Kenrick CHRISTOPHER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. State of FLORIDA, et al., Defendants, Barry Tierney, individually, Jose Hernandez, individually, Defendants-Appellees.
No. 04-16319.
United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.
May 26, 2006.
449 F.3d 1360
No private right of action exists for the harm alleged by the Hardys. Failure to comply with regulation
The Hardys also allege that Regions and Cendant conspired to violate
IV. CONCLUSION
For the above reasons, we affirm the district court‘s grant of judgment on the pleadings against the Hardys.
AFFIRMED.
David Jay Glantz, Charles Melvin Fahlbusch, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, for Defendants-Appellees.
EDMONDSON, Chief Judge:
Plaintiff Kenrick Christopher appeals the district court‘s granting judgment as a matter of law to Sgt. Barry Tierney (“Tierney“) and a new trial to Trooper Jose Hernandez (“Hernandez“), following a five-day jury trial in which both defendants were found liable under
I. Background
In 1998, the Florida Highway Patrol Tactical Response Team was ordered to secure the residence in which Plaintiff Kenrick Christopher lived so that the Opa-Locka Police Department could execute a search warrant for drugs. The warrant named the owner of the house, but not Plaintiff. While securing the house, three troopers—Tierney, Hernandez, and Sgt. James Durden (“Durden“)—charged into Plaintiff‘s bedroom.
Plaintiff testified he was alone in the room, lying on his bed, when two masked men dressed entirely in black ran in. The men had guns. Plaintiff was told to get off the bed but did not immediately comply. One of the officers used his gun to push Plaintiff off the bed. Plaintiff landed face down. The officer then put his knee in Plaintiff‘s back and pulled his right arm behind him until Plaintiff felt his shoulder snap. When Plaintiff asked what the officer was doing, the officer‘s partner told Plaintiff to shut up. Plaintiff was then hit in the back of the head with a hard object. Plaintiff felt a warm tingling. After he was cuffed, two officers ordered Plaintiff to stand. When he replied that he could not stand, the officers accused him of lying and carried him outside.
In contrast, Defendant Tierney—the first officer to enter the room—testified that, as he was pushing aside the doorway curtain, a suspect other than Plaintiff grabbed the front of his gun and pulled it forward. Tierney fell on top of the man (not Plaintiff). After a short struggle, Tierney secured and handcuffed the man. Tierney claims his attention was entirely occupied by this suspect, he did not touch Plaintiff or say anything to him, and he does not know what Hernandez or Durden said or did while in the room.
Defendant Hernandez testified that he entered the room after Tierney, saw Plaintiff standing near the bed, and yelled “get down.” Plaintiff did exactly as told. Hernandez testified he did not recall touching Plaintiff and that he did not remember who handcuffed Plaintiff, although it would have been normal procedure for Plaintiff to have been handcuffed. He has no recollection of what the other troopers said or did while in the room.
Durden testified that Tierney and Hernandez were briefly held up at the entrance to the room. Durden entered the room after them and immediately stepped up onto a mattress. Durden noticed two black male suspects on the ground directly in front of him, between the bed and doorway. His attention then turned to a curtained doorway leading to a bathroom. Durden claims he never touched the suspects and has no memory of how Plaintiff was handcuffed or what the other troopers said or did while in the room.
After being carried outside, Plaintiff was twice checked on by a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue crew summoned by the troopers. Although tests did not indicate Plaintiff required transport, an ambulance was eventually called. During transport, Plaintiff told the EMT he had been assaulted by police. At the hospital, doctors discovered a blood vessel had ruptured in Plaintiff‘s brain. He underwent brain surgery, spent three weeks in the hospital, and is now permanently disabled.
Plaintiff was born with an arteriovenous malformation (“AVM“), which makes the brain‘s vascular structures susceptible to rupture. At trial, Plaintiff called Dr. Lustgarten, an expert neurologist and neurosurgeon, who testified that the probability of an AVM spontaneously bleeding was 1% per year and that the rupture of Plaintiff‘s
Before trial the district court granted summary judgment against “Plaintiff‘s claims that the Officers used excessive force in rolling him off of the bed; handcuffing him; and dragging him to the livingroom.” The court concluded that “other than the alleged blow to the head, the acts of which the Officers are accused” involved de minimis force and “even if the force used by the officers was not de minimis, the Officers would be entitled to qualified immunity with regard to these claims.” The only potential ground for liability remaining at the time of trial was that an officer intentionally hit Plaintiff in the back of the head. The jury found both Defendants Tierney and Hernandez liable for use of excessive force and awarded Plaintiff $6.725 million in damages. The district court then granted judgment as a matter of law in favor of Tierney and granted Hernandez a new trial.
II. Discussion
A. Judgment as a Matter of Law
We review the grant of judgment as a matter of law (“JMOL“) de novo, applying the same standard as the district court. Pickett v. Tyson Fresh Meats, Inc., 420 F.3d 1272, 1278 (11th Cir.2005). JMOL is appropriate when a plaintiff presents no legally sufficient evidentiary basis for a reasonable jury to find for him on a material element of his cause of action. Id. But if there is substantial conflict in the evidence, such that “reasonable and fair-minded persons in the exercise of impartial judgment might reach different conclusions, the motion must be denied.” Walker v. NationsBank of Florida N.A., 53 F.3d 1548, 1555 (11th Cir.1995).
The district court erred by granting judgment as a matter of law for Tierney. Tierney claimed that he did not touch Plaintiff and that Tierney‘s attention was entirely focused on subduing another suspect who grabbed his gun as Tierney entered the room. But the jury was not required to believe Tierney, whose testimony was directly contradicted by Plaintiff‘s testimony that he was alone in the room when the officers entered. Tierney also did not identify the supposed suspect or explain what happened to him after Tierney handcuffed him and guided him out of the room.1 Because sufficient conflict existed in the evidence presented to permit rational jurors to reach differing decisions on whether Tierney hit Plaintiff, the grant of judgment as a matter of law was incorrect.
B. New Trial Order
Following the jury trial, Tierney and Hernandez jointly moved for judg-
We review the trial court‘s grant of a new trial for abuse of discretion. McWhorter v. City of Birmingham, 906 F.2d 674, 677 (11th Cir.1990). In this case, the district court based its decision to grant a new trial on several factors.
First, during closing argument, Plaintiff‘s counsel ignored the court‘s earlier grant of qualified immunity to Defendants for all alleged acts other than an intentional blow to the head by—in rebuttal at the tail of the trial—injecting this argument:
“[S]omehow this whole case has turned into a singular blow to the head ... when we all know that if they assaulted him and it was that assault that raised his blood pressure, as they would like you to believe it was a blood pressure raise, then they are responsible. This is not a case about a singular blow to the head. This is a case about explaining how someone who didn‘t have a finger put on him came out in the condition he came out in, which they cannot explain and refuse to explain.”
...
“[T]hey are taking an isolated situation and trying to attack a singular portion of
this case and making it seem that we have to prove a specific blow to a specific area of the body and that is not true. We simply have to prove to you that he was the victim of unreasonable force, and we know that the standard is that if he didn‘t resist and if he didn‘t obstruct and if he didn‘t disobey and if he didn‘t interfere, they are not allowed to strike him or shake him or in any way physically do anything improper to him.”
(R. 347 at 703-04.) Defense counsel did not object to this argument at trial. But “where the interest of substantial justice is at stake, improper argument may be the basis for a new trial even if no objection has been raised.” McWhorter, 906 F.2d at 677; See
Plaintiff‘s counsel argues the quoted portion of its closing argument did not clearly violate the qualified immunity order, because when read in context, it—he says—meant only that this was a case about credibility: all of Plaintiff‘s injuries and allegations—not just the blow to the head—were relevant to the credibility of Defendants who denied having ever touched Plaintiff. But Plaintiff‘s counsel‘s comment that “they are ... making it seem that we have to prove a specific blow to a specific area of the body and that is not true” was a clear invitation to the jury to hold Defendants liable based on conduct other than an intentional blow to the head, in direct contravention of the court‘s earlier qualified immunity order.5 The statement that the jury could find Defendants liable if they believed Plaintiff‘s injuries were caused by a rise in blood pressure, which in turn was caused by Defendants’ conduct, was also misleading. Plaintiff‘s blood pressure may have spiked due to surprise or fear caused by Defendants charging into the bedroom, pointing guns at Plaintiff, forcing him to the ground, and handcuffing him. But the district court had already granted Defendants qualified immunity for this conduct, ruling that it
Plaintiff‘s counsel‘s improper closing argument prejudiced the substantial rights of Defendants by taking away from Defendants the benefits of the partial summary judgment they had won before trial and by incorrectly expanding the grounds for liability at trial to include grounds ruled out by the court.8 Especially in the light of the district court‘s preexisting immunity order granting Defendants partial summary judgment, we believe Plaintiff‘s counsel‘s closing argument about liability for conduct other than an intentional blow to the head warrants, by itself, a new trial. The district court‘s grant of a new trial served to protect the rights of Defendants and to vindicate the authority of the court. See McWhorter, 906 F.2d at 677 (concluding that a new trial was in the interest of substantial justice where counsel referred to an exhibit not in evidence during closing argument and argued a theory the district court had specifically prohibited in a motion in limine). We therefore cannot say that the district court abused its discretion in determining that the interests of substantial justice warranted a new trial.
The trial court also determined that the jury‘s award of $4 million in non-economic damages, $225,000 in past medical expenses, and $2.5 million for future medical and custodial expenses was manifestly excessive and swayed by passion. The award for future expenses was 40% higher than the highest number testified to by Plaintiff‘s sole witness on the subject, and the award for past medical expenses was nearly twice the $116,837 supported by the evidence. “[A] grossly excessive award may warrant a finding that the jury‘s verdict was swayed by passion and prejudice ... thus necessitating a new trial,” but “a new trial should only be ordered where the verdict is so excessive as to shock the conscience of the court.” Simon v. Shearson Lehman Bros., Inc., 895 F.2d 1304, 1310 (11th Cir.1990). The gross excessiveness of these awards casts doubt on the validity of the entire verdict, including liability and the $4 million in non-economic damages.11
III. Conclusion
In a reasoned order, the district judge found that the trial over which he presided and which he observed directly was not “a fair trial.” We have reviewed the record, and it supports the district court‘s decision. In addition, we know that review of the cold record on appeal is not the same thing as being at the trial and observing the subtleties of tone and of demeanor for not just the speaker, but the listeners. The trial judge has the advantage; and given that the realities of a trial involve imponderables, Rule 59 (even in the light of Rule 61) is intended to allow that advantage to act for substantial justice. We cannot say the district court abused its discretion by deciding that the circumstances warranted a new trial. Accordingly, we affirm the grant of a new trial for Trooper Hernandez. We reverse the
REVERSED in part, AFFIRMED in part, and REMANDED.
BARKETT, Circuit Judge, concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I agree with the majority‘s assessment that rational jurors could have believed Christopher‘s version of the events and found Tierney liable by a preponderance of the evidence, and thus I concur in the reversal of the district court‘s order granting judgment as a matter of law to Tierney. I also concur with the court‘s assessment that the jury award was excessive.
However, I dissent from the affirmation of the district court‘s order granting a new trial to both defendants as to liability. It is only the very rare case when the statements of an attorney during a trial will be so prejudicial “as to impair gravely the calm and dispassionate consideration of the case by the jury.” Vineyard v. County of Murray, Ga., 990 F.2d 1207, 1213 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, 510 U.S. 1024, 114 S.Ct. 636, 126 L.Ed.2d 594 (1993). I do not believe this to be such a case. Furthermore, Rule 61 provides that no error in anything done or omitted by the court during trial is ground for granting a new trial or for setting aside a verdict unless it affects the substantial rights of the parties. Toward that end, we have stated that “to safeguard the constitutional right to a jury trial, the grant of a new trial which sets aside a jury verdict must undergo careful appellate scrutiny.” Narcisse v. Illinois Cent. Gulf R. Co., 620 F.2d 544, 546 (5th Cir.1980).1 “Careful appellate scrutiny” warrants reversal in this case.
First, I disagree that a new trial was warranted based on the remark of plaintiff‘s counsel that “[t]his is not a case about a singular blow to the head.” The Appellants concede that they did not object to this argument during trial. We have repeatedly held on occasions too numerous to cite that a timely objection is necessary to bring to the district court‘s attention errors in counsel‘s closing argument. See, e.g., Woods v. Burlington Northern R.R. Co., 768 F.2d 1287, 1292 (11th Cir.1985), rev‘d on other grounds, 480 U.S. 1, 107 S.Ct. 967, 94 L.Ed.2d 1 (1987). This is consistent with the precedent of our sister circuits. See, e.g., Brown v. Cox, 286 F.3d 1040, 1046 (8th Cir.2002) (affirming grant of remittur and denial of new trial where the defendant failed to object to the challenged comments made by the plaintiff‘s lawyer in closing); Hemmings v. Tidyman‘s, Inc., 285 F.3d 1174, 1193 (9th Cir. 2002) (“The federal courts erect a ‘high threshold’ to claims of improper closing arguments in civil cases raised for the first time after trial.“).2 The rationale for the
In evaluating the likelihood of prejudice from counsel‘s comments during closing argument, the district court, and this court on appeal, are to consider “the totality of circumstances, including the nature of the comments, their frequency, their possible relevancy to the real issues before the jury, the manner in which the parties and the court treated the comments, the strength of the case, and the verdict itself.” Puerto Rico Aqueduct & Sewer Auth. v. Constructora Lluch, Inc., 169 F.3d 68, 82 (1st Cir.1999); see also Cooper v. Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., 945 F.2d 1103, 1107 (9th Cir.1991) (declining to find reversible error where “the alleged misconduct occurred only in the argument phase of the trial ... the remarks were isolated rather than persistent, ... most of counsel‘s comments were not objected to at trial and appellants did not move for a mistrial at the end of the argument“). The district court did not, and the majority here does not, measure the statements of Christopher‘s counsel against this standard.3 The majority does not describe how “the interest of substantial justice is at stake,” McWhorter v. City of Birmingham, 906 F.2d 674, 677 (11th Cir.1990) (internal quotation marks omitted), nor how the very few words at issue here caused prejudice to Tierney and Hernandez.
This case is unlike McWhorter, the only case cited in support of the majority decision. In McWhorter, plaintiff‘s counsel argued an entirely new theory of the case throughout rebuttal argument which had been expressly excluded by the court in a pretrial order. Id. More importantly, several times throughout closing, counsel referenced an exhibit which had been excluded, and which the jury subsequently called for during deliberations, only to be told it was not in evidence. In McWhorter, then, it was clear that the jury actually considered and deliberated upon counsel‘s improper comments during closing. In contrast, Christopher‘s trial counsel made a single stray remark during closing arguments, which was not clearly barred by the pretrial order4 and to which the defen-
In fact, we have held that the admission of far more egregious statements than the one at issue here did not warrant a new trial. See, e.g., Brough, 297 F.3d at 1179-80 (holding no plain error where plaintiff‘s counsel made numerous “improper” remarks during closing argument which “were prejudicial and should have been excluded” regarding defendant‘s enormous income relative to plaintiff because they did not seriously affect the fairness of the proceeding); Vineyard, 990 F.2d at 1213-14 (finding no plain error where plaintiff‘s counsel‘s “egregiously improper arguments to the jury” asked jury to “send a message” to the sheriff regarding excessive force); Oxford Furniture, 984 F.2d at 1128-29 (finding no plain error where counsel‘s closing argument included statements for which there was no supporting evidence, outright misstatements of the evidence, expressions of counsel‘s personal opinions, comments on counsel‘s own involvement with Oxford and Oxford‘s witnesses, appeals to local prejudice against out-of-state corporations, and improper references to loss of jobs and taxes). As we noted in Oxford Furniture, if the remarks had been prejudicial, defense counsel likely would have objected at the time, which in both this case and in Oxford Furniture, the defendants did not do. 984 F.2d at 1129 (finding no prejudice where defense counsel “while now claiming severe prejudice because of the argument, made no attempt to object to the arguments when they were made“); see also F.D.I.C. v. Stahl, 89 F.3d 1510, 1519-20 (11th Cir.1996) (finding no substantial prejudice based in part on defendants’ failure to object at the time).
Furthermore, we are obligated to review counsel‘s remarks in the context of the entire trial, including the jury instructions and any corrective measures applied by the trial court. See Vineyard, 990 F.2d at 1213 (analyzing whether, in light of “the entire argument, the context of the remarks, the objection raised, and the curative instruction,” the statement at issue was “such as to impair gravely the calm and dispassionate consideration of the case by the jury” (internal quotation marks omitted)). The district court in this case expressly instructed the jury at the close of evidence that they were to consider Christopher‘s claim “that one of the defendants struck him on the head.” The court instructed the jury that “[t]he mere fact that the evidence in this case may show that there was some contact between the plaintiff and the defendants would not be sufficient by itself to prove that the defendants violated the plaintiff‘s constitutional rights.” The majority opinion suggests that “no specifically curative instruction was given to the jury to disregard Plaintiff‘s improper argument,” Maj. Op. at
I also disagree that counsel‘s other remarks, which “buttress” the court‘s opinion, see Majority Op. at 1367, were substantially prejudicial to Tierney and Hernandez. With respect to the asserted “series of statements that arguably implied to the jury that the State of Florida was underwriting the costs of the defense,” Majority Op. at 1367, having searched the record, I disagree that the record can be so construed. It is clear from the record that the jury was never told that the Attorney General had paid for the expert‘s testimony. Indeed, the only counsel who tied the Attorney General to the payment of the expert witness was the defense.5 Such a self-inflicted error cannot be the basis for the award of a new trial. “It is a cardinal rule of appellate review that a party may not challenge as error a ruling or other trial proceeding invited by that party.” Birmingham Steel Corp. v. Tenn. Valley Auth., 353 F.3d 1331, 1341 n. 5 (11th Cir.2003) (quoting Ford ex rel. Estate of Ford v. Garcia, 289 F.3d 1283, 1293-94 (11th Cir.2002)); see also United States v. Lewis, 524 F.2d 991, 992 (5th Cir.1975), cert. denied, 425 U.S. 938, 96 S.Ct. 1673, 48 L.Ed.2d 180 (1976) (“A defendant cannot complain on appeal of alleged errors invited or induced by himself, particularly where, as here, it is not clear that the defendant was prejudiced thereby.“).
Nor were the defendants prejudiced by two phrases spoken by Christopher‘s counsel during closing argument referencing “police brutality” and “differences of people.” No fair reading of the record suggests these remarks were improper, much less prejudicial.6 The district court twice
The final basis the court suggests for awarding a new trial is the excessive verdict awarded by the jury, which Christopher concedes exceeded the proof at trial. Where the jury renders a proper ruling as to liability, the appropriate remedy is to remand the case to the district court for either remittitur, see Goldstein v. Manhattan Indus., Inc., 758 F.2d 1435, 1448 (11th Cir.1985), or for a new trial exclusively as to the amount of damages, see Parker v. Scrap Metal Processors, Inc., 386 F.3d 993, 1018 (11th Cir.2004) (reversing excessive jury award and remanding for new trial solely as to damages); Overseas Private Inv. Corp. v. Metro. Dade County, 47 F.3d 1111, 1116 (11th Cir.1995) (“Because the liability issues were properly and clearly decided by the jury, the remedy in this instance is to remand the case to the district court for a new trial on the amount of damages only.“); see also
Christopher does not dispute that the verdict was excessive; however, he argues that the proper remedy was a simple remittitur, rather than the grant of an entire new trial. This is in accordance with the relief sought below by the Appellants, who contested a portion of the jury‘s award, but did not argue that it warranted a new trial. In fact, nowhere in their Renewed Motion for Judgement as a Matter of Law or for New Trial (DE 349) did the Appellants argue that the excessive jury verdict justified a new trial as to liability. The jury verdict is not mentioned at all in the motion for a new trial. Appellants filed separately a Motion for Remittitur or New Trial on Damages (DE 350), which also did not request a new trial as to liability due to excessive verdict, but rather stated that the “Defendants are entitled to a remittitur or to a new trial as to the jury‘s award of $225,000.00 for past medical and custodial care costs and $2,500,000.00 for future medical and custodial care costs”
Because the jury correctly assessed liability in the case but inaccurately assessed damages, I believe that the appropriate solution under these circumstances is to remand to the district court, leaving it the district court‘s discretion to determine whether remittitur or a new trial as to damages is the more appropriate course of action. See, e.g., Goldstein, 758 F.2d at 1448 (“In general, a remittitur order reducing a jury‘s award to the outer limit of the proof is the appropriate remedy where the jury‘s damage award exceeds the amount established by the evidence.“); Parker, 386 F.3d at 1018 (holding that where error in assessing damages “resulted in a miscarriage of justice and seriously affected the fairness of the judicial proceedings,” the proper remedy was to remand for a new trial on damages only).
In conclusion, none of the statements by Christopher‘s trial counsel were substantially prejudicial to the Defendants, and I believe that to hold otherwise is inconsistent with the stringent nature of our review in these circumstances. Accordingly, I would reverse the district court‘s order granting JMOL to Tierney, reverse the district court‘s order granting a new trial to Hernandez, and remand for the district court to either issue a remittitur or hold a new trial solely to assess damages. For these reasons, I respectfully dissent from the court‘s opinion affirming the grant of a new trial to both defendants and concur with the reversal of the court‘s order granting JMOL to Tierney.
Anna MILLER, Petitioner, v. OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT, Respondent.
No. 05-3358.
United States Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit.
June 8, 2006.