Amicus Curiae Brief — Prince George's County v. Kopf

NO.

IN THE

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

OCTOBER TERM, 1991

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MARYLAND,

PETITIONER

Vv.

ADA SANDRA KOPF, PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE

OF THE ESTATE OF ANTHONY JOHN CASELLA,

RESPONDENT

PETITION FOR A WRIT OF CERTIORARI

TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

AS AMICUS CURIAE IN SUPPORT OF

PETITIONER

John F. Breads, Jr.

Office of Law

44 Calvert Street

P.O. Box 2700

Annapolis, MD 21404

(301) 222-1316

Counsel for Anne

Arundel County,

Maryland

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

8 is aw yy gh ee i-ii

INTEREST OF THE AMICI CURIAE...... 5

PPE 6 eee ee esee eee eaSeveceseses 7

CPEEc Shoes esbcoadcecebenodcecse 15

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES

Page

Cases

Adickes v. S.H. Kress & Co., 398

O.G. BGG, SPSSee CEPT dacccecsceee 8

Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S.

Dat Ce Ee seéeeveeee neeae esses a y ae te |

City of Canton, Ohio v. Harris,

U.s., , 409 $.Ct. 1197

Cad sea 6 area ea wee a wae e 6 08 9

City of Oklahoma City v. Tuttle,

S7i U.S. GOS, G26 CIPRS) - cvccecess 13

Kopf v. Wing, 942 F.2d 265

(Seat Care SPER Pee ewecrcedevewessians =

Monell v. New York City Dept. of

Social Services, 436 U.S. 658

oe Perr rrr rrr err rer rere 9

Rizzo v. Goode, 423 U.S. 262

(1976)

Statutes

42 U.S.C., Section 1983

Rules

Federal Rule Civil Procedure |

es A eee

Federal Rule Civil Procedure 56...

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a ee oe es es ee 8 Ce ee 6 68 8 8 868 ¢ 8 6

Page

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7-8

IN THE

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

OCTOBER TERM, 1991

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MARYLAND,

PETITIONER

Vv.

ADA SANDRA KOPF, PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE

OF THE ESTATE OF ANTHONY JOHN CASELLA,

RESPONDENT

PETITION FOR A WRIT OF CERTIORARI

TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

AS AMICUS CURIAE IN SUPPORT OF

PETITIONER

Anne Arundel County, Maryland,

submits this brief as amicus Curiae in

support of the petition for a writ of

certiorari to review the decision of the

United States Court of Appeals for the

Fourth Circuit in Kopf v. Wing, 942 F.2d

265 (4th Cir. 1991). Consent of the

parties is not required pursuant to

Supreme Court Rule 37.5.

INTEREST OF THE AMICUS CURIAE

The amicus County urges this Court

to grant certiorari and review the

decision of the Fourth Circuit because

of the extraordinary and unwarranted

impact it will have on the ability of

local governments to defend against

allegations of municipal liability under

42 U.S.C. Section 1983.

FILLER INFORMATION RE AMICUS

Since it is a "person" subject to

liability under Section 1°83, local

governments, including the amicus

County, are directly affected by the

decision of the Fourth Circuit. In the

context of an excessive force claim, the

Court's decision sanctions the use of

statistics showing the numbers and

dispositions «f complaints against

police officers for the use of force as

a means of establishing, prima facie,

the existence of a municipal policy or

custom condoning the use of excessive

force. By sanctioning the use of

statistics alone as a means of

establishing municipal liability,

regardless of the contention which such

Statistics arose and the circumstances

giving rise to each complaint, the

decision of the Fourth Circuit makes it

virtually impossible for trial courts to

resolve the issue of municipal liability

pre-trial, and will require the trial

courts to conduct lengthy trials during

which the validity of each previous

complaint against a municipality's

officers must be debated and

adjudicated. Plenary review by this

Court is necessary to restore the

logical approach toc the determination of

municipal liability and to see that the

purposes underlying Fed. Rule Civ. P. 56

are enforced. The amici parties that

will be harmed by the decision of the

Fourth Circuit have a substantial and

direct stake in the present case, and

respectfully request this court to grant

certiorari.

ARGUMENT

The decision of the Fourth Circuit

Court of Appeals, reversing the trial

Court's grant of summary judgment

violates the principles of Fed. Rule

Civ. P. 56. As this Court explained in

Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317

(1986), summary judgment is an integral

part of the Federal Rules which are

designed to "secure the just, speedy and

inexpensive determination of every

action. Fed. Rule Civ. P. 1." Id. at

367.

It is well established that the

party opposing the motion for summary

judgment is entitled to all favorable

inferences which can be drawn from the

evidence. Adickes v. S.H. Kress & Co.,

398 U.S. 144, 158-159 (1970). In this

case, however, the Fourth Circuit has

allowed illogical and impermissible

inferences to be drawn from the evidence

proffered by Plaintiff in support of its

Claim against the County.

A municipality may not be held

liable under 42 U.S.C. 1983 under a

theory of respondeat superior. Monell

v. New York City Dept. of Social

Services, 436 U.S. 658 (1978). It can

only be held liable as a "person" if it

exhibits "deliberate indifference" to

constitutional rights by failing to stop

a widespread pattern of abuse. City of

Canton, Ohio v. Harris, __ U.S. P

109 S.Ct. 1197 (1989).

The Fourth Circuit's decision would

aliow a Plaintiff to go forward with an

extended and costly trial which cannot

result in municipal liability as a

matter of law. The written complaints

which were in the record before that

Court are inadmissible to prove the

allegations in the complaint, they are

only admissible to prove that complaints

were filed. Even the Fourth Circuit

recognizes that Plaintiff must prove

"the numerous instances of excessive

force she alleges" (Petition, APX. 17).

Any sizeable municipality in the United

States which is sued on a Monell theory

. = ae

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of condoning excessive force by police

officers could be required to confront

and defend between scores and hundreds

of individual complaints as a part of

its defense to every suit filed against

it.

The decision will result ina trial

which is a series of mini-trials of each

complaint. Plaintiff does not offer any

evidence of the use of excessive force

other than the complaints themselves and

there was no evidence in the record

before the Fourth Circuit that any of

the complaints was not thoroughly

investigated or appropriately resolved.

Therefore, the case should not be

allowed to go forward to trial. Celotex

Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317 (1986).

In addition to the evidentiary problem,

the proposed procedure suffers from the

same defects this Court found to exist

in the District Court trials in Rizzo v.

Goode, 423 U.S. 362 (1976). This Court

stated

The findings of fact made by

the District Court at the

conclusion of these two parallel

trials ... disclose a central

paradox which permeates that

court's legal conclusions.

Individual police officers not

named as parties to the action were

found to have violated the

constitutional rights of particular

individuals, only a few of whom

were parties plaintiff.

Id. at 371. If the case proceeds to

trial on this basis, and the allegation

of certain complaints are "proved" to be

true, this would not arise to the level

of a pattern of the use of excessive

force or the condemnation of it by the

County. If statistical evidence is all

that is required to go forward to trial

against a municipality, then no system

for investigating and adjudicating

complaints could be designed by a

municipality to deter use of excessive

force by police officers which would

satisfy Constitutional requirements.

Since complaints are encouraged by the

defendant County this will cause an

enormous increase in the workload of the

trial Court because even frivolous

complaints would take on significance.

The Fourth Circuit's decision requires

numerous individual officers to justify

their actions in a trial in which they

are not the defendants and the

complainants are not the plaintiffs.

And if at a trial some number of

complaints were found to have merit, the

trial Courts would be without guidance

as to any number or percentage of

meritorious complaints which is

necessary to establish a viable claim,

as there must be more than isolated

instances of excessive force to prove a

pattern. City of Oklahoma City v.

Tuttle, 471 U.S. 808, 824 (1985).

Secondly, there is no evidence that

the process for handling complaints by

defendant County is inadequate. Both

the District Court and the Court of

Appeals found the County's policy to be

constitutionally valid on its face. The

statistic that plaintiff proffers to

prove the inadequacy of the system is

that a smaller percentage of excessive

force complaints are sustained than

other disciplinary complaints against

police officers. This statistic is

meaningless. All complaints of

excessive force are closely investigated

by Prince George's Wounty in compliance

«iitie

with State law. Even if Plaintiff were

capable of proving that a small number

of incidents occurred in which excessive

force was used and that the officers

were not disciplined, this is not enough

to establish a pattern so widespread

that the officials had constructive

knowledge of it. At most it would arise

to negligent administration, not

ana

*

deliberate indifference. The test

municipal liability under Section 1953

is a stringent one. The District Court

rh

rh

was correct in ruling that Plainti

evidence was insufficient as a matter of

law to raise an issue of material fact

concerning the County's liability under

Section 1983.

a he

law te rainn an iagua of material fact

concerning the County's liability under

Section 1983.

CONCLUSION

For the foregoing reasons, the

Court should issue a writ of certiorari

to review the decision of the Fourth

Circuit.

Respectfully submitted,

P.O. — 2700 arene

Annapolis, MD 4

(301) 222-1316

Counsel for Anna Arundel

- County, Maryland

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I HBREBY CERTIFY that three copiss

of this Petition were mailed first-

Class, postage prepaid on this and day

of January, 1991, to Michael OC.

Connaughton, Esquire, Room 5121, Office

of Law, County Administration Building,

Upper Marlbore, Meryland 20772; end to

Terrell N. Roberts, III, Esquire, 6801

Kenilworth Avenue, Suite 202, Berkshire

Building, Riverdale, Maryland 20737.

= r Breads, ma

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