M. M. v. Anker

477 F. Supp. 837, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14607
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedFebruary 6, 1979
Docket78 C 492
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 477 F. Supp. 837 (M. M. v. Anker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
M. M. v. Anker, 477 F. Supp. 837, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14607 (E.D.N.Y. 1979).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

DOOLING, Senior District Judge.

Defendants Amicone and Heitner have moved to reinstate the jury’s verdict of November 3,1978, as to both defendants or, at least, as to the defendant Heitner, or alternatively for a new trial on the issue of liability as to both defendants.

Plaintiffs, having now amended the complaint, have renewed their motion for an order certifying the case as a class action insofar as it seeks declaratory and injunctive relief, and plaintiffs have moved as well for partial summary judgment.

1. The jury verdict included answers to specific interrogatories. The first interrog *839 atory asked whether defendant Amicone had reasonable grounds to suspect that plaintiff had in her possession an object that could lawfully be searched for (a) when Ms. Amicone first commenced the search, and (b) when the search was continued with Ms. Gilbert as a witness. The jury both in the first attempt to render a verdict and in its final verdict answered, “Yes”, that Ms. Amicone did have reasonable grounds at both points. The jury also said that defendant Heitner had reasonable ground to suspect that plaintiff had in her possession an object that could lawfully be searched for when he took part in the search to the extent that he did take part in it. The jury answered, “No” to the third interrogatory, Was the search of plaintiff unreasonably intrusive? (In the first attempt to render a verdict the jury had indicated that the answer to this third question was “Yes” rather than “No”.) As to its general Verdict the jury found for defendant Amicone and for defendant Heitner. Plaintiffs moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or alternatively for a new trial, and by order of November 13, made on the basis of an oral opinion rendered November 9,1978, the verdict was set aside and a verdict in accordance with plaintiffs’ motion for a directed verdict was directed against both defendants on the issues (1) of their liability to plaintiff M.M. and (2) of their defense of good faith and reasonable belief that there were reasonable grounds to suspect that plaintiff had in her possession an object that could lawfully be searched for. The issue of damages was set down for trial at a date convenient to the parties. In addition the order setting the verdict aside provided that, if the judgment entered on the directed verdict was later vacated or reversed, the motion of plaintiff for a new trial was granted on the ground that the jury’s verdict was against the weight of the evidence.

Without attempting a complete summary of the oral opinion of November 9, 1978, it is enough to say that the opinion found that the evidence disclosed no issue of fact for submission to the jury arising out of the absence of prompt complaint, or on the theory that plaintiff M.M. might have consented to the search, and it was concluded that the school’s interest in maintaining school discipline did not make Dean Amicone’s pursuit of the search to the end a reasonable course of conduct toward the plaintiff M.M. The further conclusion of the opinion was that there was not a reasonable search underway at any stage of the case, and that if there had been a reasonable search to start with, it was not reasonable to pursue it to the extreme that it reached. The reasoning of the oral opinion was the following:

Dean Amicone had no reasonable ground for initiating a search. The matter was not referred to her for search. Nothing was reported to be missing, Dean Amicone did not ask whether any preliminary investigation had been made to determine whether anything was missing, and, rather than having a ground for suspecting that the child had stolen property in her possession, Dean Amicone could do no more than wonder whether or not the child might not have something stolen in her possession. The child’s record for being in theft-suspicious situations, the fact that she was found in the classroom during a fire drill and had been seen there with another girl’s pocketbook or book bag under her control, that plaintiff had claimed the bag as her own but had surrendered it to another girl when the girl claimed it, and that while in the classroom she had taken down posters to take home to her sister, these facts did not suggest that plaintiff had stolen property in her possession but showed that she had committed quite other offenses for which she might be disciplined. To justify searching a high school child for a possible stolen object, it is indispensable that there be a reliable report that something is missing, and not a report, however reliable, that the suspected student had an opportunity to steal.

When plaintiff was taken to Dean Amicone’s office adequate ground for discipline existed on the basis of the report of what had happened; it was not a search situation but an occasion to set in motion whatever school machinery was required by the refer *840 ral from Dean Janko and Mrs. Regan based on their observations and inquiries.

It may well be that the search standard in a school situation is not so strict as in criminal police investigation, and that the good faith defense to civil liability raises different issues from those that arise on a motion to suppress the use of the product of an illicit search in a criminal case, where the good faith of the policeman is immaterial. Dean Amicone here relied on her knowledge of the child’s record with reference to things found in her possession or with her possessions which were not hers or were contraband, coupled with Dean Amicone’s knowledge of Dean Janko’s report of what happened in the classroom during the fire drill: that does not suffice to show that Dean Amicone in good faith and reasonably believed that she had reasonable ground to suspect that the child had in her possession an object for which it was lawful to search her. Dean Amicone proceeded without malice or ill will, and in the good faith belief that it was reasonable for her to proceed as she was proceeding. However, the standard of reasonableness of belief that Dean Amicone’s conduct had to meet was not satisfied. The law can not tolerate as reasonable a belief on the part of the teacher that if she has reasonable grounds to suspect that a child might have in her possession property that might have been stolen, but which there was no ground to believe had in fact been stolen, so far as the teacher had been informed, that belief constituted a sufficient basis for search.

So far as concerns defendant Heitner, the evidence is that he knew that the object of the search was a small white pipe-like object, probably a reefer holder, and that he participated in the decision to prosecute such a search as had to be carried out in his absence and in the presence of a female security guard. Such a search, a body search, was so inordinate in terms of the object sought by the search, that it can not be defended on any ground. The search was so intrusive and, so far as Dean Amicone and Dean Heitner knew, so wholly unprecedented in the case of a female high school student that there is no possibility of suggesting a good faith defense.

On the motion to reinstate the jury’s verdict defendants argue first that the verdict was fully supported by Dean Amicone’s possessing evidence (from Dean Janko) that a student with a record for possessing other students’ property was found during a fire drill in an unoccupied classroom near another student’s purse which she claimed as her own, and evidence from Dean Janko that the student,

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477 F. Supp. 837, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14607, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/m-m-v-anker-nyed-1979.