Dawson v. City of Seattle

435 F.3d 1054, 2006 WL 163300
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 23, 2006
Docket03-35858
StatusPublished
Cited by94 cases

This text of 435 F.3d 1054 (Dawson v. City of Seattle) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dawson v. City of Seattle, 435 F.3d 1054, 2006 WL 163300 (9th Cir. 2006).

Opinions

GOULD, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiffs-Appellants Jerri L. Dawson, David Emry, Byron Foltz, and Shelly N. Sogga (Plaintiffs) appeal the district court’s orders denying them motion for summary judgment and granting summary judgment to the defendants: Alonzo Plough, Bill Lasby, Perry Lee, King County, Gil Kerlikowske, and the City of Seattle (Defendants), thereby extinguishing Plaintiffs’ 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claims.1 Plaintiffs at pertinent times were tenants of boardinghouses inspected by public health officials and secured by Seattle police. Defendants Plough, Lasby, and Lee at pertinent times were employees of the Seattle-King County Department of Public Health. Defendant Kerlikowske was Chief of Police for the City of Seattle during the events underlying this case.

Plaintiffs argue that the district court erred by granting Defendants’ motions for summary judgment and that Plaintiffs are [1057]*1057entitled to judgment as a matter of law because the search underlying this case violated the Fourth Amendment; because King County’s failure to teach its public health inspectors a constitutionally proper procedure to obtain and execute search warrants caused the allegedly unconstitutional search; because, during the search, Plaintiffs were detained by the Seattle police unreasonably and thus unconstitutionally; and because the City of Seattle’s custom or policy of detaining a building’s occupants pending a police search caused the allegedly unconstitutional detention. Further, Plaintiffs argue that if they are not entitled to judgment as a matter of law, there is a genuine issue of material fact that would preclude summary judgment whether their detention pending search was reasonable. Finally, Plaintiffs contend that the district court abused its discretion in awarding costs to Defendants. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm.

I

On August 8, 1999, Terminix, a pest control company, dispatched Richard Cop-pock to inspect two Seattle boardinghouses, located at 6418 and 6420 Brooklyn Avenue NE, for ants and fleas. Coppock inspected all of the occupied boarders’ rooms, the kitchens, the basements, as well as several sheds and a shack located in the backyards. During his inspection, Coppock observed fleas, maggots, ants, sal bugs, earwigs, German roaches, rat urine, and rat feces throughout both houses. He noted that many of the doors inside the boardinghouses fit too loosely in their frames and, as a result, rats or other pests could pass freely from room to room. Coppock also observed rotting food, used food wrappers, garbage, and piles of dirty clothing inside many of the boarders’ rooms. In the backyards, Cop-pock saw piles of wood, junk, and an automobile raised on blocks. In Coppock’s opinion, these conditions invited rodents, particularly rats, to infest the boardinghouses. In his professional judgment, the rotting food in both houses would attract rats, and the piles of debris, both inside and outside the houses, provided sites in which they could nest. Although Cop-pock could not determine whether the properties were then infested because rats are nocturnal and he inspected the properties during the day, Coppock concluded that “[tjhese two properties were the worst examples of rodent and insect infestation and rodent harborage I had ever seen in a residential setting.” During the inspection, the building manager, Todd Ade, who appeared drunk to Cop-pock, bragged that his operation of these boardinghouses was “free money.” Concerned that the tenants were living in filthy and potentially unhealthy conditions, Coppock reported his observations and views to Sandra Watson, an Assistant City Attorney; it was the first time that he had ever made such a report.

Watson verified that Coppock was a licensed pest exterminator, that he had inspected the boardinghouses for Terminix, and that his allegations were based on personal observations. Watson organized a meeting with representatives from the City of Seattle and King County agencies that had jurisdiction over the city and county ordinance and code violations described by Coppock, including the Seattle-King County Department of Public Health (DPH). Two DPH Health and Environmental Investigators, Bill Lasby and Perry Lee, responded to Coppock’s complaint by visiting the properties and requesting Mr. Ade’s permission to inspect them. Mr. Ade refused to let Lasby and Lee enter, and Ade told them to “get a search warrant” if they wanted to search either property. Unable to search inside, Lasby and Lee proceeded to examine the exterior of the two boardinghouses. Although Lasby [1058]*1058and Lee observed structural damage to both houses, as well as “accumulated debris in plastic bags and overgrowth providing rodent harborage,” they could neither verify nor disconfirm Coppock’s allegations based on their external inspection.

Lasby and Lee concluded that their observations were sufficiently corroborative of Coppoek’s allegations to justify further investigation, so they sought a search warrant. Based on declarations submitted by Coppock and Lasby,2 the magistrate judge issued two inspection warrants authorizing DPH to search the houses located at 6418 and 6420 Brooklyn Avenue NE for evidence of rodent infestation. Specifically, the warrants authorized DPH to:

[Ijnspect the exterior, including but not limited to, common areas, yards, crawlspaces, porches, basements, attic and any out buildings, [and] appliances on the premises, specifically including inside the shack in the rear yard of the property that serves as a living unit.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that you search inside the premises in areas where violations may exist, including but not limited to any individual dwelling units or apartments or rooms or other housing units that may exist inside the main building, cabinets, closets, under furniture, inside furniture, inside appliances, in common areas, storage spaces, basements, and attics.

The warrants ordered DPH to search for and to seize “evidence of violations of the Seattle Municipal Health Code ... including photographs and any other evidence of filth, debris, rodent or insect infestation.” The warrants authorized DPH to “obtain whatever assistance is necessary and proper under the circumstances.”

DPH asked the Seattle Police Department to help execute the warrants “to protect the safety of [DPH] staff’ during the search. DPH and the police were concerned that Ade might resist the search, given his previous refusal to admit Lasby and Lee. DPH and the police were also concerned because these boardinghouses were owned by Hugh Sisley, whose associate, Keith Gilbert, previously had threatened DPH employees during inspections of other Sisley properties. In light of Gilbert’s violent criminal history, the police and DPH considered the possibility that Gilbert might try to disrupt the inspection, or even assault a member of the inspection team.

On the morning of the inspection, DPH decided to search the houses sequentially, beginning with the house located at 6418 Brooklyn Ave. NE, because there were not enough police officers present to protect two inspection teams. Before DPH began to search the house located at 6418 Brooklyn Ave. NE, several Seattle police officers, including some members of the Anti-Crime Team, secured the house.

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Bluebook (online)
435 F.3d 1054, 2006 WL 163300, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dawson-v-city-of-seattle-ca9-2006.