# Ketchum v. City of West Memphis

> Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit · September 2, 1992 · 974 F.2d 81

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9004221

## Case

- **Full name:** Robert H. KETCHUM v. CITY OF WEST MEMPHIS, ARKANSAS, West Memphis Police, Does I-IV, Love's and Phillips 66 or Union 76 Truck Stops in West Memphis, and West Memphis Paramedic Services
- **Court:** Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
- **Decided:** September 2, 1992
- **Citations:** 974 F.2d 81; 1992 U.S. App. LEXIS 20542; 1992 WL 209574
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Fagg
- **Judges:** Arnold, Fagg, Magill
- **Cited by:** 578 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9004221

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- 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
- stating that West Memphis Police Department and West Memphis Paramedic Services were “gimply departments or subdivisions of the City government,” and not suable entities

## Opinion text

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.

---

Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9004221. Public record. Not legal advice.