Ryan CROSTLEY; Shannon Finley, Plaintiffs-Appellants v. LAMAR COUNTY, TEXAS; Chris Brooks; Stacy McNeal; Timothy Keele, Defendants-Appellees.
No. 12-40288.
United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.
May 29, 2013.
The case law finding ambiguity rests on the terms “included in” and “under,” two words not normally the subject of such parsing. Reading the phrase in
But if ambiguity exists, the consequence of the “broad view” is that the “except” clause abrogates the absolute priority rule for individual debtors. This is a startling, and most indirect, way for Congress to have effected partial implicit repeal of the very provision that the section amended. As a matter of standard statutory construction, this result is unacceptable. Repeals by implication are disfavored and will not be presumed unless the legislature‘s intent is “clear and manifest.” Nat‘l Ass‘n of Home Builders v. Defenders of Wildlife, 551 U.S. 644, 662, 127 S.Ct. 2518, 2532, 168 L.Ed.2d 467 (2007). The Court has also explained that “we will not read the Bankruptcy Code to erode past bankruptcy practice absent a clear indication that Congress intended such a departure.” Hamilton v. Lanning, 560 U.S. 505, 130 S.Ct. 2464, 2473, 177 L.Ed.2d 23 (2010) (quotation omitted). The absolute priority rule, in particular, has been a cornerstone of equitable distribution for Chapter 11 creditors for over a century.
We must presume Congress was well aware of that rule and, in the absence of a clearer directive, modified
For these reasons, the bankruptcy court‘s judgment is AFFIRMED.
Robert Scott Davis, Esq., Lee Ina Correa, David Ryan Herring Iglesias, Flowers Davis, P.L.L.C., Tyler, TX, for Defendants-Appellees.
Before REAVLEY, PRADO, and ELROD, Circuit Judges.
EDWARD C. PRADO, Circuit Judge:
Plaintiff-Appellants Ryan Crostley and Shannon Finley (“Appellants“) were arrested for the murder of Brandon McClelland after an investigation conducted by, among others, Defendant-Appellees Stacy McNeal and Chris Brooks (“Appellees“). Eventually, all charges against Appellants were dropped, and they filed this civil rights action on January 26, 2010, seeking damages for injury suffered as a result of their nine-month imprisonment. In addition to McNeal and Brooks, the original complaint named Lamar County as a defendant. The district court dismissed all claims against Lamar County with prejudice on July 21, 2010. After the deadline for joining new parties to the litigation expired, Appellants filed a motion for leave to amend their complaint to add Department of Public Safety (DPS) Officer Timothy Keele as a defendant for the first time, and to add Lamar County as a defendant for a second time. The district court denied this motion. In September 2011 and February 2012 respectively, the district court granted summary judgment for McNeal and Brooks on the basis of their qualified immunity.
Appellants appeal the denial of their motion for leave to amend to add Lamar County and Officer Keele as defendants, as well as the orders granting summary judgment for McNeal and Brooks. We reverse the district court‘s denial of Appellants’ motion for leave to amend as it relates to Lamar County, but affirm the denial as it pertains to Keele. We affirm the district court‘s orders granting summary judgment for Appellees on Appellants’
I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND1
On September 15, 2008, Shannon Finley and Brandon McClelland installed sheetrock together for a man in Paris, Texas. After work, they picked up their friend Ryan Crostley, bought beer, and drove to another friend‘s house nearby to begin drinking. Once there, all three drank beer and smoked marijuana. At some point in the evening, McClelland and Finley also took Xanax, a central nervous system depressant. Because they could not purchase alcohol in Texas after midnight, at some time in the early morning of September 16, all three left and drove in Finley‘s Dodge Dakota to Oklahoma to purchase more beer, taking Highway 271.
Sometime around 4:20 a.m., McClelland, now walking along FM 2648, was struck and killed by a semi-trailer truck driven by Gary Clark. Clark felt a bump from the right side of his trailer tires, but otherwise had no indication that he had hit anything. Clark continued down the road for about five miles before stopping to see if he had gotten a flat tire. Finding that he had not, he continued to his destination in Idabel, Oklahoma.
Around the time of the accident, Brandon Smith and Clint Frachiseur, two friends driving on FM 2648 in separate cars, passed an eighteen-wheeler coming the opposite direction that was allegedly driving over the speed limit and partly over the center dividing line. Moments after passing the truck, they came upon McClelland‘s body in the road. They then pulled over and called 911. Smith later told authorities that McClelland‘s body was still emitting steam when they arrived. Two other witnesses also attested to passing a truck similar to Clark‘s shortly before passing McClelland‘s body in the road.
DPS Officer Keele, DPS Sergeant James Kain, Lamar County Investigator Joe Tuttle, and Lamar County Sheriff‘s Deputy Tom Barr were all dispatched to the scene. Tuttle recorded the witnesses’ statements. DPS Sergeant Chris Brooks arrived at the accident site sometime close to 5:00 a.m., after the witnesses had left. The officers at the scene noted that McClelland, who weighed 284 pounds at the time of his death, had been severely injured by the impact. He suffered a complete fracture of his pelvis, blunt head trauma so serious that brain matter was found on the highway, and lacerations of his legs approximately thirteen inches above the heel. No debris from any vehicle was found at the accident site.
Later in the morning of September 16, Keele met with members of McClelland‘s family to deliver the news of his death. McClelland‘s mother informed Keele that McClelland had been with Crostley and Finley the night before, and gave him their telephone numbers. Keele called Crostley and Finley and asked them to come to the Paris DPS office. When they arrived, Keele obtained a written statement from Finley while another officer simultaneously obtained a statement from Crostley. Both statements contained accounts of the argument between Finley and his passengers, and neither suggested that Crostley and Finley saw McClelland at any point after they drove away the second time. After Crostley and Finley left, Keele called Finley again to ask him to bring his truck into the DPS office, which Finley did. At some point before Finley brought in his truck, Finley and Crostley had cleaned the vomit out of the area in front of the front passenger seat, but it is unclear whether this occurred before or after they were first contacted by DPS personnel. Keele and Kain examined the truck and noticed no significant damage to the truck‘s body. Photographs of the truck indicate there was no observable damage to the bumper, hood, or windshield. Keele noted that a part of the truck looked like it had been washed, but not very well. There was grass, rust, and dirt on the truck‘s undercarriage. The truck was released back to Finley after the officers had finished their examination.
The next day, on September 18, Keele interviewed Lisa Deninfield, the mother of Finley‘s estranged wife Ashley Finley, who stated that her daughter had information about McClelland‘s death. Keele then interviewed Ashley Finley, who said that she had spoken with Newkirk, who said that he had talked to Crostley, and that Crostley had told him he had been in Finley‘s truck when Finley ran over McClelland and killed him. Ashley also stated that she had been told Finley had washed his truck at a car wash in Powderly, Texas, after the incident. That afternoon, either Kain or Keele reviewed videotape from the car wash Ashley Finley identified, but found no indication in the footage that the car wash had been visited by a Dodge Dakota.
The same day, Billy Pillars, a Paris police officer on patrol at the time, was flagged down by Laster, who said that he had information about the events of the night of September 15-16. Laster stated that Finley had told him about fighting with McClelland and that Finley had admitted to running McClelland over. Laster claimed that the vehicle in question was a Toyota Tundra. Pillars provided an incident report to Brooks, who had been briefed on the investigation that day by Keele.
That evening, on September 18, Ranger Stacy McNeal also began working on the investigation. After he and Brooks were briefed, they went to Crostley‘s residence and asked him to come into the Paris police station to give another interview. Crostley agreed, and gave an account consistent with his September 16th statement. Keele prepared an affidavit for a search warrant to allow the investigators to search Finley‘s truck, which was signed by a magistrate later that evening.
On September 20, McNeal and Brooks executed the search warrant after they located Finley‘s truck in a field on Finley‘s father‘s property. They noticed that the carpet on the floorboard was wet and that water was draining from the drain plugs. McNeal and Brooks had the vehicle towed to a garage where they put it on a lift to inspect the undercarriage. Using a Hemastix test, they identified two areas on the truck where the presence of human blood could not be ruled out (the areas tested “presumptively positive” for human blood).2 The samples were sent to the DPS Crime Lab three days later for a conclusive determination of whether human blood was present.
While they were still at Finley‘s father‘s residence, McNeal and Brooks interviewed Finley‘s father, who stated that he had moved Finley‘s truck to the field because Finley had been receiving threats related to McClelland‘s death, and Finley‘s father was concerned that if people saw his truck at the residence, they would believe Finley was also there. Finley‘s father said that Finley had left Paris to stay with friends in Kansas because he feared for his safety, but that he would willingly return if the authorities needed to talk to him.3 Finley‘s father also provided Finley‘s contact information to Tuttle.4
On September 23, McNeal called Finley‘s father regarding Finley‘s whereabouts. Finley‘s father told him the name of the family friend in Kansas with whom Finley was staying, and that while he could not remember Finley‘s telephone number, it had been provided to Tuttle. McNeal called Tuttle and successfully obtained Finley‘s phone number.
The following day, Brooks and McNeal prepared affidavits, sworn by Brooks, for use in obtaining arrest warrants for Finley and Crostley, charging them both with murder and evidence tampering. The affidavits corresponding to each of the four charges were identical, and gave an account of the events of the night of September 15 that largely tracked what Laster had stated in his interview two days before. The affidavits claimed that in his September 16th interview, “Finley advised that he last saw McClelland walking east on FM 2648.” They stated that Ashley Finley had told Keele that “Crostley stated that Finley began to ‘bump’ McClelland with the front bumper of the truck until McClelland fell down” and then Finley ran him over, a statement Ashley Finley never actually made. The affidavits also included the statement:
On September 18, 2008 affiant traced Shannon Finley to an area outside of Wichita, Kansas. Affiant beliefs [sic] after reviewing reports and statements and speaking with all officers involved in this investigation that Shannon Finley is attempting to elude officers and conceal evidence that maybe [sic] on and or under Finley‘s vehicle.
Regarding the samples from Finley‘s truck that were sent to the DPS Crime Lab the day before but had not yet been processed, the affidavits say, “Upon viewing the undercarriage of the truck two separate parts of the truck contained human blood.” The affidavits were presented to a justice of the peace, who signed and issued the desired arrest warrants. Crostley and Finley were arrested shortly thereafter.
McNeal and Brooks continued to collect evidence and conduct interviews. In interviews, Finley and Crostley each repeated their account of the relevant events, which were consistent with their earlier statements. On September 29, McNeal spoke to residents of the apartment complex where Finley‘s apartment was located and learned of the threats Laster and Newkirk had made against Crostley and Finley on the night of September 17. McNeal and Brooks interviewed employees at Wesco Trucking, the company that employed Gary Clark, about a turquoise “truck tractor” that Wesco personnel thought may have run over McClelland. It was determined that this truck had been out of service on the night McClelland died. McNeal and Brooks executed a second search warrant for Finley‘s truck, finding a fiber that ultimately proved to be plant matter, and noting a “water line” on the truck‘s door. On October 21, Keele called the medical examiner, gave the examiner the account Laster and Newkirk had provided, and allegedly asked the examiner to change the autopsy report so that McClelland‘s death was listed as a homicide, rather than an accident.
Crostley and Finley filed the present suit on January 26, 2010, nearly eight months before the two-year anniversary of their arrest. In the original complaint, they named Lamar County, Brooks, McNeal, and Special Prosecutor Toby Shook as defendants. Invoking
On October 12, the court denied Appellants’ motion for leave to add Lamar County and Keele as defendants, deciding, among other things, that amendment would be futile because the statute of limitations had elapsed. The district court also granted summary judgment for Brooks and McNeal, finding they were both entitled to qualified immunity with respect to the federal false arrest and state malicious prosecution claims, the only claims still at issue. On November 17, 2011, Appellants filed a motion for reconsideration of their motion for leave to amend, which was also denied.
Appellants now appeal the grant of summary judgment on the false arrest claim in favor of Brooks and McNeal, the grant of summary judgment on the malicious prosecution claim in favor of Brooks, and the denial of their motion for leave to amend.
A. Leave to Amend
i. The District Court‘s Orders
On July 21, 2010, as part of an order adjudicating a motion to dismiss filed on behalf of both Lamar County and Brooks, the district court dismissed all
On June 3, 2011, Appellants filed a motion for leave to amend pursuant to
On October 12, 2011, the district court denied Appellants’ motion for leave to amend. Because the motion had been filed after the deadline for adding new parties to the suit, the district court first reviewed the motion using
According to the court, unless exceptions created by estoppel, equitable tolling, or relation back doctrine applied,5 claims against both Lamar County and Keele would be futile because the two-year statute of limitations had run as of the time Appellants filed their motion for leave to amend. With respect to Keele, the court found that estoppel did not apply because Keele never misled Appellants about his identity. It also found that the “rare remedy” of equitable tolling was not appropriate because no “extraordinary circumstance” stood in the way of Appellants’ timely filing. Relation back doctrine was not applicable, because Keele, never previously having been a named defendant, did not receive adequate notice of the possibility of an action against him.6
Appellants then filed a motion for reconsideration of their motion for leave to amend. They argued in that motion, and argue again on appeal, that
This Court reviews a district court‘s denial of a motion to amend for abuse of discretion. Baker v. Putnal, 75 F.3d 190, 196 (5th Cir. 1996). A district court possesses broad discretion in its decision whether to permit amended complaints. McLean v. Int‘l Harvester Co., 817 F.2d 1214, 1224 (5th Cir. 1987) (citing Chitimacha Tribe v. Harry L. Laws Co., 690 F.2d 1157, 1163 (5th Cir. 1982)).
iii. Lamar County
Because the district court did not certify as a final judgment its initial order dismissing the claims against Lamar County with prejudice, Lamar County was still a party to the suit at the time Appellants sought leave to amend their complaint. The district court thus abused its discretion in denying Appellants’ motion for leave to amend.
When an action presents more than one claim for relief—whether as a claim, counterclaim, crossclaim, or third-party claim—or when multiple parties are involved, the court may direct entry of a final judgment as to one or more, but fewer than all, claims or parties only if the court expressly determines that there is no just reason for delay. Otherwise, any order or other decision, howsoever designated, that adjudicates fewer than all the claims or the rights and liabilities of fewer than all the parties does not end the action as to any of the claims or parties and may be revised at any time before the entry of a judgment adjudicating all the claims and all the parties’ rights and liabilities.
The district court exhibited no such unmistakable intent in its order dismissing Appellants’ claims against Lamar County. In fact, the order contains no indication at all that the district court intended the dismissal to be appealable—there is no use of the word “final” and no mention of Rule 54(b), much less a certification that there was “no just reason for delay.” Cf. Briargrove Shopping Ctr., 170 F.3d at 538, 541 (holding that even though a district court order included the statement, “This is a Final Judgment[,]” the order nonetheless “fail[ed] by a wide margin to meet [the] test [for Rule 54(b) certification]“). This Court would not therefore have had jurisdiction to hear an appeal of the dismissal with prejudice.
iv. Officer Keele
The district court did not, however, abuse its discretion when it denied Appellants leave to amend their complaint to add Keele to the litigation. The district court correctly noted that relation back under
Similarly, estoppel only applies if the party in question misrepresents his identity to the plaintiff, which Keele did not do. See Hafferman v. Westinghouse Electric Corp., 653 F.Supp. 423, 428 (D.D.C. 1986) (“[I]t is well recognized that if a party sought to be added to a complaint misleads a plaintiff as to its identity, the new defendant will be estopped from asserting a statute of limitations defense.” (emphasis added)).
Finally, the district court correctly concluded that application of equitable tolling is not justified in this case. Appellants’ having been unaware of certain information before Keele‘s deposition did not amount to an “extraordinary circumstance” as the doctrine requires. See Lawrence v. Florida, 549 U.S. 327, 336, 127 S.Ct. 1079, 166 L.Ed.2d 924 (2007) (explaining that equitable tolling requires a showing “(1) [a litigant] has been pursuing his rights diligently, and (2) that some extraordinary circumstance stood in his way’ and prevented timely filing.” (quoting Pace v. DiGuglielmo, 544 U.S. 408, 418, 125 S.Ct. 1807, 161 L.Ed.2d 669 (2005))). Cf. Irwin v. Dep‘t of Veterans Affairs, 498 U.S. 89, 96, 111 S.Ct. 453, 112 L.Ed.2d 435 (1990) (“Federal courts have typically extended equitable [tolling] relief only sparingly[:] where the claimant has actively pursued his judicial remedies by filing a defective pleading during the statutory period, or where the complainant has been induced or tricked ... into allowing the filing deadline to pass.” (footnote omitted)). Appellants do not contend that any other exception applies. Therefore, the bar created by the statute of limitations for a claim against Keele means that an amendment adding him as a defendant would indeed be futile. We thus affirm the denial of Appellants’ motion for leave to amend as it relates to Keele.
i. Standard of Review
This Court reviews de novo a district court‘s grant of summary judgment. XL Specialty Ins. Co. v. Kiewit Offshore Servs., Ltd., 513 F.3d 146, 149 (5th Cir. 2008). “The evidence of the non-movant is to be believed, and all justifiable inferences are to be drawn in his favor.” Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 255, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). Summary judgment is only appropriate where there is “no genuine issue as to any material fact and ... the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” Id. at 247, 106 S.Ct. 2505. “Material facts” are those that “might affect the outcome of the suit under the governing law.” Id. at 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505.
ii. Analysis
Qualified immunity protects government officials from liability for civil damages to the extent that their conduct is objectively reasonable in light of clearly established law. Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982); Kinney v. Weaver, 367 F.3d 337, 346 (5th Cir. 2004) (en banc). “When a defendant invokes qualified immunity, the burden is on the plaintiff to demonstrate the inapplicability of the defense.” McClendon v. City of Columbia, 305 F.3d 314, 323 (5th Cir. 2002).
To demonstrate the inapplicability of the qualified immunity defense, the plaintiff must satisfy a two-prong test: “First, he must claim that the defendants committed a constitutional violation under current law. Second, he must claim that the defendants’ actions were objectively unreasonable in light of the law that was clearly established at the time of the actions complained of.” Atteberry v. Nocona Gen. Hosp., 430 F.3d 245, 253 (5th Cir. 2005) (citations omitted); see also Pfannstiel v. City of Marion, 918 F.2d 1178, 1183 (5th Cir. 1990), abrogated on other grounds as recognized in Martin v. Thomas, 973 F.2d 449, 455 (5th Cir. 1992) (“A defendant is entitled to qualified immunity unless, ‘on an objective basis, it is obvious that no reasonably competent officer would have concluded that a warrant should issue....‘“) (quoting Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 341, 106 S.Ct. 1092, 89 L.Ed.2d 271 (1986)). The Court may conduct the two-pronged inquiry in any order. See Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223, 236, 129 S.Ct. 808, 172 L.Ed.2d 565 (2009).
We begin our analysis with the second prong, and conclude that because Appellees were not “objectively unreasonable” in believing there was probable cause to arrest Crostley and Finley, the district court was correct in granting Appellees’ respective motions for summary judgment.7 This Court determines whether an officer was objectively unreasonable after taking into account the totality of the circumstances at the time the arrests were made. See Beck v. Ohio, 379 U.S. 89, 91, 85 S.Ct. 223, 13 L.Ed.2d 142 (1964); Freeman v. Gore, 483 F.3d 404, 411 (5th Cir. 2007) (“[T]he court applies an objective standard based on the viewpoint of a reasonable official in light of the information then available to the defendant....“); United States v. Maslanka, 501 F.2d 208, 212 (5th Cir. 1974) (“To determine the presence or absence of probable cause to arrest, one must consider the totality of the circumstances surrounding the arrest.“).
Admittedly, much of the evidence Appellees cite in their briefing and in the arrest warrant affidavit as establishing probable cause is of dubious quality. For example, Brooks claims that investigators determined that McClelland had been run over and dragged at a low speed, but this statement appears only in the affidavit Brooks prepared as part of his defense in this suit, and nowhere else in the record. There is little evidence that Crostley and Finley ever traveled on the road on which McClelland was killed, contrary to the claims in the arrest warrant affidavit. While Appellees claim that the undercarriage of Finley‘s truck had been “washed, cleaned, and driven through tall grass,” photographs of the truck taken at the time do not support this conclusion. Finley did not “flee the state,” as Appellees claim, but rather sought refuge with a friend after receiving threats, and then only after he had given his contact information to law enforcement officials. Appellees were aware that this was the case because of their conversation with Finley‘s father.
However, the deficiency of any one piece of evidence used to demonstrate probable cause does not, on its own, mean that probable cause did not exist. See, e.g., United States v. Privette, 947 F.2d 1259, 1260 (5th Cir. 1991) (“Because the affidavit supports a finding of probable cause when read without the challenged statements, the trial court did not err in denying [the defendant‘s] motion to suppress.“). In this case, there was enough evidence suggesting Appellants’ culpability that we cannot say Appellees were objectively unreasonable in concluding there was probable cause for their arrest. Appellants admit that they had been drinking heavily the night of McClelland‘s death, that the three friends had argued before McClelland exited Finley‘s truck that night, and that Appellants were the last people to see McClelland alive. Appellees were told by Ashley Finley and Officer Pillars that Crostley and Finley had admitted to killing McClelland to Newkirk and Laster. Hearsay statements such as these can be considered as part of the totality of the circumstances in determining if there was probable cause. See Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 239-40, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983); United States v. Jackson, 818 F.2d 345, 348 (5th Cir. 1987); see also United States v. Fooladi, 703 F.2d 180, 183 (5th Cir. 1983) (“[W]hen an average citizen tenders information to the police, the police should be permitted to assume that they are dealing with a credible person in the absence of special circumstances suggesting that such might not be the case.“). While Laster and Newkirk later effectively recanted their statements, at the time of Appellants’ arrests, Appellees had no reason to disbelieve the witnesses.8 Appellees were not objectively unreasonable in concluding that these pieces of evidence, taken together, gave them probable cause to arrest Appellants. We affirm the district court‘s grant of summary judgment in favor of Appellees with respect to Appellants’
Texas recognizes an “official immunity” defense to state law claims such as malicious prosecution. City of Lancaster v. Chambers, 883 S.W.2d 650, 653 (Tex. 1994). State actors are entitled to official immunity from state law liability for “(1) the performance of discretionary duties (2) that are within the scope of the employees’ authority, (3) provided that the employee acts in good faith.” Telthorster v. Tennell, 92 S.W.3d 457, 460-61 (Tex. 2002); see also DeWitt v. Harris Cnty., 904 S.W.2d 650, 652 (Tex. 1995). “Texas law of official immunity is substantially the same as federal qualified immunity.” Wren v. Towe, 130 F.3d 1154, 1160 (5th Cir. 1997); see also Hart v. O‘Brien, 127 F.3d 424, 452 (5th Cir. 1997) (holding that where officers “reasonably believed they had probable cause to proceed against [the plaintiff],” as determined in the federal qualified immunity analysis, the plaintiff “cannot assert a claim for malicious prosecution” under Texas law). Appellees were clearly performing discretionary duties within the scope of their authority. Because we find that Appellees were not objectively unreasonable in believing that probable cause existed, we cannot say they were not acting in good faith over the course of their investigation and arrest of Appellants. We therefore hold that Appellees are entitled to state official immunity. The district court was correct in granting their summary judgment motion as to Appellants‘s state malicious prosecution claim.
III. CONCLUSION
For the reasons above, we REVERSE the district court‘s denial of Appellants’ motion for leave to amend as it relates to Lamar County and REMAND for proceedings consistent with this opinion, but AFFIRM the denial as it relates to Keele. We AFFIRM the district court‘s orders granting summary judgment for Appellees.