Taylor v. Castaneda

740 F. Supp. 542, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14393, 1990 WL 91780
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedJune 29, 1990
DocketNo. 87 C 9765
StatusPublished

This text of 740 F. Supp. 542 (Taylor v. Castaneda) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Taylor v. Castaneda, 740 F. Supp. 542, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14393, 1990 WL 91780 (N.D. Ill. 1990).

Opinion

ORDER

ALESIA, District Judge.

In October, 1987, plaintiff, Julia Taylor, acting as special administrator of the estate of Johnny Taylor (“Taylor”), filed this two-count action against Chicago police officers Efren Castaneda and Pamela Burmistrz and the City of Chicago (“City”). Count I, the allegations of which are not at issue here, is directed against the two individual officers. In Count I, plaintiff alleges that officers Castaneda and Burmistrz shot Taylor while he was running away, that their use of deadly force was unnecessary, and that their use of deadly force constituted an unreasonable seizure under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

Count II is directed solely against the City and is the subject of the motion now before the Court. In Count II, plaintiff alleges that the City failed to adequately train its police officers by allowing them to use deadly force where it was not authorized by law, in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Plaintiff further alleges that the City’s “grossly inadequate” training program directly and proximately caused Taylor’s death.

In response to plaintiff’s complaint, the City filed a motion to dismiss Count II pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The motion was referred to Magistrate Bucklo for a Report and Recommendation. Magistrate Bucklo recommended that this Court deny the City’s motion. The City then filed objections to the Magistrate’s Report and Recommendation. This Court has reviewed the parties’ underlying briefs, the Magistrate’s Report and Recommendation, and the City’s objections. For the reasons set forth in this order, we reject the Magistrate’s Report and Recommendation, sustain the City’s objections, and grant the City’s motion to dismiss Count II.

I. Plaintiffs Allegations

In Count II of the complaint, plaintiff alleges that on October 18, 1985, Taylor was at or near his residence at 5316 South Justine in Chicago. On that date, officers Castaneda and Burmistrz were dispatched by the Chicago Police Department to respond to an alleged domestic disturbance, which they were told involved Taylor. Upon the officers’ arrival, Taylor tried to flee the area of his residence. The officers then chased Taylor as he attempted to flee, shooting him three times and killing him. According to plaintiff, Taylor’s death resulted from the “grossly inadequate training” of the defendant officers.

II. Magistrate’s Conclusions

Accepting plaintiff’s allegations as true, the Magistrate concluded that Count II of plaintiff’s complaint adequately pleaded a policy claim against the City under Section 1983. As a result, the Magistrate recommended that this Court deny the City’s motion to dismiss Count II.

III. Standard of Review

Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1), this Court must conduct a de novo review of the portions of the Magistrate’s Report to which the City objects. Consequently, we address the City’s objection that the allegations in Count II are insufficient as a matter of law to state a cause of action based on a City policy violating 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

IV. Sufficiency of Allegations Contained in Count II

Plaintiff’s “failure to train” claim is comprised of the following allegations:

(1) that the City was required to train, instruct, supervise, control, and discipline its police officers;
(2) that the training provided to the defendant officers was grossly inadequate in that it allowed its officers to use deadly force where it was not authorized under the law; and
(3) that Plaintiff’s decedent died as a result of the City’s failure to train its officers properly.

[544]*544In its objections, the City argues that contrary to the Magistrate’s findings, Count II fails to allege facts which support a reasonable inference that the City had a “policy” of inadequately training its officers in the use of deadly force. Thus, the City contends, plaintiff has failed to meet the standard articulated in Monell v. Department of Social Services of the City of New York, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978), its progeny, and particularly, this circuit’s decision in Strauss v. City of Chicago, 760 F.2d 765 (7th Cir.1985).

The Supreme Court first addressed the issue of municipal liability under Section 1983 in Monell. There, the Court concluded that a local government may not be sued under Section 1983 “for an injury inflicted solely by its employees or agents.” Monell, 436 U.S. at 694, 98 S.Ct. at 2037. Rather, only when the agent or employee’s injurious acts “may fairly be said to represent official policy” or unwritten custom is the governmental entity liable under Section 1983. Monell, 436 U.S. at 694, 98 S.Ct. at 2037. Thus, the Court soundly rejected the notion of vicarious municipal liability under the doctrine of respondeat superior. The Court emphasized, however, that it left the “full contours” of municipal liability for another day. Monell, 436 U.S. at 695, 98 S.Ct. at 2038.

Later, in City of Oklahoma City v. Tuttle, 471 U.S. 808, 823, 105 S.Ct. 2427, 2436, 85 L.Ed.2d 791 (1985), the Supreme Court specifically addressed the question of whether a single, isolated incident of excessive force by a police officer could establish an official policy or practice sufficient to render a municipality liable under Monell. The Court held that where the “policy” relied upon arises by inference from alleged municipal inaction, rather than from a pronounced policy “consciously chosen” by the municipality, a plaintiff must prove considerably more than a single incident to establish both the requisite fault of the municipality’s policymaker and the causal connection between the “policy” and the constitutional deprivation.1 Tuttle, 471 U.S. at 823-24, 105 S.Ct. at 2436.

Finally, the Supreme Court most recently addressed the “failure to train” theory under Section 1983 in City of Canton, Ohio v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378, 109 S.Ct. 1197, 103 L.Ed.2d 412 (1989). In Harris, the Court was asked to determine whether a municipality could ever be held liable under Section 1983 for constitutional violations resulting from its failure to train municipal employees.

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

Related

Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Servs.
436 U.S. 658 (Supreme Court, 1978)
City of Oklahoma v. Tuttle
471 U.S. 808 (Supreme Court, 1985)
City of Canton v. Harris
489 U.S. 378 (Supreme Court, 1989)
Steve Rodgers v. Lincoln Towing Service, Inc.
771 F.2d 194 (Seventh Circuit, 1985)
Gibson v. City of Chicago
701 F. Supp. 666 (N.D. Illinois, 1988)
Washington v. Lake County, Ill.
717 F. Supp. 1310 (N.D. Illinois, 1989)
Johnson v. City of Chicago
711 F. Supp. 1465 (N.D. Illinois, 1989)
Rodgers v. Lincoln Towing Service, Inc.
596 F. Supp. 13 (N.D. Illinois, 1984)
Grays v. Bartelt
714 F. Supp. 293 (N.D. Illinois, 1989)
Erwin v. County of Manitowoc
872 F.2d 1292 (Seventh Circuit, 1989)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
740 F. Supp. 542, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14393, 1990 WL 91780, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/taylor-v-castaneda-ilnd-1990.