Duhe v. State

28 So. 3d 338, 9 La.App. 5 Cir. 290, 2009 La. App. LEXIS 1813, 2009 WL 3448179
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 27, 2009
Docket09-CA-290
StatusPublished

This text of 28 So. 3d 338 (Duhe v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Duhe v. State, 28 So. 3d 338, 9 La.App. 5 Cir. 290, 2009 La. App. LEXIS 1813, 2009 WL 3448179 (La. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

WALTER J. ROTHSCHILD, Judge.

| .¿Plaintiff appeals from a summary judgment rendered in favor of defendant, the City of Kenner. For the reasons which follow, we affirm.

Stacy Duhe filed the instant petition for damages on March 11, 1999 against several government entities alleging that she was improperly arrested and incarcerated on two separate occasions and suffered damages as a result. Plaintiff alleges that the first arrest occurred on March 12,1998 when she was stopped for a traffic violation by the Harahan Police Department. During the course of the stop, she was arrested on an outstanding warrant for a probation violation, and she was incarcerated in the Jefferson Parish jail. It was subsequently discovered that plaintiff was not the probation violator, but that her sister, Andrea Duhe, had improperly used her identity during a guilty plea for prostitution and possession of a controlled dangerous substance. Plaintiff was released from custody and the Jefferson Parish District Attorney moved to modify the outstanding charges to read Andrea |sDuhe rather then Stacy Duhe. However, the name on the warrant was not immediately corrected.

Plaintiff further alleges that on August 18, 1998, she was stopped by Detective Brian McGregor of the Kenner Police Department for suspicious activity and was arrested based on an outstanding warrant for a probation violation. According to the petition, the stop was without probable cause and the arrest occurred in the presence of plaintiff’s young son, Jermaine. Plaintiff was incarcerated for several hours at the Kenner Police Department, was treated very poorly while in custody, and was forced to walk home when she was released. She alleged that she suffered humiliation, stress and distress as a result of both wrongful arrests, and that her son Jermaine suffered emotional stress and trauma as a result of the second arrest.

Plaintiff also alleged that the warrant remained outstanding until February of 1999, and that she feared another arrest and incarceration during this time period. She alleged she incurred $880.00 in attorney fees to have the warrant cancelled.

*340 Plaintiff named as defendants in this action the State of Louisiana, through the Probation and Parole Office of the Department of Corrections, the City of Harahan, the City of Kenner, and Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee. 1 She alleged that the State and the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs office failed to timely cancel the warrant in her name and learning it was improperly issued. She further alleged a violation of her constitutional rights by the City of Kenner’s failure to verify the correctness of the warrant which resulted in an unlawful incarceration.

|4In January of 2004, plaintiff settled with and dismissed with prejudice the City of Harahan. On April 3, 2008, the City of Kenner filed the present motion for summary judgment on the basis that the Ken-ner police detective had reasonable basis for the stop of plaintiff and that there was no violation of her constitutional rights. Defendant attached to its motion a copy of the deposition of Detective Brian McGre-gor, a copy of plaintiffs deposition and a copy of the police report from the Kenner incident dated August 18,1998.

Plaintiff opposed the summary judgment and attached copies of her own deposition, as well as the deposition of Detective McGregor and a copy of the deposition of Janet Cockren, a correctional officer at the Kenner jail on the date plaintiff was arrested.

Following a hearing, the trial court took the matter under advisement and, on November 10, 2008, rendered judgment in favor of the City of Kenner. This appeal followed.

Appellate courts review summary judgments de novo under the same criteria that govern the district court’s consideration of whether summary judgment is appropriate. Schroeder v. Board of Sup'rs of Louisiana State University, 591 So.2d 342 (La.1991); Pizani v. Progressive Ins. Co., 98-225, p. 3 (La.App. 5 Cir. 9/16/98), 719 So.2d 1086. The decision as to the propriety of a grant of a motion for summary judgment must be made with reference to the substantive law applicable to the case. Mohsan v. Roule-Graham, 05-122, p. 4 (La.App. 5 Cir. 6/28/05), 907 So.2d 804, 806, writ denied, 05-1976 (La.2/3/06), 922 So.2d 1184.

Summary judgment will be granted if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, admissions on file, and any affidavits show that there is no genuine issue as to material fact, and that the mover is entitled to | ¿judgment as a matter of law. La. C.C.P. art. 966(B). The party bringing the motion bears the burden of proof; however, where the moving party will not bear the burden of proof at trial, the moving party must only point out that there is an absence of factual support for one or more elements essential to the adverse party’s claim. La. C.C.P. art. 966(C)(2). The burden does not shift to the party opposing the summary judgment until the moving party first presents a prima facie case that no genuine issues of material fact exist. Mitchell v. Kenner Regional Medical Center, 06-620 p. 5 (La. App. 5 Cir. 1/30/07), 951 So.2d 1193, 1196. Thereafter, if the adverse party fails to produce factual support sufficient to show that he will be able to meet his evidentiary burden of proof at trial, no issue of material fact exists and the moving party is entitled to summary judgment. Id., Hyman v. East Jefferson General Hosp., 04-1222, pp. 3-4 (La.App. 5 Cir. 03/01/05), 900 So.2d 124, 126.

*341 In the present case, defendant based its motion for summary judgment on an absence of factual support for plaintiffs claims that the actions of the Kenner police detective were unreasonable or that any of these actions violated plaintiffs constitutional rights. Defendant contends that the evidence presented shows a reasonable basis for the stop and arrest of plaintiff on the date in question. Further, with regard to plaintiffs allegations that the City of Kenner was negligent in arresting her on an erroneous warrant, defendant contends that it has no authority to modify or correct an arrest warrant issued by another governmental entity and that Detective McGregor had no reason to believe that the arrest warrant was issued in error.

|Jn Detective McGregor’s deposition, he testified that on August 18, 1998, he was driving an unmarked police vehicle on 27th Street in Kenner looking for a burglary suspect. He observed plaintiffs vehicle in the middle of the street with another subject leaning into the window of the vehicle. Based on his prior experience in this high-crime area, Detective McGregor believed that plaintiff may have been engaged in narcotics activity. He then watched her vehicle pull off and drive for two blocks, stop and wait and then turn around and drive back in the opposite direction. At this point, Detective McGregor stopped plaintiffs vehicle and asked for her driver’s license, registration and insurance information. Plaintiffs son was in the vehicle, and the detective stated that it is common in narcotics activity to be accompanied by a child. Plaintiff was unable to produce any of the requested items, and Detective McGregor subsequently learned that although plaintiff had a valid driver’s license, there was no insurance on the vehicle.

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Related

Mohsan v. Roule-Graham
907 So. 2d 804 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2005)
Hyman v. East Jefferson General Hosp.
900 So. 2d 124 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2005)
Schroeder v. Board of Sup'rs
591 So. 2d 342 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1991)
Mitchell v. Kenner Regional Medical Center
951 So. 2d 1193 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2007)
Pizani v. Progressive Ins. Co.
719 So. 2d 1086 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1998)

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Bluebook (online)
28 So. 3d 338, 9 La.App. 5 Cir. 290, 2009 La. App. LEXIS 1813, 2009 WL 3448179, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/duhe-v-state-lactapp-2009.