Young v. Larimer County Sheriff's Office

2014 COA 119, 356 P.3d 939, 2014 Colo. App. LEXIS 1514, 2014 WL 4459173
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 11, 2014
DocketCourt of Appeals No. 13CA1338
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 2014 COA 119 (Young v. Larimer County Sheriff's Office) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Young v. Larimer County Sheriff's Office, 2014 COA 119, 356 P.3d 939, 2014 Colo. App. LEXIS 1514, 2014 WL 4459173 (Colo. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

Opinion by

JUDGE WEBB

4 1 This case presents another novel question that arises from the conflict between Colorado law and federal law concerning marijuana-does 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (2012) provide a remedy for state action that violates a right created by the Medical Marijuana Amendment, article XVIII, section 14 of the Colorado Constitution (MMA)? Because federal law eriminalizes possession of marijuana, we conclude that such a claim is not cognizable under section 1983.1 We reject the other claims of plaintiff, Kaleb Young. Therefore, we affirm the summary judgment entered in favor of defendants, Larimer County Sheriff's Office, and Pete Mesecher and Justin Smith, both individually and in their official capacities.

I. Background

1 2 Young leased property where he grew marijuana plants and distributed marijuana for medical use under the MMA. After obtaining search warrants, sheriffs deputies entered Young's property and seized forty-two marijuana plants by cutting them off just above the roots. This action killed the plants.

13 Young was charged with cultivation of marijuana, possession with intent to manufacture or distribute marijuana, and possession of more than twelve ounces of marijuana. The plants that had been seized were used as evidence. Still, the jury acquitted him of all charges based on the affirmative defense of medical use of marijuana by a person suffering from a debilitating medical condition under section 14(4)(b) of the MMA.

14 Based on the verdict and section 14(2)(e) of the MMA, the court ordered all seized property, including the plants, returned to Young. After the dead plants were returned, Young brought this action for damages on the basis that the deputies had killed the plants.

II. Standard of Review

T5 An appellate court reviews a summary judgment de novo. Shelter Mut. Ins. Co. v. [941]*941Mid-Century Ins. Co., 246 P.3d 651, 657 (Colo.2011). A summary judgment will be upheld only where the record does not show any genuine issue of material fact. Natural Energy Res. Co. v. Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy Dist., 142 P.3d 1265, 1276 (Colo.2006). On review, the appellate court-like the trial court-must take all facts in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. Id.

III. The Trial Court Properly Entered Summary Judgment on Young's 42 U.S.C. § 1983 Claim

A. Preservation

T 6 Young's complaint alleged that "defendants acted under color of state law to deprive [him] of certain constitutionally protected rights under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States," in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The rights specified were:

e "The right not to be deprived of property without due process of law;"
e "The right not to be deprived of liberty without due process of law;" and
® "The right to just compensation for taking of property."

7 According to the complaint, the property claim involved property "possessed, owned, and used in connection with the medical use of marijuana." Young's summary judgment response described the liberty claim as freedom "from bodily harm stemming from the symptoms of his debilitating medical condition" that he would have treated with marijuana from the plants that had been destroyed. These rights rested solely on Young's status as both a patient and a primary caregiver under the MMA.

B. Law

8 42 U.S.C. § 1983 provides in pertinent part:

Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State ... subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress....

19 To prove a section 1988 claim, a plaintiff must "establish that the defendant deprived him of a federal right and that the defendant acted under color of state law." Marks v. Gessler, 2013 COA 115, ¶ 95, 350 P.8d 883 (cert. granted, June 28, 2014). But section 1983 "does not create substantive rights; it provides a procedure to seek relief for violation of certain federal constitutional and statutory provisions." Claassen v. City & County of Denver, 30 P.3d 710, 715 (Colo. App.2000); see also Monez v. Reinertson, 140 P.3d 242, 244 (Colo.App.2006) ("To seek redress through § 1983, a plaintiff must assert the violation of a federal right, not merely a violation of federal law." (internal quotation marks omitted)). Thus, "[blecause the rights enforceable under [section] 1983 are only those recognized either by the federal constitution or by a federal statute, [section] 1983 cannot be used to enforce purely state rights. ..." Perry v. Bd. of Cnty. Comm'rs, 949 P.2d 99, 101 (Colo.App.1997).2

C. Application

T10 For purposes of opposing the summary judgment motion, Young showed that the deputies' had killed his marijuana plants and, as a result, he could no longer use his own marijuana to treat his debilitating medical condition. As relevant here, the MMA permits "the medical use of marijuana" and provides no less than a defense to prosecution under state law for possession of up to two ounces of medical marijuana and cultivation of up to six medical marijuana plants for a patient and for each of a caregiver's patients, unless "greater amounts were medically necessary to address the patient's debil[942]*942itating medical condition." Colo. Const. art. XVIII, § 14(4)(b)3 Section 14(2)(e) requires that medical marijuana which has been seized be returned upon cireumstances including, as here, acquittal of criminal charges based on the protection afforded a patient or primary caregiver. Thus, the rights that Young alleges were violated arose under state law.

11 But contrary to the MMA, Congress has classified marijuana as a schedule I controlled substance. See 21 U.S.C. § 812(c) Schedule I(c)(10) (2012). By doing so, "the manufacture, distribution, or possession of marijuang became a criminal offense, with the sole exception being use of the drug as part of a Food and Drug Administration preapproved research study." Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1, 14, 125 S.Ct.

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2014 COA 119, 356 P.3d 939, 2014 Colo. App. LEXIS 1514, 2014 WL 4459173, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/young-v-larimer-county-sheriffs-office-coloctapp-2014.