Filed: Mar. 16, 2017
Latest Update: Mar. 03, 2020
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 16-2096 BRENDA TOOMER-FRAZIER, Plaintiff - Appellant, v. COLUMBIA, City of, an incorporated municipality, Defendant - Appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Columbia. Margaret B. Seymour, Senior District Judge. (3:14-cv-04360-MBS) Submitted: February 27, 2017 Decided: March 16, 2017 Before TRAXLER, AGEE, and WYNN, Circuit Judges. Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 16-2096 BRENDA TOOMER-FRAZIER, Plaintiff - Appellant, v. COLUMBIA, City of, an incorporated municipality, Defendant - Appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Columbia. Margaret B. Seymour, Senior District Judge. (3:14-cv-04360-MBS) Submitted: February 27, 2017 Decided: March 16, 2017 Before TRAXLER, AGEE, and WYNN, Circuit Judges. Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion. ..
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UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 16-2096
BRENDA TOOMER-FRAZIER,
Plaintiff - Appellant,
v.
COLUMBIA, City of, an incorporated municipality,
Defendant - Appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
South Carolina, at Columbia. Margaret B. Seymour, Senior
District Judge. (3:14-cv-04360-MBS)
Submitted: February 27, 2017 Decided: March 16, 2017
Before TRAXLER, AGEE, and WYNN, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.
Glenn Walters, R. Bentz Kirby, Orangeburg, South Carolina, for
Appellant. W. Allen Nickles, III, NICKLES LAW FIRM, LLC,
Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellee.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
PER CURIAM:
Brenda Toomer-Frazier appeals from the district court’s
order adopting the report and recommendation of the magistrate
judge and granting summary judgment to Defendant City of
Columbia (the “City”) in her 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (2012) suit
alleging racial discrimination and retaliation in relation to
her employment. We have reviewed the record and the briefs on
appeal, and we find no reversible error. Accordingly, we affirm
substantially for the reasons stated by the district court.
Toomer-Frazier v. City of Columbia, No. 3:14-cv-04360-MBS
(D.S.C. Aug. 31, 2016).
On appeal, Toomer-Frazier asserts that City of Canton v.
Harris,
489 U.S. 378 (1989), permits her to hold the City liable
under § 1981 for deliberate indifference or knowledge and
acquiescence, even in the absence of an official municipal
policy or custom of discrimination or retaliation. However,
Canton does not reach so far. Canton holds that, if a municipal
employee has not been properly trained, the municipality’s
failure to train evidences deliberate indifference to the rights
of its inhabitants, and this lack of training causes the
employee to unconstitutionally apply a facially valid policy,
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the city can be held liable under § 1983.
* 489 U.S. at 388-89.
Importantly, the city’s failure to train must reflect deliberate
indifference to the constitutional rights of its inhabitants and
be “closely related” to the plaintiff’s ultimate injury.
Id. at
391–92. Moreover, the Court made clear that the rule would only
apply in “limited circumstances.”
Id. at 387.
Toomer-Frazier’s allegations fall far short of stating a
claim under Canton. Toomer-Frazier has not offered any evidence
(and does not even seem to allege) that City officials were
inadequately trained about an official policy, or that any
failure to train amounted to deliberate indifference to the
constitutional rights of the City’s inhabitants. And she does
not submit any evidence showing that any alleged deficiency in
training caused the officials to treat her differently than
white employees or was otherwise related to her discrimination
or retaliation claims. Absent these allegations, Canton is
inapplicable. See
id. at 391. Because Toomer-Frazier has shown
no official policy or custom of discrimination or retaliation by
*We have held that the Supreme Court’s opinion in Jett v.
Dallas Independent School District,
491 U.S. 701 (1989), limits
claims against state actors for discrimination and retaliation
to those brought under § 1983. Dennis v. City of Fairfax,
55
F.3d 151, 156 (4th Cir. 1995); Crowley v. Prince George’s Cty.,
890 F.2d 683, 685–86 (4th Cir. 1989). Accordingly, and as the
district court concluded, the standards applicable to § 1983
claims apply in this case, which was brought under § 1981.
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the City, the district court correctly found that § 1981 relief
was not available.
Accordingly, we affirm. We dispense with oral argument
because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented
in the materials before this court and argument would not aid
the decisional process.
AFFIRMED
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