Harris v. Wayne

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Michigan
DecidedMay 7, 2024
Docket2:23-cv-10986
StatusUnknown

This text of Harris v. Wayne (Harris v. Wayne) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Harris v. Wayne, (E.D. Mich. 2024).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN SOUTHERN DIVISION NICOLE HARRIS et al.,

Plaintiffs, Case No. 23-10986 Honorable Laurie J. Michelson v.

COUNTY OF WAYNE, and TERRI GRAHAM,

Defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO DISMISS [20] Plaintiffs—126 women who were formerly incarcerated at the Wayne County Jail—filed this civil rights class action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that they were subjected to unconstitutional strip searches between 2014 and 2022. This is not the first case to challenge the constitutionality of the Wayne County Jail’s strip- searching practices. Indeed, the present case follows a series of putative class actions, the most recent of which was Woodall v. County of Wayne, No. 17-13707 (E.D. Mich. filed Nov. 14, 2017). There, the Sixth Circuit reversed the district court’s grant of class certification, see Woodall v. Wayne County, No. 20-1705, 2021 WL 5298537, at *4 (6th Cir. Nov. 15, 2021), and the case was dismissed on April 27, 2023, after the individual plaintiffs settled their claims, see Woodall, No. 17-13707, ECF No. 186 (stipulating dismissal).1 Undoubtedly aware of the looming statute of limitations issues, counsel filed the present suit the same day Woodall was dismissed—making it the fourth putative class action of its kind.

Plaintiffs seek class-wide and individual relief. Defendants have moved to dismiss most of the Plaintiffs’ claims as untimely. The parties dispute whether, due to the string of putative class actions preceding this one, the statute of limitations was tolled as to these Plaintiffs’ claims and, if so, when that tolling ceased. For the reasons below, the Court dismisses some of the Plaintiffs’ individual claims as untimely.

As the current Plaintiffs were putative class members in Woodall (ECF No. 14, PageID.88–89), some background on that case is helpful. Woodall also involved women formerly incarcerated at Wayne County Jail who filed suit under § 1983 alleging that unconstitutional strip searches were conducted at the jail. See Woodall, No. 17-13707, ECF No. 1. The presiding district judge granted class certification, but the Sixth Circuit reversed that decision on November 15, 2021. Woodall v. County of

Wayne, No. 17-13707, 2020 WL 373073 (E.D. Mich. Jan. 23, 2020), rev’d and remanded, 2021 WL 5298537. More than a year later, on April 27, 2023, this Court dismissed the case with prejudice after the individual Plaintiffs settled their claims. Woodall, No. 17-13707, ECF No. 186.

1 Both parties occasionally misstate this date as April 23, 2023. (See, e.g., ECF No. 23, PageID.275; ECF No. 25, PageID.293.) But this minor discrepancy does not affect the Court’s analysis. That same day, many putative class members from that case filed this suit, asserting similar factual allegations and again alleging that they underwent humiliating strip searches. (ECF No. 1; see ECF Nos. 11, 14.) Specifically, Plaintiffs

here likewise claim that Officer Terri Graham, who worked the registry at the Jail, strip-searched them in groups, made derogatory comments about their bodies, allowed men to see them being strip-searched, and maintained an unsanitary environment. (ECF No. 14, PageID.108–109.) And because many women claim they were subject to similar strip searches, Plaintiffs again accuse Wayne County, the municipality in charge of the Jail, of ignoring a pattern of constitutional violations and failing to train its officers or otherwise address the issue, allowing the violations

to continue. (Id. at PageID.109–110.) So after amending their complaint twice (see ECF Nos. 11, 14), a total of 126 women allege, as in Woodall, that Graham violated the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on unreasonable searches and the County is also liable for these violations under Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658 (1978). (ECF No. 14.) In addition to pursuing punitive damages, Plaintiffs seek compensatory, declaratory,

and injunctive relief, on an individual and class-wide basis. (Id. at PageID.87–88, 107, 113.) As their first responsive pleading, Defendants filed a motion to dismiss. (ECF No. 20.) This motion can be separated into two main arguments. First, Defendants argue that only seven Plaintiffs—those with claims accruing after April 27, 2020—can be class representatives. (Id. at PageID.222, 226–227.) All other Plaintiffs, they say, should be dismissed because, even if they have timely individual claims that they could bring in individual lawsuits, this was filed as a putative class action and those 119 Plaintiffs cannot represent a class. (Id.)

Plaintiffs agree that only those seven individuals can represent a class. (ECF No. 23, PageID.286.) But they disagree about what this means for the other 119 Plaintiffs with individual claims accruing before that date. Plaintiffs’ position is that even if they are barred from representing a class, their individual claims are timely and should proceed because no class certification decision has yet been made. (Id. at PageID.286–287.) Second, Defendants argue that even if the Court does not dismiss all 119

Plaintiffs with untimely class claims, at least 26 Plaintiffs—those with claims that accrued before April 27, 2016—should be dismissed because their individual claims are also untimely. (ECF No. 20, PageID.226.) Plaintiffs disagree, saying all their claims are timely, including these 26. (ECF No. 23, PageID.277.) This is in large measure a disagreement about when the tolling of individual claims in Woodall ended. (ECF No. 20, PageID.227; ECF No. 23, PageID.275.)

Defendants believe tolling ended when the Sixth Circuit denied class certification. (ECF No. 20, PageID.227.) Plaintiffs counter that tolling did not end until Woodall was dismissed, and, even if the Court finds that tolling ended when class certification was denied, they are entitled to equitable tolling. (ECF No. 23, PageID.281–282.) The parties’ briefs address the relevant issues and the Court dealt with them tangentially in Woodall. Thus, no further argument is needed. See E.D. Mich. LR 7.1(f).

Because Defendants seek dismissal under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), the Court “construes the complaint in the light most favorable” to the Plaintiffs and determines whether their “complaint ‘contain[s] sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’” See Heinrich v. Waiting Angels Adoption Servs., Inc., 668 F.3d 393, 403 (6th Cir. 2012) (quoting Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009)). Detailed factual allegations are

not required to survive a motion to dismiss, HDC, LLC v. City of Ann Arbor, 675 F.3d 608, 614 (6th Cir. 2012), but they must “raise a right to relief above the speculative level,” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007).

The only issue raised in Defendants’ motion to dismiss is the statute of limitations.

“When § 1983 claims arise in Michigan . . . ‘the appropriate statute of limitations . . . is [Michigan’s] three-year limitations period for personal injury claims.’” Forrester v. Clarenceville Sch. Dist., 537 F. Supp. 3d 944, 949–50 (E.D. Mich.

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Harris v. Wayne, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harris-v-wayne-mied-2024.