Youngbey v. March

• Decision Date: 17 April 2012
• Docket Number: No. 11–7033.,11–7033.
• Citation: 676 F.3d 1114
• Parties: Jerry YOUNGBEY and Rubin Butler, Appellees v. Darin MARCH, Det., et al., Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

676 F.3d 1114

Jerry YOUNGBEY and Rubin Butler, Appellees

v.Darin MARCH, Det., et al., Appellants.

No. 11–7033.

United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued Jan. 12, 2012.Decided April 17, 2012.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, (No. 1:09–cv–00596).Carl J. Schifferle, Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, argued the cause for appellants. With him on the briefs were Irvin B. Nathan, Attorney General, Todd S. Kim, Solicitor General, and Donna M. Murasky, Deputy Solicitor General.

James C. Cox argued the cause for appellees. With him on the brief were Craig A. Cowie, Arthur B. Spitzer, and Frederick V. Mulhauser. Elaine Goldenberg entered an appearance.

Before: GARLAND and BROWN, Circuit Judges, and EDWARDS, Senior Circuit Judge.

Opinion for the court filed PER CURIAM.

Concurring opinion by Senior Circuit Judge EDWARDS.

PER CURIAM:

Ms. Jerry Youngbey and Mr. Rubin Butler (“appellees”) brought an action arising under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against a number of District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department (“MPD”) law enforcement personnel (“appellants” or “officers”). Appellees' complaint asserts that various officers and their supervisors violated appellees' Fourth Amendment rights by planning and conducting a 4:00 a.m. search on a warrant that did not authorize a nighttime search and breaking and entering into appellees' home without knocking and announcing their presence. The complaint also alleges additional Fourth Amendment claims and a variety of local law claims—including assault, false arrest, trespass to chattels and conversion, trespass to realty, negligence per se, and intentional infliction of emotional distress—that are not at issue in this appeal. The District of Columbia was also a defendant before the District Court, but it has not joined in this appeal.

Following discovery, appellants moved for summary judgment, asserting, inter alia, that they were entitled to qualified immunity on the claims relating to the officers' nighttime search and their alleged failure to knock and announce. The District Court rejected appellants' claims of qualified immunity, finding that appellants' failure to knock and announce before entering into appellees' home and the nighttime search violated appellees' clearly established rights under the Fourth Amendment. Youngbey v. District of Columbia, 766 F.Supp.2d 197, 211, 217 (D.D.C.2011). Appellants now seek interlocutory review, claiming that the District Court erred in denying them qualified immunity on the knock-and-announce and nighttime search claims. Appellants contend that they committed no constitutional violations in their execution of the search warrant. They further claim that, even if their actions are determined to be unconstitutional, they are nonetheless entitled to qualified immunity because they did not violate clearly established law.

We agree that appellants are entitled to qualified immunity because neither their no-knock entry of appellees' home nor their nighttime search violated “clearly established law.” See Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223, 243–44, 129 S.Ct. 808, 172 L.Ed.2d 565 (2009) (“An officer conducting a search is entitled to qualified immunity where clearly established law does not show that the search violated the Fourth Amendment.”) (citing Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 641, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987)). We are therefore constrained to reverse the judgment of the District Court and remand the case.

I. Jurisdiction and the Applicable Standard of Review

This Court has jurisdiction to review the denial of qualified immunity as a “final decision” under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. See Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 524–30, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985) (holding that a district court ruling denying qualified immunity, to the extent that it turns on an issue of law, is subject to immediate appeal under the collateral order doctrine). It is clear here that the District Court's denials of appellants' requests for qualified immunity “ ‘turn[ ] on ... issue[s] of law.’ ” Int'l Action Ctr. v. United States, 365 F.3d 20, 23 (D.C.Cir.2004) (quoting Mitchell, 472 U.S. at 530, 105 S.Ct. 2806). For purposes of this appeal, appellants do not contest that they failed to knock and announce before entering into appellees' home; and there is no dispute that appellants executed the search warrant during the nighttime. Therefore, the dispute before the court does not concern “which facts the parties might be able to prove” in support of their claims. Johnson v. Jones, 515 U.S. 304, 311, 115 S.Ct. 2151, 132 L.Ed.2d 238 (1995). Rather, the question here is whether appellees' asserted rights were clearly established when appellants executed the search warrant. This involves issues of law which “must be resolved de novo on appeal.” Elder v. Holloway, 510 U.S. 510, 516, 114 S.Ct. 1019, 127 L.Ed.2d 344 (1994) (citation omitted); see also Mitchell, 472 U.S. at 528 n. 9, 105 S.Ct. 2806; Estate of Phillips v. District of Columbia, 455 F.3d 397, 402–03 (D.C.Cir.2006).

II. The Legal Framework Governing Applications of Qualified Immunity

We need not address on this appeal whether the officers' no-knock, nighttime search violated appellees' Fourth Amendment rights. See Pearson, 555 U.S. at 236–38, 243, 129 S.Ct. 808. The dispositive question here is whether, given the circumstances presented by the undisputed record facts, a reasonable police officer would have known that the failure to knock or the nighttime search violated appellees' clearly established Fourth Amendment rights. In other words, the protection of qualified immunity is available if “a reasonable officer could have believed that [his or her actions were] lawful, in light of clearly established law and the information the officers possessed.” Wilson v. Layne, 526 U.S. 603, 615, 119 S.Ct. 1692, 143 L.Ed.2d 818 (1999) (citation omitted).

The Supreme Court “adopted this criterion of ‘objective legal reasonableness,’ rather than good faith, precisely in order to ‘permit the defeat of insubstantial claims without resort to trial.’ ” Behrens v. Pelletier, 516 U.S. 299, 306, 116 S.Ct. 834, 133 L.Ed.2d 773 (1996) (quoting Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 819, 813, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982)). “[I]n practice ... [the inquiry] turns on the objective legal reasonableness of the action, assessed in light of the legal rules that were clearly established at the time it was taken.” Wilson, 526 U.S. at 614, 119 S.Ct. 1692 (citations omitted) (internal quotation marks omitted). Qualified immunity thus “operates to ensure that before they are subjected to suit, officers are on notice their conduct is unlawful.” Hope v. Pelzer, 536 U.S. 730, 739, 122 S.Ct. 2508, 153 L.Ed.2d 666 (2002) (citation omitted) (internal quotation marks omitted). “This is not to say that an 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.” Wilson, 526 U.S. at 615, 119 S.Ct. 1692 (citations omitted) (internal quotation marks omitted).

In determining whether the legal rules at issue are clearly established, a court must look to “cases of controlling authority in [its] jurisdiction.” Id. at 617, 119 S.Ct. 1692. If there is no such controlling authority, then we must determine whether there is “a consensus of cases of persuasive authority.” Id.; see also Ashcroft v. al–Kidd, –––U.S. ––––, 131 S.Ct. 2074, 2084, 179 L.Ed.2d 1149 (2011) (explaining that in the absence of “controlling authority,” a “robust ‘consensus of cases of persuasive authority’ ” is necessary to demonstrate clearly established law (quoting Wilson, 526 U.S. at 617, 119 S.Ct. 1692)). Since we have found neither controlling precedent of the Supreme Court or this circuit, nor a consensus of persuasive authority from our sister circuits, we must reverse.

Because this appeal challenges the denial of appellants' motions for summary judgment, “we are required to view all facts and draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the nonmoving part[ies],” appellees Youngbey and Butler. Brosseau v. Haugen, 543 U.S. 194, 195 n. 2, 125 S.Ct. 596, 160 L.Ed.2d 583 (2004) (per curiam) (citation omitted). We turn now to the relevant facts underlying appellees' Fourth Amendment claims.

III. The Material Facts

On July 16, 2008, Robert Mallory was murdered near the 1500 block of F Street, N.E., in Washington, D.C. In the weeks following the murder, appellant March, the lead detective on the case, gathered information that identified John Youngbey, the son of appellee Youngbey, as the principal suspect. On August 13, 2008, Detective March submitted an application for warrants to search three residences, including the home of appellees Youngbey and Butler at 1312 Queen Street, N.E., in Washington, D.C. March's affidavit in support of the warrants states that Mallory died from “multiple gunshot wounds to the body.” Aff. in Support of an Application for Search Warrant (“Aff.”) 1, reprinted in Joint App. (“J.A.”) 44. John Youngbey is identified in the affidavit as having confessed to a third party that he shot Mallory. According to the affidavit, the shooting was prompted by Mallory's derogatory comment about the girlfriend of one of John Youngbey's friends. The affidavit also states that the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency identified John Youngbey's last home address as 1312 Queen Street, N.E., and that a check of the Washington Area Law Enforcement System's computerized database listed 1312 Queen Street, N.E., as John Youngbey's current address.

Based on March's affidavit, a judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia found probable cause to believe that certain evidence related to the murder could be found at 1312 Queen Street. The warrant authorizes the police to...