Hall v. City of Cookeville

File Name: 05a0894n.06
Filed: November 10, 2005
NOT RECOMMENDED FOR FULL-TEXT PUBLICATION
Nos. 04-6133/ 04-6307
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT
ERIC HALL and wife LISA HALL, individually
and as next friends on behalf of the minor children,
JANE DOE 1, JANE DOE 2, and JANE DOE 3,
Plaintiffs-Appellees,
v. ON APPEAL FROM THE
UNITED STATES DISTRICT
CITY OF COOKEVILLE, TENNESSEE, COURT FOR THE MIDDLE
DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE
Defendant,
BOB TERRY, in his individual capacity; JIM
SHIPLEY, in his individual capacity,
Defendants-Appellants,
STATE OF TENNESSEE,
Intervening Defendant-Appellant.
/
Before: MARTIN, NELSON, and ROGERS, Circuit Judges.
BOYCE F. MARTIN, JR., Circuit Judge. Bob Terry, the Chief of Police of Cookeville,
Tennessee and City Manager Jim Shipley appeal the district court’s denial of their request for
qualified immunity based on their roles in the release of Eric Hall’s personnel file to the public. For
the following reasons, we REVERSE the district court’s judgment and hold that both Terry and
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Hall v. Cookeville
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Shipley are entitled to qualified immunity. We further conclude that we lack appellate jurisdiction
to hear Tennessee’s appeal.
I.
On New Year’s Day 2003, the Smoak family was pulled over on Interstate 40 by the
Tennessee Highway Patrol under suspicion of committing armed robbery after a woman reported
seeing money flying from their car. As the family of three was kneeling on the pavement, being
handcuffed by the officers, the family dog, Patton, leapt out of the car and wagging his tail began
moving towards Officer Eric Hall of the Cookeville Police Department. Officer Hall discharged his
shotgun at Patton when he was approximately a foot away, killing Patton instantly.1 The officers
later discovered that Mr. Smoak had merely left his wallet atop the car after leaving a gas station and
his money blew away. The entire traffic stop was taped and the video gained international notoriety.
After this highly-publicized event, Hall became the subject of intense media attention.
Following a meeting with Shipley, Hall’s attorney, and others, Hall agreed to be interviewed by a
reporter from a Nashville news station on January 9th. In order to bolster Hall’s appearance in the
interview, the City released portions of his personnel file relating to Hall’s disciplinary actions and
commendations to the reporter. The record is unclear whether this release was done with Hall’s
knowledge or consent.
On January 10th, in response to media requests, the Putnam County Tax Assessor’s office
released copies of tax records which contained Hall’s name, his wife’s name, and their address. On
that same day, print and television news media contacted the City and requested copies of Hall’s
1
This marked the third time in five years that Hall shot a dog while on duty.
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personnel file. The administrative assistant to City Manager Shipley, Gail Fowler, received this
request, made the redactions she felt were required by law, and distributed copies to the press. Also
on January 10th, the Cookeville Police Department received an anonymous tip stating that the
Animal Liberation Front was threatening to put a contract out on Hall’s life. This threat was relayed
to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the City of Cookeville arranged for Hall’s family to be
temporarily moved to Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
On January 16th, the City complied with a request from Geoffrey Davidian to obtain a copy
of Hall’s personnel file. Davidian operates the website “The Putnam Pit,” with commentary on
current events in Putnam County. After obtaining the redacted personnel file, Davidian posted
portions of the personnel file on his web site. The file given to the media in both instances contained
Hall’s parents’s names, his wife’s name, his oldest child’s name and date of birth, and Hall’s driver’s
license, fingerprints, birth certificate, college transcript, and social security number (although it was
not identified as such).
Without knowledge of the release of his personnel file, Hall agreed to an interview for a local
radio station and agreed to be the subject of a segment on NBC’s “Today Show.” The segment was
taped in Hall’s attorney’s office, a city park, and at Hall’s home, a portion of which showed his
children playing in the snow outside of the home. The segment was broadcast on January 21st. On
or about January 27th, Hall learned that “The Putnam Pit” had received a copy of his redacted
personnel file.
Hall filed this lawsuit on August 27th in the Middle District of Tennessee alleging that
Shipley and Terry violated Hall’s right to Due Process and right to privacy under the federal
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Constitution, and his right to privacy under the Tennessee Constitution. Additionally, Hall alleged
that the Tennessee Open Records Act, T.C.A. § 10-7-503(c)(1) violates the federal Constitution as
well as the Tennessee state constitution. The State of Tennessee intervened as a defendant in order
to defend the statute.
On April 29, 2004, Shipley and Terry, in their individual capacities, moved for summary
judgment based on qualified immunity. On April 2, 2004, the State of Tennessee moved for partial
summary judgment as to the constitutionality of Tennessee’s Open Records Act. The District Court
denied both motions and all three parties now appeal.
II.
This Court reviews a district court’s denial of qualified immunity de novo. Klein v. Long,
275 F.3d 544, 550 (6th Cir. 2001). Under the doctrine of qualified immunity, “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.” Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818 (1982). The
qualified immunity analysis generally entails three steps. First, the district court must consider
whether the facts, taken in the light most favorable to the party asserting the injury, show that the
city’s conduct violated a constitutional right. Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 201 (2001). If the facts
alleged are sufficient to establish a constitutional violation, then this Court must determine whether
the particular right allegedly violated was clearly established at the time the violation occurred. Id.
Third, this Court must determine whether the actions taken were “objectively unreasonable in light
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of the clearly established constitutional rights.” Bennett v. City of Eastpointe, 410 F.3d 810, 819
(6th Cir. 2005).
The right alleged by Hall in this case stems from this Court’s holding in Kallstrom v. City
of Columbus. 136 F.3d 1055 (6th Cir. 1998). In that case, the City of Columbus released the
personnel and pre-employment files of three of the city’s undercover police officers. Id. at 1059.
The files included the officers’s addresses and phone numbers, their immediate family’s names,
addresses, and phone numbers, their social security numbers, and copies of their driver’s licenses.
The city gave those files to the defense counsel in a trial at which the officers were to testify. Id.
This Court held that the officers’ right to privacy ensured a fundamental liberty interest in
“preserving their lives and the lives of their family members, as well as preserving their personal
security and bodily integrity.” Id. at 1062. “[W]here the release of private information places an
individual at substantial risk of serious bodily harm, possibly even death, from a perceived likely
threat, the ‘magnitude of the liberty deprivation...strips the very essence of personhood.’” Id. at
1064 (quoting Doe v. Claiborne County Bd. of Educ., 103 F.3d 495, 506-07 (6th Cir. 1996)).
Additionally, this Court held
[t]he procedural component of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause,
however, at a minimum requires that the City notify the officers of a request for their
addresses, phone numbers, and driver’s licenses, and the names, addresses, and
phone numbers of their family, prior to releasing this information so that they may
have the opportunity to invoke their constitutionally protected rights to privacy and
personal security.
Kallstrom, 136 F.3d at 1067.
Because the denial of qualified immunity came at the summary judgment phase, this Court
must make all factual assumptions in favor of Hall, the non-moving party. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c).
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Despite those assumptions, however, we conclude no Kallstrom constitutional violation occurred
based on the particular facts in this case. Hall’s penchant for media attention led to the voluntary
release of his personal information into the public eye. Because he engaged the media, and in doing
so released virtually all of the information released by the City through his personnel file, there was
no increased risk to Hall or his family based solely on the release of his personnel file. Also, in
order to hold a supervisor liable under section 1983, the supervisor must have condoned,
encouraged, or knowingly acquiesced in the alleged misconduct. Bennett, 410 F.3d at 823 Hall has
been unable to show any facts which demonstrate how Terry or Shipley condoned, encouraged, or
knowingly acquiesced in the release of that information in Hall’s personnel file not already released
by Hall in his public appearances. At best, Shipley could be considered reckless in his role, but this
does not rise to the necessary level of malfeasance for supervisor liability to attach. See Nishiyama
v. Dickson County, 814 F.2d 277, 284-85 (6th Cir. 1987). For these reasons, no constitutional
violation occurred and, therefore, analysis of steps two and three of the qualified immunity test is
unnecessary.
III.
The second appeal in this case is the State of Tennessee’s claim that the district court erred
in denying its motion for summary judgment regarding Hall’s challenge of the constitutionality of
Tenn. Code Ann. § 10-7-503(c)(1). Tennessee has stipulated that its appeal does not fall within this
Court’s original appellate jurisdiction and, therefore, relies on our pendent appellate jurisdiction.
In order for pendent appellate jurisdiction to apply, the pendent case must be “inextricably
intertwined” with the original appeal. Swint v. Chambers County Commission, 514 U.S. 35, 51
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(1995); Mattox v. City of Forest Park, 183 F.3d 515, 523-24 (6th Cir. 1999). Nothing in
Tennessee’s brief or oral argument demonstrates how its appeal on the constitutionality of a statute
is inextricably intertwined with Shipley’s and Terry’s appeal on the subject of qualified immunity.
The inquiries of the two appeals are extremely different and they can not be considered coterminous
because the outcome of one appeal has no bearing on the outcome of the other. See Mattox, 183
F.3d at 523-24. Therefore, we conclude that we do not have pendent appellate jurisdiction and
dismiss the appeal.
IV.
For the reasons stated above, we REVERSE the judgment of the district court and hold that
Shipley and Terry are entitled to qualified immunity. We DISMISS Tennessee’s appeal for lack of
jurisdiction.