Marques A. Johnson v. James Dunn

83 F.4th 896
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedOctober 2, 2023
Docket21-10670
StatusPublished

This text of 83 F.4th 896 (Marques A. Johnson v. James Dunn) 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
Marques A. Johnson v. James Dunn, 83 F.4th 896 (11th Cir. 2023).

Opinion

USCA11 Case: 21-10670 Document: 42-1 Date Filed: 10/02/2023 Page: 1 of 55

[PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

____________________

No. 21-10670 ____________________

MARQUES A. JOHNSON, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus CHRIS NOCCO, in his official capacity as Sheriff, Pasco County, Florida,

Defendant,

JAMES DUNN, in his individual capacity,

Defendant-Appellant. USCA11 Case: 21-10670 Document: 42-1 Date Filed: 10/02/2023 Page: 2 of 55

2 Opinion of the Court 21-10670

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 8:20-cv-01370-TPB-JSS ____________________

Before WILSON, BRANCH, and TJOFLAT, Circuit Judges. TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge: This appeal presents two questions. The first is whether the Fourth Amendment precluded a law enforcement officer—who had stopped a vehicle for a traffic violation—from asking a passen- ger in the vehicle to identify himself unless the officer had reason to suspect that the passenger had committed, was in the process of committing, or was likely to commit a criminal offense. The sec- ond question is whether binding precedent 1 clearly established, at the time relevant here, that an officer could not ask a passenger to identify himself absent this reasonable suspicion. The District Court answered both questions in the affirmative and accordingly denied the officer’s motion to dismiss the passenger’s claim pursu- ant to the doctrine of qualified immunity.

1 Coffin v. Brandau, 642 F.3d 999, 1013 (11th Cir. 2011) (“Our Court looks only

to binding precedent—cases from the United States Supreme Court, the Elev- enth Circuit, and the highest court of the state under which the claim arose— to determine whether the right in question was clearly established at the time of the violation.”). USCA11 Case: 21-10670 Document: 42-1 Date Filed: 10/02/2023 Page: 3 of 55

21-10670 Opinion of the Court 3

The officer appeals the District Court’s decisions.2 Conclud- ing that the District Court erred in denying the officer’s motion to dismiss the passenger’s claim, we reverse. Our discussion proceeds as follows. Part I sets out the pas- senger’s claim under the Fourth Amendment (and relatedly under the Fourteenth Amendment) and the District Court’s reasons for denying the officer’s motion to dismiss the claim. Part II reviews Supreme Court precedent concerning whether it is reasonable un- der the Fourth Amendment for an officer, during a traffic stop, to ask the vehicles occupants—the driver and passengers alike—to exit the vehicle. Part III addresses how that precedent informs the answer to the question here—whether an officer may ask a passen- ger for identification absent a reasonable suspicion that the passen- ger has committed, is committing, or is likely to commit a criminal offense. Part IV addresses whether the officer here lacked arguable probable cause to arrest the passenger under Florida Statute § 843.02 for refusing to comply with the officer’s demand that he identify himself. Part V concludes.

2 We have jurisdiction to entertain this appeal under 28 U.S.C.§ 1291. Mitchell

v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 530, 105 S. Ct. 2806, 2817 (1985) (“[A] district court’s denial of a claim of qualified immunity, to the extent that it turns on an issue of law, is an appealable ‘final decision’ within the meaning of 28 U.S.C. § 1291 notwithstanding the absence of a final judgment.”). USCA11 Case: 21-10670 Document: 42-1 Date Filed: 10/02/2023 Page: 4 of 55

4 Opinion of the Court 21-10670

I. A. The officer is James Dunn—a Pasco County, Florida Sher- riff’s Office deputy. Chris Nocco, the Pasco County Sheriff, is a codefendant with Dunn in the case below. The passenger is Marques A. Johnson. Johnson’s initial complaint in this case con- sisted of twelve counts. Johnson’s first amended complaint, the complaint at hand, contains ten counts. Count I of the amended complaint, which replicates verbatim Count I of the initial com- plaint, was brought against Dunn in his individual capacity and is the only count before us in this appeal. 3 Count I seeks damages against Dunn under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 4 for violating Johnson’s Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights

3 The remaining nine counts of the amended complaint contain the following

claims: Count II, against Nocco in his official capacity, alleging the constitu- tional claims asserted against Dunn in Count I; Count III, a common law claim against Nocco for negligence in training Dunn and others; Count IV, a com- mon law claim against Nocco for negligence in supervising Dunn and others; Count V, a common law claim against Dunn for malicious prosecution; Count VI, a common law claim against Dunn for intentional infliction of emotional distress; Counts VII and VIII, common law claims against Dunn and Nocco respectively for battery; Counts IX and X, common law claims against Dunn and Nocco respectively for false imprisonment. 4 Section 1983 (Civil action for deprivation of rights) states in relevant part:

Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, reg- ulation, custom, or usage, of any State . . . subjects . . . any cit- izen of the United States or other person within the jurisdic- tion thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or USCA11 Case: 21-10670 Document: 42-1 Date Filed: 10/02/2023 Page: 5 of 55

21-10670 Opinion of the Court 5

on August 2, 2018, in Pasco County, Florida. Count I alleges that Dunn, accompanied by Deputies Christopher Ramos and Mark Pini, stopped a motor vehicle towing a motorcycle on a trailer be- cause the trailer’s license tag was obscured. 5 This vehicle was driven by Johnson’s father (the “driver”). Dunn approached the front passenger side of the vehicle and obtained the driver’s driver’s license and vehicular registration. Next, he asked Johnson, seated in the front passenger seat (another passenger was in the back seat), if he “had his ‘ID on him.’” Johnson replied that he was “merely a passenger in the vehicle and was not required to identify himself.” Dunn responded that “under Florida law he was required to iden- tify himself and that if he did not identify himself, [Dunn] would ‘pull him out and he would go to jail for resisting.’” A Sheriff’s Of- fice “supervisor informed Deputy Dunn that he should arrest [Johnson]” for refusing to identify himself. Dunn accordingly placed Johnson “under arrest for resisting without violence” in vi- olation of Florida Statute § 843.02. 6

immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be lia- ble to the party injured in an action at law . . . for redress[.] 42 U.S.C. § 1983. 5 See Fla. Stat. § 316.605(1) (Licensing of vehicles).

6 Fla. Stat. § 843.02 (Resisting officer without violence to his or her person)

states: “Whoever shall resist, obstruct, or oppose any officer . . . in the lawful execution of any legal duty . . . shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree.” As noted in the above text, Johnson was arrested on August 2, 2018. He moved the County Court for Pasco County to dismiss the § 843.02 charge, USCA11 Case: 21-10670 Document: 42-1 Date Filed: 10/02/2023 Page: 6 of 55

6 Opinion of the Court 21-10670

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Bluebook (online)
83 F.4th 896, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marques-a-johnson-v-james-dunn-ca11-2023.