Goines v. James
Annotate this CaseJanuary 1993 Term
__________
No. 21363
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SARAH E. GOINES AND CURTIS E. GOINES,
Plaintiffs Below, Appellants,
v.
OFFICER JEFFREY GOFF JAMES, ET AL., INDIVIDUALLY,
AND AS MEMBERS OF THE PARKERSBURG CITY POLICE
DEPARTMENT; AND THE CITY OF PARKERSBURG,
A MUNICIPAL CORPORATION,
Defendants Below, Appellees
____________________________________________________
Appeal from the Circuit Court of Wood County
Honorable Arthur N. Gustke, Circuit Judge
Civil Action No. 88-C-656
AFFIRMED
_____________________________________________________
Submitted: January 26, 1993
Filed: July 22, 1993
Sarah Goines
Parkersburg, West Virginia
Pro Se
Steven M. McGowan
Andrew L. Paternostro
Steptoe & Johnson
Charleston, West Virginia
Counsel for Appellees
Larry N. Sullivan
Parkersburg, West Virginia
Counsel for Curtis E. Goines
CHIEF JUSTICE WORKMAN Delivered the Opinion of the Court.
SYLLABUS BY THE COURT
1. "Government officials performing discretionary functions
are shielded from liability for civil damages insofar as their
conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or
constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have
known. A policeman's lot is not so unhappy that he must choose
between being charged with dereliction of duty if he does not
arrest when he has probable cause, and being mulcted in damages if
he does." Syllabus, Bennett v. Coffman, 178 W. Va. 500, 361 S.E.2d 465 (1987).
2. Under the doctrine of qualified immunity, a police officer
is absolved from civil liability for following a misdemeanant in
hot pursuit into the residence of a third party, with neither a
warrant nor the permission of the third party, in order to effect
a warrantless arrest of the misdemeanant, so long as such entry
violates no clearly established statutory or constitutional rights.
Workman, Chief Justice:
This case is before the Court upon the appeal of Sarah Goines
and Curtis Goines from an April 16, 1992, order of the Circuit
Court of Wood County denying the Appellants' motion to set aside a
jury verdict and grant a new trial. The Appellants filed suit on
June 13, 1988, pursuant to 42 U. S. C. A. § 1983 (West 1981) based
upon alleged violations of their Fourth Amendment rights.See footnote 1 On
March 6, 1992, the jury returned a defense verdict.See footnote 2 The
Appellants' primary contention turns upon the single issue of
whether a police officer's conduct in following a misdemeanant in
hot pursuit into the residence of a third party,See footnote 3 with neither a
search warrant authorizing such entrance nor with permission of the
owner, in order to effect the arrest of the misdemeanant
constitutes a civil cause of action for which damages may be
recovered.See footnote 4 The Appellants argue that this warrantless search to
effect a misdemeanor arrest was unconstitutional. The Appellees
maintain that the police officers had the right to enter the
Appellants' premises to effect the arrest. Moreover, the Appellees
argue that regardless of what this Court decides on this underlying
issue, the officers are entitled, as a matter of law, to the
defense of qualified immunity in the civil action for damages
because their conduct did not violate clearly established
constitutional law. Based upon a review of the record, the
parties' briefs and arguments and all other matters submitted
before the Court in this matter,See footnote 5 we hold that the officers
involved were entitled to qualified immunitySee footnote 6 for their actions
since the law concerning this constitutional issue was not clearly
established. Accordingly, we affirm the decision of the circuit
court.
I.
On June 14, 1986, Officer Jeffrey James of the Parkersburg
City Police Department was dispatched to respond to a complaint of
disorderly conduct. Upon his arrival at the scene, Officer James
observed a subject, later identified as Gary Shaffer, standing in
front of the Appellants' home holding an open beer bottle. The
officer testified that he observed Mr. Shaffer consume the contents
of a beer bottle he had in his hand, while Mr. Shaffer stood in the
street. Mr. Shaffer then broke the bottle by throwing it onto the
street. Officer James exited his vehicle, approached Mr. Shaffer,
and requested his identification. Mr. Shaffer refused to show the
officer the requested identification and walked away from the
officer into the Appellants' backyard.
Officer James followed Mr. Shaffer, but encountered the
Appellant, Sarah Goines, before reaching him. The officer asked
Ms. Goines if he could question Mr. Shaffer. When Ms. Goines
responded that he could, the officer proceeded to enter the
Appellants' backyard where Mr. Shaffer was standing in the middle
of an ongoing party. When Officer James reached Mr. Shaffer in the
backyard, he again asked Mr. Shaffer for identification. Mr.
Shaffer again refused and walked away. At Appellant Sarah Goines'
direction, Mr. Shaffer entered the Appellants' home through the
back door.
Officer James followed Mr. Shaffer and when he reached him,
the officer grabbed Mr. Shaffer in the doorway to the porch of the
Appellants' home, but Mr. Shaffer pulled away, retreating into the
house. Officer James proceeded into the home. At trial, the
officer testified that he was arresting Mr. Shaffer for public
intoxication. The officer also testified that he had no warrant
for Mr. Shaffer's arrest, no search warrant to enter the premises,
and no resident of the home had consented to or invited the officer
to enter the premises.
Mrs. Goines alleges that the officer made an unprovoked
assault upon her during his entry of the home, which caused serious
bodily injury. Further, while Officer James was attempting to
arrest Mr. Shaffer, the officer was confronted by Steven Goines,
Appellant Sarah Goines' son. Steven Goines demanded that the
officer produce a warrant and that the officer leave the premises.
When the officer tried to explain that he had a right to be in the
home to arrest Mr. Shaffer, a fight between the two ensued. Steven
Goines was then arrested.
Other officers responding to the scene were directed into the
Appellants' home by Officer Hunley to assist Officer James. It was
during all this commotion that Curtis Goines claimed that he was
struck by an object over the ear by an unidentified person who
appeared to be a uniformed officer.See footnote 7
II.
QUALIFIED IMMUNITY
The issue before the Court is whether the police officers are
entitled to qualified immunity to a civil claim. In Harlow v.
Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 815 (1982), the United States Supreme
Court held that government officials, in the present case the
police officers, are entitled to assert a qualified or "'good
faith'" immunitySee footnote 8 from individual liability for conduct arising
during the performance of official duties. However, the police
officers are only "shielded from liability for civil damages
insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established
statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person
would have known."See footnote 9 Id. at 818. Therefore, in order to resolve
this issue of qualified immunity, we must also examine the
constitutional law pertaining to the Fourth Amendment to determine
if the law was clearly established as to whether a warrantless
arrest for a misdemeanor offense committed in an officer's presence
permitted an officer in hot pursuit of the suspect to enter the
residence of a third party without a search warrant or the consent
of the third party to effect the arrest. If the law was clearly
established, that is if a statute existed or this Court or the
United States Supreme Court had held the officers were violating
the Appellants' Fourth Amendment rights by conducting a warrantless
search of the Appellants' residence to effect an arrest of a
misdemeanant whom the officers pursued into the residence in hot
pursuit, then the qualified immunity defense should fail. See id.
at 818-19. If, however, the officer's "duties legitimately require
action in which clearly established rights are not implicated, the
public interest may be better served by action taken 'with
independence and without fear of consequence.'" Id. at 819
(quoting Pierson v. Ray, 386 U.S. 547, 554 (1967)).
According to the Supreme Court of Michigan in Guider v. Smith,
431 Mich. 559, 571 431 N.W.2d 810, 815 (1988), since the United
States Supreme Court defined the limits of qualified immunity in
terms of an objective reasonableness standard of good faith,
"[w]hat the defendant [police officer] believed at the time of the
incident . . . is irrelevant to a determination of the threshold
question whether the defendant's undisputed conduct violated
clearly established law." See Harlow, 457 U.S. at 818. If,
however, the law was clearly established, the immunity defense
should fail unless "the . . . [officer] pleading the defense claims
extraordinary circumstances and can prove that he neither knew nor
should have known of the relevant legal standard. . . ." Id. at
819.
Accordingly, the United States Supreme Court in Harlow
directed that in cases such as these, the lower court judge may
determine on summary judgmentSee footnote 10
not only the currently applicable law, but whether
that law was clearly established at the time an
action occurred. If the law at that time was not
clearly established, an official could not
reasonably be expected to anticipate subsequent
legal developments, nor could he fairly be said to
'know' that the law forbade conduct not previously
identified as unlawful. Until this threshold
immunity question is resolved, discovery should not
be allowed.
Id. at 818 (footnote omitted).
Consequently, we now turn to an examination of federal and
State law in order to ascertain whether the constitutional law
surrounding the Appellants' Fourth Amendment rights was clearly
established at the time the officer's conduct occurred, thereby
enabling this Court to ascertain whether the officers are entitled
to qualified immunity as a matter of law.
WARRANTLESS SEARCH
In United States v. Santana, 427 U.S. 38 (1976), police
officers attempted to effect a warrantless felony arrest of the
defendant for selling drugs while she was standing in the door of
her home. The defendant, however, retreated into her home before
the arrest occurred. The officers, without a search warrant,
followed her into the house and arrested her there. Id. at 40.
The United States Supreme Court, examining the exigent
circumstance of hot pursuit, upheld the warrantless arrest and
search, stating that "a suspect may not defeat an arrest which has
been set in motion in a public place, . . . by the expedient of
escaping to a private place." Id. at 43. The Supreme Court also
addressed the hot pursuit exception and found that
'hot pursuit' means some sort of a chase, but
it need not be an extended hue and cry 'in and
about [the] public streets.' The fact that
the pursuit here ended almost as soon as it
began did not render it any the less a 'hot
pursuit' sufficient to justify the warrantless
entry into Santana's house.
Id.
Subsequently in Welsh v. Wisconsin, 466 U.S. 740 (1984), a
witness observed a car which was being driven erratically and which
eventually swerved off the road. The driver got out of the car and
walked away from the scene. When the police arrived a few minutes
later, the witness told the officer that the driver was either sick
or intoxicated. After ascertaining the identification of the owner
of the vehicle [the petitioner Welsh], the police went to his home
without a warrant. The petitioner's step-daughter allowed the
police to enter the petitioner's home.See footnote 11 The officers found the
petitioner lying naked in bed. Id. at 742-43. The petitioner was
arrested for a first offense driving while under the influence of
an intoxicant, which in Wisconsin was a noncriminal violation
subject only to a civil forfeiture proceeding for a maximum $200
fine. Id. at 743 and 746.
In Welsh, the Supreme Court, in determining whether the
petitioner's arrest was in violation of the Fourth Amendment, held
in a case not involving any exigent circumstances, that the
"warrantless, nighttime entry into the petitioner's home to arrest
him for a civil [nonjailable] traffic offense[,]" constituted a
violation of the petitioner's Fourth Amendment rights. Id. at 754.
The Supreme Court relied upon its prior decision in Payton v. New
York, 445 U.S. 573 (1980), in which the Court held that
"warrantless felony arrests in the home are prohibited by the
Fourth Amendment, absent probable cause [to believe the felony
offense has been committed] and exigent circumstances." Welsh, 466 U.S. at 749 (citing Payton, 466 U.S. at 583-90).
While the Supreme Court stated that "application of the
exigent-circumstances exception in the context of a home entry
should rarely be sanctioned when there is probable cause to believe
that only a minor offense . . . has been committed[,]" there was no
definitive holding or even dicta by the Court which would clearly
establish under what circumstances a warrantless home arrest upon
hot pursuit from a commission of a misdemeanor in the officer's
presence would constitute a Fourth Amendment violation.See footnote 12 Id. at
753.
The closest the Supreme Court came to shedding any light on
the present issue before this Court came in the Welsh decision
after the Supreme Court noted that most jurisdictions had not
permitted warrantless home arrests for nonfelonious crimes,See footnote 13 but
recognized that some courts had when exigent circumstances were
present.See footnote 14 The Supreme Court stated "without necessarily approving
any of these particular holdings or considering every possible
factual situation, we note that it is difficult to conceive of a
warrantless home arrest that would not be unreasonable under the
Fourth Amendment when the underlying offense is extremely minor."
Id. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court is simply not clear about
what it considers to be an "extremely minor offense."See footnote 15 Id.
Moreover, just because it is "difficult to conceive" of
circumstances which would warrant such an arrest does not mean it
is impossible to conceive of circumstances, especially exigent
circumstances, in which the Court would consider as justifying a
warrantless home arrest for a misdemeanor offense.See footnote 16 Id.
The unsettled nature of this constitutional question was yet again highlighted by this Court's decision in Bennett v. Coffman, 178 W. Va. 500, 361 S.E.2d 465 (1987), decided approximately one year after the facts forming the basis of the present appeal occurred. In Bennett, the police officers went to a bar in response to a disturbance call. The officers were told by the proprietor of the bar that the defendant, Mr. Bennett, had assaulted him and caused property damage before leaving the bar in an extremely intoxicated state. Meanwhile, the defendant had phoned the police station and requested to meet with officers. Id.
at 501, 361 S.E.2d at 466. The officers proceeded to the
defendant's home, but found no one there. As they were driving
away, they encountered the defendant driving a car towards the
officer's vehicle and the car was left of center. The defendant
pulled the car into his driveway. The officers pursued. The
defendant ran around to the back of his home and the officers
followed. The officers proceeded to search for the defendant, but
to no avail. After about an hour, one officer observed the
defendant enter his house. Id. The officers then knocked on the
door and Willard Westfall answered. Mr. Westfall indicated that
the defendant was not in the house. The officers entered the home,
without Mr. Westfall's consent. The officers found the defendant
hiding under a bed. Id.
This Court ultimately held that:
Government officials performing
discretionary functions are shielded from
liability for civil damages insofar as their
conduct does not violate clearly established
statutory or constitutional rights of which a
reasonable person would have known. A
policeman's lot is not so unhappy that he must
choose between being charged with dereliction
of duty if he does not arrest when he has
probable cause, and being mulcted in damages
if he does.
Id. at 500, 361 S.E.2d at 465, Syllabus; see State v. Chase Sec.,
Inc., ___ W. Va. ___, 424 S.E.2d 591 (1992). In rendering the
above-mentioned holding, however, this Court first had to
distinguish the Welsh case. We did so on the basis that in
Bennett, the doctrine of hot pursuit clearly applied and that in
West Virginia, driving while intoxicated was a serious traffic
offense. More importantly, we also noted in distinguishing the
Welsh decision, "the substantial difference of opinion among the
justices of the U. S. Supreme Court [on the issue of a warrantless
home entry to effect a misdemeanor arrest] as expressed in Welsh 18
months after this incident. . . ." Id. at 505, 361 S.E.2d 470
(some emphasis added). These differences of opinions on this issue
as reflected by the Supreme Court in the non-unanimous Welsh
decision only serve to demonstrate how murky the waters remain and
how unclear the law is in this area of search and seizure.
While it is clear that in West Virginia a police officer can
effect a warrantless arrest for the serious misdemeanor of driving
under the influence by following the misdemeanant into his own home
in hot pursuit, without a warrant, we find it unnecessary to
resolve the constitutionality of a warrantless arrest for other
types of less serious misdemeanors where that arrest occurs after
a police officer has followed the offender in hot pursuit into a
third-party residence. Whatever the outcome were we to answer that
substantive question, it is sufficient in this case to conclude
that even if such an arrest was unconstitutional, the law thereon
was not clearly established at the time of the officer's conduct,
and consequently, the officer is entitled to qualified immunity
from civil liability.
Consequently, we hold that under the doctrine of qualified
immunity, a police officer is absolved from civil liability for
following a misdemeanant in hot pursuit into the residence of a
third party, with neither a warrant nor the permission of the third
party, in order to effect a warrantless arrest of the misdemeanant,
so long as such entry violates no clearly established statutory or
constitutional rights.
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the Circuit Court
of Wood County is affirmed.
Affirmed.
Footnote: 1On March 5, 1992, during trial, the court directed a verdict
in favor of the Defendant, Officer J. Hunley with regard to
Appellant Curtis Goines' excessive force claim. On March 6, 1992,
the trial court directed a verdict in favor of the Defendants Dyke,
Hunley, Morgan, Sizemore and Steele as to Appellant Sarah Goines'
claim of both excessive force and illegal entry. The only claims
left for jury consideration were Curtis Goines' excessive force
claim against all the Defendant officers except Officer Hunley and
Sarah Goines' excessive force and illegal entry claim against
Officer James. The City of Parkersburg also remained as a
Defendant.
Footnote: 2Specifically, the jury indicated through special
interrogatories that: 1) exigent circumstances did exist which
justified Officer James' entry into the Goines' residence; 2) that
Officer James did not use excessive and unreasonable force against
the Plaintiff, Sarah Goines; and 3) that none of the Defendant
officers used excessive and unreasonable force against the
Plaintiff Curtis Goines. According to the Appellants' petition,
only the illegal entry claim is the subject of this appeal.
Footnote: 3Absent exigent circumstances such as hot pursuit, the Fourth
Amendment prohibits searching a third-party residence for a suspect
without a search warrant. See Steagald v. United States, 451 U.S. 204 (1981).
Footnote: 4The Appellants actually assign the following alleged errors:
1) the trial court failed to rule, as a matter of law, that the
entry into the Goines' home by Officer James was illegal per se; 2)
the trial court improperly allowed the jury to decide whether
exigent circumstances existed which justified Officer James' entry
into the Goines' residence; and 3) the trial court erred in giving
or refusing to give certain instructions to the jury. The
Appellants, however, maintain and this Court agrees that these
errors are resolved when the above-mentioned primary contention is
resolved.
Footnote: 5When this Court granted the Appellants' motion for leave to
move to reverse the judgment of the circuit court, we also allowed
the Appellants to proceed with this appeal based solely upon the
submission of the original record and the typewritten briefs of the
parties. Since no transcript of the trial proceedings was
required, the Court relies upon the parties' briefs in reciting
facts relevant to this decision.
Footnote: 6The record is clear that the Appellees offered instructions
concerning qualified immunity, but the instructions were refused by
the trial court.
Footnote: 7We note again that the claim of excessive force is not before
us in any way, as no appeal was taken to the circuit court's ruling
on this matter.
Footnote: 8It is undisputed that police officers are not entitled to
absolute immunity. See Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335 (1986).
Footnote: 9We note at the outset that under State law, the officer would
have been immune from personal tort liability as a matter of law
pursuant to West Virginia Code § 29-12A-5(b) (1992) and this
Court's decision in Beckley v. Crabtree, ___ W. Va. ___, 428 S.E.2d 317 (1993). In syllabus point 1 of Beckley, we held that
West Virginia Code § 29-12A-5(b) provides
that employees of political subdivisions are
immune from personal tort liability unless
'(1) [h]is or her acts or omissions were
manifestly outside the scope of employment or
official responsibilities; (2) [h]is or her
acts or omissions were with malicious purpose,
in bad faith, or in a wanton or reckless
manner; or (3) [l]iability is expressly
imposed upon the employee by a provision of
this code.'
Clearly, none of the officers' conduct regarding the entry into the Appellants' home met any of the exceptions for which personal tort liability might be imposed. See id. at ___, 428 S.E.2d at 318. Footnote: 10The record indicates that in "Defendants' Motion For Summary Judgment" filed with the lower court on October 9, 1991, the Defendants requested that summary judgment be entered since there existed "no genuine issue as to any material fact in this matter inasmuch as the individual defendant officers did not deprive the plaintiffs of a clearly established constitutional right. . . ." Footnote: 11The Supreme Court assumed, for the purposes of their decision, that there was no valid consent to enter the petitioner's home. Welsh, 466 U.S. at 743 n. 1. However, the Court indicated that on remand, "the state courts may consider whether the petitioner's arrest was justified because the police had validly obtained consent to enter his home." Id. at 755 n. 15. Footnote: 12In fact, at least one legal scholar has stated that "Justice Brennan's opinion implicitly suggested that a warrantless home arrest for a minor offense might be reasonable if the police were in hot pursuit of an offender or if the offender constituted a threat to public safety." William A. Schroeder, Factoring the Seriousness of the Offense into Fourth Amendment Equations--Warrantless Entries into Premises: The Legacy of Welsh v. Wisconsin, 38 Kan L. Rev. 439, 446 (1990). Footnote: 13See State v. Guertin, 190 Conn. 440, 461 A.2d 963 (1983); People v. Strelow, 96 Mich. App. 182, 292 N.W.2d 517 (1980); see also People v. Sanders, 59 Ill. App.3d 6, 374 N.E.2d 1315 (1978) (warrantless entry not justified in felony which was not grave offense); State v. Bennett, 295 N.W.2d 5 (S.D. 1980) (finding absence of exigent circumstances justifying warrantless entry for felony). Footnote: 14But Cf. In re Lavoyne M., 221 Cal. App. 3d 154, 270 Cal. Rptr. 394 (1990); Gasset v. State, 490 So. 2d 97, review denied, 500 So. 2d 544 (Fla. 1986); Lepard v. State, 542 N.E.2d 1347 (Ind. App. 1989); State v. Pease, 520 A.2d 698 (Me. 1987); State v. Penas, 200 Neb. 387, 263 N.W.2d 835 (1978); State v. Niedermeyer, 48 Ore. App. 665, 617 P.2d, 911, review denied, 290 Or. 246 (1980), cert. denied, 450 U.S. 1042 (1981); State v. Ramirez, 814 P.2d 1131 (Utah App. 1991); see also State v. Hamilton, 710 P.2d 174 (Utah 1985) (upholding warrantless search and arrest of suspect on third-party premises for failure to yield misdemeanor because of hot pursuit exception). Footnote: 15See 2 Wayne R. LaFave, Search and Seizure: A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment § 6.1(f) at 599 (2d ed. 1987) ("[T]he Court's more general reference to all situations where 'the underlying offense is extremely minor' creates still more uncertainty for police and courts as they try to work out the exigent circumstances calculus."). Footnote: 16See Schroeder, supra note 8, at 470 ("'difficult to conceive' language . . . in Welsh leave[s] openings for the court to uphold warrantless entries made in hot pursuit of minor offenders").
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