Dean Christiansen v. Christopher Eral, Rex Mueller, and City of Sioux City

Court of Appeals of Iowa·Decided January 10, 2024·No. 22-1971·Published

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA

No. 22-1971

Filed January 10, 2024

DEAN CHRISTIANSEN, Plaintiff-Appellant,

vs.

CHRISTOPHER ERAL, REX MUELLER, and CITY OF SIOUX CITY, Defendants-Appellees.

Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Woodbury County, Roger L. Sailer, Judge.

The plaintiff appeals the district court’s dismissal of his state constitutional and common law tort claims against the defendant municipal employees and municipality. AFFIRMED.

Adam C. Witosky, Matthew M. Boles, and Christopher Stewart of Gribble Boles Stewart & Witosky Law, Des Moines, for appellant.

Steven R. Postolka, Caleb C. Christopherson, and Connie Anstey, Sioux City, for appellees.

Heard by Greer, P.J., and Ahlers and Buller, JJ.

GREER, Presiding Judge.

Dean Christiansen appeals the district court’s dismissal of his state constitutional and common law tort claims against two municipal employees, Sioux City Police Officer Christopher Eral and Sioux City Police Chief Rex Mueller, as well as the City of Sioux City (the City) (collectively, the Defendants). He contends that despite our supreme court’s ruling in Burnett v. Smith, 990 N.W.2d 289 (Iowa 2023), he has a right of recovery under article I, sections 8 and 9 of the Iowa Constitution for violations of unreasonable seizure by excessive force and substantive due process and that the district court erred in dismissing his claims of negligence, negligent training and supervision, and respondeat superior. We affirm the dismissal. I. Background Facts and Prior Proceedings.

As this case comes to us on appeal from the district court’s ruling on the Defendants’ motion to dismiss, we accept the facts stated in Christiansen’s petition to be true and consider only those facts stated in the petition. See U.S. Bank v. Barbour, 770 N.W.2d 350, 353 (Iowa 2009). In Christiansen’s petition, he alleged that around 1:47 a.m. on June 2, 2019, he left the parking lot of a North Sioux City casino in his truck. A North Sioux City police officer, Andrew Ryan, saw Christiansen leaving and initiated his lights and sirens as he pursued Christiansen, attempting to get Christiansen to pull over so he could inform him of a mechanical issue. Officer Ryan identified Christiansen as the registered owner of the truck.

Christiansen did not pull over. After a couple of minutes, Christiansen entered Sioux City where his vehicle reached speeds of eighty miles per hour (mph). Officer Ryan alerted the Sioux City police department about the chase and

his suspicion that Christiansen was operating his vehicle while intoxicated. Armed with that information, Sioux City police officers became involved and deployed stop sticks to get Christiansen to stop the truck, but they were ineffective; a bystander vehicle and a Sioux City police officer hit the stop sticks instead of Christiansen. Christiansen continued driving between fifty and sixty mph along a residential street and eventually sped up to over seventy mph. At this point, Officer Eral joined the pursuit. After another couple of minutes and in another attempt to end the pursuit, Officer Eral performed a Pursuit Intervention Technique (PIT)1 maneuver by using his patrol vehicle to collide with the rear of Christiansen’s vehicle. The impact caused Christiansen’s vehicle to spin into the ditch, crash into a light pole, its doors to wedge shut, and its engine to start on fire. Christiansen sustained injuries to his chest, knee, and hip.

Christiansen brought suit against Officer Eral, Chief Mueller, and the City in May 2022. He raised claims of unreasonable seizure by excessive force and substantive due process2 under article I, sections 8 and 9 of the Iowa Constitution

1 The parties refer to this as a Precision Intervention Technique and Pursuit Intervention Technique interchangeably. We refer to only Pursuit Intervention Technique for consistency. See State v. Shears, 920 N.W. 2d 527, 538 (Iowa 2018) (referring to “an officer’s execution of a ‘pursuit intervention technique,’ or PIT, maneuver”); see also Iowa Code § 321.231(4) (2022) (identifying a “pursuit intervention technique” as “a method by which a peace officer operating a motor vehicle in pursuit of a fleeing motor vehicle causes or attempts to cause the fleeing motor vehicle to stop”); but see Scott v. Harris, 550 U.S. 372, 375 (2007) (describing an attempt at employing “a Precision Intervention Technique (‘PIT’) maneuver, which causes the fleeing vehicle to spin to a stop”). 2 In his petition for relief, Christiansen pled a violation of substantive due process

under article I, section 8 of the Iowa Constitution. We assume that Christiansen meant article I, section 9, which protects against deprivation “of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” Christiansen then argued a theory under section 9 in the hearing on the motion to dismiss. In its written ruling granting the

against Officer Eral individually; negligence against Officer Eral individually and in his official capacity; negligent training and supervision against Chief Mueller individually and in his official capacity; and respondeat superior naming only Chief Mueller and the City. The Defendants filed a pre-answer motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim in June 2022. In their motion, the Defendants alleged that there were no constitutional violations of Christiansen’s rights; the claims against Officer Eral and the City were subject to qualified immunity; the negligence claim against Officer Eral was exempted from tort liability under Iowa Code section 670.4 (2019); and as there were no underlying constitutional violations, the claims of negligent training and supervision and respondeat superior against Chief Mueller and the City also failed.

The district court held a hearing on the motion in August 2022. In October 2022, the district court granted the Defendants’ motion and dismissed the petition in its entirety.3 In its written ruling granting the motion to dismiss, the district court concluded that Christiansen had failed to state a claim upon which relief could be

motion to dismiss, the district court referred to section 9 as the source for substantive due process protection. 3 Christiansen also unsuccessfully petitioned for federal relief by bringing a 42

U.S.C. § 1983 federal civil rights action against the Defendants. See Christiansen v. Eral, et al., 52 F.4th 377, 379-81 (8th Cir. 2022) (dismissing excessive force and substantive due process constitutional claims for failure to state a claim as Officer Eral’s actions were objectively reasonable under Scott v. Harris, 550 U.S. 372, 374-75 (2007), and from the complaint there were no facts that made the PIT maneuver “so dangerous that it . . . evinces a malicious intent by Eral to harm Christiansen”). The district court noted this finding in its ruling but refused to take judicial notice of the opinion and based its ruling only on the facts and claims alleged in the petition filed in the case before it. Because of the application of Burnett, we see no need to rely upon the federal decision. But see Burnett, 990 N.W.2d at 303 (noting that excessive force claims are typically joined with § 1983 federal civil rights claims and the federal and state constitutional claims have risen or fallen together).

granted under article I, sections 8 or 9 of the Iowa Constitution and that Iowa Code sections 670.4(1)(k) and 670.12 provided immunity against the negligence, negligent training and supervision, and respondeat superior claims as Officer Eral was providing emergency response. Christiansen appeals. II. Standard of Review.

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