Wooley v. City of Baton Rouge
| Decision Date | 08 May 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. 98-30267,98-30267 |
| Parties | (5th Cir. 2000) DEBRA W. WOOLEY, individually and as legal custodian on behalf of the minor Jordan Adam Taylor Zachary; APRIL ZACHARY, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. CITY OF BATON ROUGE; THERESA COULTER; FRED BROOKS; GREG PHARES, Chief; KEVIN LAPEYROUSE, Defendants-Appellees |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana
Before POLITZ and STEWART, Circuit Judges, and LITTLE, * District Judge.
Debra W. Wooley and April Zachary appeal an adverse summary judgment in their action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The district court found, inter alia, that defendants were entitled to qualified immunity. For the reasons assigned we affirm in part and vacate and remand in part.
In October 1994, April Zachary and her seven-month old son, Jordan, moved in with Wooley. Wooley became Jordan's primary care giver. In December 1994, April sought to transfer custody of Jordan to Wooley by way of an order of the East Baton Rouge Parish Family Court.1 Wooley testified that April wanted to give her custody of Jordan because "she needed some help raising him, and she did not want her parents ... to get custody of him."
On January 6, 1995, April's parents, Cecil and Sunday Zachary, obtained an order from the Livingston Parish court temporarily transferring to them custody of Jordan.2 The order did not direct law enforcement officers to effectuate the transfer of custody.
That same day the Zacharys arranged for the Baton Rouge City Police to meet them at Wooley's home. Corporal Theresa Coulter was dispatched there in response to a reported disturbance but determined that there was no disturbance and left. She was dispatched to the home again, this time requesting and receiving assistance from Sergeant Fred Brooks and Officer Kevin Lapeyrouse. When Coulter reached Wooley's residence the second time, Cecil Zachary was waiting and gave her the Livingston Parish court order. Cecil Zachary told the officers that the court had awarded him custody because April had a history of mental instability and drug use.
The officers discussed the court order before taking any action. Brooks testified that the officers attempted to contact personnel in the juvenile department but that everyone in that office was busy. He further testified that the officers did not attempt to call anyone in the legal department because no one from that division was active at that time of night. He conceded that a legal advisor can be reached after hours under "extreme circumstances, but we have to wait around." Lapeyrouse's testimony supports Brooks, but Coulter testified that neither she nor her fellow officers attempted to contact anyone in either the legal or juvenile departments.
Brooks decided that immediate action had to be taken. Coulter knocked on the door, identified herself as a police officer, and told Wooley to open the door. Wooley complied and the officers stepped inside the residence. In response to a request by Coulter, Wooley produced her custody papers. Noting the date on her order, the officers informed Wooley that they would have to take Jordan because they had been instructed that when there were conflicting orders, the order bearing the later date prevails. The officers denied Wooley's request to call either her lawyer or April. She pleaded with them not to take the child, claiming that Cecil Zachary had abused April Zachary as a child and that she feared the same thing would happen to Jordan. The officers insisted and Wooley gave Jordan to Coulter. Coulter exited the house and gave Jordan to his grandparents.
Coulter returned to the residence a short time later to obtain additional information from Wooley and spoke by telephone to Wooley's attorney. Due to the apparent prodding of the attorney, a juvenile detective was sent to the residence that night. The detective informed Wooley that he had already contacted Jordan's grandparents and told them that a mistake had been made, but that the Zacharys had refused to return Jordan voluntarily. They did so approximately 90 days later.
As noted, the Livingston Parish court vacated its order, on grounds of improper venue, one week after Coulter seized Jordan. The East Baton Rouge Parish Family Court rendered its custody order null and void for lack of subject matter jurisdiction the next month. The East Baton Rouge Parish Juvenile Court ultimately ordered return of custody of Jordan to April.
Wooley, individually and on behalf of Jordan,3 sued the Baton Rouge City Police Department, the Parish of East Baton Rouge, the City of Baton Rouge, Police Chief Greg Phares, and Officers Coulter, Brooks and Lapeyrouse. In her complaint Wooley claimed that the officers violated her fourth amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures and her fourteenth amendment right to family integrity. The complaint also alleged that the police had deprived Jordan of his fourth amendment right against unreasonable seizures and his fourteenth amendment liberty interest in remaining in the custody of his legal guardian. Wooley joined Chief Phares and the City of Baton Rouge, alleging that they acted with deliberate indifference and failed to train the officers adequately. The claims against the Baton Rouge City Police and the Parish of East Baton Rouge were dismissed voluntarily, and the court declined to exercise its jurisdiction over several pendent state law claims.
The district court granted the remaining defendants' motion for summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds, and this appeal followed. Appellants do not discuss in their briefs any issue related to the claims against Police Chief Phares and the City of Baton Rouge. Those claims are deemed abandoned.4 We consider only the fourth and fourteenth amendment claims by Debra Wooley and Jordan Zachary.
We review a grant of summary judgment de novo.5 Summary judgment is proper under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(c) "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 nonmoving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law."6 If the movant meets the initial burden of establishing that there is no genuine issue as to a material fact, the burden shifts to the nonmoving party to set forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial.7
Qualified immunity provides "ample protection to all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law."8 We conduct a bifurcated analysis to determine whether a defendant is entitled to qualified immunity.9 The first step is to determine whether the plaintiff has alleged a violation of a clearly established constitutional right.10 A right is "clearly established" if its "contours ... [are] sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right."11 "This is not to say that official action is protected by qualified immunity unless the very action in question has previously been held unlawful, but it is to say that in the light of pre-existing law the unlawfulness must be apparent."12 "Further, the applicable law that binds the conduct of officeholders must be clearly established at the very moment that the allegedly actionable conduct was taken."13 The issue typically is a question of law.14
The second step is to determine whether the defendant's conduct was objectively reasonable.15 "Objective reasonableness is assessed in light of legal rules clearly established at the time of the incident."16 An officer's conduct is not objectively reasonable when "all reasonable officials would have realized the particular challenged conduct violated the constitutional provisions sued on."17 This issue, too, generally is a question of law, but denial of summary judgment based on a material factual dispute would be appropriate if there are underlying historical facts in dispute that are material to resolution of the question whether the defendants acted in an objectively reasonable manner.18
Wooley contends that she was deprived of her right to custody of Jordan without due process of law. In addition, Wooley and Jordan each contend that
the police officers violated their fourteenth amendment right to family integrity by removing Jordan from Wooley's home. In order to recover under § 1983 for violations of their due process rights, Wooley and Jordan must demonstrate that they were denied a cognizable liberty or property interest clearly established either by state law or the United States Constitution. We conclude that they did not have such a clearly established interest.
Wooley maintains that she had legal custody of Jordan under Louisiana law as a result of the voluntary transfer of custody from his mother, despite the fact that the order granting custody was rendered by a court that lacked subject matter jurisdiction. Under the law of Louisiana, however, any action taken by a court without proper subject matter jurisdiction is absolutely null and without effect.19 The East Baton Rouge Parish Family Court therefore was without the power to give custody of Jordan to Wooley, and plaintiffs may not rely on the order granting custody to establish a protected interest under state law.
Wooley asserts in the alternative that April Zachary's failed attempt to transfer custody to her was sufficient to grant her provisional custody by operation of mandate under Louisiana law. La. R. S. 9:951 permits a custodian to authorize another to provide for the care, custody, and control of a minor child for a period of up to one year...
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