of law and equal protection.

Plaintiff's claims against the four counties appear to be premised on the legal theory that Maryland circuit court judges are the highest legal officials or officers of the county in which they sit. In that capacity, argues plaintiff, circuit judges are responsible for adopting, implementing, executing, promulgating, creating and deciding the county's official legal policy and governing laws by which its people are bound, thereby rendering the county responsible for monetary damages for any improper legal official policy, act or decision by such judge which results in a deprivation of a citizen's rights protected by the Constitution or by applicable law. According to plaintiff, the conduct and actions alleged in the complaint were performed by the defendant circuit court judges individually and in their capacities as a county's highest official legal decision making and legal policy making officer. The judicial defendants, whose claims against them have been dismissed by a prior order of this Court, sat on the circuit courts for the four county defendants sued in this litigation.

In support of his claim that the Maryland counties may be held liable for the decisions, policies, and actions of an individual circuit court judge whose jurisdiction and judicial authority is coextensive with the boundary of the county in which he sits, plaintiff notes that a municipality may be held liable as a "person" under section 1983 for the wrongful conduct of its employees when unconstitutional action is taken pursuant to official policy of the municipality. Monell v. N.Y. City Dep't of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 690-95, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 2035-38, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978). According to Williams, the circuit court judge for each county is the highest judicial decision maker within the state for the particular county of which he is a circuit judge. He is the legal policy maker or officer for such county, constitutionally and legislatively charged with adopting, executing and promulgating legal policy for the county. Thus, plaintiff claims, any legal policy implemented by a circuit judge is an act under color of state law and becomes officially adopted and binding upon his county.

In support of his theory, Williams cites to the Maryland Constitution and to Maryland statutes which declare that the judicial power of the State is vested, inter alia, in the...