Mоnica REVENE, Individually, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CHARLES COUNTY COMMISSIONERS; Office of the Sheriff of Charles County; James Gartland, in his official capacity as Sheriff, Charles County, Maryland; Robert L. Foster, Defendants-Appellees.
No. 88-3217.
United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.
Argued May 9, 1989. Decided Aug. 14, 1989.
882 F.2d 870 | 14 Fed.R.Serv.3d 814
Jerome C. Schaefer (Carl Roberts, Hanson, O‘Brien, Birney & Butler, Rockville, Md., on brief), for defendants-appellees.
Before PHILLIPS and CHAPMAN, Circuit Judges, and KAUFMAN, Senior District Judgе for the District of Maryland, sitting by designation.
PHILLIPS, Circuit Judge:
Monica Revene, as personal representative of her deceased husband‘s estate, appeals from the district court‘s dismissal of her action under
I
The basic facts, as alleged in the complaint, were these.
At 10:30 p.m. on October 6, 1987, Mark Anthony Revene was driving his car in St. Charles, Maryland. At some point, Charles County Deputy Sheriff Robert L. Foster, who was off duty at the time and driving his own vehicle, began to follow Mark Revene, pulling into the driveway behind Revene when he reached his destination. After some type of altercation ensued, Deputy Sheriff Foster got out of his vehicle, drew a handgun and fired, killing Mark Revene.
Some eight months later Monica Revene, as personal representative, filed the complaint in this case in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. After two extensions of time to plead responsively, the defendants filed a joint motion to dismiss pursuant to
Some three months later before any discovery was conducted,1 and without a hearing, the district court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss. All of the federal claims were dismissed on the ground that Revene failed to allege adequately that the off-duty officer was acting under color of state law. The court alternatively dismissed the federal claim against the Charles County Commissioners on the ground that they were not proper defendants because, under Maryland law, they are not responsible for the supervision of county sheriffs. With respect to the Commissioners and the County Sheriff, the court further reasoned that dismissal of the federal claims was proper because the complaint failed to allege sufficiently that the deputy sheriff was acting pursuant to a “policy or custom” that was “enacted or condoned” by either of these defendants. Finally, the court held that the “Office of Sheriff” was not subject to suit because it was not a separate, legal entity. Having dismissed all of the federal claims, the court dismissed the pendent state-law claims against all the defendants “for lack оf independent jurisdiction.”2
II
In actions under
[w]hen a federal court reviews the sufficiency of a cоmplaint, before the reception of any evidence either by affidavit or admissions, its task is necessarily a limited one. The issue is not whether a plaintiff will ultimately prevail but whether the claimant is entitled to offer evidence to support the claims. Indeed it may appear on the face of the pleadings that a recovery is very remote and unlikely but that is not the test. Moreover, it is well established that, in passing on a motion to dismiss ... for failure to state a cause of action, the allegations of the complaint should be construed favorably to the pleader.
Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. 232, 236, 94 S.Ct. 1683, 1686, 40 L.Ed.2d 90 (1974). We of course review de novo the district court‘s
In granting the defendants’ motion to dismiss here the district court recognized its “limited role,” but reasoning that dismissal was still warranted at the pleading stage because the allegations of the complaint failed to establish that Deputy Sheriff Foster was acting under color of state law, an essential element of the Sec. 1983 claim. The court explained that
[i]n the complaint, [Revene] admits that Deputy Sheriff Foster was off duty and not in uniform and оperating his own vehicle. Defendant Foster was acting outside of his duties as a Deputy Sheriff. A defendant‘s position as a state official does not make his every action one under color of state law. Only when the defendant is using power granted by the state does it become “state action.” ... Thus the liability imposed on a state official under
42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 ... does not apply to Robert Foster in this case.
Dismissal on this basis was error. The “admission” in the complaint that Deputy Sheriff Foster was off duty, out of uniform and operating his own vehicle at the time of the shooting incident is, contrary to the district court‘s apparent view, not dispositive. While it certainly is true that “[a]cts of police officers in the ambit of their personal, private pursuits fall outside of
Under state law, Charles County personnel, such as Deputy Sheriff Foster, are assigned set hours of “active duty” each work day but аre, by local ordinance, “on duty twenty-four (24) hours a day” and are expected to “tak[e] proper police action on any matter coming to their attention at any time.” Charles County Sheriff‘s Department Manual of Policy and Ethics Sec. 1407. Even when “off duty,” then, Charles County deputy sheriffs retain authority to conduct official police actiоn, and any action purportedly taken pursuant to this authority would be under color of state law whether the deputies “hew to the line of their authority or overstep it.” Screws v. United States, 325 U.S. 91, 111, 65 S.Ct. 1031, 1040, 89 L.Ed. 1495 (1945) (Douglas, J.).3
Defendant-appellees now claim, however, perhaps in recognition of the district court‘s erroneous basis for dismissal, that “[t]he implicit basis оf the District Court‘s decision is that Revene‘s Complaint does not adequately allege that Foster was acting in his capacity as a Deputy Sheriff at the time of the incident....” Appellees’ Brief at 9. We are convinced, however, that, construing the complaint as we must, assuming the truth of the pleaded facts, Powell v. Shopco Laurel Co., 678 F.2d 504, 505 n. 2 (4th Cir.1982), the complaint sufficiently alleges that at the critical time Foster was acting under color of state law. We need not decide whether the mere recitation that Foster was at all times acting “under the color and pretense of the statutes, ordinances, regulations, customs and usages of the State of Maryland, and Charles County” would suffice for this purpose, standing alone. See District 28, 609 F.2d at 1085-86 (In reviewing
Such is the cаse here. In addition to asserting that Deputy Sheriff Foster was acting under color of state law at all relevant times, Revene alleged in her complaint that,
[o]n 6 October 1987 Defendant Charles County Deputy Sheriff Robert L. Foster while off duty and operating his own vehicle pursued a vehicle operated by [decedent] in Charles County, Maryland. Defendant Foster followed [decedent] to his home.... There defendant Foster got out of his vehicle, produced a handgun, pointed said gun at [decedent] and fired said weapon without just cause or provocation, striking [decedent] and causing his subsequent death.
Although these allegations can be read as consistent with a purely personal pursuit, outside the scope of Sec. 1983, when read with a slightly different cast, they can also be viewed as consistent with an officer‘s “[m]isuse of power ... possessed by virtue of state law,” which of course falls within Sec. 1983. Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. at 183-86, 81 S.Ct. at 481-83; Screws, 325 U.S. at 111, 65 S.Ct. at 1040. These specific factual allegations, when coupled with the assertion that Deputy Sheriff Foster was acting under color of state law, served adequately to “put the defendant[s] on notice of the nature of the ... claim and the grounds upon which it rests.” Linder v. Litton Systems, Inc., 81 F.R.D. 14, 16-17 (D.Md.1978). See also Colburn v. Upper Darby Township, 838 F.2d 663, 666 (3d Cir.1988) (noting that in Sec. 1983 context, the “crucial questions are whether sufficient facts are pleaded to determine that the complaint is not frivolous, and to provide defendants with adequate notice tо frame an answer“).
For these reasons, we conclude that Revene‘s complaint sufficiently alleged a Sec. 1983 claim against officer Foster in his individual capacity to withstand the motion to dismiss.
III
The question whether the complaint sufficiently alleged Sec. 1983 claims against the Sheriff in his official capacity, the “Office of Sheriff,” and the Board of County Commissioners is more difficult. In the end, however, we think these claims were properly dismissed.
In the first place, we think that as pleaded they all come to a claim against the Board of County Commissioners as the governing body of Charles County. The separate claim against the “Office of Sheriff” was rightly dismissed on the basis that this “office” is not a cognizable legal entity separate from the Sheriff in his official capacity and the county government of which this “office” is simply an agency. See Hancock v. Washtenaw County Prosecutor‘s Office, 548 F.Supp. 1255 (E.D.Mich.1982) (prosecutor‘s office not a legal entity amenable to suit under Sec. 1983); In re Scott County Master Docket, 672 F.Supp. 1152 (D.Minn.1987) (same as to county attorney‘s and sheriff‘s offices).
Construed in this light, the claims against the sheriff and the Board could have legal viability only as claims of liability of Charles County as a municipality for Revene‘s death. So construed, we agree with the district court that the complaint fails to allege facts sufficient to withstand the
As the Supreme Court has recently еxplained, while municipalities such as Charles County may be liable under Sec. 1983 for inadequate police training policies that directly cause constitutional deprivations by individual police officers, the test of municipal liability is a most stringent one. City of Canton v. Harris, --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 1197, 103 L.Ed.2d 412 (U.S.1989). To establish municipal liability on this basis, a claimant must allege and prove that a muniсipal governing body (or its authorized policy-makers) has followed a policy of inadequate training for its police in respect of particular tasks for which “the need for more or different training is so obvious, and the inadequacy so likely to result in the violation of constitutional rights, that the policymakers ... can reasonably be said to have been deliberately indifferent to the need,” id. at ----, 109 S.Ct. at 1205, and that the inadequate training “actually caused” a claimed injury. Id. at ----, 109 S.Ct. at 1207.
While, as indicated in Part II, a civil rights claimant may not be held to strict fact-pleading requirements to proceed past the pleading stage, Revene‘s claim of municipal liability as pleaded here fails even the liberal noticе-pleading requirement of the civil rules. Its critical allegations of a municipal policy of inadequate training are asserted entirely as legal conclusions. There are not supporting facts of even the most general nature to suggest any specific deficiencies in training for off-duty conduct, or that the incident here alleged was аnything but an aberrational act by an individual officer, however motivated. Neither are there any allegations of any developed practice or custom of comparable conduct that might be charged to the deliberate indifference of municipal policy-making authorities.
As earlier noted, Sec. 1983 complaints which on сritical elements of a claim merely recite legal conclusions “wholly devoid of facts,” may properly be dismissed for insufficiency of statement, see Strauss v. City of Chicago, 760 F.2d at 767 (Sec. 1983 claimant must allege some fact or facts tending to support assertion that municipal policy has caused his constitutional injury to survive
For these reasons, the district court did not err in dismissing the Sec. 1983 claims against the Sheriff, the “Office of Sheriff,” and the Board of County Commissioners.4
IV
As indicated in Part I, the district court, having concluded that all the Sec. 1983 federal claims must be dismissed, also dismissed the рendent state-law wrongful death and survival claims against each of the defendants. Because the Sec. 1983 claim against Deputy Sheriff Foster should not have been dismissed, neither should the parallel state-law claim, which “arose from a common nucleus of operative fact.” See United Mine Workers v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 725, 86 S.Ct. 1130, 1138, 16 L.Ed.2d 218 (1966). Although it was proper to dismiss the pendent state-law claims against the other defendants once the federal claims against them were properly dismissed on the merits, the state-law claims should have been dismissed without prejudice.
In summary, the district court‘s dismissal of the Sec. 1983 claim and the pendent state-law claim against officer Foster must be reversed, and those claims remanded to the distriсt court for further proceedings. The district court‘s order dismissing the pendent state-law claims against the Sheriff and the Board of County Commissioners should have been entered without prejudice, and upon remand, the court‘s judgment should be amended accordingly. The district court‘s dismissal of the Sec. 1983 claim against the Sheriff, the “Office of Sheriff,” and the Board of County Cоmmissioners must be affirmed.
AFFIRMED IN PART; REVERSED IN PART AND REMANDED.