Michael Fenwick v. United States

778 F.3d 133, 414 U.S. App. D.C. 179, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 2264, 2015 WL 590295
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedFebruary 13, 2015
Docket13-5130
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 778 F.3d 133 (Michael Fenwick v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Michael Fenwick v. United States, 778 F.3d 133, 414 U.S. App. D.C. 179, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 2264, 2015 WL 590295 (D.C. Cir. 2015).

Opinions

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge TATEL.

TATEL, Circuit Judge:

In this damages action against three deputy federal marshals, the plaintiff alleges that the officers violated the Fourth Amendment when they used deadly force against him. The officers moved for summary judgment based on qualified immunity, the district court denied the -motion, and the officers now appeal. We reverse. Under the circumstances of this case, we conclude that the deputies violated no clearly established law and are therefore entitled to qualified immunity.

[135]*135I.

In January 2007, then sixteeri-year-old Michael Fenwick pulled into the parking lot of an apartment complex in southeast Washington, D.C. Close by were three deputy marshals — Andrew Pudimott, Jeremy Fischer, and John Mickle — waiting to enforce an eviction order. The deputies watched as Fenwick struggled and failed to properly park his car before entering an apartment building to look for his girlfriend. Given Fenwick’s youthful appearance and difficulty at the wheel, and observing that the car’s door lock was broken, the officers suspected that he was underage and driving a stolen vehicle. Before they could confirm as much, however, Fenwick reappeared and headed towards his car. Surveillance footage from nearby security cameras shows that, at that time, pedestrians were entering and exiting the apartment buildings, a car was pulling out of the apartment complex, and several other vehicles were passing on the adjacent street. The officers, still across the parking lot, called to Fenwick and asked to speak with him. Fenwick responded by pointing to his chest as if saying, “Who, me?” But instead of stopping to speak with the deputies, Fenwick got into his car and began backing up. The deputies rushed to surround the vehicle and, with guns drawn, ordered Fen-wick to halt. Fenwick ignored the order. Instead, although Deputy Pudimott was visible near the driver-side front of the vehicle, Fenwick drove forward towards the parking lot exit, clipping Pudimott with the car’s side mirror. Fearing for “the safety of themselves, fellow officers, and/or possibly other bystanders,” Mot. to Dismiss and/or for Summ. J. 26, Pudimott and Fischer opened fire, striking Fenwick with four bullets.

After Fenwick recovered from his wounds, he was charged as a juvenile with three counts of felony assault on a police officer — one for each of the deputies on the scene. See D.C.Code § 22-405(c). Pursuant to D.C.Code Section 22-4502, the District also sought a sentence enhancement on each charge “for committing [the] crime when armed.” The enhancement was based not on possession of a pistol or any of the statute’s other enumerated weapons, such as machine guns, rifles, or switchblades, but rather on Fenwick’s operation of the vehicle itself. Following a bench trial in Superior Court, the judge acquitted Fenwick of the charges with respect to Mickle and Fischer, but found that Fenwick committed armed assault on Pudimott when he endangered the officer by accelerating forward while the officer was near the front of the car. The District of Columbia Court of Appeals affirmed the “adjudication” (labeled as such because Fenwick was a juvenile), concluding that “[w]hen operated with the intention to make one’s getaway, and without evident regard for the safety of officers who were trying to persuade the driver to stop, a moving car may well constitute a dangerous weapon capable of causing death or grave injury.” See In re M.T.F., 10 A.3d 1158 (D.C.2010).

Several months later, Fenwick sued the three officers in their individual capacities in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging that their use of deadly force was excessive and thus violated the Fourth Amendment. See Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents, 403 U.S. 388, 91 S.Ct. 1999, 29 L.Ed.2d 619 (1971) (establishing damages action against federal officials for violations of constitutional rights). The deputies moved for summary judgment, contending that in light of Fen-wick’s juvenile assault adjudication, his Fourth Amendment claim was barred both by collateral estoppel and Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477, 487, 114 S.Ct. 2364, 129 L.Ed.2d 383 (1994) (holding that dis[136]*136trict courts must dismiss damages suits against law enforcement officials that would “necessarily imply the invalidity of [an underlying] conviction”). Mot. to Dismiss and/or for Summ. J. 14. Critically for our purposes, the deputies also asserted qualified immunity. Id. 19-20.

The district court granted summary judgment to Mickle, who never fired his weapon, but denied the motion with respect to Pudimott and Fischer. Beginning with the' deputies’ preclusion arguments, the court explained that under District of Columbia law, “collateral estoppel ‘precludes the relitigation of issues actually litigated and necessary to the outcome of a prior case involving the party against whom estoppel is asserted.’” Fenwick v. United States, 926 F.Supp.2d 201, 210 (D.D.C.2013) (quoting Carr v. Rose, 701 A.2d 1065, 1076 (D.C.1997)). Similarly, the district court observed, Heck v. Humphrey bars Bivens suits “that, if successful, would necessarily imply the invalidity of the plaintiffs conviction or sentence.” Id. at 219 (quoting Taylor v. U.S. Probation Office, 409 F.3d 426, 427 (D.C.Cir.2005)). But recognizing that the excessive force issue was neither litigated nor necessary to the outcome of Fenwick’s assault prosecution, and that a ruling in Fenwick’s favor on his excessive force claim would not “necessarily imply the invalidity” of the assault judgment, the district court determined that the assault judgment did not altogether bar Fenwick’s excessive force claims against Pudimott áñd Fischer. Id. at 216-17, 222. The court explained, however, that collateral estoppel and Heck v. Humphrey did preclude Fenwick from asserting, as alleged in his complaint, (1) that the deputies were never' in any danger of being hit by the vehicle, or (2) that they opened fire before Fenwick began accelerating forward with Pudimott near the front of the car, since findings to the contrary were necessary to Fenwick’s juvenile adjudication. Id at 217-18, 220-22.

As to the officers’ assertion of qualified immunity, the district court determined that genuine issues of material fact — in particular, whether the officers shot Fen-wick while Pudimott was still in danger from Fenwick’s car — precluded summary judgment. Noting that claims of qualified immunity are assessed through the Fourth Amendment’s objective reasonableness lens, the court explained that officers may use deadly force only when a “suspect poses a threat of serious physical harm” to others. Id. at 225-26 (quoting Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1, 11, 105 S.Ct. 1694, 85 L.Ed.2d 1 (1985)). In the court’s view, then, the officers’ use of deadly force could be “justified only as a response to the threat Mr. Fenwick posed to Deputy Pudi-mott,” id

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
778 F.3d 133, 414 U.S. App. D.C. 179, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 2264, 2015 WL 590295, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/michael-fenwick-v-united-states-cadc-2015.