Williams v. Prince George's County

• Decision Date: 01 September 1996
• Docket Number: No. 337,337
• Citation: 685 A.2d 884,112 Md.App. 526
• Parties: Jesse WILLIAMS, Jr. v. PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, Maryland, et al. ,
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

Page 526

112 Md.App. 526

685 A.2d 884

Jesse WILLIAMS, Jr. v. PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, Maryland, et al.

No. 337, Sept. Term, 1996.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

Dec. 4, 1996.

Heather Kelly (John F.X. Costello and McCarthy, Bacon & Costello, L.L.P., on the brief), Lanman, for Appellant

John A. Bielec, Associate County Attorney (Barbara L. Holtz, Acting County Attorney and Sean D. Wallace, Deputy County Attorney, on the brief), Upper Marlboro, for Appellees.

Argued before MURPHY, C.J., and WENNER and DAVIS, JJ.

DAVIS, Judge.

This appeal requires us to determine whether summary judgment is the proper vehicle to decide the availability of qualified immunity to appellee police officers against various tort claims filed by appellant. Appellant alleged, in his initial and his amended complaint filed January 17, 1992, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, false arrest, false imprisonment, battery, assault, and negligence against Prince George's County, Maryland, Officer Walls, Officer Tyrone Taylor, Officer Darrius T. Qualls, Officer Mallory, Officer Mahon, and John Doe, unknown police officer, "c/o of Prince George's County Police Department."

After appellant's counsel voluntarily dismissed the case against Officer Mahon, trial was eventually scheduled for October 31, 1995. On October 24, 1995, the lower court granted the motion to dismiss, generally, and thereafter ordered that the complaint "be, and is hereby dismissed, with prejudice, insofar as it pertains to" Prince George's County, Maryland, Officer Tyrone Taylor, Officer Darrius T. Qualls, Officer Walls, Officer Mallory, and John Doe. The court's order concluded by stating, "that there being no just reason for delay, the clerk is hereby directed to enter this as a final judgment as to defendants Prince George's County, Maryland, Officer Tyrone Taylor, Officer Darrius T. Qualls, Officer Walls, Officer Mallory and John Doe." Although the October 24 order by the Circuit Court for Prince George's County was a dismissal of the complaint filed in the case, it is apparent Alternatively, viewing the court's dismissal of the complaint as a grant of appellees' motion to dismiss and of appellees' motion for summary judgment, appellant asks us to decide the following issues which we restate in reverse order:

from the proceedings that the court based its disposition on the affidavit[685 A.2d 888] of Officer Walls, the deposition testimony of Officer Taylor, Officer Qualls, Mary Grace Williams, and Jesse Williams, and the answer to interrogatories and response to request for admissions filed by Prince George's County. It is from the court's order of October 24 that this appeal was filed.

I. Whether the trial court's order dismissing the complaint is actually a summary judgment, and was improperly granted, as there are genuine issues of material fact that should have been considered by a jury.

II. Whether the trial court erred in granting defendants' motion to dismiss in that the complaint sets forth claims for which relief can be granted, and for which defendants do not enjoy governmental immunity.

III. Whether the trial court erred in granting defendants' motion for summary judgment, or alternatively, motion to dismiss without holding a hearing on the same as required by MD. RULE 2-311(f).

FACTS

On November 21, 1990, Mary Grace Williams, appellant's mother, reported to Officer Tyrone Taylor, who was then working as a part-time security guard for Shoppers' Food Warehouse located in the Coral Hill section of Prince George's County, that her 1990 Hyundai Sonata automobile had been stolen from the parking lot in front of Shoppers' Food Warehouse. After perambulation of the parking lot by the pair proved unfruitful, Officer Taylor transmitted a description of the vehicle and the license plate over the police radio to units in the area. He then completed an incident report regarding the suspected theft and thereafter placed the report on teletype, giving the written incident report to an officer on duty who submitted it to a sergeant at the Seat Pleasant Station.

According to the deposition testimony of Mary Williams, within two or three days of the theft, she was telephoned at her home by a Prince George's County police officer and notified that her automobile had been discovered on a dead end street "right at the back of Shoppers' " near Marlboro Pike in Prince George's County. Ms. Williams's husband drove her to recover her automobile and he had to drive her vehicle home because the ignition had been damaged to the point where a key could not be inserted and it could only be operated with a screwdriver.

Ms. Williams further testified at her deposition that approximately seven weeks later, she received a telephone call at her home from the police who inquired as to whether she knew "Jesse." She advised the officer who had telephoned her that Jesse was her son, that "he's got my car," and that appellant was on his way to work. When advised by the officer on the telephone that the record showed that her car was stolen, Ms. Williams testified that she told him "it can't; ... because when the police got my car, they reported it in, I said, and it's ok." Upon being asked if she was sure, the officer advised her that they had her son in custody and they were attempting to ascertain whether he had stolen the car, whereupon she advised them that he had permission to drive it.

Sometime thereafter, her son called her from work and, according to Ms. Williams, he was crying and related how police had stopped him, ordered him to put his hands behind his head, and required him to lie down on the ground. When appellant returned home that evening, his mother did not observe any scratches or bruises on his body, but he was "very nervous" and "you could tell that something was wrong with him."

Appellant, testifying at his deposition, stated that he was en route to work at Malcolm Grove Hospital located on Andrews Air Force Base in Capital Heights, Maryland, when a police officer followed him as he made a left into the McDonald's fast food restaurant off of Silver Hill Road in Prince George's County. As he was preparing to alight from his mother's Okay, once I turned into the parking lane inside of McDonald's, I turned my car off; and once I was getting ready to get out of my car, the police officer was behind me, with his gun pointed at me, an [sic] he was younger--at the time, he looked like he was a young cop--he was shaking, and the gun was just shaking at me, like that. He ordered me to get back in my car, put my hands over my head. At that time, it was during the winter, and I had a big coat on; so, he told me to just sit there; and I could see him on the radio, calling for backup. Well, at that time, I was praying to God that this officer don't [sic] shoot me, because the whole time he had the gun on me, and my hands was [sic] slipping, and it felt like 10 minutes before the backup got there; so I was just in the car, crying, praying to God that this officer don't [sic] shoot me. So, once the backup got there, he ordered me to get out [sic] the car very slowly, get on my hands and knees; told me to put my hands behind my back, which I done [sic] everything correctly; and I don't know who walked up behind me--put my hands behind my back, and somebody put their knee in my back, and hold [sic] my shoulder; they eased me down, they didn't rough me up, or anything. They just eased me down, handcuffed me, and the officer that had the gun on me, he asked me, do you know why we're arresting you. [?] I said, no. They said, you're riding in a stolen car. I said, stolen car--this is my mother's car.

vehicle, the police officer approached with his service revolver pointed at appellant. Appellant, in his deposition testimony, stated:

* * * * * *

So he got on the radio, got in contact with my mother, made sure I had permission to drive the car, which I did. He said, it's something wrong here. I said, yeah, something is wrong here; so I told him, yeah, the car was stolen, but Officer Taylor found the car, which I felt like it should have been in the computer, that the car was found; and after all that was done and said, the only thing he had to say to me Later, appellant reiterated that he was wearing a big Alaskan coat; how he was ordered to lie down on the ground at which time some unidentified officer put his knee behind his back; and how he kept having flashbacks after the incident. He acknowledged, however, that he had no physical injuries as a result of the incident nor did he or his family incur any medical expenses.

that I'm sorry. He gave me his card; he said call me if you have any trouble, take my card and you give me a call.

Officer Qualls testified at his deposition that, at some point on the evening in question, appellant, driving his mother's Hyundai automobile, swerved in front of him on Brooks Drive. Because the Hyundai, according to the witness, was a popular target of car thieves, he decided to place a radio call to his dispatcher to ascertain whether the car was stolen. Once the dispatcher confirmed that the records indicated the subject vehicle was stolen, he followed appellant into the McDonald's parking lot, approached appellant, ordering him "to put his hands up in the air and put his car in gear." Officer Qualls stated that appellant complied with his orders to raise his hands and place his car in gear, whereupon he advised the dispatcher that he was going to wait for backup.

Appellant was then ordered to lie down in a prone position with palms facing upward and to face the direction away from the police officers. As Officer Qualls secured his weapon in order to place handcuffs on appellant, he asserted that "my major concern was that [the] vehicle was confirmed stolen. I was acting on that and my other thing was to make sure he was handcuffed immediately." The officer acknowledged that,...