Fann v. City of Cleveland, Ohio

616 F. Supp. 305, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18161
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Ohio
DecidedJuly 8, 1985
DocketCiv. A. C83-4306
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 616 F. Supp. 305 (Fann v. City of Cleveland, Ohio) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fann v. City of Cleveland, Ohio, 616 F. Supp. 305, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18161 (N.D. Ohio 1985).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

ANN ALDRICH, District Judge.

Kristy Fann seeks damages under the Civil Rights Act of 1871, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, for alleged violations of her constitutional rights during a strip search that occurred following her arrest by Cleveland police officers on August 13, 1983. Pending before the Court are cross-motions for summary judgment and myriad ancillary motions. For the reasons set forth below, the strip search of Fann was unconstitutional and she is entitled to partial summary judgment on the issue of liability with respect to certain defendants. Other defendants are entitled to summary judgment themselves under the doctrine of qualified immunity.

Jurisdiction rests on 28 U.S.C. § 1331 and 1343.

I.

Fann’s complaint, filed on October 25, 1983, alleges that following her arrest she was strip searched “without reason or cause to believe that weapons and/or contraband were being concealed on or about her body; while bond was being posted for her, and in violation of her constitutional rights.” Complaint ¶ 1. She contends that she “was greatly embarrassed and humiliated, and suffered great emotional pain and distress,” id. 118, because of a search which “deprived Plaintiff of the following rights, privileges and immunities preserved to her by the Constitution of the United States:

a. The right of plaintiff to be secure in her person against unreasonable search and seizure under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution;
b. The right of plaintiff to privacy in her person against unreasonable intrusion under the Fourth, Fifth, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution;
c. The right of plaintiff not to be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law and the right to the equal protection of the law secured by the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States;
d. The right of plaintiff not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution of the United States.”

Id. at 1113.

The defendants are the City of Cleveland (“the City”); Mayor George Voinovich; Safety Director Reginald Turner; Chief of Police William T. Hanton; two police officers, David Hoke and Sharon Dickerson; and unnamed police officers and an unnamed jail matron. In a proposed amendment to her complaint, Fann seeks to substitute as “named defendants” both “Unknown Jail Matorn [sic] Mary Pritchett” and “Unknown Policeman Andrew Lang.” Each defendant (except the City) is sued both individually and in his or her official capacity.

Fann demands compensatory and punitive damages and attorney’s fees.

II.

Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c) governs summary judgment motions and provides:

... The judgment sought shall be rendered forthwith if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law____

The nature of materials properly presented in a summary judgment pleading is set forth in Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e):

Supporting and opposing affidavits shall be made on personal knowledge, shall set forth such facts as would be admissible in evidence, and shall show *308 affirmatively that the affiant is competent to testify to the matters stated therein____ The court may permit affidavits to be supplemented or opposed by depositions, answers to interrogatories, or further affidavits. When a motion for summary judgment is made and supported as provided in this rule, an adverse party may not rest upon the mere allegations or denials of his pleading, but his response, by affidavits or as otherwise provided in this rule, must set forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial. If he does not so respond, summary judgment, if appropriate, shall be entered against him.

In reviewing summary judgment motions, this Court must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party to determine whether a genuine issue of material fact exists. Adickes v. S.H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144, 398 S.Ct. 144, 26 L.Ed.2d 142 (1970); Hasan v. CleveTrust Realty Investors, Inc., 729 F.2d 372 (6th Cir.1984). “[T]he party seeking summary judgment must conclusively show that there exists no genuine issue of material fact and that the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Bender v. Southland Corp., 749 F.2d 1205, 1210 (6th Cir.1984) (citing Smith v. Hudson, 600 F.2d 60, 63 (6th Cir.), cert. dismissed, 444 U.S. 986, 100 S.Ct. 495, 62 L.Ed.2d 415 (1979)) (emphasis in original).

III.

The following factual summary is based on the materials appended to the cross-motions for summary judgment and the defendants’ opposition to Fann’s motion: affidavits by Hanton, Hoke, Dickerson, and Pritchett, and Hanton’s answers to interrogatories. The defendants have moved to strike that portion of Fann’s motion designated “Statement of Fact” because it contains numerous unsworn allegations unsupported by the record. That motion is well-taken and is granted pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(f), and this Court will examine only those facts found in the attached materials, rather than in Fann’s motion itself.

On August 13, 1983, Officers Hoke and Dickerson stopped Fann’s automobile and arrested her for allegedly disobeying a traffic signal and operating a vehicle without license plates. The arrest took place in the Third District, which has no detention facilities for holding prisoners, so the officers took Fann to the Central Prison Unit at 1300 Ontario Street in Cleveland for booking. After Fann was booked, Hoke escorted her from the booking officer, Lang, to the custody of a jail matron, Pritchett. According to defendants’ answers to interrogatories, Fann

... was taken by Matron Pritchett to the corridor behind the female cell block and searched. Matron Pritchett offered the plaintiff the opportunity to make a telephone call. The matron took the plaintiff into the office to make out her prisoner record card. Plaintiff was placed in Cell No. 8. This conduct was taken pursuant to the standard arrest, booking procedures and matrons’ duties in effect at the time under the authority of the Chief of Police.

The answers to interrogatories and Han-ton’s affidavit describe the search policy itself in greater detail. The latter states in part:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
616 F. Supp. 305, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18161, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fann-v-city-of-cleveland-ohio-ohnd-1985.