Brazier v. Cherry

188 F. Supp. 817, 1960 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4218
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Georgia
DecidedJune 1, 1960
DocketCiv. A. No. 475
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 188 F. Supp. 817 (Brazier v. Cherry) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brazier v. Cherry, 188 F. Supp. 817, 1960 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4218 (M.D. Ga. 1960).

Opinion

BOOTLE, District Judge.

In this action plaintiff, individually and as administratrix of the estate of James Brazier, her deceased husband, seeks to recover damages for injuries to and the subsequent death of James Brazier resulting from alleged acts “calculated to deprive the said James Brazier of his rights and privileges to be secured in his person and further to deprive him of due process and equal protection of the law.” She names as defendants the Chief of Police and three police officers of the City of Dawson, Terrell County, Georgia, the Sheriff of Terrell County, Georgia, and The Fidelity and Casualty Company of New York, surety on the bond of defendant sheriff.

Defendants have filed a motion to dismiss the complaint on two grounds, inter alia: 1) It fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted; and [818]*8182) the Court lacks jurisdiction over the subject matter. All parties have submitted written briefs on the questions raised by defendants’ motion, and after careful study and consideration, this court is of the opinion that defendants’ motion must be granted. In considering said motion the court has taken the allegations of the complaint as amended as true.

Jurisdiction of this court is invoked under the provisions of 28 U.S.C.A. § 1343, which provides in part as follows:

“The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action authorized by law to be commenced by any person:
“(1) To recover damages for injury to his person or property, or because of the deprivation of any right or privilege of a citizen of the United States, by any act done in furtherance of any conspiracy mentioned in section 1985 of Title 42;
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“(3) To redress the deprivation, under color of any State law, statute, ordinance, regulation, custom or usage, of any right, privilege or immunity secured by the Constitution of the United States or by any Act of Congress providing for equal rights of citizens or of all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States.”

This section gives the district courts jurisdiction only of civil actions “authorized by law to be commenced.” Thus, the question arises whether the complaint sets forth an action “authorized by law to be commenced.”

The complaint also invokes jurisdiction under the provisions of 42 U.S.C.A. §§ 1981, 1983, and 1985. Section 1981 provides for equal rights under the law, but does not create any civil action for deprivation of such rights. Section 1983 creates a civil action for deprivation of rights, and Section 1985 provides for an action for damages resulting from a conspiracy to 'interfere with civil rights.

The language of these two sections— 1983 and 1985' — is particularly important in resolving the question before this court. Section 1983 provides:

“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.” [Emphasis supplied.]

Similarly, Section 1985 provides in part:

“[I]n any case of conspiracy set forth in this section, if one or more persons engaged therein do, or cause to be done, any act in furtherance of the object of such conspiracy, whereby another is injured in his person or property, or deprived of having and exercising any right or privilege of a citizen of the United States, the party so injured or deprived may have an action for the recovery of damages, occasioned by such injury or deprivation, against any one or more of the conspirators.” [Emphasis supplied.]

These sections which create causes of action to redress deprivations of civil rights vest such causes of action in the party injured or deprived. Neither section provides for the survival of the right of action after the death of the “party injured.” Therefore, this court must answer the question whether, in the absence of a statutory provision for survival, a right of action for deprivation of civil rights is extinguished by the death of the “party so injured or deprived.”

The Supreme Court was confronted with a similar problem in Michigan Cent. R. Co. v. Vreeland, 1913, 227 U.S. 59, 33 S. Ct. 192, 195, 57 L.Ed. 417, in determining whether the right of action created by the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, 45 U.S.C.A. § 51 et seq., survived the death of the party injured. In decid[819]*819ing that the right of action was extinguished by the death of the employee, the Court said:

“The statutes of many of the states expressly provide for the survival of the right of action which the injured person might have prosecuted if he had survived. But unless this Federal statute which declares the liability here asserted provides that the right of action shall survive the death of the injured employee, it does not pass to his representative, notwithstanding state legislation. The question of survival is not one of procedure, ‘but one which depends on the substance of the cause of action.’ * * *
“Nothing is better settled than that, at common law, the right of action for an injury to the person is extinguished by the death of the party injured. The rule, ‘Actio per-sonalis moritur cum persona’ applies, whether the death from the injury be instantaneous or not.”

This being true, the right of action which James Brazier might have been vested with, had he lived, was extinguished with his death.

The Supreme Court has also said:
“It is settled that at common law no private cause of action arises from the death of a human being. * * * qqjg right of action, both in this country and in England, depends wholly upon statutory authority.” Panama R. Co. v. Rock, 1924, 266 U.S. 209, 45 S.Ct. 58, 69 L.Ed. 250.
" ‘It is a singular fact that by the common law the greatest injury which one man can inflict on another, the taking of his life, is without a private remedy.’ ” The Harrisburg v. Rickards, 1886, 119 U.S. 199, 7 S.Ct. 140, 142, 30 L.Ed. 358.

There being no federal statute giving this plaintiff a cause of action for the wrongful death of her husband, this action cannot be maintained.

Plaintiff also attempts to invoke the diversity jurisdiction of this court, alleging that defendant Fidelity and Casualty Company of New York is a New York corporation. But this court does not have diversity jurisdiction unless all defendants are citizens of states diverse from the state of plaintiff’s citizenship. Russell v. Basila Mfg. Co., 5 Cir., 1957, 246 F.2d 432.

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Related

Sharbaugh v. Beaudry
267 F. Supp. 3d 1326 (N.D. Florida, 2017)
Hattie Brazier v. W. B. Cherry
293 F.2d 401 (Fifth Circuit, 1961)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
188 F. Supp. 817, 1960 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4218, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brazier-v-cherry-gamd-1960.