Ramirez-Lluveras v. Rivera-Merced

759 F.3d 10, 2014 WL 3398427
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedJuly 14, 2014
Docket11-2339, 13-1169
StatusPublished
Cited by275 cases

This text of 759 F.3d 10 (Ramirez-Lluveras v. Rivera-Merced) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ramirez-Lluveras v. Rivera-Merced, 759 F.3d 10, 2014 WL 3398427 (1st Cir. 2014).

Opinions

LYNCH, Chief Judge.

This tragic case arises out of the unwarranted shooting death of a civilian, Miguel A. Cáceres-Cruz, in Puerto Rico by an on-duty police officer, Javier Pagán-Cruz. Plaintiffs, the victim’s surviving wife and children, sued Pagán, his two fellow officers on the scene, and five supervisors under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violating the decedent’s Fourth Amendment rights by causing his wrongful death.

[12]*12The supervisors initially moved to dismiss the claims against them under Fed. R.Civ.P. 12(c); that motion was granted in part and denied in part. See Ramirez-Lluveras v. Pagcm-Cruz, 833 F.Supp.2d 151, 165 (D.P.R.2011). Later, after discovery, the five supervisors successfully moved for summary judgment on the remaining claims against them. See Ramirez-Lluveras v. Pagan-Cruz, 833 F.Supp.2d 165, 182 (D.P.R.2011). Afterward, the plaintiffs prevailed at trial against the defendants Pagán and the two other on-scene officers, Carlos Sustache-Sustache and Zulma Díaz. The jury awarded the plaintiffs approximately $11.5 million.

The case now reaches us on two appeals: the plaintiffs’ appeal from the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the supervisory defendants (No. 13-1169) and the supervisory defendants’ appeal from the district court’s earlier denial of their Rule 12(c) motion (No. 11-2339). We affirm the grant of summary judgment against plaintiffs’ supervisory liability claims against each of the supervisors. We dismiss the Commonwealth’s appeal from the earlier partial denial of the Rule 12(c) motion as to these same defendants.

I.

We briefly describe the procedural history before turning to the facts of the case. On April 28, 2008, the plaintiffs filed suit under § 1983 against Pagán and his two on-scene colleagues, Officers Carlos Sus-tache-Sustache and Zulma Diaz (collectively, the line officers), and against Col. Edwin Rivera-Merced, the Puerto Rico Police Department (PRPD) Area Commander for Humacao, as their supervisor. On March 30, 2009, the plaintiffs amended their complaint to add the four other supervisory officers as defendants. However, none of the claims against any of the supervisory defendants arose from any direct supervision of Pagán on the night of the shooting or from any personal involvement of the supervisors with the shooting. The supervisory defendants answered the amended complaint and set forth a list of forty-one affirmative defenses, including qualified immunity.

On April 20, 2010, the supervisory defendants filed a “Motion to Dismiss Amended Complaint and/or for Judgment on the Pleadings” under Rules 12(b)(6) and 12(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.1

The district court granted the motion in part and denied it in part on September 30, 2011. Specifically, the court dismissed all of the plaintiffs’ § 1983 claims, including the Fourth Amendment claims, against the supervisory defendants brought in the plaintiffs’ own individual capacities, as opposed to their capacities as representatives of the victim. It did so based on its finding that the plaintiffs lacked standing to assert individual claims because there was no allegation that the supervisors’ conduct was aimed at the family relationship. The court dismissed all claims under the Fourteenth Amendment. It also granted the motion as to other claims against the supervisory defendants in the plaintiffs’ representative capacities. It allowed the § 1983 Fourth Amendment claims against the supervisory defendants to proceed, declining to resolve their qualified immunity defense on the pleadings.2 The plaintiffs [13]*13did not appeal the dismissal of these claims in the plaintiffs’ individual capacities against the supervisors. The supervisory defendants appealed from the denial of their motion to dismiss as to the Fourth Amendment § 1983 claims against them.3

On December 22, 2011, the district court granted the supervisory defendants’ motion for summary judgment. This left the claims against the line officers, Pagán, Sustache, and Díaz.

The claims against the line officers went to trial before a jury in late October 2012. On November 9, 2012, the jury reached a verdict in favor of the plaintiffs against all three line officers. After entry of final judgment, the plaintiffs appealed the grant of summary judgment in favor of the supervisory defendants.4 The two appeals were consolidated.

II.

The following facts are undisputed, except where noted. To the extent the facts are disputed, we take them in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs for purposes of the supervisory defendants’ motion for summary judgment. See Pineda v. Toomey, 533 F.3d 50, 53 (1st Cir.2008).

A. The August 11, 2007 Shooting

Miguel A. Cáceres-Cruz (“Cáceres”), the victim, was a member of the Punta Santiago Scooter Club. On the evening of August 11, 2007, around 6:10 p.m., roughly eleven members of the Club brought their scooters to a house for a quinceañero5 at which they were to serve as an escort for the fifteen-year-old birthday girl. With the scooters parked on the street, two-way traffic was obstructed, so Cáceres helped direct cars around the parked scooters.

One of the cars caught in the traffic was a PRPD Ford Explorer in which officers Pagán, Sustache, and Díaz were riding. The officers were not assigned to a patrol in this area, Punta Santiago, but instead were passing through on their way to a different area, Naguabo, to which they were assigned to combat drug trafficking. They did not have any directions to engage in any actions in Punta Santiago. In fact, the officers passed through Punta Santiago only because they chose to take a different route to Naguabo than they had been instructed to take after picking up Officer Diaz, who had been late for her shift.

When Pagán reached Cáceres’s position, he told Cáceres that only the police have the authority to direct traffic. He also ordered the club members to move their scooters off the road within five minutes. What happened next is not entirely clear, although both parties agree with the general outlines. There is a dispute over whether the club members actually began [14]*14moving their scooters. The parties agree that Pagán and Cáeeres began exchanging insults and that at some point in the exchange, Diaz told Cáeeres that he was under arrest. A video of the incident shows the three officers separating Cá-ceres from his fellow club members. A fight broke out. The parties dispute who initiated the physical contact, but they agree that, at some point, Cáeeres resisted, hitting both Díaz and Pagán. Eventually, either the officers drove Cáeeres to the ground or he stumbled to the ground after being hit. Pagán punched Cáeeres in the face while Cáeeres was on the ground. Cáeeres had been driven to a seated position on the ground with his back against a fence. As he sat, he was straddled by Pagán and surrounded by the other two officers.

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759 F.3d 10, 2014 WL 3398427, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ramirez-lluveras-v-rivera-merced-ca1-2014.