Mеlinda THOMPSON, Individually and as Administrator of the Estate of Gregory Thompson, Jr., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CITY OF LEBANON, TENNESSEE; David McKinley, Officer; Mitchell McDannald, Patrol Officer, Defendants-Appellants.
No. 14-5711
United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.
Decided and Filed: July 26, 2016
831 F.3d 366
Argued: June 11, 2015
Before: BATCHELDER and STRANCH, Circuit Judges; HOOD, District Judge.*
BATCHELDER, J., delivered the opinion of the court in which HOOD, D.J., joined, and STRANCH, J., joined in part. STRANCH, J. (pp. 372-77), delivered a separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.
OPINION
ALICE M. BATCHELDER, Circuit Judge.
In this interlocutory appeal from a denial of a motion for summary judgment, the defendant police officers argue that the plaintiff‘s evidence did not create a genuine dispute of material fact so as to overcome their assertion of qualified immunity. We establish our appellate jurisdiction and AFFIRM.
In the early morning hours of April 28, 2010, Gregory Thompson was driving his car erratically on a two-lane Tennessee highway. After nearly colliding head on with City of Lebanon Police Officer David McKinley, Thompson reversed course and sped away. Officer McKinley gave chase, later joined by fellow Officer Mitchell McDannald. After approximately six minutes of high-speed driving, Thompson swerved, spun 360 degrees, and ran off the road into a ditch.
Once the officers came to a stop, Officer McKinley exited his patrol car, ran toward Thompson‘s crashed car with firearm drawn, and fired one round. Officer McDannald followed Officer McKinley with his own firearm drawn; after Officer McKinley‘s shot, Officer McDannald aimed at Thompson‘s car and fired thirteen rounds. The shooting ended within nineteen seconds of the crash. Thompson sat behind the wheel of his vehicle the entire time and did not make any threatening moves. It is unknown whether he was even conscious at the time. Thompson died at the scene due to the gunshot wounds.
Melinda Thompson, Thompson‘s stepmother and the administrator of his estate, sued Officers McKinley and McDannald, their supervisors, and the City of Lebanon under
All defendants moved for summary judgment, Officers McKinley and McDannald on grounds of qualified immunity. The district court noted a number of disputed facts surrounding the alleged constitutional violation, including “whether McKinley intended to shoot and the trajectory of his bullet,” and “whether there continued to be a perceived risk from Thompson even after McDannald fired the first, second, third, or fourth through twelfth shots at him.” Op. at 22, 28. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, the district court held that Officers McKinley and McDannald were not entitled to qualified immunity. The court also denied the City‘s motion for summary judgment on Thompson‘s
Officers McKinley and McDannald then filed this interlocutory appeal, arguing that the district court erred in denying their motion for summary judgment on grounds of qualified immunity. The City joined the appeal under a theory of pendent appellate jurisdiction.
II. ANALYSIS
Qualified immunity shields government officials from standing trial for civil liability in their performance of discretionary functions unless their actions violate clearly established rights. Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). A plaintiff who brings a
If the district court determines that the plaintiff‘s evidence would reasonably support a jury‘s finding that the defendant violated a clearly established right, it must deny summary judgment. DiLuzio v. Vill. of Yorkville, 796 F.3d 604, 609 (6th Cir. 2015). The denial of summary judgment is ordinarily not a final decision within the meaning of
We may decide an appeal challenging the district court‘s legal determination that the defendant‘s actions violated a constitutional right or that the right was clearly establishеd. Id. We may also decide an appeal challenging a legal aspect of the district court‘s factual determinations, such as whether the district court properly assessed the incontrovertible record evidence. See Plumhoff v. Rickard, 572 U.S. 765, 134 S.Ct. 2012, 2019, 188 L.Ed.2d 1056 (2014); Roberson v. Torres, 770 F.3d 398, 402 (6th Cir. 2014). And we may decide, as a legal question, an appeal challenging the district court‘s factual determination insofar as the challenge contests that determination as “blatantly contradicted by the record, so that no reasonable jury could believe it.” Scott v. Harris, 550 U.S. 372, 380, 127 S.Ct. 1769, 167 L.Ed.2d 686 (2007); see also Plumhoff, 134 S.Ct. at 2020.
We may not, however, deсide an appeal challenging the district court‘s determination of “‘evidence sufficiency,’ i.e., which facts a party may, or may not, be able to prove at trial.” Johnson v. Jones, 515 U.S. 304, 313, 115 S.Ct. 2151, 132 L.Ed.2d 238 (1995). Because such a challenge is purely fact-based, it “does not present a legal question in the sense in which the term was used in Mitchell,” Plumhoff, 134 S.Ct. at 2019, and is therefore not an appealable “final decision” within the meaning of
When legal and factual issues are confused or entwined, “we must ‘separate an appealed order‘s reviewable determination (that a given set of facts violates clearly established law) from its unreviewable determination (that an issue of fact is “genuine“).‘” Roberson, 770 F.3d at 402 (quoting Johnson, 515 U.S. at 319). In the same way, we separate an appellant‘s reviewable challenges from the unreviewable. DiLuzio, 796 F.3d at 610. In other words, we “ignore the defendant‘s attempts to dispute the facts and nonetheless resolve the legal issue, obviat-
A substantial portion of the officers’ brief focuses on the insufficiency оf the evidence before the district court to create a material issue of fact. They claim that the evidence showed that Officer McKinley‘s shot was accidental, and that no evidence showed that Thompson submitted to the officers’ authority. They challenge the district court‘s observation that Thompson may not have been conscious. We lack jurisdiction to review these arguments.
Nevertheless the officers raise three legal issues which we can decide on the basis of the plaintiff‘s version of the facts as rеcognized by the district court. On each issue, we affirm the district court‘s denial of summary judgment.
The first legal issue is whether Officer McKinley seized Thompson. Officer McKinley argues that the district court erred in relying on Floyd v. City of Detroit, 518 F.3d 398 (6th Cir. 2008), to conclude that he did. Floyd affirmed the denial of qualified immunity on facts similar to those in this case. Officers Quaine and Reynoso both fired their guns at Ronald Floyd under circumstances which did not justify the use of deadly force. Id. at 402-03. It was undisputed that Officer Quaine‘s bullet did not hit Floyd, and that Officer Reynoso‘s did. Id. at 402. The court reasoned that “Quaine‘s firing his weapon at Floyd was a show of authority that actuаlly had the intended effect of contributing to Floyd‘s immediate restraint” and it was thus a seizure. Id. at 406. Officer Quaine was also partially responsible for Officer Reynoso‘s actions because “Quaine‘s own use of deadly force escalated the situation by unambiguously signaling that such force was called for.” Id. at 406-07.
Floyd directly applies to the plaintiff‘s version of the facts. The plaintiff presented evidence that Officer McKinley‘s shot was intentional, not accidental as he claimed. The district court summarized this evidence as follows:
- (1) McDannald‘s interrogatory responses stated that at the time of the shooting, “Thompson‘s driver side window was down,” calling into question McKinley‘s statement that he was attempting to remove his baton to break Thompson‘s window; (2) there are conflicting assessments of whether the video evidence shows McKinley transitioning his weapon or stumbling; [(3)] McDannald‘s story about what he observed when he first started shooting has changed over time; (4) Officer Paris observed McKinley standing upright with his gun trained on Thompson while McDannald was shooting; and (5) McKinley did not initially inform the sergeant on the scene that he slipped or that his shot was accidental.
Op. at 20. On these facts Officer McKinley‘s shot, leading as it did to Officer McDannald‘s shots, “had the intended effect of contributing to [Thompson‘s] immediate restraint,” and under Floyd this was a seizure. Floyd, 518 F.3d at 406. It does not matter that the plaintiff has admitted that Officer McKinley‘s bullet did not hit Thompson. See Appellants’ Br. of Officers McKinley & McDannald, App. R. 41 at 42 (quoting the plaintiff‘s admission). The district court correctly applied Floyd to the plaintiff‘s version of the facts, and we affirm the district court‘s denial of summary judgment on this issue.
The second legal issue is whether Officer McKinley‘s actions—as described by the plaintiff‘s evidence—were objectively unreasonable, and whether the law clearly established that unreasonable-
The third and final legal issue presented on appeal is whether Officer McDannald‘s actions were objectively unreasonable, and whether the law was clearly established. Again, looking at the plaintiff‘s version of the facts, we affirm the district court‘s denial of qualified immunity. If a jury were to believe the рlaintiff‘s version of the events, it could find that a reasonable officer would have been on notice that firing thirteen rounds into Thompson‘s vehicle and person violated his Fourth Amendment rights “when Thompson had been seen to do nothing more than flee from police during the vehicular pursuit for potential driving under the influence.” Op. at 25; see also Murray-Ruhl, 246 Fed.Appx. at 347 (recognizing that Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1, 105 S.Ct. 1694, 85 L.Ed.2d 1 (1985), provides a clearly established right against the use of deadly force when there is no reason “to believe that the suspect pose[s] an immediate risk of death or serious danger” (quoting Smith v. Cupp, 430 F.3d 766, 776 (6th Cir. 2005) (alteration omitted))).
Because we conclude that the district court correctly denied the defendants summary judgment on whether Officers McKinley and McDannald committed a constitutional violation, we lack pendent appellate jurisdiction over the City‘s interlocutory appeal of the denial of its summary judgment motion. See Martin v. City of Broadview Heights, 712 F.3d 951, 963 (6th Cir. 2013) (noting that such issues are only reviewable on interlocutory appeal under the court‘s pendent appellate jurisdiction). We likewise lack pendent appellate jurisdiction to review the district court‘s denial of summary judgment on the plaintiff‘s state-law claims.
III. CONCLUSION
We therefore DENY the plaintiff‘s motion to dismiss for lack of appellate jurisdiction as to the issues of law raised by Officers McKinley and McDannald, and we AFFIRM the district court‘s denial of summary judgment as to those issues. We GRANT the plaintiff‘s motion as to the City‘s appeal and in all other respects.
STRANCH, Circuit Judge, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in the majority‘s conclusion that we lack jurisdiction to review the
I dissent not because I dispute the outcome proposed by the majority but because I believe we must honor the limitations—set by Congress, the Supreme Court, and our own precedent—that govern interlocutory jurisdiction. The final judgment rule embodied in
In Estate of Carter, we explained that if “aside from [any] impermissible arguments regarding disputes of fact, [a] defendant [appealing a qualified immunity denial] also raises the purely legal question of whether the facts alleged ... support a claim of violation of clearly established law, then there is an issue over which this court hаs jurisdiction.” 408 F.3d at 310 (quoting Berryman v. Rieger, 150 F.3d 561, 562 (6th Cir. 1998)). Estate of Carter noted one other limited area of jurisdiction. Relying on our precedent in two prior cases, Phelps v. Coy and Beard v. Whitmore Lake School District, we explained that “this court can ignore the defendant‘s attempts to dispute the facts and nonetheless resolve the legal issue, obviating the need to dismiss the entire appeal for lack of jurisdiction.” Estate of Carter, 408 F.3d at 310 (citing Phelps, 286 F.3d at 298-99; Beard, 402 F.3d at 602 n. 5). Phelps and Beard provide both the authority for and the parameters governing this proposition. Phelps explains that we have jurisdiction to disregard defendants’ attempts to dispute plaintiffs’ facts only in cases where “the legal issues arе discrete from the factual disputes[.]” 286 F.3d at 298. Beard holds that interlocutory jurisdiction over appeals from denials of qualified immunity involving disputed facts only exists where “some minor factual issues are in dispute” and “it does not appear that the resolution of [such] factual issues is needed to resolve the legal issues” also presented. 402 F.3d at 602 n. 5; see also Claybrook v. Birchwell, 274 F.3d 1098, 1103 (6th Cir. 2001). If, on the other hand, disputed factual issues are “crucial to” a defendant‘s interlocutory qualified immunity appeal, we may not simply ignore such disputes and we remain “obliged to dismiss [the appeal] for laсk of jurisdiction.” Phelps, 286 F.3d at 298;
Beard provides an example of “minor” factual disputes that a court has jurisdiction to overlook on interlocutory appeal: in that case, the parties agreed that the defendant teachers strip-searched the plaintiffs, a group of male and female gym students, after one student‘s prom money was reportedly stolen, see 402 F.3d at 601-06, and the only factual disputes on appeal concerned certain details of those searches that need not be decided to “resolve the legal issue” рresented, id. at 602 n. 5. We proceeded to find constitutional violations and to determine that the law, at the time the searches were conducted, was not clearly established. See id. at 606-08. McKenna v. City of Royal Oak lies at the other end of the spectrum and involves the type of core factual disputes that we may not ignore on interlocutory appeal because they are indivisible from the legal arguments and, thus, deprive us of jurisdiction. There the defendant police officers had handcuffed a man who was having a seizure and contended on аppeal, contrary to the district court‘s finding of genuine disputes, both that the plaintiff was not aware of what happened and that he had become violent and aggressive. The officers relied on their own version of the facts to argue that the plaintiff “was not ‘seized’ within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment” and that they either did not act unreasonably or that no reasonable officer could have known that their actions were unlawful. McKenna, 469 F.3d at 561. We dismissed for lack of jurisdiction and, in so doing, expressly distinguished McKenna from Estate of Carter:
This case is not like Estate of Carter, 408 F.3d at 310, where this court found that it could “ignore thе defendant‘s attempts to dispute the facts and nonetheless resolve the legal issue, obviating the need to dismiss the entire appeal for lack of jurisdiction,” because here the officer-defendants have in fact made no legal argument for qualified immunity which can be extracted from their reliance on disputed facts.
Id. at 562 n. 2. “It may be[,]” we observed in McKenna, “that purely legal arguments for granting qualified immunity relying on the facts taken in the light most favorable to McKenna could have been advanced in this case.” Id. at 562. But “because genuine issues of material fact regarding the officers’ qualified immunity claim do exist, and because the officers have in fact made no arguments concerning the denial of qualified immunity that do not rely on disputed facts, this court does not have jurisdiction over this part of their appeal.” Id.
At least six other circuits have embraced this approach, drawing the same jurisdictional line with respect to factual disputes in interlocutory appeals from denials of qualified immunity—i.e., these circuits also take as their jurisdictional starting point any facts that the district court deemed disputed and whether or not defendants’ legal arguments on interlocutory appeal depend upon those facts. In Cady v. Walsh, 753 F.3d 348 (1st Cir. 2014), a case involving a claim of deliberate indifference to a suicidal detainee‘s serious medical needs, the First Circuit addressed the jurisdictional limits on such appeals, noting “that a ‘district court‘s pretrial rejection of a qualified immunity defense is not immediately appealable to the extent that it turns on either an issue of fact or an issue perceived by the trial court to be an issue of fаct.‘” Id. at 359 (emphasis in original) (quoting Stella v. Kelley, 63 F.3d 71, 74 (1st Cir. 1995)). The First Circuit held that it lacked jurisdiction where the defendants failed to “separate their qualified immunity arguments from their merits-based ones[.]” Id. at 361; see also id. (“[N]o-
The Seventh, Tenth, Third, and Fifth Circuits have all reached similar conclusions. See, e.g., White v. Gerardot, 509 F.3d 829, 835-36 (7th Cir. 2007) (citing our McKenna decision with approval, and concluding “we do not have jurisdiction when, as here, all of the arguments made by the party seeking to invoke our jurisdiction are dependent upon, and inseparable from, disputed facts“); Rosewood Servs., Inc. v. Sunflower Diversified Servs., Inc., 413 F.3d 1163, 1165 (10th Cir. 2005) (“Our jurisdiction is limited to reviewing denials of summary judgment based on qualified immunity when we are ‘present[ed with] neat abstract issues of law. We lack jurisdiction to review a denial of summary judgment based on qualified immunity if the claim on appeal is based on disputed facts.‘” (alteration in original) (citation omitted)); Doe v. Groody, 361 F.3d 232, 237 (3d Cir. 2004) (“[A] denial of qualified immunity that turns on an issue of law—rather than a factual dispute—falls within the collateral order doctrine that treats certain interlocutory decisions as ‘final’ within the meaning of
In the instant case, Officers McKinley and McDannald continue to insist on appeal that McKinley fired his weapon accidentally and that the officers’ accounts of the events preceding Thompson‘s death are truthful, despite the district court‘s finding that both issues are genuinely disputed and its recognition that the credibility of each officer is in question. With respect to the first dispute, answering the factual question of whether or not Officer McKinley intended to use his weapon is a necessary prerequisite to making a legаl determination about whether McKinley seized Thompson for Fourth Amendment purposes. See, e.g., Floyd v. City of Detroit, 518 F.3d 398, 406 (6th Cir. 2008) (citation omitted) (explaining that “the various definitions of ‘seizure’ contained in [Fourth Amendment] precedents connote an intentional interference with a person‘s liberty by physical force or a show of authority that would cause a reasonable person consciously to submit“). Similarly, knowing the particular facts and circumstances that confronted the officers in the moment they killed Thompson is essential to determining whether or not the officers’ actions were objectively reasonable as a matter of law. See Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 397, 109 S.Ct. 1865, 104 L.Ed.2d 443 (1989) (“[T]he ‘reasonableness’ inquiry in an excessive force case is an objective one: the question is whether the officers’ actions are ‘objectively reasonable’ in light of the facts and circumstances confronting them, without regard to their underlying intent or motivation.“). With respect to the record evidence on summary judgment, the district court found that submitted video evidence from McKinley‘s dashboard camera is ambiguous, that “there аre conflicting assessments by the parties’ expert witnesses as to what occurred during the shooting[,]” that a third officer‘s “statements suggest a different series of events than what was reported by McKinley and McDannald,” and that “numerous inconsistencies in McKinley and McDannald‘s accounts call their narratives into doubt, in addition to other significant reasons that a jury might question their credibility.” (R. 27, PageID 8610.)
These factual disputes are neither “minor[,]” Beard, 402 F.3d at 602 n. 5, nor “immaterial to the legal issues raised by the appeal,” Claybrook, 274 F.3d at 1103 (citation omitted). Rather, they are the
basis of the legal arguments that McKinley and McDannald present to this panel: that no Fourth Amendmеnt seizure took place and that neither McKinley‘s nor McDannald‘s actions were objectively unreasonable. Because the officers’ factual assertions are crucial to their claims, I would hold that governing precedent obliges us to dismiss this case for lack of jurisdiction and return it to the district court for the trial judge to undertake the core function of trial courts—supervise trial proceedings before the jury assigned to hear this case.
No. 16-5447
United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.
Decided and Filed: July 29, 2016