75 F.4th 1151
11th Cir.2023Background:
- On Sept. 20, 2019, Adam Paul English fired a shot in a busy area; responding officers Fowler and Hernandez found him bent over with his right hand in a bag; neither initially saw a gun on his person.
- Officers drew firearms and commanded English to show his hands; English did not comply and his right hand remained out of view; dispatch later reported the suspect put the gun into a bag.
- Officers testified they saw a sudden/rightward movement by English toward his hip/hand and perceived he was reaching for a firearm; both fired (Fowler once; Hernandez eight times); a gun was later recovered from the bag and English died.
- English’s survivors sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (excessive force) and Georgia law (battery, negligence); officers moved for summary judgment asserting qualified immunity and Georgia official immunity.
- The district court denied summary judgment, finding genuine disputes of material fact (video evidence was unclear about the movement); the Eleventh Circuit dismissed the appeal for lack of appellate jurisdiction because the denial turned on evidentiary sufficiency.
Issues
| Issue | Plaintiff's Argument | Defendant's Argument | Held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qualified immunity for excessive-force claim | English did not pose an immediate threat; deadly force was excessive | Officers reasonably believed English was reaching for a gun and posed an imminent threat | Dismissed for lack of jurisdiction — denial rested on disputed facts (evidentiary sufficiency), not a pure legal question |
| Georgia official immunity (state-law claims) | Officers lacked justification to use deadly force; factual dispute precludes immunity | Officers claim immunity from suit because they reasonably used force | Dismissed for lack of jurisdiction — denial turned on genuine factual disputes about whether an imminent threat existed |
Key Cases Cited
- Johnson v. Jones, 515 U.S. 304 (1995) (limits interlocutory appeals when denial rests on evidentiary sufficiency)
- Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511 (1985) (qualified-immunity interlocutory appeal principles)
- Cottrell v. Caldwell, 85 F.3d 1480 (11th Cir. 1996) (distinguishes legal questions from evidentiary-sufficiency issues in immunity appeals)
- Behrens v. Pelletier, 516 U.S. 299 (1996) (clarifies when interlocutory appeal of immunity issues is precluded)
- Ortiz v. Jordan, 562 U.S. 180 (2011) (state-law immunity denials are not appealable when based on disputed facts)
- Jones v. Fransen, 857 F.3d 843 (11th Cir. 2017) (Georgia official immunity constitutes immunity from suit)
- Townsend v. Jefferson Cnty., 601 F.3d 1152 (11th Cir. 2010) (standards for reviewing qualified-immunity summary-judgment decisions)