David Penn v. Veronica Harris and Melvin Jones

296 F.3d 573, 2002 U.S. App. LEXIS 13825, 2002 WL 1467428
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedJuly 10, 2002
Docket01-2280
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 296 F.3d 573 (David Penn v. Veronica Harris and Melvin Jones) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
David Penn v. Veronica Harris and Melvin Jones, 296 F.3d 573, 2002 U.S. App. LEXIS 13825, 2002 WL 1467428 (7th Cir. 2002).

Opinion

KANNE, Circuit Judge.

Around midnight on a cold December, night, hundreds of students at Chicago State University had to evacuate their dormitory after fire alarms sounded. The students were kept out in the cold while police and dorm personnel made sure the building was safe to reenter. After about 45 minutes outside, the students grew agitated. One student, plaintiff David Penn, began pounding on the dorm’s front door and yelling profanities at the campus officers inside. One of the officers inside the dorm, defendant Veronica Harris, opened the door and directed Penn to come inside. The parties tell different stories about what happened next. Penn claims that as soon as he entered the dorm, Harris and another officer, defendant Melvin Jones, began beating him without provocation. The defendants claim that Penn provoked an altercation upon entering when he shoved Harris up against a wall.

The officers arrested Penn, and the state’s attorney charged him with misdemeanor battery. Before Penn stood trial, however, the state’s attorney asked the trial court to dismiss the charge against Penn with leave to reinstate, which the court did.

Penn then filed this lawsuit. He sued numerous defendants, including the school, its president, its board of trustees, and campus police officers, and alleged numerous claims, including constitutional claims of malicious prosecution, excessive force, and conspiracy, as well as state law claims of battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The district court dismissed most of the claims and defendants, and subsequently granted summary judgment to defendants Jones and Harris on Penn’s claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for malicious prosecution and conspiracy. A jury trial was held on Penn’s remaining excessive force and battery claims. Jurors found that Jones and Harris had used excessive force, but had not committed battery, and in the end awarded Penn no damages.

Penn limits his appeal to challenge only the district court’s order granting summary judgment to Harris and Jones on his malicious prosecution claim, and the jury’s decision to award him no damages on his excessive force claim. He argues that the district court should not have entered summary judgment in the defendants’ favor on his malicious prosecution claim because disputed material facts exist — namely, over whether the defendants had probable cause to arrest him. We review summary judgment decisions de novo, determining for ourselves whether, after drawing all reasonable inferences in favor of Penn, there are any genuine issues of material fact. Hall v. Bodine Elec. Co., 276 F.3d 345, 352 (7th Cir.2002). We will affirm the district court’s decision if there are no disputed material facts and the defendants are entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Id.

*576 The district court analyzed Penn’s malicious prosecution claim under § 1983 by applying a tripartite formula that until recently had been followed by this court. See Newsome v. McCabe, 256 F.3d 747, 751 (7th Cir.2001) (citing cases employing the formula). This formula inquires whether (1) the plaintiff satisfied the requirements of a state law cause of action for malicious prosecution; (2) a state actor committed the malicious prosecution; and (3) the plaintiff was deprived a liberty interest. See, e.g., Cervantes v. Jones, 188 F.3d 805, 809 (7th Cir.1999). The district court here concluded that Penn failed to satisfy the requirements of the first and third prongs, and so granted summary judgment to the defendants. Penn v. Chicago State Univ., 162 F.Supp.2d 968, 975-78 (N.D.Ill.2001).

Although the district court’s adherence to the formula was proper at the time, we have since held in Newsome v. McCabe that a § 1983 claim of malicious prosecution “should be analyzed not under the substantive due process approach implied by this [tripartite] formula but under the language of the Constitution itself.” Newsome, 256 F.3d at 751. In other words, as Newsome explained, there is no “constitutional right not to be prosecuted without probable cause.” A plaintiff therefore may not state a § 1983 claim simply by alleging that he was maliciously prosecuted. Instead, he must allege the violation of one of his constitutional rights, such as the right to a fair trial. Id. at 750-52.

In light of Newsome, we determine not whether summary judgment is appropriate based upon the district court’s three-part malicious prosecution inquiry, but rather whether Penn has submitted evidence that defendants violated a constitutional right. Ienco v. City of Chicago, 286 F.3d 994, 998 (7th Cir.2002). Penn’s claims, however, do not assert the violation of a constitutional right. Although in len-co, we remanded the case to allow the plaintiff to recast his claims in light of Newsome, we did so because we had issued Newsome during the pendency of the plaintiffs appeal. Id. at 999. Unlike the plaintiff in Ienco, Penn has had ample time (Newsome issued before the district court entered final judgment and before Penn filed this appeal) to recast his claims as violations of a constitutional right, and so we need not do so for him. United States v. McClellan, 165 F.3d 535, 550 (7th Cir.1999) (“we are not in the business of formulating arguments for the parties”); see also Mearday v. City of Chicago, 196 F.Supp.2d 700, 714 n. 19 (N.D.Ill.2002) (declining to recast a plaintiffs § 1983 malicious prosecution claim as a constitutional violation claim to comport with Newsome). Therefore, Penn’s § 1983 malicious prosecution claims fail as a matter of law and we affirm the district court’s order granting summary judgment (albeit on a different basis). See, e.g., Bay v. Cassens Transp. Co., 212 F.3d 969, 972-73 (7th Cir.2000).

Although Newsome precludes a malicious prosecution claim brought under § 1983, a state law claim of malicious prosecution is still viable. Penn did not allege such a state claim, but even if he had, the defendants would still be entitled to summary judgment. Under Illinois law, a plaintiff may prove malicious prosecution by showing that (1) the defendant sued the plaintiff maliciously and without probable cause; (2) the suit terminated in the plaintiffs favor; and (3) the plaintiff was injured beyond the cost and annoyance of defending the suit. Miller v. Rosenberg, 196 Ill.2d 50, 255 Ill.Dec. 464, 749 N.E.2d 946, 951-52 (Ill.2001). Penn cannot show at least two of the required elements.

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296 F.3d 573, 2002 U.S. App. LEXIS 13825, 2002 WL 1467428, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/david-penn-v-veronica-harris-and-melvin-jones-ca7-2002.