Flavel v. Logsdon

718 F. Supp. 836, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10241, 1989 WL 99805
CourtDistrict Court, D. Oregon
DecidedAugust 15, 1989
DocketCiv. 88-1212-RE
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 718 F. Supp. 836 (Flavel v. Logsdon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Flavel v. Logsdon, 718 F. Supp. 836, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10241, 1989 WL 99805 (D. Or. 1989).

Opinion

*837 OPINION

REDDEN, District Judge:

BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs (mother and daughter) brought a civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. section 1983 against several defendants over a landlord-tenant dispute. Plaintiffs entered into a lease of their building in Astoria with defendant Thomas Latham. Latham carried on a retail waterbed business on the premises. Latham discontinued paying rent under the lease and plaintiffs proceeded nonjudicially to collect the rent. Plaintiffs attached a Landlord’s Possessory Lien on the store’s merchandise, and posted notices to that effect. Plaintiffs locked the tenant out pursuant to Oregon law and the lease. Plaintiffs allege that Latham unlawfully entered the premises on October 21, 1986, and that plaintiffs sought the aid of the Astoria Police Department, which refused to assist in a citizen’s arrest.

On October 21, 1986, defendant Faber, a deputy district attorney for Clatsop County, was contacted at his home by Officer Logsdon of the Astoria Police Department. Defendants Faber and Clatsop County allege that members of the Astoria Police Department would often call the district attorneys for advice concerning criminal matters which needed immediate attention. Officer Logsdon told Faber that he had received a telephone call from Flavel concerning a landlord-tenant dispute. To wit: Flavel had locked out her tenant, Latham, and was demanding that Latham be arrested. Faber decided that the matter was civil in nature and advised Logsdon to take a crime report and forward it to the district attorney’s office for possible submission to the grand jury.

A short time later, Officer Logsdon called back. He told Faber that Flavel wanted to arrest Latham and bring him to the Astoria Police Department. After reviewing the situation and the applicable criminal statutes cited by Flavel (ORS 133.-310), Faber concluded that it would be improper for the police to take Latham into custody. He again advised Logsdon to take a crime report from Flavel and forward it to the district attorney’s office for possible criminal charges. Officer Logs-don subsequently took a crime report from Flavel and it was sent to the district attorney’s office. The district attorney decided not to submit the matter to the grand jury.

Plaintiffs claim that the actions of all the defendants (including Clatsop County and Deputy District Attorney Faber) violated their constitutional rights, including their right to equal protection of the laws. Defendant Faber argues that he is absolutely immune from liability and therefore entitled to summary judgment. Defendant Clatsop County argues that it had no involvement in the events alleged in plaintiffs’ complaint other than the fact that Faber was an employee of Clatsop County and therefore it is also entitled to summary judgment.

STANDARDS

Summary judgment is appropriate “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.” Fed.R. Civ.P. 56(c).

DISCUSSION

1. Timeliness

Defendants argue in their reply that plaintiffs’ response was not filed until 30 days after the summary judgment motion was filed, and asked that I not consider plaintiffs’ late filed response. However, I did consider plaintiffs response and did allow plaintiffs to present oral argument.

2. Faber

Faber argues that as a deputy district attorney, he is entitled to immunity from claims under section 1983. See Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 96 S.Ct. 984, 47 L.Ed.2d 128 (1976) and McCarthy v. Mayo, 827 F.2d 1310, 1314 (9th Cir.1987). Imbler holds a prosecutor is immune from a section 1983 suit when,

respondent’s activities were intimately associated with the judicial phase of the criminal process, and thus were functions *838 to which the reasons for absolute immunity apply with full force. We have no occasion to consider whether like or similar reasons require immunity for those aspects of the prosecutor’s responsibility that cast him in the role of an administrator or investigative officer rather than that of advocate.

Id. 424 U.S. at 430-31, 96 S.Ct. at 995. The Ninth Circuit held that immunity attaches for all aspects of the prosecutor taken within the scope of this authority. Ashelman v. Pope, 793 F.2d 1072, 1076 (9th Cir.1986).

The seventh, eighth and eleventh circuits have held that a prosecutor is absolutely immune for advising law enforcement officials to make or not make an arrest. See Meyers v. Morris, 810 F.2d 1437, 1448 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 828, 108 S.Ct. 97, 98 L.Ed.2d 58 (1987) (in providing advice to law enforcement officials concerning the existence of probable cause and the prospective legality of arrests, defendant was functioning in a quasi-judicial capacity as a prosecutor initiating the formal judicial process); Henderson v. Lopez, 790 F.2d 44, 46-47 (7th Cir.1986) (absolute immunity shields county attorney for function of advising county officials of the legality of detaining the plaintiff in jail) and Marx v. Gumbinner, 855 F.2d 783, 790 (11th Cir.1988) (prosecutor was entitled to absolute immunity when advising police officers whether probable cause existed to make an arrest).

Conversely, the tenth circuit has held that a prosecutor is not an advocate (under Imbler’s definition) in initiating a prosecution and in presenting the state’s case if he or she is merely giving legal advice to police officers. See Benavidez v. Gunnell, 722 F.2d 615, 617 (10th Cir.1983) (no absolute prosecutorial immunity for advising police officers to take action to retrieve children taken from foster home) and Wolfenbarger v. Williams, 826 F.2d 930, 937 (10th Cir.1987) (no absolute immunity for prosecutor giving legal advice to police to seize stolen property from pawn shops).

The ninth circuit has yet not ruled on this issue. In

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
718 F. Supp. 836, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10241, 1989 WL 99805, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/flavel-v-logsdon-ord-1989.