Opinion

Ketchum v. City of West Memphis

  • 974 F.2d 81
  • 1992 U.S. App. LEXIS 20542
  • 1992 WL 209574
Court
Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
Filed
Sep 2, 1992
Status
Published
Author
Fagg
On the bench
Arnold, Fagg, Magill
Cited by
578 cases

ruling that departments or subdivisions of Police Dep't, 2019 WL 2568664, at (E.D. Mo. June 21, 2019) (dismissing claim against county police department because “a police department is not a juridical entity subject to suit”

How later courts described this case

  • ruling that departments or subdivisions of Police Dep't, 2019 WL 2568664, at (E.D. Mo. June 21, 2019) (dismissing claim against county police department because “a police department is not a juridical entity subject to suit”
  • holding that departments According to the Eighth Circuit, “pro se status does not excuse [Plaintiff’s] failure to name the proper parties.” Jackson v. Mo. Bd. of Prob. & Parole, 306 F. App’x 333, 333 (8th Cir. 2009
  • finding that West Memphis Police Department and Paramedic Services are departments or subdivisions of - city government and are-not separate “juridical entities suable as such"
  • holding that departments or subdivisions of city government, such as the police department or paramedic services, “are not juridical entities suable as such” in a § 1983 action

Written by the judges who cited it.

The opinion

FAGG, Circuit Judge,

dissenting.

I respectfully dissent. The court makes a judicial mountain out of a legal molehill. Keeping a case like Ketchum’s on a federal court docket merely encourages spite-based litigation and trivializes the Constitution. I am hard pressed to find an encroachment on the Constitution when police officers have done nothing more than transport a transient from one side of a bridge to another. I believe the district court wisely dismissed this tattered case.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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