Hart v. Cash

585 F. Supp. 344, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17304
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Arkansas
DecidedApril 24, 1984
DocketCiv. No. 84-2072
StatusPublished

This text of 585 F. Supp. 344 (Hart v. Cash) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hart v. Cash, 585 F. Supp. 344, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17304 (W.D. Ark. 1984).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

H. FRANKLIN WATERS, Chief Judge.

This is another of the plethora of cases filed almost daily in this court in which plaintiffs who, if anything, have a cause of action which should be determined in state court, attempt to invoke the jurisdiction of the federal court by attempting to stretch past the point of breaking the jurisdiction of the court to hear civil rights causes of action authorized by 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and its jurisdictional predicate, 28 U.S.C. § 1343. For whatever the reason, as one distinguished judge has observed: “The reality is that today there is a mad rush to the federal courts.” Aldisert, Judicial Expansion of Federal Jurisdiction: A Federal Judge’s Thoughts on Section 1983, Comity and the Federal Caseload, 1973 L. & Soc. 0. 557, 559. For the reasons set forth below, the court believes that, if the plaintiff has a cause of action in this case, it is one that not only should be but must be decided by the courts of Arkansas.

This is a case in which the plaintiff, a resident of Johnson County, Arkansas, has sued the defendant, Kenny Cash, a deputy sheriff of Johnson County, and the sheriff, Elton Brown, claiming that certain action or, more accurately, inaction, on the part of Kenny Cash, resulted in a ■deprivation of “due process of law and equal protection of the laws in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

[345]*345It is alleged that on August 6, 1983, the plaintiff was injured about dark in a fall from a bluff at a swimming hole located.in Johnson County, resulting in a fracture of his right lateral malleolus and a tear in the deltoid ligament of his right ankle. He alleges that he was helped to his car and was in great pain and unable to drive. Shortly thereafter, the defendant Cash, while on patrol, drove by and plaintiff allegedly requested that Cash take him home or to the hospital. It is alleged that Cash refused, saying that he was not allowed to do so. Instead, it is claimed that Cash offered to take the plaintiff to the courthouse, but that he would have to get to the hospital from the courthouse on his own. Plaintiff claims that defendant Cash encouraged him to stay with his vehicle so that its contents would not be stolen.

He claims that he stayed with his car, but was in great pain with his leg swelling badly. A few hours later, according to the complaint, defendant Cash returned and asked plaintiff about his condition and allegedly searched the trunk of his vehicle and asked plaintiff whether he had any drugs in his car. Plaintiff claims that he again asked for assistance.

He claims that the next morning he awoke in great pain and still could not drive. He walked and crawled to a nearby house and called for someone to come and get him who then took him to the hospital.

It is alleged that defendant Cash was acting in the course of his duties as Johnson County deputy sheriff at the time of the refusal to aid plaintiff and that he represented that department policy prohibited him from assisting plaintiff. It is claimed that, since defendant Brown is the sheriff, he must have been the one to promulgate such a policy and that, therefore, he is also liable.

In addition to plaintiff’s attempt to state a section 1983 action, he attempts to allege a pendent state claim. The complaint alleges that defendants’ act in refusing to transport plaintiff home or to the hospital, or to assist him in getting transportation to get medical help when they knew or reasonably should have known he needed medical care, breached a duty owed to him. He prays for $25,000.00 compensatory damages, $75,000.00 punitive damages, costs, expenses and attorney’s fees.

As the court has already indicated, it has a great deal of concern about the frequent attempts to invoke federal court jurisdiction in cases where the parties bringing the lawsuit have, if anything, a state court claim. It should be remebered that the drafters of our Constitution, wisely in the court’s view, intended for federal courts to be courts of limited jurisdiction. As is stated in 13 Wright, Miller & Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure: Jurisdiction § 3522 at 44:

“It is a principle of first importance that the federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction. Most state courts are courts of general jurisdiction, and the presumption is that they have jurisdiction over a particular controversy unless a showing is made to the contrary. The federal courts, on the other hand, cannot be courts of general jurisdiction. They are empowered to hear only those cases that (1) are within the judicial power of the United States, as defined in the Constitution, and (2) that have been entrusted to them by a jurisdictional grant by the Congress, (citing cases.)

As that treatise further points out, at p. 45:

“... the rule is well settled that the party seeking to invoke the jurisdiction of a federal court must demonstrate that the case is within the competence of that court. The presumption is that a federal court lacks jurisdiction in a particular case until it has been demonstrated that jurisdiction over the subject matter exists. Thus, the facts showing the existence of jurisdiction must be affirmatively alleged in the complaint.” (citing cases.)

The reason for the rush to federal court noted by Judge Aldisert, supra, and numerous other authorities, is not clear. It is obvious that state court judges are selected from the same source as federal court judges, and there is certainly no indi[346]*346cation, at least in Arkansas, that state courts and state court judges are not at least as competent to try matters such as the one alleged in this complaint as are the federal courts. In spite of this, it is only necessary to make a cursory examination of the cases arising under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 to determine that litigants have attempted to use that section to invoke federal court jurisdiction in cases in which neither the drafters of the Constitution nor. of the 1871 Civil Rights Act would, in their wildest dreams, have envisioned. It seems that almost any time a citizen is involved with the state or local authorities, be it a termination or disciplining of an employee, an adverse ruling of a zoning board, city council, school board, or local civil service commission, or an arrest by a police officer, ingenuous counsel attempt to claim that the party who believes he has been wronged has a “federal case” by reason of the provisions of section 1983.

Be that as it may, the defendants have, in this case, filed a motion to dismiss under the provisions of Rule 12(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The court recognizes that there are substantial hurdles that must be overcome before a trial court may grant such a motion. The law clearly is that the complaint shall be construed in the light most favorable to plaintiff and its allegations taken as true. See the numerous cases cited at footnote 46 of 13 Wright, Miller & Cooper, supra, at 594. Such a motion is viewed with disfavor and is rarely granted. See the cases cited at footnote 64 of 13 Wright, Miller & Cooper, supra, at 598.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
585 F. Supp. 344, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17304, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hart-v-cash-arwd-1984.