Filed: Jun. 17, 2014
Latest Update: Mar. 02, 2020
Summary: DLD-237 NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT _ No. 13-4342 _ GABRIEL PITTMAN, Appellant v. JAMES B. MARTIN, ESQ.; DOUGLAS REICHLEY, ESQ.; STEVEN M. LUKSA, ESQ., ET AL _ On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (D.C. Civil No. 5-13-cv-05632) District Judge: Honorable Joel H. Slomsky _ Submitted for Possible Dismissal Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B) or Summary Action Pursuant to Third Circuit LAR 27.4 and I.O.P.
Summary: DLD-237 NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT _ No. 13-4342 _ GABRIEL PITTMAN, Appellant v. JAMES B. MARTIN, ESQ.; DOUGLAS REICHLEY, ESQ.; STEVEN M. LUKSA, ESQ., ET AL _ On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (D.C. Civil No. 5-13-cv-05632) District Judge: Honorable Joel H. Slomsky _ Submitted for Possible Dismissal Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B) or Summary Action Pursuant to Third Circuit LAR 27.4 and I.O.P. ..
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DLD-237 NOT PRECEDENTIAL
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
___________
No. 13-4342
___________
GABRIEL PITTMAN,
Appellant
v.
JAMES B. MARTIN, ESQ.;
DOUGLAS REICHLEY, ESQ.;
STEVEN M. LUKSA, ESQ., ET AL
____________________________________
On Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
(D.C. Civil No. 5-13-cv-05632)
District Judge: Honorable Joel H. Slomsky
____________________________________
Submitted for Possible Dismissal Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)
or Summary Action Pursuant to Third Circuit LAR 27.4 and I.O.P. 10.6
April 24, 2014
Before: SMITH, HARDIMAN and NYGAARD, Circuit Judges
(Opinion filed: June 17, 2014)
_________
OPINION
_________
PER CURIAM
Pro se litigant Gabriel Pittman appeals the District Court’s order dismissing his
complaint under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e) with prejudice. We have jurisdiction under 28
U.S.C. § 1291, and we exercise plenary review over the District Court’s dismissal order.
See Allah v. Seiverling, 229 F.3d 220, 223 (3d Cir. 2000). For the reasons set forth
below, we will summarily affirm the District Court’s judgment.
Pittman initiated this action by filing a complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in the
District Court. In the complaint, he alleged that he has been unlawfully imprisoned
because the criminal information against him was wrongfully amended in 1998
proceedings in the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas. He named as defendants the
Lehigh County District Attorney; the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office; the
Lehigh County Public Defender’s Office; Lehigh County; the Lehigh County Court of
Common Pleas; two assistant district attorneys; four defense attorneys; two judges of the
Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas; and a judge of the United States District Court
for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Pittman requested $100 million in
compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages from each defendant, plus
fees and costs. He further requested a declaratory judgment acknowledging that he was
wrongfully imprisoned. Pittman also moved to amend his complaint to include several
state-law claims.
The District Court dismissed the complaint with prejudice, citing the immunity of
all defendants from Pittman’s § 1983 claims. Pittman then filed a timely notice of appeal
to this Court.
The District Court’s disposition of this case was correct. Judges are generally
immune from suits for money damages. Mireles v. Waco, 502 U.S. 9, 9 (1991). If the
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actions underlying the complaint were judicial and were not performed “in the complete
absence of all jurisdiction,” then this immunity is absolute, regardless of whether the
judicial acts were malicious, corrupt, or wrong. Id. at 11-13. The judges’ acts to which
Pittman points — permitting the amendment of criminal information, sentencing a
defendant, and dismissing motions and petitions — are prototypical judicial acts, inherent
to the process of adjudication. See, e.g., Barrett v. Harrington,
130 F.3d 246, 255, 257
(6th Cir. 1997) (acts of adjudication, including the rendering of judgments and orders, are
judicial acts); Figueroa v. Blackburn,
208 F.3d 435, 443 (3d Cir. 2000) (ordering a
defendant to prison is a paradigm judicial act); Johnson v. Kegans,
870 F.2d 992, 997
(5th Cir. 1989) (sentencing is a judicial act). The record does not demonstrate that these
acts were performed in the complete absence of all jurisdiction. The judges are thus
immune to Pittman’s § 1983 claims for damages.
Likewise, prosecutors acting within the scope of their duties in initiating and
pursuing a criminal prosecution are immune to suit under § 1983. Imbler v. Pachtman,
424 U.S. 409, 410 (1976). The acts of which Pittman complains vis-à-vis the prosecutors
– namely, that they amended the criminal information and prosecuted the case against
him – fit squarely within the realm of official prosecutorial duties. See
id. at 430
(activities intimately associated with the judicial phase of the criminal process, casting
the prosecutor as an advocate rather than an administrative or investigative officer,
trigger absolute immunity). The prosecutor defendants therefore enjoy immunity from §
1983 liability for those acts.
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Pittman’s § 1983 claims against the defense attorneys are also unavailing. Public
defenders do not act under color of law when performing the traditional functions of
counsel to a defendant in a criminal proceeding. Consequently, they cannot be sued for
such actions under § 1983. Polk Cnty. v. Dodson, 454 U.S. 312, 325 (1981). While they
could nonetheless be liable under § 1983 if they conspired with a state actor to deprive
Pittman of federal rights — see Tower v. Glover,
467 U.S. 914, 916 (1984) — Pittman
has presented only conclusory allegations of conspiracy, which are insufficient from a
pleading perspective. See Great W. Mining & Mineral Co. v. Fox Rothschild LLP,
615
F.3d 159, 178-79 (3d Cir. 2010) (conclusory allegations of an agreement do not meet the
pleading standards; instead, specific facts addressing the time the agreement was made,
the period of the conspiracy, the exact parties to the agreement, and the object of the
conspiracy are required). Because Pittman failed to plead conspiracy with the necessary
particularity, his claim cannot support liability for the defense attorney defendants under
§ 1983.
Pittman’s claims against the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas are equally
ineffective, because the Eleventh Amendment shields it from liability to suits brought in
federal court. See Benn v. First Judicial Dist. of Pa., 426 F.3d 233, 235 n.1, 241 (3d Cir.
2005). Similarly, his claims against Lehigh County cannot stand. A municipality may be
sued under § 1983 only when its execution of a government policy or custom injures the
plaintiff. See Monell v. Dep’t of Soc. Servs.,
436 U.S. 658, 694 (1978). Beyond the
occasional and bare recitation of the words “custom and/or policy,” the complaint failed
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to allege governmental action on anyone other than Pittman. Because this demonstrates
neither custom nor policy on the part of Lehigh County, his § 1983 claim against it fails.
Cf. id. (New York City Board of Education policy compelling all pregnant employees to
take unpaid leaves of absence before they were medically required constitutes a custom
or policy that could trigger liability under § 1983).
In addition to his claims as to each defendant, Pittman seems to make a general
claim of wrongful imprisonment. To the extent that Pittman seeks money damages for
that claim, it is barred by the immunity each defendant enjoys. And to the extent that
Pittman seeks equitable relief affecting his continued incarceration, he has no claim under
§ 1983. See Preiser v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 475, 500 (1973) (“[W]hen a state prisoner is
challenging the very fact or duration of his physical imprisonment, and the relief he seeks
is a determination that he is entitled to immediate release or a speedier release from that
imprisonment, his sole federal remedy is a writ of habeas corpus.” (emphasis added)).
Lastly, Pittman moved to amend his complaint to include various state-law claims
for the same underlying acts. We interpret the District Court’s silence on the state-law
claims in its opinion to mean that it declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over
them. Given the fate of Pittman’s § 1983 claims discussed above, declining to exercise
supplemental jurisdiction was not error. See 28 U.S.C. 1367(c)(3).
Accordingly, we will summarily affirm the District Court’s order dismissing
Pittman’s complaint under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e). See 3d Cir. L.A.R. 27.4 and I.O.P. 10.6.
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