Brеnda LINDSEY; Henry Hobson, Jr.; Sarah Gulley; Roger Gentry; Bertha Arnold; Dionne Echols; William Slaten, Jr., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. DETROIT ENTERTAINMENT, LLC, d/b/a Motor City Casino, a Michigan Limited Liability Company, Defendant-Appellee.
No. 04-2424
United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
Argued: March 13, 2007. Decided and Filed: May 1, 2007.
487 F.3d 824
The district judge in this matter recognized the advisory nature of the sentencing guidelines and his authority to impose any reasonable sentence justified by a consideration of the applicable statutory sentеncing factors. We conclude that the court adequately justified the sentence imposed.
CONCLUSION
For the reasons set out above, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court in its entirety.
Brenda LINDSEY; Henry Hobson, Jr.; Sarah Gulley; Roger Gentry; Bertha Arnold; Dionne Echols; William Slaten, Jr., Plaintiffs-Appellants,
v.
DETROIT ENTERTAINMENT, LLC, d/b/a Motor City Casino, a Michigan Limited Liability Company, Defendant-Appellee.
No. 04-2424.
United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.
Argued: March 13, 2007.
Decided and Filed: May 1, 2007.
ARGUED: Amos E. Williams, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellants. Rosalind Rochkind, Garan, Lucow & Miller, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Amos E. Williams, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellants. Rosalind Rochkind, Robert F. MacAlpine, Megan K. Cavanagh, Garan, Lucow & Miller, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellee.
Before: MARTIN and CLAY, Circuit Judges; POLSTER, District Judge.*
OPINION
CLAY, Circuit Judge.
Plaintiffs are seven unrelated individuals who were each detained by emplоyees of Defendant Detroit Entertainment, L.L.C., which owns and operates MotorCity Casino, for picking up allegedly abandoned tokens or credits found in Defendant‘s slot machines. Plaintiffs brought this action under
BACKGROUND
This case concerns a practice that Defendant refers to as “slot-walking.” “Slot-walking” is the practice of picking up tokens found on or around slot machines which appear to have been abandoned by the machine‘s original user. Plaintiffs in this case are Brenda Lindsey, Henry Hobson, Jr., Sarah Gulley, Roger Gentry, Bertha Arnold, Dionne Echols, and William Slaten, Jr. Although the stories of the individual plaintiffs vary in their detail, for purposes of this appеal, the specifics of Plaintiffs’ allegations are immaterial to the issues before the Court.1 Generally, Plaintiffs in this case all allegedly shared a relatively similar experience. Each plaintiff was a business invitee of Defendant, who entered Defendant‘s casino for the purpose of recreational gaming between April 14, 2000 and March 22, 2001. Each plaintiff, with the exception of Hobson,2 took possession of one or more tokens from one of Defendant‘s slot machines. In each case, the dollar value of tokens taken by Plaintiffs was small, ranging from the two dollars worth of tokens that Plaintiff Echols recovered from the tray of a slot machine, to a single twenty-five cent credit
After taking possession of the tokens or credits, each plaintiff was approached by Defendant‘s security personnel, and each plaintiff was forced to accompany Defendant‘s security personnel to a locked detention room. The length of Plaintiffs’ detentions varied; Plaintiff Slaten was released within an hour, while several plaintiffs were allegedly detained for sеveral hours. But in any event, after being held in Defendant‘s detention room for some period of time, each plaintiff was told to leave the casino and was informed that he or she was not allowed to return to Defendant‘s casino.
On March 21, 2003, Plaintiffs filed a complaint in the Eastern District of Michigan, alleging that Defendant violated
persons who found coins or tokens left unattended on floors, chairs, or similar lack of physical possession by the owner and/or those persons who found coins, tokens, or credits left in the return tray or on unattended and unused, at the time, gaming machines or who were given permission to take unused credits or tokens by the owner of the tokens or credits, without intent to defraud.
J.A. at 18.
Defendant moved for summary judgment on July 1, 2003. Plaintiffs moved to certify the class on the following day. On September 2, 2003, the district court denied Defendant‘s motion for summary judgment, without prejudice, pending discovery. On February 6, 2004, the district court denied Plaintiffs’ motion for clаss certification, holding that Plaintiffs could not meet the necessary requirements of
On August 2, 2004, Defendant renewed its motion for summary judgment. The district court granted Defendant‘s motion on October 14, 2004, and dismissed the case. The district court held that summary judgment in favor of Defendant was appropriate because Plaintiffs could not demonstrate that Defendant‘s actions constituted state action. The district court considered Plaintiffs’ argument that the district court decisions of Romanski v. Detroit Entertainment, L.L.C., 265 F.Supp.2d 835 (E.D.Mich.2003) and Smith v. Detroit Entertainment, L.L.C., 338 F.Supp.2d 775 (E.D.Mich.2004) affected the outcome of the case, but concluded that, under the Sixth Circuit‘s en banc decision in Chapman v. Higbee Co., 319 F.3d 825 (6th Cir.2003), Plaintiffs could not demonstrate that Defendant‘s security personnel were state actors. On November 5, 2004, Plaintiffs filed a timely notice of appeal. Briefing for this appeal was held in abeyance pending the Sixth Circuit‘s disposition of Romanski v. Detroit Entertainment, L.L.C., which was decided on October 28, 2005. 428 F.3d 629 (6th Cir.2005).
DISCUSSION
Plaintiffs appeal from the district court‘s order granting summary judgment in favor of Defendants. “This Court reviews de novo a district court‘s decision to grant summary judgment.” Gage Prods. Co. v. Henkel Corp., 393 F.3d 629, 637 (6th Cir.2004) (citing Cockrel v. Shelby County School Dist., 270 F.3d 1036, 1048 (6th Cir.2001)). Summary judgment is required if the pleadings and evidence “show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.”
Plaintiffs brought their claims against Defendant pursuant to
Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State ..., subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States ... to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress....
In order to prevail on a
“What [conduct] is fairly attributable [to the state] is a matter of normative judgment, and the criteria lack rigid simplicity.” Brentwood Acad., 531 U.S. at 295, 121 S.Ct. 924. The Supreme Court and this Court, however, have provided several significant milestones to guide our inquiry as
In Romanski, this Court directly addressed the question that the Supreme Court reserved in Flagg Brothers. Romanski concerned the same defendant, Detroit Entertainment L.L.C., and similar allegations. Stella Romanski patronized MоtorCity Casino to gamble and enjoy the lunch buffet. 428 F.3d at 632. She found a five cent token lying in the tray of a slot machine, which she thought was abandoned, and she took possession of the token. Id. Romanski was then approached by a uniformed casino employee who required Romanski to accompany him to the “security office,” also known as the “interview room,” a small, windowless room located off the casino‘s main floor. Id. at 632-33. Once in the intеrview room, the casino‘s security personnel accused Romanski of stealing, removed one nickel from her winnings, photographed her, copied her drivers license and social security card, and ejected her from the casino for a period of six months. Id. at 633. Romanski brought suit under
Romanski affirmed the judgment of the district court on the question of state action. Id. at 632. Romanski held that “[w]here private security guards are endowed by law with plenary police powers such that they are de facto police officers, they may qualify as state aсtors under the public function test.” Id. at 637. Romanski reasoned that, because the casino‘s security personnel were licensed under § 29 of Michigan‘s Private Security Business and Security Alarm Act, (codified at
Plaintiffs argue that Romanski supports a finding that Defendant‘s security personnel were likewise state actors in this case. We disagree. Unlike Romanski, where it was undisputed that Defendant‘s security personnel were licensed under
At the time of the seizure and detention of аll of the named Plaintiffs but Slaten, none of [Defendant‘s] security guards were authorized to make misdemeanor arrests. In the last part of 2000, some of [Defendant‘s] security personnel became authorized, by Michigan law, to make misdemeanor arrests but, to this date, Plaintiffs are informed and believe that not all of [Defendant‘s] security personnel have misdemeanor arrest authority.
J.A. at 17.5 If Defendant‘s security personnel had in fact been licensed pursuant to
The fact that Defendant‘s security personnel were not licensed in this case means that, under the facts of this case, Defendant‘s conduct in detaining Plaintiffs was not “fairly attributable to the state.” Lugar, 457 U.S. at 937, 102 S.Ct. 2744. The relevance of the Michigan licensure statute can be seen by comparing the outcomes of two Seventh Circuit cases, Wade v. Byles, 83 F.3d 902 (7th Cir.1996) and Payton v. Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke‘s Medical Center, 184 F.3d 623 (7th Cir.1999), both of which influenced this Court‘s decision in Romanski. 428 F.3d at 637-38.
Wade concerned Byles, a privately-employed security guard who protected a government building, who seriously injured Wade. 83 F.3d at 903. The Seventh Circuit affirmed summary judgment in favor of Byles on the ground that Wade could not demonstrate state action. Id. at 907. The court reasoned that Byles had no greater power than other private security guards. Id. at 906. Although his powers, which included carrying a handgun, arresting people for criminal trespass, and using deadly force in self-defense, had “all ... been traditionally exercised by the sovereign via the police, none has been exclusively reserved to the police.” Id.
Payton distinguished Wade and held that the defendants, who were security personnel licensed as special policemen under a city ordinance, could be state actors for the purpose of a
Romanski analyzed the distinction between these cases, and concluded that:
Payton illustrates a line that has been drawn in the case law. The line divides
cases in which a private actor exercises a power traditionally reserved to the state, but not exclusively reserved to it, e.g., the common law shopkeeper‘s privilege, from cases in which a private actor exercises a power exclusively reserved to the state, e.g., the police power.
This analysis demonstrates that the fact that Michigan delegated a part of the police power to licensed private security guards, which it had traditionally and exclusively reserved for itself, was the key fact that justified finding state action in Romanski. Although the police power that Michigan bestowed upon licensed security guards pursuant to
CONCLUSION
For the reasons stated above, we AFFIRM the district court‘s grant of summary judgment in favor of Defendant.
