AELE LAW LIBRARY OF CASE SUMMARIES:
Civil Liability of
Law Enforcement Agencies & Personnel
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Police Plaintiff: Firearms Related
In a prior decision, Curley v. Klem,
#01-1093, 298 F.3d 271 (3rd Cir. 2002), a federal appeals court held that a
state trooper was not entitled to qualified immunity for his shooting of a Port
Authority police officer in full uniform who he stated he believed to be an
armed murder suspect he had been pursuing. The injured officer claimed that
trooper unreasonably failed to look into vehicle where the sought suspect had
just committed suicide and unreasonably shot him only because, like the
suspect, he was a "black man with a gun." Subsequently, on remand, a
jury found that the shooting officer's failure to look into the window of the
vehicle was unreasonable but that the officer's action in shooting the injured
officer was not unreasonable. On appeal, the court found that the jury's
verdict, in finding that the officer acted reasonably under the totality of the
circumstances meant that no constitutional violation occurred. Curley v. Klem,
No. 05-4701, 2007 U.S. App. Lexis 20213 (3rd Cir.).
If the facts were as
stated by an undercover officer, shot by a fellow officer after reporting that
he had already been shot in the area by a perpetrator, the actions of the
shooting officer were not objectively reasonable. A reasonable officer,
arriving on the scene after there was a report of an officer shot, would have
recognized that the undercover officer did not pose an immediate threat to
anyone. While he had a pistol, he dropped it on the ground, and was not
pointing it at the officers or reaching for it. He was also not actively
resisting arrest or attempting to evade the officers by flight, but was
kneeling in the street under a streetlight by himself, and waving his arms
above his head trying to attract attention. Further, the shooting officer
failed to attempt to give the undercover officer any commands or warnings
before firing at him, and the undercover officer did not match the description
of the suspect sought, who had shot him. Ngo v. Storlie, No. 06-2771, 2007 U.S.
App. Lexis 17798 (8th Cir.).
Shooting of deputy sheriff in courtroom by a
criminal defendant who had previously indicated that he might engage in
violence if convicted did not provide a basis for liability by the county for
allegedly failing to take adequate security steps to prevent the shooting. Even
if it could be said that the county disregarded a known risk of harm to the
deputy, as an employee, that would be insufficient to establish a violation of
his due process rights. The deputy was paid to help guard the courtroom, and he
was not placed in danger, rather, he "volunteered" to be exposed to
possible danger by agreeing to do his job. Witkowski v. Milwaukee County, No.
06-3627, 2007 U.S. App. Lexis 5761 (7th Cir.).
A dispatcher did not engage in conduct violating
an officer's due process rights in communicating to him the nature of a 911
call which he responded to, getting fatally shot when he arrived. The
dispatcher, while knowing that there was a possibility that someone had been
injured at the scene of the call, did not know for a fact that there had
actually been an injury, much less the source of that injury, and she did not
know that injuries had been caused by violent criminals, rather than by
accident, at the time she dispatched the officer. Aselton v. Town of East
Hartford, SC17383, 277 Conn. 120, 890 A.2d 1250 (Conn. 2006). [N/R]
Police officer who suffered eye injury during
"live fire" training exercise could not recover damages on the basis
of alleged violation of his civil rights because of the police chief's decision
to order officers to wear their riot helmets during the exercise, instead of
specially designed face masks. Moore v. Guthrie, No. 04-1435, 2006 U.S. App. Lexis
4171 (10th Cir.). [2006 LR Apr]
Police officer's claim for injuries he suffered
while exiting from a commercial truck he helped move after an accident in which
it became wedged under a viaduct was not barred by the firefighters' rule under
Illinois law. The police officer, in assisting in moving the truck, could claim
to have acted in his capacity as an ordinary citizen with experience with
tractor-trailers and not within the scope of his official duties, so that his
injuries arguably did not arise from negligence causing an emergency requiring
his presence as an officer. Knight v. Schneider Nat. Carriers, Inc., 03-C-9019,
350 F. Supp. 2d 775 (N.D. Ill. 2004). [N/R]
Employer whose drug intoxicated employee
shot a police officer responding to a domestic dispute he was having with his
wife was properly held liable for $800,000 in compensatory and $500,000 in
punitive damages. Evidence showed that supervisors were aware of, and even
encouraged, work crew to use drugs to stay "alert" and awake while
repairing railroad tracks. Loram Maintenance of Way, Inc. v. Ianni, No.
08-02-00049-CV, 141 S.W.3d 722 (Tex. App. 2004). [2004 LR Dec]
Arresting officer's statement to booking officer that
the arrestee's handgun had been confiscated at the arrest site, which turned
out to be incorrect, was not a due process violation making him liable to the
estate of a fellow officer shot and killed by the arrestee during the booking
process with the handgun he had managed to retain during his arrest. Wouters v.
City of Warren, No. 01-2642, 73 Fed. Appx. 87 (6th Cir. 2003). [N/R]
Family of police detectives shot and killed by
prisoner who obtained a weapon by stealing it from a police locker could not
recover damages for wrongful death from the city on either the basis that the
building was not adequately maintained or that the city provided the officers
with an unsafe place of employment. The deaths were not caused by any physical
condition in the locker room or defect in the facility itself, but rather by
the practice of holding prisoners near the lockers where firearms were kept.
Williams v. City of New York, 758 N.Y.S.2d 349 (A.D. 2nd Dept. 2003). [N/R]
Parents who allegedly allowed their fugitive son
access to their home and helped him avoid arrest owed a duty to a police
officer their son subsequently shot and killed while trying to avoid
apprehension to safely store and secure their handgun, which was used in the
killing. Estate of Heck ex Rel. Heck v. Stoffer, 786 N.E.2d 265 (Indiana 203).
[2003 LR Jul]
City was not liable for injury suffered by
officer who was accidentally shot by fellow officer during drug raid. Failure
of city to use a specially trained unit to conduct raids on suspected drug
dealers' residences did not constitute "deliberately indifferent"
behavior that shocked the conscience and violated the injured officer's due
process rights. Shooting officer's actions resulted from his own negligence,
not from the city's failure to train him adequately. Pahler v. City of
Wilkes-Barre, #01-2275, 31 Fed. Appx. 69 (3rd Cir. 2002). [2002 LR Oct]
Operation of a police training school by a
village was a "proprietary function" imposing the same duty of care
and same liability as a private individual or institution would have had while
engaging in the same activity. Municipality, school, and school personnel,
including director and commanding officer were not entitled to governmental
immunity under New York law from liability for trainee's injuries during
firearms training exercise. Lemery v. Village of Cambridge, 736 N.Y.S.2d 503
(A.D. 2002). [2002 LR May]
Police officer shot in the chest in a parking lot
is awarded $1.3 million against employer of his attacker; officer's lawsuit
claimed that employer knew about, but ignored drug use by its traveling work
crews, including the attacker. Ianni v. Loram Maintenance of Way Inc., No.
96-151 (El Paso Co., Texas, 120th Dist. Ct.), reported in The National Law
Journal, p. B3 (Feb. 11, 2002). [2002 LR May]
Jury awards $35.5 million against town for
failure to destroy assault rifle turned into department; weapon was instead
issued to officer who took it home and kept it in gun cabinet which his son had
access to; son used weapon to kill two Border patrol agents and injury a deputy
sheriff. Salinas v. City of Harlingen, No. B-98-162, U.S. District Court, (S.D.
Texas), reported in The National Law Journal, p. A6 (March 4, 2002). [2002
LR Apr]
340:56 Jury award of $17.9 million to family of
New York officer accidentally shot by his partner set aside; New York's highest
court holds that the requirements of a police department internal manual cannot
be the basis for civil liability by the city since it does not establish clear
legal duties and is not part of a "duly-enacted body of law or regulation."
Galapo v. City of New York, No. 138, 744 N.E.2d 685 (N.Y. 2000). 303:39 Family
of police officer accidentally shot and killed by his partner while they made
drug arrests awarded $17.95 million in damages by New York jury. Galapo v.
Martin, trial court, Brooklyn N.Y., reported in The New York Times, p. A19,
November 18, 1997.