Sinick v. County of Summit

76 F. App'x 675
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 24, 2003
DocketNo. 02-3463
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 76 F. App'x 675 (Sinick v. County of Summit) 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
Sinick v. County of Summit, 76 F. App'x 675 (6th Cir. 2003).

Opinion

STEEH, District Judge.

Defendants-appellants Tarni Cook, James R. Dodds, Keith Gowens, and Stephen Sample (hereinafter referred to as “appellants”), officers of the Summit County, Ohio, Sheriff’s Department, filed this interlocutory appeal for review of the district court’s denial of their assertions of qualified immunity and statutory immunity to plaintiffs 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and state law claims. Three of the appellants, Dodds, Gowens and Sample, also assert that the district court erred in permitting plaintiff-appellee’s amended complaint adding them to the case, because the claims were barred by the statute of limitations. For the reasons that follow, we reverse the district court’s denial of qualified immunity as to all four appellants on the § 1983 claims. Because statutory immunity provided to employees of political subdivisions by the State of Ohio contemplates only immunity from liability, and not from suit, this court lacks jurisdiction over that aspect of appellants’ appeal, which will be dismissed. Appeal of the district court’s order allowing for amendment of the complaint to state claims against appellants Dodds, Gowens, and Sample will also be dismissed, as that is not a final decision as required by 28 U.S.C. § 1291.

I.

Background

On September 8, 1999, Summit County Sheriff Deputy Tami Cook requested a search warrant for residential premises occupied by plaintiff-appellee Gary Sinick (hereinafter referred to as “appellee”) and other individuals. Appellant Cook based the warrant request on information sup[677]*677plied by a confidential informant, Charles Capien. In her affidavit, Cook stated that Capien had provided “reliable information to the Summit County Sheriffs Office Narcotics Unit and the Akron Police Department, which has been corroborated through investigations and has led to convictions.”

Following execution of the search warrant by the individual appellants, appellee and two other occupants were arrested for possession of LSD (Lysergic Acid Diethylamide). Appellee and his roommates were indicted on September 14, 1999 on one count each of possession of LSD, a Felony of the First Degree under the laws of the State of Ohio.

After the indictment, the Summit County Sheriffs Department Narcotics Division received a tip that Charles Capien had planted the LSD in appellee’s residence. During the ensuing investigation, appellant Gowens obtained Capien’s written confession that he had put a “book of acid” in the bathroom drawer at the appellee’s residence, in an attempt to get “time knocked off [his] cousin’s sentence” in return for assisting police. Capien was subsequently charged with possession of the LSD and with tampering with evidence and obstruction of justice, and was sentenced to prison.

Ultimately, after the filing of a successful motion to suppress in state court, in which appellee argued that appellant Cook had not stated in sufficient detail the informant’s veracity (and therefore had not provided probable cause supporting the warrant’s issuance), appellee’s criminal case was dismissed. Appellee then filed a civil case against Summit County, appellant Cook and two John Doe defendants in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio on August 31, 2001, alleging causes of action under 42 U.S.C. § 1988, the Ohio State Constitution, and a state law claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Appellee made an oral motion on February 1, 2002 and filed a written motion on February 11, 2002 seeking to amend his complaint to identify the John Doe defendants. On February 12, 2002, the district court granted appellee’s motion to amend and denied the appellants’ motion to strike appellee’s amended complaint. The appellants filed a collective motion for summary judgment on February 19, 2002. Appellants’ motion was granted in part by the district court but denied in connection with their assertions of qualified immunity to appellee’s 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim and statutory immunity to the state law claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress. Appellants then timely filed this interlocutory appeal.

II

Standard of Review

This Court conducts a de novo review of the denial of qualified immunity by a district court. Sheets v. Mullins, 287 F.3d 581, 586 (6th Cir.2002) (citations omitted). See also Klein v. Long, 275 F.3d 544, 550 (6th Cir.2001), cert. denied, 537 U.S. 819, 123 S.Ct. 95, 154 L.Ed.2d 26 (2002).

Jurisdiction

Appellee presents a threshold issue for consideration: that this Court does not have jurisdiction to consider the challenge of appellants Dodds, Gowens, and Sample to the lower court’s refusal to grant them qualified immunity to appellee’s 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim, because it is not a final judgment of a district court. Appellee contends that an interlocutory appeal is not available for this claim of those three appellants, because it raises a genuine issue of fact inseparable from the merits of the case.

[678]*678Jurisdiction over this appeal is provided by 28 U.S.C. § 1291, which grants this Court jurisdiction to hear claims of appeal from final judgments of district courts. Although denials of summary judgment entered by district courts are generally not “final judgments,” Phelps v. Coy, 286 F.3d 295 (6th Cir.2002); Johnson v. Jones, 515 U.S. 304, 309, 115 S.Ct. 2151, 132 L.Ed.2d 238 (1995), the collateral order doctrine establishes that certain interlocutory decisions are immediately appealable, as they amount to “final decisions” as required for appeal by 28 U.S.C. § 1291. Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 69 S.Ct. 1221, 93 L.Ed. 1528 (1949). Appellants contend that this case allows for such review. Appellee relies on the cases of Johnson and Berryman v. Rieger, 150 F.3d 561 (6th Cir.1998), which quoted Johnson in holding that this Court’s jurisdiction over interlocutory appeals of qualified immunity is limited “to cases presenting neat abstract issues of law.” Berryman, 150 F.3d at 563.

In the Johnson case, plaintiffs complaint alleged that he was beaten by five officers. Three of the five denied that they had taken part in the beating and asserted a qualified immunity defense. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals declined to hear the three officers’ appeals, finding that the genuine issue of fact as to whether the three officers were involved precluded appellate jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C.

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Bluebook (online)
76 F. App'x 675, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sinick-v-county-of-summit-ca6-2003.