Sabo v. City of Mentor

657 F.3d 332, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 18822, 2011 WL 4011448
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 12, 2011
Docket10-4358
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 657 F.3d 332 (Sabo v. City of Mentor) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sabo v. City of Mentor, 657 F.3d 332, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 18822, 2011 WL 4011448 (6th Cir. 2011).

Opinion

OPINION

COLE, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff-Appellee Dian Sabo filed this action against Defendant City of Mentor and Defendanb-Appellant Mentor Police Officer Scott Tkach for violations of state and federal rights after Tkach shot and killed her husband, Richard Sabo, outside the Sabo residence. Tkach appeals the district court’s denial of qualified immunity. Because genuine issues of material fact preclude summary judgment in this case, we DISMISS Tkach’s appeal of the denial of qualified immunity for lack of jurisdiction and AFFIRM the denial of state statutory immunity.

I. BACKGROUND

The following facts are not in dispute:

On February 5, 2009, Dian Sabo (“Sabo”) noticed her seventy-two-year-old husband, Richard Sabo (“Mr. Sabo”) acting strangely. Believing that Mr. Sabo may be having a stroke, Sabo’s granddaughter called 911. When paramedics responded to the call and attempted to give Mr. Sabo medical attention, he refused to cooperate, demanding that the paramedics leave his home and threatening to retrieve a firearm so he could shoot them. The paramedics retreated, asking Dian Sabo to accompany them, and radioed the Mentor Police Department for support. Knowing Mr. Sabo was armed, the arriving police established a defensive perimeter around the home.

Officer Tkach established the northern perimeter, positioning himself on the sec *335 ond floor of a home immediately behind the Sabo residence. From his position, Tkach could see the back of the house and down the driveway, but he could not see anyone in front of the house.

On the highest-ranking officer’s request, Sabo called Mr. Sabo and told him to exit the house with his hands in the air, so that the officers could see he was unarmed. Although Mr. Sabo acted confused on the first call and did not answer the second, he exited the house a few minutes later holding a shotgun skyward at a forty-five degree angle, with the barrel in his left hand and the stock in his right. None of the officers spoke to Mr. Sabo or told him to drop the gun. While Mr. Sabo was walking down the driveway, Tkach fired a single shot, hitting Mr. Sabo’s back and killing him.

As the district court noted, “[t]he events immediately surrounding the shooting are disputed”:

The Defendants allege that [Mr.] Sabo paused after taking three steps and began to lower the barrel of the gun, walked three more steps, and then completely leveled his gun in the direction of officers as though he was taking aim to fire. Knowing that officers and other safety personnel were stationed in the area where [Mr.] Sabo was aiming, the Defendants argue that Tkach fired to prevent [Mr.] Sabo from shooting a police officer.
The Plaintiff describes the shooting differently. The Plaintiff alleges that [Mr.] Sabo walked down the driveway holding his gun, taking about six or seven steps. [Mr.] Sabo stopped and began to turn; as he turned, the gun barrel dropped. When the barrel dropped, Officer Tkach fired. Under the Plaintiffs telling, Richard Sabo posed no immediate threat to the officers because he never pointed the gun or acted in an otherwise threatening manner.

Sabo v. City of Mentor, No. 1:10-CV-00345, 2010 WL 4008823 (N.D.Ohio Oct. 12, 2010) (unpublished disposition).

Sabo filed suit in the Lake County Court of Common Pleas, alleging violations of Mr. Sabo’s Fourth Amendment rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and pendent state law claims, and defendants subsequently removed the case to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. Following discovery, Defendants moved for summary judgment on the grounds that (1) both defendants were entitled to statutory immunity on the state law claims; (2) Tkach was entitled to qualified immunity on the section 1983 claim; and (3) the City of Mentor was entitled to judgment as a matter of law on the section 1983 claim because Sabo had produced no evidence that a policy or procedure was the cause of any constitutional violation. The district court granted the motion as to the City of Mentor, but denied it as to Tkach, finding genuine issues of material fact regarding whether Tkach’s use of force was supported by probable cause and whether Tkach’s actions were reckless. Tkach filed this timely appeal.

II. ANALYSIS

A. Section 1983 Claim

Our analysis of Sabo’s section 1983 claim begins and ends with jurisdiction. 28 U.S.C. § 1291 authorizes us to hear appeals only from “final decisions” of the district court. Collateral orders — that is, orders that “(1) conclusively determine [a] disputed question, (2) resolve an important issue completely separate from the merits of the action, and (3) [will] be effectively unreviewable on appeal from a final judgment” — are final decisions for the purposes of § 1291. See Johnson v. Jones, 515 U.S. 304, 310, 115 S.Ct. 2151, 132 *336 L.Ed.2d 238 (1995) (internal quotation marks omitted). In Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985), the Supreme Court held that district court orders denying summary judgment are immediately appealable collateral orders if (1) the defendant asserted the defense of qualified immunity, and (2) the issue appealed concerned whether a given set of facts showed a violation of clearly established law. Id. at 528, 105 S.Ct. 2806. Although we may consider this “purely legal issue,” Johnson, 515 U.S. at 313, 115 S.Ct. 2151, we lack jurisdiction to consider “a district court’s summary judgment order insofar as that order determines whether or not the pretrial record sets forth a ‘genuine’ issue of fact for trial,” id. at 319,115 S.Ct. 2151.

Pursuant to Johnson, this circuit has held that interlocutory jurisdiction is conferred only where the defendant’s appeal “involves the abstract or pure legal issue of whether the facts alleged by the plaintiff constitute a violation of clearly established law.” Gregory[ v. City of Louisville], 444 F.3d [725,] 742 [6th Cir.2006] (quoting Berryman v. Rieger, 150 F.3d 561, 563 (6th Cir.1998)). Accordingly, if the defendant disputes the plaintiffs version of the facts and wishes to file an interlocutory appeal of the district court’s denial of qualified immunity at the summary judgment stage, “the defendant must ... be willing to concede the most favorable view of the facts to the plaintiff for purposes of the appeal.” Berryman, 150 F.3d at 563. The underlying principle is that, in the qualified-immunity context, this court may entertain interlocutory appeals of denials of summary judgment in order to resolve legal disputes, not factual ones. Id.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Karen Heeter v. Kenneth Bowers
99 F.4th 900 (Sixth Circuit, 2024)
Timothy Raimey v. City of Niles, Ohio
77 F.4th 441 (Sixth Circuit, 2023)
Heeter v. Bowers
S.D. Ohio, 2023
Carey v. Mannella
N.D. Ohio, 2022
Mary Stewart v. City of Euclid
970 F.3d 667 (Sixth Circuit, 2020)
Stillwagon v. City of Delaware
274 F. Supp. 3d 714 (S.D. Ohio, 2017)
Emily Evans v. Phil Plummer
687 F. App'x 434 (Sixth Circuit, 2017)
Steve Black v. Dixie Consumer Prods.
835 F.3d 579 (Sixth Circuit, 2016)
Bernadette Rolen v. City of Cleveland
657 F. App'x 353 (Sixth Circuit, 2016)
Morabito ex rel. Estate of Morabito v. Holmes
628 F. App'x 353 (Sixth Circuit, 2015)
Brenda Margeson v. White County, TN
579 F. App'x 466 (Sixth Circuit, 2014)
Laurie Range v. Kenneth Douglas
763 F.3d 573 (Sixth Circuit, 2014)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
657 F.3d 332, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 18822, 2011 WL 4011448, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sabo-v-city-of-mentor-ca6-2011.