Wood v. Worachek
| Decision Date | 08 April 1980 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 78-1855,78-1856,s. 78-1855 |
| Citation | 618 F.2d 1225 |
| Parties | James WOOD, Plaintiff-Appellee, Cross Appellant, v. Allen WORACHEK et al., Defendants-Appellants, Cross Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Grant F. Langley, Asst. City Atty., Milwaukee, Wis., for defendants-appellants, cross appellees.
James A. Walrath, Milwaukee, Wis., for plaintiff-appellee, cross appellant.
Before PELL and BAUER, Circuit Judges, and HOFFMAN, Senior District Judge. *
These consolidated appeals are taken on behalf of both parties from certain pre-trial orders and from the judgment entered by the district court for the plaintiff on his amended complaint, in which he sought injunctive relief and damages for alleged deprivations of his civil rights in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Plaintiff-appellant James Wood appeals from an adverse pre-trial order dismissing his amended complaint against defendant-appellee Howard Sobcyk for lack of in personam jurisdiction. Wood also cross-appeals from the judgment entered in his favor against defendants-appellees Allen Worachek and Lawrence Goulet on the grounds that the award of compensatory damages was inadequate and that the district court improperly denied his request for punitive damages. Defendants Worachek and Goulet appeal from the judgment against them, contending that the district court erred in finding they violated the plaintiff's constitutional rights secured by the Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments. Worachek and Goulet further appeal from the judgment for the plaintiff on the ground that the award of compensatory damages was excessive.
For the reasons set forth below, we reverse the judgment of the district court holding defendants Worachek and Goulet liable for violations of the plaintiff's rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. We also reverse the order of the district court granting the plaintiff's motion to amend his complaint. In all other respects the orders and judgment appealed from are affirmed, and the cause is remanded for a redetermination of the plaintiff's entitlement to compensatory damages for the deprivations of his constitutional rights under the Eighth Amendment.
This civil rights action was commenced in 1971 and relates to an incident which occurred on the evening of July 2, 1970 at Water Tower Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. On that evening many persons had gathered near the park to demonstrate against a recent city ordinance imposing a 10:00 p. m. curfew for the Water Tower Park. The plaintiff, then 27 years of age, a resident of Milwaukee, and an attorney by occupation, was also present in the park area that night. At approximately 9:00 p. m., an unlawful assembly was declared and violence erupted between the police and the demonstrators, resulting in numerous arrests. Between 9:00 p. m. and 10:00 p. m., the plaintiff was assaulted and sustained numerous injuries consisting of bruises, abrasions, and bleeding, as well as a fracture of a facial bone. He was taken into custody by police officers, removed to a police van, and transmitted to the City Jail where he was confined for approximately three hours until being released without charge and transported to a hospital for the treatment of his injuries.
In his original complaint the plaintiff alleged that on that evening he was assaulted falsely arrested, falsely imprisoned and denied proper medical treatment by certain officers of the Milwaukee Police Department, and further claimed that on that evening and later he was the victim of a conspiracy to deprive him of his constitutional rights by the Chief of Police and the members of the Fire and Police Commission of the City of Milwaukee. Named in the complaint as defendants were the Chief of Police Harold Breier, the four members of the Fire and Police Commission, police officers Allen Worachek and Lawrence Goulet in their capacities as jailers, and other unknown and unidentified police officers, denominated as John Doe and Richard Roe, who allegedly had assaulted and falsely arrested the plaintiff. Plaintiff sought injunctive relief, compensatory damages in the amount of $100,000, and punitive damages in the amount of $500,000.
On March 12, 1975, motions for summary judgment were granted in favor of the Chief of Police and the members of the Fire and Police Commission. Wood v. Breier, 66 F.R.D. 8 (E.D.Wis.1975). On January 25, 1977, the district court ordered that the plaintiff could not continue to proceed against defendants John Doe and Richard Roe unless he specifically identified them in his complaint and effected service of process on them.
On February 22, 1977, the court granted the plaintiff's motion to amend his complaint, pursuant to Rule 15 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, by substituting Officers Howard Sobcyk, Richard Tarcynski, Michael Elliot, and Michael Krzewinski as parties defendant for the defendants previously identified as John Doe and Richard Roe.
On September 16, 1977, the court granted the motion of these newly named defendants to dismiss the amended complaint as to them on the ground that the court did not acquire personal jurisdiction over them because the statute of limitations governing the plaintiff's cause of action had expired prior to the time they were named as parties and served with a summons and a copy of the amended complaint. Wood v. Worachek, 437 F.Supp. 107 (E.D.Wis.1977).
The matter was tried to the court as to the remaining defendants, Worachek and Goulet, on January 30, 1978. At that time, the court ruled that the plaintiff had proven he had been denied certain constitutional rights by the defendants. On May 18, 1978, the district court entered its findings of facts and conclusions of law. The court held that the willful and intentional acts and omissions of the defendants, acting under color of law in the course of their employment as police officers for the City of Milwaukee Police Department, did cause the deprivation of constitutional rights guaranteed the plaintiff under the Fourth Amendment guarantee not to be confined without probable cause, the Eighth Amendment guarantee to be free from cruel and unusual punishment in being deprived of medical treatment, and the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee not to be confined, deprived of his liberty or suffer punishment without due process, nor be deprived of the equal protection of the law, in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The court awarded the plaintiff compensatory damages in the amount of $2,500, but declined to award plaintiff punitive damages.
From certain of these pre-trial orders and the judgment entered for the plaintiff, both parties have appealed to this Court.
Plaintiff's first contention on appeal is that the district court erred in dismissing his amended complaint against defendant Howard Sobcyk for lack of in personam jurisdiction. 1 We find the arguments advanced in support of this contention to be devoid of merit and accordingly affirm the order of the district court.
After the statute of limitations governing the plaintiff's cause of action against Officer Sobcyk had expired, the district court granted the plaintiff's motion, pursuant to F.R.Civ.P. 15, to amend his complaint to substitute Officer Sobcyk as a party defendant. Thus, under a proper application of Rule 15, the amendment would have related back to the original cause of action and the court would thereby have acquired personal jurisdiction over defendant Sobcyk, notwithstanding the fact that he was served with a copy of the amended complaint after the statute of limitations had run. Accordingly, if the amendment satisfied the requirements of Rule 15(c), the statute of limitations would not operate to bar the plaintiff's suit against defendant Sobcyk, and the plaintiff's contention that the district court erred in dismissing the amended complaint against defendant Sobcyk would be correct. On the record before us, however, we hold that the district court abused its discretion in granting the plaintiff's motion to amend the complaint to substitute Officer Sobcyk as a party defendant because the amendment failed to comply with the requirements of Rule 15(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
A plaintiff may usually amend his complaint under Rule 15(c) to change the theory or statute under which recovery is sought; or to correct a misnomer of plaintiff where the proper party plaintiff is in court; or to change the capacity in which the plaintiff sues; or to substitute or add as plaintiff the real party interest; or to add additional plaintiffs where the action, as originally brought, was a class action. Aarhus Oliefabrik, A/S v. A.O. Smith Corp., 22 F.R.D. 33, 36 (E.D.Wis.1958) (). Thus, amendment with relation back is generally permitted in order to correct a misnomer of a defendant where the proper defendant is already before the court and the effect is merely to correct the name under which he is sued. But a new defendant cannot normally be substituted or added by amendment after the statute of limitations has run. Id.
Rule 15(c) expressly conditions the relation back of an amendment changing the party against whom a claim is asserted upon the existence of three prerequisites. 2 First, the amended claim must arise out of the same occurrence set forth in the original pleading. Second, within the applicable statute of limitations period the purported substitute defendant must have received such notice of the institution of the action that he will not be prejudiced in maintaining his defense on the merits. Third, the purported substitute defendant must have or should have known that, but for a mistake concerning the identity of the proper party, the action would have been brought against him.
In the case at bar, it is clear that the provisions of the first prerequisite of Rule 15(c) have been met. The amendment merely substituted the name...
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