Zimmerman v. Bellows

• Decision Date: 04 December 2013
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 12–2811 (RHK/SER).
• Citation: 988 F.Supp.2d 1026
• Parties: Julius Chad ZIMMERMAN, Plaintiff, v. Dave BELLOWS, in his individual and official capacities, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Minnesota

988 F.Supp.2d 1026

Julius Chad ZIMMERMAN, Plaintiff,

v.Dave BELLOWS, in his individual and official capacities, et al., Defendants.

Civ. No. 12–2811 (RHK/SER).

United States District Court, D. Minnesota.

Dec. 4, 2013.

Nathan M. Hansen, North St. Paul, MN, for Plaintiff.

Andrea G. White, Dakota County Attorney's Office, Hastings, MN, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

RICHARD H. KYLE, District Judge.

INTRODUCTION

When Plaintiff Julius Chad Zimmerman failed to appear in Minnesota state court on October 19, 2011, a warrant was issued for his arrest. Three weeks later, he was arrested and transported to the Dakota County Jail. In the interim, however, he had filed for protection under Chapter 7 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (the “Code”), 11 U.S.C. § 101 et seq. Alleging (among other things) that his incarceration violated the Code's automatic stay, 11 U.S.C. § 362(a), Zimmerman commenced this action against the Dakota County Sheriff, Dave Bellows, and 10 unnamed jail deputies. Defendants now move for summary judgment. For the reasons that follow, their Motion will be granted in part, Zimmerman's federal claims will be dismissed, and the Court will decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over his remaining claims.

BACKGROUND

Although the record contains some evidentiary gaps, the pertinent facts are undisputed. At some unspecified time, Zimmerman was involved in a car accident, and American Family Insurance Group (“American”) obtained a Judgment against him. It then attempted to collect the Judgment, suing Zimmerman in May 2011 in the Dakota County, Minnesota District Court. The parties have not submitted a copy of the state-court docket, but it appears ¹ that American obtained an Order to Show Cause requiring Zimmerman's attendance at a hearing on October 19, 2011. When he failed to appear, the state court issued a bench warrant commanding the Dakota County Sheriff or any other law-enforcement officer to arrest Zimmerman and bring him before the court to answer for his failure.

On October 27, 2011, Zimmerman filed a bankruptcy petition in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Minnesota.² There is no indication that he or his attorney informed the state court or American about that filing, and hence the warrant remained outstanding. On November 10, 2011, police officers arrested Zimmerman at his home. He claims he repeatedly told the officers he “had filed for Bankruptcy and no action could be taken against [him] to collect the underlying debt that had resulted in the warrant,” but his pleas were disregarded. The officers transported him to the Dakota County Jail, where booking was completed at 1:11 a.m. on Friday, November 11, 2011—Veteran's Day. Because of the holiday, and because November 12 and 13 were weekend days, the earliest Zimmerman could be brought before the state court was November 14.

Zimmerman claims that during his incarceration, he repeatedly told jail “staff”—“everyone working at the jail [that he] could”—about the bankruptcy filing, but he was “ignored.” Eventually, though, he was able to contact his attorney, who contacted American and it, in turn, asked the state court to quash the warrant. It did so, and Zimmerman was released from custody at 9:44 a.m. on November 15.

On November 2, 2012, Zimmerman commenced this action against Sheriff Bellows, five “John Doe” jail deputies, and five “Jane Roe” jail deputies, in their individual and official capacities, alleging that his incarceration violated the Code's automatic stay ³ and the Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. He also alleged that Defendants' conduct violated the Minnesota Constitution and constituted negligence and false imprisonment. He seeks damages, attorneys' fees, and injunctive relief requiring Defendants, inter alia, to develop policies about holding debtors on civil warrants when they have filed for bankruptcy. With discovery complete, Defendants now move for summary judgment on all of Zimmerman's claims. The Motion has been fully briefed and is ripe for disposition.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

Summary judgment is proper if, drawing all reasonable inferences in favor of the nonmoving party, there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(a); Ricci v. DeStefano, 557 U.S. 557, 586, 129 S.Ct. 2658, 174 L.Ed.2d 490 (2009). The moving party bears the burden of showing that the material facts in the case are undisputed. Torgerson v. City of Rochester, 643 F.3d 1031, 1042 (8th Cir.2011) ( en banc); Whisenhunt v. Sw. Bell Tel., 573 F.3d 565, 568 (8th Cir.2009). The Court must view the evidence, and the inferences that may be reasonably drawn from it, in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Beard v. Banks, 548 U.S. 521, 529–30, 126 S.Ct. 2572, 165 L.Ed.2d 697 (2006); Weitz Co., LLC v. Lloyd's of London, 574 F.3d 885, 892 (8th Cir.2009). The nonmoving party may not rest on mere allegations or denials, but must show through the presentation of admissible evidence that specific facts exist creating a genuine issue of material fact for trial. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c)(1)(A); Wood v. SatCom Mktg., LLC, 705 F.3d 823, 828 (8th Cir.2013).

ANALYSIS

I. The § 1983 claim

A. A claim for violating the automatic stay cannot lie under § 1983

It is important to recognize what this case is and is not about. Zimmerman's Complaint alleged a wide variety of constitutional torts, all brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983,⁴ including that his incarceration violated the Fourth Amendment's prohibition on unreasonable seizures and the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. But Zimmerman appears to have largely abandoned those claims, focusing now on Defendants' purported violation of the automatic stay. ( See Mem. in Opp'n at 2 (“From the Plaintiff's perspective, this entire case turns on whether the automatic stay applies to the Defendants and if so, whether the stay was violated on the facts put forth by the Plaintiff.”); id. at 8 (asserting that the “right of which [Zimmerman] was deprived [ ] was the right he acquired the moment he filed bankruptcy: the automatic stay pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 362”).) He attempts to bring this automatic-stay claim in two ways, directly (under 11 U.S.C. § 362(k) (Count V)) and indirectly (under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Count I)). But his indirect claim fails ab initio—to obtain relief for a violation of the automatic stay, Zimmerman must proceed directly under the Code, not through the back door of § 1983.

True, as the parties note, § 1983 sometimes may be used to vindicate federal statutory rights. See, e.g., Nelson v. Jesson, Civ. No. 13–340, 2013 WL 5888235, at *5 (D.Minn. Nov. 1, 2013) (Kyle, J.) (“[A] plaintiff may sue under § 1983 for the violation of an individual right bestowed by federal statute, as well as by the Constitution.”) (emphasis added) (citing Maine v. Thiboutot, 448 U.S. 1, 4, 100 S.Ct. 2502, 65 L.Ed.2d 555 (1980)). That said, “not all statutory violations may be remedied through section 1983.” Henley v. Brown, 686 F.3d 634, 640 (8th Cir.2012). When a statute contains “sufficiently comprehensive” remedial provisions, it suggests “congressional intent to preclude the remedy of suits under § 1983.” Id. (quoting Middlesex Cnty. Sewerage Auth. v. Nat'l Sea Clammers Ass'n, 453 U.S. 1, 20, 101 S.Ct. 2615, 69 L.Ed.2d 435 (1981)); accord, e.g., Alexander v. Sandoval, 532 U.S. 275, 290, 121 S.Ct. 1511, 149 L.Ed.2d 517 (2001). In other words, “section 1983 does not afford a remedy for statutory violations where ‘the governing statute provides an exclusive remedy for violation of its terms.’ ” Henley, 686 F.3d at 640 (quoting Pennhurst State Sch. & Hosp. v. Halderman, 451 U.S. 1, 28, 101 S.Ct. 1531, 67 L.Ed.2d 694 (1981)). As the undersigned noted in Nelson, to permit a plaintiff to sidestep a statute's enforcement scheme via § 1983 “would render the carefully chosen contours of the statute's own remedies senseless.” 2013 WL 5888235, at *6.

This principle applies with full force here. Several courts have recognized that 11 U.S.C. § 362(k) “provides an exclusive and comprehensive enforcement mechanism” for violations of the automatic stay that supersedes relief through § 1983. Chitty v. Nye Cnty. Sheriff's Dept., 46 Fed.Appx. 526, 526 (9th Cir.2002). Periera v. Chapman, 92 B.R. 903 (C.D.Cal.1988), is instructive:

[T]here can be no doubt that the statutory scheme provided by the Bankruptcy Code reflects a balance, completeness and structural integrity that suggests remedial exclusivity. The Bankruptcy Code embodies an unusually elaborate system for resolving bankruptcy matters, complete with its own separate adjudicative framework.

Furthermore, the inconsistency of remedy between section 362(h)⁵ and section 1983 is suggestive of an intended remedial exclusivity. Although both statutes allow a prevailing party to recover actual damages, attorney's fees, and, if appropriate, punitive damages, a plaintiff has no right to a jury trial in a section 362(h) action. This Court finds this difference to be a significant indication that Congress did not intend to allow a plaintiff to base a section 1983 action on a violation of the automatic stay. If it were otherwise, a section 362(h) plaintiff's right to a jury trial would depend solely on his choice between two federal forums[.]

Id. at 908 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted) (also noting that § 362 provides for an additional level of judicial review that does not exist under § 1983). Other decisions are in accord. See, e.g., Chitty, 46 Fed.Appx. at 526 (“There can be no 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action based on an alleged violation of [the automatic] stay.”); Harris v. Johnson (In re Harris), No. 10–13866, 2011 WL 3300716, at *7 (B.A.P. 9th Cir. Apr. 7, 2011) (“As a matter of law, a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim cannot be based on an alleged violation of the stay under § 362(k).”).⁶

The...