Bell v. Hosse

31 F.R.D. 181, 6 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 27, 1962 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5927
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Tennessee
DecidedJuly 11, 1962
DocketCiv. Nos. 2954 and 2955
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 31 F.R.D. 181 (Bell v. Hosse) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bell v. Hosse, 31 F.R.D. 181, 6 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 27, 1962 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5927 (M.D. Tenn. 1962).

Opinion

GRAY, District Judge.

The complaints in these two cases allege the arrest of two women in their apartments without warrants, the search of one of the apartments without a warrant, the women’s detention incommunicado in the city jail for more than 48 hours without any information of any charges against them, their later release on bond under charges of vagrancy and loitering, and the later dismissal of the charges when the officers failed to show up in court to prosecute.

These complaints were filed September 15, 1960, eleven days after the alleged arrests and six days after the charges were dismissed. The complaints were amended September 19, 1960, to allege an amount in controversy sufficient to invoke jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1331, to quote directly the section of the Civil Rights statutes upon which the plaintiffs rely, R.S. § 1979, 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983, and to allege more directly that the officers’ conduct violated the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights. The summonses were filed in the clerk’s office September 27, 1960. The deputy marshal’s return on each summons was as follows:

“I hereby certify and return, that on the 21 th day of September 1960, I received this summons and served it together with the complaint as amended herein as follows: On Douglas Hosse personally at his office city police station Nashville, Tenn. On Sgt. Morgan Smith by handing to and leaving a copy with Chief Douglas Hosse On Ptl. Vinnie Burrus by handing to and leaving a copy with Chief Douglas Hosse On Ptl. Welfel by handing to and leaving a copy with Chief Douglas Hosse. Who accepted service for all defendants. This. September 21, 1960.”

On October 10, 1960, the defendants filed motions to dismiss as to the sergeant and the two patrolmen for lack of proper service on them, and as to all four defendants for failure to state a cause of action under the Civil Rights statutes. Nothing in the file indicates any effort by the plaintiffs’ counsel to obtain more perfect service or to amend the complaint further.

On June 11, 1962, the court ordered, pursuant to Rule 78, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C., that the motions be submitted within ten days without oral argument on written statements in support and opposition. Within the [183]*183ten days the defendants submitted a brief in support of the motion. The court has received no communication from the plaintiffs’ counsel either within the ten days or subsequently, and the plaintiffs’ case must be deemed to have been submitted on the complaints, the motions, and the defendants’ brief.

The applicable statute, R.S. § 1979, 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983, reads as follows:

“Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress.”

Jurisdiction to try such cases is granted to the district courts in similar language by 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3) regardless of the amount in controversy. Where the requisite jurisdictional amount is involved, as there is here, the district courts are also given jurisdiction to try civil actions arising under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States, 28 U.S.C. § 1331(a). At first blush, the statutes appear to make it difficult to disentangle the initial jurisdictional question from the question whether a cause of action has been alleged on which relief could be granted. But the Supreme Court has provided minimal tests under both statutes to be applied before the sufficiency of the allegations of the cause of action are considered. Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 82 S.Ct. 691, 7 L.Ed.2d 663 (1962); Bell v. Hood, 327 U.S. 678, 66 S.Ct. 773, 90 L.Ed. 939 (1946). The present complaints meet the tests under either statuie.

Jurisdiction of the subject matter being sufficiently alleged, the inquiry turns to the specific objections raised by the defendants’ motions. Those objections that would dispose of the whole case if well taken will be considered first. The defendants contend the complaints fail to state a claim upon which relief can be granted because:

(1) They do not allege that the officers “were acting under ‘ordinance, regulation, custom or usage, of any State or Territory.’ ”
(2) They do not “allege any fact which constitutes the deprivation of any particular right, privilege, or immunity, secured by Amendment 14 of the Constitution of the United States or of any other particular law.”
(3) They do not “allege the deprivation of federal rights to have been accomplished for the purpose of robbing the plaintiff [s] of any such rights.”

These complaints do leave something to be desired by their failure to point out specific links between the statutory language quoted and the particular acts alleged, but the question is not whether they could be made more definite and certain but whether they contain sufficient allegations to give the defendants fair notice of what the plaintiffs’ claims are and the grounds on which they rest. Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 47, 78 S.Ct. 99, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957).

The plaintiffs failed to allege directly that these officers acted under color of state authority. Each of the complaints, however, twice quoted the words of the statute and stated that the plaintiffs relied upon them. The defendants could not fail to understand that they are accused of misusing their powers as police officers.

“ ‘Misuse of power, possessed by virtue of state law and made possible only because the wrongdoer is clothed with the authority of state law, is action taken “under color of” state law.’ ” Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167,184, 81 S.Ct. 473, 5 L.Ed.2d 492 (1961), quoting from United [184]*184States v. Classic, 313 U.S. 299, 326, 61 S.Ct. 1031, 85 L.Ed. 1368 (1941).

These complaints, by their factual allegations alone, give the defendants fair notice that they are accused of actions for which R.S. § 1979 was designed to provide redress.

The defendants next say that no fact has been alleged that constitutes a violation of any specific right guaranteed to the plaintiffs by the Fourteenth Amendment. This hardly merits discussion. Arrest and search without warrant are clearly alleged in one complaint and arrest without warrant in the other. Even if nothing else were alleged, these would be enough facts to constitute a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. The cases so holding are too numerous to cite.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Foley v. Walsh
600 N.E.2d 611 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 1992)
Gipson v. Township of Bass River
82 F.R.D. 122 (D. New Jersey, 1979)
Jones v. Volkswagen of America, Inc.
82 F.R.D. 334 (E.D. Tennessee, 1978)
Shires v. Magnavox Co.
74 F.R.D. 373 (E.D. Tennessee, 1977)
United States v. Wahl
406 F. Supp. 1396 (E.D. Michigan, 1976)
Frank v. Mracek
58 F.R.D. 365 (M.D. Alabama, 1973)
Klein v. Springborn
327 F. Supp. 1289 (N.D. Illinois, 1971)
Higginbotham v. Mobil Oil Co.
302 F. Supp. 857 (E.D. Louisiana, 1969)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
31 F.R.D. 181, 6 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 27, 1962 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5927, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bell-v-hosse-tnmd-1962.