Terry L. Arcoren v. Wenton Peters and John Schooler

811 F.2d 392, 1987 U.S. App. LEXIS 1613
Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit·Decided February 2, 1987·No. 86-5119SD·Published·Cited by 13 cases

Opinions

DUMBAULD, Senior District Judge:

Ever since Bell v. Hood, 327 U.S. 678, 66 S.Ct. 773, 90 L.Ed. 939 (1946) and Bivens v. Six Unknown Agents, 403 U.S. 388, 91 S.Ct. 1999, 29 L.Ed.2d 619 (1971), it has been settled that, under some circumstances, by virtue of the principle ubi jus ibi remedium, a person whose clearly established constitutional rights are violated by federal officials may sue them directly even though no legislation by Congress exists specifically authorizing such a remedy. See 403 U.S. at 396-97, 91 S.Ct. at 2004-05 [Fourth Amendment]; Davis v. Passman, 442 U.S. 228, 234-48, 99 S.Ct. 2264, 2271-78, 60 L.Ed.2d 846 (1979) [sex discrimination violating equal protection component of due process clause of Fifth Amendment].

Of course caution must be observed in according the Bivens remedy.1 Bivens itself recognizes the possible existence of “special factors counselling hesitation in the absence of affirmative action by Congress” 403 U.S. at 396, 91 S.Ct. at 2005, such as the existence of another “equally effective” remedy 403 U.S. at 397, 91 S.Ct. at 2005.2 A Bivens action must be [394]*394founded upon disregard of requirements established by the Constitution. Mere ultra vires action in excess of the officer’s lawful authority does not suffice, 403 U.S. at 396-97, 91 S.Ct. at 2004-05. Nor does a mere tort not of constitutional dimension, nor a mere erroneous decision. McGovern v. New York, 229 U.S. 363, 370, 33 S.Ct. 876, 877, 57 L.Ed. 1228 (1913); Chicago Life Ins. Co. v. Cherry, 244 U.S. 25, 30, 37 S.Ct. 492, 493, 61 L.Ed. 966 (1917) [Holmes, J.].

In the case at bar appellant seeks Bivens relief for deprivation of property, namely cattle, seized and sold (without notice or hearing to appellant) by two officials of the Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) upon being informed by third parties that appellant, contrary to his obligations under the loan agreement, had neglected and abandoned the cattle, in which the FmHA had a security interest.

It should be noted that the proceeds of the sale were credited against appellant’s indebtedness to the FmHA and that he was not delinquent in his monetary payments at the time of the seizure and sale; and that he contends that loss of the cattle deprived him of the opportunity to continue in the cattle business as an independent entrepreneur, relegating him to the inferior status of “hired hand.”

When this case first came before this Court in Arcoren v. Farmers Home Administration, 770 F.2d 137, 139-40 (8th Cir.1985), we held that the Bivens action was not precluded by the mere existence of FmHA regulations authorizing an administrative appeal. This Court did “not decide that Arcoren had a clearly established due process right to notice and hearing or that Arcoren has proven his case on the merits. This question must be passed on initially by the district court.” 770 F.2d at 141.

Upon remand the District Court granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment, thus deciding adversely to appellant the question left open by this Court’s prior decision, whether appellant at the time of the seizure and sale had a clearly established constitutional due process right to preseizure notice and bearing. Arcoren v. Peters, 627 F.Supp. 1513, 1517-19 (D.S.D. 1986). To the correctness of this holding we must now turn our attention. We conclude that appellant’s claim has sufficient possible merit that it should not have been foreclosed in limine by grant of summary judgment.

Due process is a concept with roots going back to Magna Carta [Murray’s Lessee v. Hoboken Land and Improvement Co., 18 How. 272, 276, 15 L.Ed. 372 (1856)], but the sedes materiae for our purposes is the language of the Fifth Amendment:

nor [shall any person be] deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.

It will be noted that this prohibition of wrongful deprivation is in the passive voice, and is applicable against any wrongdoer. There is no requirement of “State action,” as necessitated by the wording of the Fourteenth Amendment.3 But if, as in the case at bar, the alleged wrongdoers are federal officers, a question arises as to the extent to which they enjoy “official immunity” from liability. The important public policy in favor of immunity is designed to encourage officers to perform their duties zealously without misgivings regarding the burdens of being subjected to unmeritorious and vexatious litigation. The policy has never been better expressed than by Judge Learned Hand in Gregoire v. Biddle, 177 F.2d 579, 581 (2nd Cir.1949)4:

It does indeed go without saying that an official, who is in fact guilty of using his powers to vent his spleen upon others, or for any other personal motive not connected with the public good, should [395]*395not escape liability for the injuries he may so cause; and, if it were possible in practice to confine such complaints to the guilty, it would be monstrous to deny recovery. The justification for doing so is that it is impossible to know whether the claim is well founded until the case has been tried, and that to submit all officials, the innocent as well as the guilty, to the burden of a trial and to the inevitable danger of its outcome, would dampen the ardor of all but the most resolute, or the most irresponsible, in the unflinching discharge of their duties.

As in the case of protection against double jeopardy, the immunity is not designed to insure the successful outcome of a trial, but to prevent undergoing a trial at all, in a case where immunity is applicable. Abney v. U.S., 431 U.S. 651, 659-62, 97 S.Ct. 2034, 2040-41, 52 L.Ed.2d 651 (1977); Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 2815-16, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985) [“The entitlement is an immunity from suit rather than a mere defense to liability”].

In the case of subordinate officers such as appellees, qualified rather than absolute immunity is applicable. Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2738, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982), where it was held that “government officials performing discretionary functions, generally are shielded from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known” [Italics supplied].5

A later expression of the same rule is found in Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 2814, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985). It was there held that Attorney General Mitchell (who had authorized a telephone tap without a warrant6

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Terry L. Arcoren v. Wenton Peters and John Schooler, 811 F.2d 392, 1987 U.S. App. LEXIS 1613 (8th Cir. 1987).

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