Young v. Skaggs Drug Centers, Inc.

487 F. Supp. 1184, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12383
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Arkansas
DecidedApril 11, 1980
DocketNo. LR-C-78-187
StatusPublished

This text of 487 F. Supp. 1184 (Young v. Skaggs Drug Centers, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Young v. Skaggs Drug Centers, Inc., 487 F. Supp. 1184, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12383 (E.D. Ark. 1980).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

HENRY WOODS, District Judge.

The complaint alleges that while plaintiff was a customer in defendant’s store, and after purchasing several items there, she was apprehended by defendant’s agent and accused of stealing a bottle of insulin. Plaintiff’s purse was searched and although a bottle of insulin was discovered, a receipt for its purchase was also found. Plaintiff alleges that the accusation and search were made in the presence of many people, including plaintiff’s daughter, and that the incident caused her humiliation, embarrassment mental anguish and an increase in her blood pressure. She states that the actions of defendant were undertaken because of plaintiff’s color. She sues for both compensatory and punitive damages under 28 U.S.C. § 1343(4) and 42 U.S.C. § 1981. The cause is presented on defendant’s motion to dismiss for (1) lack of subject matter jurisdiction and (2) failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, together with plaintiff’s response thereto.

The first U.S.Code section upon which plaintiff relies provides that U.S. District Courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action to secure relief under any Act of Congress providing for the protection of civil rights. The civil rights violated by defendant’s actions are alleged to be those protected by 42 U.S.C. § 1981, which reads as follows: “All persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall have the same right in every State and Territory to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, give evidence, and to the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of persons and property as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like punishment, pains, penalties, taxes, licenses, and exactions of every kind, and to no other.”

Rule 12(b)(1) of the FRCP authorizes motions to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Plaintiff relies on the following sentence from Rule 12(b): “If, on a motion asserting the defense numbered (6) to dismiss for failure of the pleading to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, matters outside the pleading are presented to and not excluded by the court, the motion shall be treated as one for summary judgment and disposed of as provided in Rule 56, and all parties shall be given a [1186]*1186reasonable opportunity to present all material made pertinent to such a motion by Rule 56.” Plaintiff then argues that the allegations of the Complaint must at this point be taken as true in the absence of evidence in contravention and inferentially that defendant’s relief must necessarily be asserted by a motion for summary judgment and not by a motion to dismiss.

The question as to subject matter jurisdiction is distinct from the issue whether the plaintiff has stated a federal cause of action; the court usually, must assume jurisdiction before it can decide whether a cause of action has been stated. Bell v. Hood, 327 U.S. 678, 682, 66 S.Ct. 773, 776, 90 L.Ed. 939 (1946). Jurisdiction however under 28 U.S.C. § 1343(4) appears to represent an exception to the Bell v. Hood type of analysis. Haldorson v. Blair, 449 F.Supp. 1025 (D.Minn.1978). The Supreme Court of the United States has pointed out that “if this were a § 1983 action, brought under the special jurisdictional provision of 28 U.S.C. § 1343, it would be appropriate for this Court to inquire, for jurisdictional purposes, whether a statutory action had in fact been alleged.” Mt. Healthy School District v. Doyle, 429 U.S. 274, 278, 97 S.Ct. 568, 572, 50 L.Ed.2d 471 (1977). The fact that the action is brought under § 1981 provides no exception to the jurisdictional rule as stated above by the Supreme Court. Section 1343 is the jurisdictional mirror of the substantive cause of action created by 42 U.S.C. § 1981. Haldorson v. Blair, supra. In order to determine whether a cause of action is stated under § 1343, this court must determine whether a cause of action has been stated under § 1981.

We now proceed to such a determination. Assuming that plaintiff’s factual allegations are true, has she stated a substantive cause of action under 42 U.S.C. § 1981? We hold that she has not stated a viable federal cause of action. The controlling case is Paul v. Davis, 424 U.S. 693, 96 S.Ct. 1155, 47 L.Ed.2d 405 (1976). The facts in that case are strikingly similar to those in the case at bar. Plaintiff’s name and photograph appeared on a flyer which was captioned “Active Shoplifters” and which was distributed among merchants by the defendant Chief of Police. Plaintiff had been arrested on a shoplifting charge, but it was later dismissed and he brought the suit under § 1983. His suit was based on two premises: (1) The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and § 1983 make actionable many wrongs inflicted by government employees which had heretofore been thought to give rise only to state-law tort claims. (2) The infliction by state officials of a “stigma” to one’s reputation is somehow different in kind from the same official’s infliction of harm or injury to other interests protected by state law. The same basic premises must bottom plaintiff’s claim in the case at bar, even though she asserts an infringement of her constitutional rights by a private person. What the Supreme Court said in Paul v. Davis, supra, in holding that a federal claim could not be asserted under the first premise is peculiarly apropos here. “But such a reading would make of the Fourteenth Amendment a font of tort law to be superimposed upon whatever systems may already be administered by the States. We have [already] noted the ‘constitutional shoals’ that confront any attempt to derive from congressional civil rights statutes a body of general federal tort law, Griffin v. Breckenridge, 403 U.S. 88, 101-102, 91 S.Ct. 1790, 1797-98, 29 L.Ed.2d 338, 347-48 (1971).”

As a matter of fact, Arkansas tort law is very favorable to one in plaintiff’s position. The defamation statutes, Ark.Stat.Ann. §§ 41-3455-4:1-3461 (1977 Repl.Vol.) are comprehensive. As noted in Dean Prosser’s classic article, “Insult and Outrage,” 44 Cal. L.Rev. 40 (1956), Arkansas is in the forefront of those states permitting recovery for insult and outrage, the so-called “tort without a name.” At the time this article was written, many if not most jurisdictions required physical illness or some non-mental damage as a basis of this tort. The Arkansas Supreme Court, however, has affirmed a recovery for a plaintiff where defendants stood on the road outside his home, accused him of stealing hogs and ordered him to leave the county on pain of being lynched. [1187]

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Related

Bell v. Hood
327 U.S. 678 (Supreme Court, 1946)
Griffin v. Breckenridge
403 U.S. 88 (Supreme Court, 1971)
Paul v. Davis
424 U.S. 693 (Supreme Court, 1976)
Runyon v. McCrary
427 U.S. 160 (Supreme Court, 1976)
Charles Edward Smith v. Edward J. Klecker
554 F.2d 848 (Eighth Circuit, 1977)
Haldorson v. Blair
449 F. Supp. 1025 (D. Minnesota, 1978)
Wilson v. Wilkins
25 S.W.2d 428 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1930)
Erwin v. Milligan
67 S.W.2d 592 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1934)
Ledwith v. Douglas
568 F.2d 117 (Eighth Circuit, 1978)
Hall v. Pennsylvania State Police
570 F.2d 86 (Third Circuit, 1978)

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Bluebook (online)
487 F. Supp. 1184, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12383, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/young-v-skaggs-drug-centers-inc-ared-1980.