Fort Wayne Patrolmen's Benevolent Ass'n v. City of Fort Wayne

625 F. Supp. 722, 1986 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 30860
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Indiana
DecidedJanuary 3, 1986
DocketCiv. F 85-498
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 625 F. Supp. 722 (Fort Wayne Patrolmen's Benevolent Ass'n v. City of Fort Wayne) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Indiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fort Wayne Patrolmen's Benevolent Ass'n v. City of Fort Wayne, 625 F. Supp. 722, 1986 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 30860 (N.D. Ind. 1986).

Opinion

ORDER

WILLIAM C. LEE, District Judge.

This matter is before the court on a motion for a preliminary injunction filed by the plaintiff (“PBA”). A hearing was held on the motion on December 30, 1985, at which both the PBA and the defendants (collectively, the “City”) presented evidence and arguments. At the hearing, the City offered arguments on issues relating to the justiciability of the issues raised by the PBA’s complaint as well as the propriety of a preliminary injunction. No formal briefs have been filed by either side. For the following reasons, the motion for a preliminary injunction will be denied, and the complaint will be dismissed.

This ease arises out of a proposed change in the City’s administrative policy regarding off-duty or “outside” employment of City police officers. According to testimony at the December 30, 1985 hearing, it has long been a practice for City police officers to work part-time jobs as security personnel at various businesses in the City of Fort Wayne. A prime example of this work can be found in the approximately thirty police officers who work as security personnel at the Allen County Memorial Coliseum during concerts and sporting events. While these officers work during off-duty hours, they are nevertheless allowed to wear their Fort Wayne police uniforms and carry City-issued weapons.

Concerned that some police officers were engaging in outside employment inconsistent with their duties as police officers, and worried that the off-duty actions of officers might affect the City’s ability to maintain its liability insurance or greatly increase its insurance premiums, the City decided to issue a policy directive known as “Policy III.” This directive, originally issued on December 12, 1985 and subsequently amended on December 27 and December 30, 1985, required police officers engaging in outside employment to do several things:

1. to notify the Chief of Police of the outside employment;
2. if the outside employment was police, security or investigative in nature, to submit a written request to the Chief specifying the name of the employer, the nature of the work and the hours to be worked, with the Chief to approve or disapprove the request in writing within five days;
3. all such employment shall be conducted during off-duty hours, and if the outside employment should require the officer to testify in court during off-duty hours, the City will not compensate him for such testimony; and
4. all employers who hire officers for outside employment must provide proof that the officer will be protected by that employer’s insurance and that the employer will hold the City harmless for liability incurred because of the officers’ outside employment, or else name the City as a named insured in their liability policies.

*725 Policy III was set to go into effect on January 1, 1986, although the City has conceded that the collective bargaining agreement between it and the PBA requires that it give five days notice before a policy change is implemented, thus making the effective date of the policy January 5, 1986.

The PBA objected to Policy III, filing this lawsuit and four grievances under the collective bargaining agreement’s' grievance procedures. The complaint here alleges five causes of action against the City. The first is that Policy III violates the first amendmént freedom of association rights of PBA members. As explained at the December 30, 1985 hearing, Policy III acts to prevent PBA-member officers from associating with private employers in the context of outside, part-time employment. The second cause of action alleged is that Policy III violates the freedom to contract of PBA members as guaranteed by article I, § 10 of the Constitution. The third claim is that Policy III violates the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment. As originally stated in the complaint, the violation arose from the fact that the Chief of Police had complete discretion to approve or disapprove a request for permission to engage in outside employment. At the December 30, 1985 hearing, however, the equal protection argument centered around the fact that the appeals process set up in Policy III in response to the PBA’s complaint only gave an officer a written decision by the Board of Public Safety, whereas other appeals mechanisms in the police department gave an officer a full hearing before the Board. The fourth cause of action claimed a deprivation without due process of law of police officer property interests in the expectation of working off-duty. The final claim by the PBA is that Policy III violates provisions of the collective bargaining agreement between the City and the PBA relating to the disclosure of sources of income, compensation for testifying in court, and consideration of changes by a Labor Management Committee set up under the agreement. The complaint asks for a preliminary injunction, a declaratory judgment, and compensatory . and punitive damages in the amount of $500,000.00.

At the hearing on the request for a preliminary injunction, the City raised two issues concerning the justiciability of these claims. The first is the issue of ripeness, while the second relates to the PBA’s standing to bring this suit on behalf of its members. Because those issues go directly to the ability of the court to consider the PBA’s suit at all, the court will consider them first. The court will then examine whether the PBA meets the standards for the issuance of a preliminary injunction.

I. Ripeness

The doctrine of ripeness arises out of article III of the Constitution, which requires the existence of an actual case or controversy and prohibits the rendering of advisory opinions. See Wisconsin’s Environmental Decade, Inc. v. State Bar of Wisconsin, 747 F.2d 407, 410 (7th Cir.1984), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 105 S.Ct. 2324, 85 L.Ed.2d 842 (1985). Ripeness is a prudential question, American Booksellers Ass’n, Inc. v. Hudnut, 771 F.2d 323, 327 (7th Cir.1985), and although the difference between an abstract question calling for an advisory opinion and a ripe case or controversy is not discernable by any precise test, Babbitt v. United Farm Workers National Union, 442 U.S. 289, 297, 99 S.Ct. 2301, 2308, 60 L.Ed.2d 895 (1979), the basic inquiry is whether there is a substantial controversy, between parties having adverse legal interests, of sufficient immediacy and reality, so as to warrant judicial relief. Babbitt, 442 U.S. at 298, 99 S.Ct. at 2308; American Booksellers Ass’n., 771 F.2d at 327. A case is not considered ripe if the issues are not formed or the application of a challenged statute or regulation is not certain, Wisconsin’s Environmental Decade, 747 F.2d at 411. A plaintiff must demonstrate a “realistic danger of sustaining a direct injury” as a result of the defendant’s action, although he need not wait until the injury is consummated if it is “certainly impending.” Babbitt, 442 U.S. *726 at 298, 99 S.Ct. at 2308;

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Bluebook (online)
625 F. Supp. 722, 1986 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 30860, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fort-wayne-patrolmens-benevolent-assn-v-city-of-fort-wayne-innd-1986.