Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
_________________________
No. 96-1868
Plaintiffs, Appellants,
v.
Defendants, Appellees.
_________________________
_________________________
Before
_________________________
Edmund M. Pitts, with whom Edmund R. Pitts and Pitts & Pitts
_______________
_______________
_____________
were on brief, for appellants.
Philip Burling,
_______________
with
whom
Gregory T. Moffatt,
____________________
Feriale
_______
Abdullah, Foley, Hoag & Eliot, Judith R. Cohen, and Adams & Koss
________ ____________________ _______________
____________
were on brief, for appellees.
_________________________
SELYA,
SELYA,
Circuit Judge.
Circuit Judge.
_____________
The
instant appeal
tests the
margins of
articulated in Evans
_____
Finding,
the
v. Avery,
_____
this court
(1st Cir.
1996).
Evans
_____
line,
we
affirm
the
entry
of
judgment
for
the
defendants.
case1 on
record
summary judgment,
in
the
light
most
Fed. R.
Civ. P.
flattering
favor.
to
plaintiff's
56, we
him
and
See Garside v.
___ _______
assess the
draw
all
Osco Drug,
__________
The curtain
after
9:00 p.m.
rises in Saugus,
on December
28, 1990,
Massachusetts.
Saugus
Shortly
police officers
Michael
McGrath
cruiser.
and David
They received
restaurant on Route 1.
six
on
patrol in
a McDonald's
Route 1 has
limit is 45
southbound).
The
the time of
the
At
of
a police
notice of a disturbance at
posted speed
Putnam were
to form on
a mixture
the road in
spots.
In
the
course
of
responding
to
the
reported
____________________
wife, Rose
derivative
Boveri.
two plaintiffs:
Inasmuch as
Louis
Rose's claim
Boveri and
is entirely
effect
as
a car
matching the
restaurant's
officers
Instead of
chase.
parking
followed,
reported description
area
and sped
activating
their
north
pulled out
on
Route
of the
1.
The
siren
and
blue
lights.
accelerated.
The
officers gave
officers remained
driver of the
only a
Throughout, the
to the rear,
and the
attempted to elude
them.
Under Wade's aegis, the Honda weaved from lane to lane and
tried
to
cruiser.
spin,
use other
vehicles
to obstruct
the
trailing police
and returned
to the
highway.
Wade later
described the
In
exit.
to
turn
right.
hydroplaned
into
Wade
the
could not
plaintiff's
stop
car,
in time
and
instigating
the Honda
chain
collision.
Officers
instantaneously,
assistance
for
McGrath
and Putnam
apprehended
the
Wade,
plaintiff
(who
arrived at
and
had
the scene
summoned
medical
sustained
severe
injuries).2
____________________
2Wade
aggravated
subsequently
entered a
guilty
of this
of a motor
plea
to charges
of
vehicle.
We
officers were
not
The
plaintiff
sued
McGrath,
Putnam,
The
district court
granted summary
did not
constitutional or
genuine issue as
violate
Our
judgment
in the
clearly established
federal
a reasonable police
is proper
only
when
"there is
no
review of
rule is plenary.
judgment
is entitled to a judgment as
56(c).
substantive due
officers' conduct
Summary
the
process.
and
a matter of law."
Fed. R.
Civ. P.
application of
the
to
clarify the
appropriate
legal standard
for
F.3d at
1038.
We
apply that
standard here,
claims that
mindful that
the
scope of appellate
review.
summary
judgment
record.
on any
alternative
ground
supported by
the
____________________
aware that the Honda was stolen or that its driver was implicated
in rape and burglary.
3Only
the officers
moved for
town of
Saugus).
brevis disposition,
______
yet the
Because the
plaintiff has
not assigned
to be
waived.
private
of
state
law, deprives
Acting under
occurring
1983 supplies a
another
of
federally secured
outside the
context
of a
rights.
by police misconduct
seizure theoretically
may
the
substantive
F.3d
at 1036.
interpreting
"impose[s]
But the
the Due
federal
Supreme
Process
Clause so
duties
traditionally imposed by
Court has
that
cautioned
against
extravagantly that
are
state tort
analogous
law."
Collins
_______
to
it
those
v. City of
________
There
is
another
caveat
time an essential
applicable
suspects.
See
___
Evans, 100
_____
however,
police
officers
here.
F.3d
are
dangerous
the same
at 1038.
forced
Police
to
To use
make
the
of
tool,
instantaneous
judgments
about how
enforcement and
to
the
legitimate needs
upon substantive
balance
See id.
___ ___
law
Conscious
determined in
of
to intrude
officers' conduct
rights,
shock the
conscience."
Id.
___
The Evans
_____
Applying
court
appropriately
Evans, we
_____
granted
are
satisfied
brevis
______
that the
disposition.
district
When
the
officers first spotted the Honda, they had good reason to attempt
to
stop it.
They knew
that its
driver and
From
such disturbances,
Honda's rate of
speed, the
officers were justifiably concerned that the driver was under the
influence
the
officers' awareness
that New
initially failed
Year's Eve
was approaching).
to stop despite
the siren
and
flashing lights,
officers were
the stakes
increased.
warranted in mounting
At that
a pursuit;
juncture, the
leaving such
driver on the road would not only stymie law enforcement but also
To be sure, as
against
of harm to bystanders
of the pursuit
must be judged
had
the
danger to
the public
(potentially inebriated)
was
sound
degree
driver on the
in leaving
road.
Under
decisions of
but, rather,
inherent
this sort
wild
always involve
The
as
a reckless
Evans, the
_____
the Honda
matters of
could say it
was
conscience-shocking.
materially
different
from
Evans
_____
violated departmental
dispatcher
because,
rules, state
to cease and
desist.
here,
the
law, and
But to
officers'
conduct
an order
from the
the extent
that this
asseveration
is
supported
by
the
record,
these
attributes,
We explain briefly.
The
plaintiff's assertion
that the
some purchase
officers violated
in the record.
1988
serious felonies."
quarry
had
Although
committed
it turned
serious
out that
felonies
(rape,
the officers'
burglary,
and
had any
assuming for
chase
in
Still,
contravention
of
departmental
regulation,
the
violation
would
not
transgress
the
"shock
the
conscience"
standard.
is
not inherently
sufficient to support
1983 claim.
See
___
Martinez v. Colon, 54 F.3d 980, 989 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 116
________
_____
_____ ______
S.
Cir.
1990) ("Even
necessarily
bad-faith
tantamount to
violations of
state
757 (1st
law are
unconstitutional deprivations
not
of due
196 (1984)
(rejecting
argument that
unreasonable
when
it
admonishing
that it
an official's
violates
is not
conduct is
statute
"always fair,
or
objectively
regulation
or sound
and
policy, to
money damages").
are helpful in
Evans benchmark,
_____
(and,
thus,
process).
723
violates a
plaintiff's
right
to substantive
due
case).
There
plaintiff's
conscience.
contrary
excess
nothing
contention that
In this regard,
that
of
is
in
the
state
law
that
officers'
actions
the officers
speed
is
the
limit
supports
shock
the
the
claim to the
by driving
figment
of
in
his
emergency vehicles.
exceed
of
a public duty
. . .
if he exercises caution
Mass.
Gen. L. ch.
89,
7B
(1989).
While
argue
pursuing the Honda, negligence under state law does not amount to
a constitutional violation.
this
scumbled
record,
could
find
negligence to be conscience-shocking.
the
officers'
possible
The
plaintiff
asserts
McGrath
instruction
by
dispatcher,
there is no
evidence in
Judge
that
supervisory
and
officer,
Putnam
issued
pursuit of the
the record to
ignored
an
through
Honda.
support this
the
Although
assertion,
assuming,
therefore, that
supervisor's
judgment that
this
claim is
a pursuit
Even
factually correct,
should be
halted neither
In
significant threat
to public safety
the officers'
failure to
heed
their
supervisor
does
not
sink
to
the
level
of
constitutional breach.
In
the last
analysis,
the signals
are
mixed
the
of a departmental
took
place on a six-lane,
blind eye
signals
would have
minutes), it
from which a
in jeopardy
mixed
and
We need go no further.4
imprecision of
Evans, 100
_____
F.3d
that
displayed
in
several
understandably
have held
constitutional
line.
F.3d
1296,
1299-1300
cases
police
See, e.g.,
___ ____
(3d Cir.
pursuit at up to 80 m.p.h.
in
which
appellate
behavior not
courts
to traverse
the
1994)
(en
banc) (involving
narrow, two-lane
in those cases, we
highway).
Because we agree
Affirmed.
Affirmed.
________
court below
____________________
4Of course,
our holding
today does
not mean
that injured
However, exploring
that avenue is
10