Amesbury v. Sisson, 1:21-cv-00409

Mark E. Amesbury, owner of a Pawtucket commercial building, has a lengthy history of disputes with Pawtucket and state fire officials over fire code compliance at his property.
Multiple prior lawsuits by Amesbury challenging enforcement actions were previously dismissed, often for being time-barred, barred by immunity, or under res judicata.
In 2021, officials inspected his property after concerns over fire alarm system compliance, resulting in a violation letter and state criminal charges for code violations against Amesbury.
Amesbury refused inspection attempts, prompting officials to obtain an administrative search warrant under state law for a fire safety inspection.
In this suit, Amesbury alleged various constitutional and statutory violations by city and state officials arising from the inspection, violation notice, and subsequent criminal charges.
Defendants moved for summary judgment on grounds of res judicata, Younger abstention, qualified immunity, and lack of evidence; Amesbury sought summary judgment in his favor.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Res judicata	Claims are not precluded; new violations and wrongful acts	Issues were or could have been raised in prior dismissed suits	Claims barred by res judicata
Younger abstention	Federal court should review alleged unconstitutional conduct	Pending state criminal action warrants abstention	Federal court abstains under Younger doctrine
Qualified immunity (Lt. Johnson)	Lt. Johnson violated Fourth Amendment entering property	Actions taken under statutory authority, no clearly established right	Lt. Johnson protected by qualified immunity
Slander and property taking	Fire Marshal defamed Amesbury and failed to act on a tenant	No evidence of harm; no denial of all property use	No constitutional violation; claims dismissed
Summary judgment (Plaintiff)	Violation letter fraudulent and invalid	Underlying violations part of state case; no federal jurisdiction	Plaintiff’s summary judgment denied

Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242 (standard for summary judgment)
Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317 (summary judgment procedure)
Camara v. Mun. Court of San Francisco, 387 U.S. 523 (reasonableness of administrative inspections)
Paul v. Davis, 424 U.S. 693 (reputation-based due process claims not constitutional violations)
Lucas v. S.C. Coastal Council, 505 U.S. 1003 (regulatory takings standard)
Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223 (qualified immunity test)
Kugler v. Helfant, 421 U.S. 117 (federal court abstention in ongoing state proceedings)