James Edward Hoefling, Jr. v. City of Miami

811 F.3d 1271, 93 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1022, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 1177, 2016 WL 285358
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedJanuary 25, 2016
Docket14-12482
StatusPublished
Cited by942 cases

This text of 811 F.3d 1271 (James Edward Hoefling, Jr. v. City of Miami) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
James Edward Hoefling, Jr. v. City of Miami, 811 F.3d 1271, 93 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1022, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 1177, 2016 WL 285358 (11th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

*1274 JORDAN, Circuit Judge:

For about eight years, James Edward Hoefling, Jr. lived on his 29-foot sailboat in state waters off the South Florida coast. In August of 2010, however, City of Miami marine patrol officers seized the sailboat and had it destroyed. According to Mr. Hoefling — who sued the City and its officers under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, federal maritime law, and state law — they did so unlawfully, without justification and without notice.

Mr. Hoefling appeals from the district court’s dismissal of his second amended complaint in its entirety. After a review of the record, and with the benefit of oral argument, we conclude that the district court got some things right and some things wrong. We therefore affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings.

I

The second amended complaint, which is the operative pleading, alleges the following facts, which we accept as true. See Timson v. Sampson, 518 F.3d 870, 872 (11th Cir.2008)..

A

In late May of 2010, while Mr. Hoefling was aboard his sailboat in Dinner Key, several City marine patrol officers pulled alongside in their own vessel. At the time, the sailboat was seaworthy and had an intact hull, a mast, an engine, a rudder, working sails (which were stored in the cabin), and an anchor light. Mr. Hoefling told the officers that he was the owner of the sailboat, produced U.S. Coast Guard documentation of his ownership, and provided his driver’s license and cell phone number. Officer Alejandro Macias incorrectly opined to Mr. Hoefling that the sailboat was derelict or at risk of being derelict. Contrary to what Officer Macias said, the sailboat was not derelict under Florida law, as it was not “left, stored, or abandoned” in a “wrecked, junked, or substantially dismantled condition.” Fla. Stat. § 823.11.

None of the officers advised Mr. Hoe-fling that he was at risk of having his sailboat taken away or destroyed. One of the officers, however, cited Mr. Hoefling for not having a marine sanitary device and told him that he should get a better anchor light. The officers also told Mr. Hoefling that he needed to take care of these issues “or move his vessel.”

Before leaving, one of the officers placed a City of Miami code enforcement notice on the side of the vessel. The notice contained five boxes with possible code violations (lost or abandoned property, goods stored on private property, property unlawfully parked in a residential district, vessel obstructing an established City channel, and unlawful anchoring, mooring, or docking). None of the five boxes on the notice, however, were checked off.

Within days of his interaction with the officers, Mr. Hoefling purchased a marine sanitary device and installed a better anchor light. He continued to live in the sailboat for the next three months. During that time, he received no further communication from the City indicating that he had to do more to bring his sailboat into legal compliance.

On August 20, 2010, while he was on a short trip for work-related reasons, Mr. Hoefling received a call from a friend who told him that the police had taken his sailboat. Mr. Hoefling later found out that this was part of the City’s systematic roundup and destruction of ugly boats— what the City calls a “cleanup” program.

When he returned from his trip, he learned that the City and two of its marine patrol officers — Officer Ricardo Roque and Sergeant Jose Gonzalez — had seized and *1275 destroyed his sailboat and everything contained inside. He eventually located the remains of his sailboat and personal possessions in a trash dumpster. In the years since the destruction of his sailboat, Mr. Hoefling has been forced to live a transient lifestyle, requiring the assistance of others for shelter and other necessities.

According to the second amended complaint, the City and its officers did not have the legal authority'to seize and destroy the sailboat, as it was not abandoned or derelict, had an identifiable owner, and did not pose a hazard to navigation or the environment. Even if the sailboat was deemed to be abandoned or derelict, Mr. Hoefling alleged, the City and its officers were required to provide . him adequate notice (such as placing a notice of dereliction on the vessel and informing him of the notice) and consider alternatives to immediate destruction, such as taking the sailboat to a compound or marking it off with reflective tape and broadcasting a notice to mariners. 1

B

The second amended complaint — which named the City, Officer Roque, and Sgt. Gonzalez as defendants — contained five claims. Each of the claims was’asserted against all of the defendants.

Count I, pursuant to § 1983, alleged substantive and procedural due process violations under the Fourteenth Amendment; Count II, also pursuant to § 1983, alleged an unreasonable search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment; Counts III and IV, sounding in admiralty, respectively alleged the intentional and negligent destruction of property; and Count V alleged an unconstitutional taking in violation of the Florida and United States Constitutions. Mr. Hoefling sought compensatory and punitive damages for the seizure and destruction of his sailboat.

The district court granted the defendants’ Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss the second amended complaint, see Hoefling v. City of Miami, 17 F.Supp.3d 1227 (S.D.Fla.2014) (Hoefling II), and its order of dismissal is the subject of this appeal. Our review, unless otherwise noted, is plenary. See Hill v. White, 321 F.3d 1334, 1335 (11th Cir.2003).

II

The district court dismissed the complaint on some general grounds and some claim-specific grounds. We discuss the general grounds first.

The district court, quoting one of our decisions, applied a “heightened pleading” standard to Mr. Hoefling’s § 1983 claims. See Hoefling II, 17 F.Supp.3d at 1232 (quoting Keating v. City of Miami, 598 F.3d 753, 762-63 (11th Cir.2010)). As the defendants conceded at oral argument, this was incorrect.

We used to apply a heightened pleading standard in § 1983 cases in an effort to “eliminate nonmeritorious claims.” Arnold v. Bd. of Educ. of Escambia Cnty., 880 F.2d 305, 309 (11th Cir.1989). In 1993, however, the Supreme Court held, in a municipal liability case under § 1983, that “it is impossible to square a ‘heightened pleading standard’ ... with the liberal system of ‘notice pleading’ set up by the Federal Rules.” Leatherman v. Tarrant Cnty. Narcotics Intelligence & Coordination Unit, 507 U.S. 163, 168, 113 S.Ct. 1160, 122 L.Ed.2d 517 (1993). After Leatherman, we eliminated the heightened *1276

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811 F.3d 1271, 93 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1022, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 1177, 2016 WL 285358, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/james-edward-hoefling-jr-v-city-of-miami-ca11-2016.