Filed: Apr. 24, 2018
Latest Update: Mar. 03, 2020
Summary: FILED United States Court of Appeals PUBLISH Tenth Circuit UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS April 24, 2018 Elisabeth A. Shumaker FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT Clerk of Court _ MARIANO MOYA, LONNIE PETRY, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. No. 17-2037 ROBERT GARCIA, Santa Fe County Sheriff; MARK CALDWELL, Warden of Santa Fe County Adult Correctional Facility; MARK GALLEGOS, former Warden of Santa Fe County Adult Correctional Facility, in their individual ca
Summary: FILED United States Court of Appeals PUBLISH Tenth Circuit UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS April 24, 2018 Elisabeth A. Shumaker FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT Clerk of Court _ MARIANO MOYA, LONNIE PETRY, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. No. 17-2037 ROBERT GARCIA, Santa Fe County Sheriff; MARK CALDWELL, Warden of Santa Fe County Adult Correctional Facility; MARK GALLEGOS, former Warden of Santa Fe County Adult Correctional Facility, in their individual cap..
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FILED
United States Court of Appeals
PUBLISH Tenth Circuit
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS April 24, 2018
Elisabeth A. Shumaker
FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT Clerk of Court
_________________________________
MARIANO MOYA, LONNIE
PETRY, on behalf of themselves and
all others similarly situated,
Plaintiffs-Appellants,
v. No. 17-2037
ROBERT GARCIA, Santa Fe County
Sheriff; MARK CALDWELL,
Warden of Santa Fe County Adult
Correctional Facility; MARK
GALLEGOS, former Warden of
Santa Fe County Adult Correctional
Facility, in their individual
capacities; BOARD OF
COMMISSIONERS OF SANTA FE
COUNTY,
Defendants-Appellees.
_________________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the District of New Mexico
(D.C. No. 1:16-CV-01022-WJ-KBM)
_________________________________
A. Nathaniel Chakeres (Todd A. Coberly with him on the briefs), of
Coberly & Martinez, LLLP, Santa Fe, New Mexico, for Plaintiffs-
Appellants.
Brandon Huss of The New Mexico Association of Counties, Santa Fe, New
Mexico, for Defendants-Appellees.
_________________________________
Before MATHESON, BACHARACH, and McHUGH, Circuit Judges.
_________________________________
BACHARACH, Circuit Judge.
_________________________________
This appeal involves claims of overdetention by Mr. Mariano Moya
and Mr. Lonnie Petry. Both men were arrested based on outstanding
warrants and detained in a county jail for 30 days or more prior to their
arraignments. These arraignment delays violated New Mexico law, which
requires arraignment of a defendant within 15 days of arrest. N.M. Stat.
Ann. § 31-1-3; Rule 5-303(A) NMRA.
The arraignment delays led Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry to sue under 42
U.S.C. § 1983 for deprivation of due process, alleging claims against
Sheriff Robert Garcia, Warden Mark Caldwell, and former
Warden Mark Gallegos in their individual capacities under
theories of personal participation and supervisory liability and
the Board of Commissioners of Santa Fe County under a theory
of municipal liability.
The district court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss for failure to
state a valid claim. We affirm because Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry failed to
plausibly allege a factual basis for liability. 1
1
The complaint contains claims based on both substantive and
procedural due process. Based on our disposition, we need not distinguish
between the claims involving procedural and substantive due process.
2
I. Standard of Review
We engage in de novo review of the dismissal under Federal Rule of
Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). Albers v. Bd. of Cty. Comm’rs,
771 F.3d 697, 700
(10th Cir. 2014). In engaging in this review, we credit the well-pleaded
allegations in the complaint and construe them favorably to the plaintiffs.
Thomas v. Kaven,
765 F.3d 1183, 1190 (10th Cir. 2014). To withstand
dismissal, the plaintiffs’ allegations must “state a claim to relief that is
plausible on its face.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly,
550 U.S. 544, 570
(2007). The claim is plausible only if it contains sufficient factual
allegations to allow the court to reasonably infer liability. Ashcroft v.
Iqbal,
556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009).
II. Supervisory Liability
The individual defendants served as the sheriff and wardens of the
jail where Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry were detained. These defendants could
potentially incur liability under § 1983 if they had acted under color of
state law. 42 U.S.C. § 1983. But § 1983 is not always available against
individual officials because they enjoy qualified immunity when their
conduct does not violate “‘clearly established statutory or constitutional
rights of which a reasonable person would have known.’” Cordova v. City
of Albuquerque,
816 F.3d 645, 655 (10th Cir. 2016) (quoting Pearson v.
Callahan,
555 U.S. 223, 231 (2009)).
3
To avoid qualified immunity at the motion-to-dismiss stage, a
plaintiff must show that
“‘the defendant’s [alleged conduct] violated a constitutional or
statutory right’” and
“the right was ‘clearly established at the time of the
[violation].’”
Thomas v. Kaven,
765 F.3d 1183, 1194 (10th Cir. 2014) (quoting Archuleta
v. Wagner,
523 F.3d 1278, 1283 (10th Cir. 2008)). There are two questions
at the first step:
1. whether the plaintiff has adequately alleged the violation of a
constitutional or statutory right and
2. whether the defendant’s alleged conduct deprived the plaintiff
of that right.
See Dodds v. Richardson,
614 F.3d 1185, 1192-94 (10th Cir. 2010)
(engaging in this two-part analysis of the first step of qualified immunity).
The first question is whether Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry have
adequately alleged a deprivation of due process. We need not decide this
question because of our answer to the second question: in our view, the
complaint does not plausibly allege facts attributing the potential
constitutional violation to the sheriff or wardens. 2
2
Even if the defendants had not asserted qualified immunity, Mr.
Moya and Mr. Petry would have needed to adequately allege facts showing
causation. See 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (“Every person who, under color of [state
law], subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States
or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any
4
To prevail, Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry must have alleged facts showing
that the sheriff and wardens had been personally involved in the underlying
violations through their own participation or supervisory control. Dodds v.
Richardson,
614 F.3d 1185, 1195 (10th Cir. 2010); see also Brown v.
Montoya,
662 F.3d 1152, 1163 (10th Cir. 2011) (“A § 1983 defendant sued
in an individual capacity may be subject to personal liability and/or
supervisory liability.”). The district court rejected both theories of
liability. Here, though, Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry rely only on their theory
of supervisory liability. For this theory, Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry blame the
sheriff and wardens for the delays in the arraignments. In our view,
however, the sheriff and wardens did not cause the arraignment delays. 3
A plaintiff may succeed on a § 1983 supervisory-liability claim by
showing that the defendant
“promulgated, created, implemented or possessed responsibility
for the continued operation of a policy that . . . caused the
complained of constitutional harm” and
“acted with the state of mind required to establish the alleged
constitutional deprivation.”
[federal right], shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit
in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress.”); see also Martin A.
Schwartz, Section 1983 Litigation 91 (3d ed. 2014) (“The proximate cause
requirement applies to all § 1983 claims.”).
3
The dissent disagrees with our causation analysis. In our view,
however, the dissent stretches both the plaintiffs’ theory of liability and
the standard of causation applicable to § 1983 claims.
5
Dodds, 614 F.3d at 1199. But the arraignments could not be scheduled by
anyone working for the sheriff or wardens; scheduling of the arraignments
lay solely with the state trial court.
Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry disagree, relying on Wilson v. Montano,
715
F.3d 847 (10th Cir. 2013). There two sheriff’s deputies arrested Mr.
Wilson without a warrant.
Wilson, 715 F.3d at 850. He was taken to jail
and detained for eleven days without the filing of a complaint or an
opportunity for a probable-cause determination.
Id. Mr. Wilson sued the
sheriff and the warden, alleging that they (1) had routinely allowed
deputies to make arrests without warrants and (2) had failed to file
criminal complaints or bring the arrestees to court.
Id. at 851. The Wilson
court upheld supervisory liability, reasoning that under New Mexico law
the sheriff and the warden were responsible for running the jail and
ensuring prompt probable-cause determinations.
Id. at 856-58.
Wilson differs from our case on who controlled the situation causing
the overdetention. In Wilson, the sheriff and the warden were in control
because (1) deputy sheriffs had arrested Mr. Wilson and (2) the warden’s
staff had detained Mr. Wilson without a warrant. These facts proved
decisive because (1) New Mexico law requires the sheriff to “diligently
file a complaint or information,” N.M. Stat. Ann. §§ 4-37-4, 29-1-1, and
(2) the sheriff’s staff had never filed a complaint against Mr. Wilson.
Wilson, 715 F.3d at 851, 853. Without a complaint, the court could not
6
make a probable-cause determination. By preventing a probable-cause
determination, the sheriff impeded the criminal-justice process; and the
warden exacerbated the delay by detaining Mr. Wilson for eleven days
without a court order.
Id. at 857-59.
In contrast, the court was firmly in control here. Grand juries
indicted Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry, and both individuals were arrested based
on outstanding warrants issued by the court. And after these arrests, jail
officials notified the court that Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry were in custody.
The arrests triggered New Mexico’s Rules of Criminal Procedure,
which entitled Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry to arraignments within fifteen days.
Rule 5-303(A) NMRA. Compliance with this requirement lay solely with
the court, for an arraignment is a court proceeding that takes place only
when scheduled by the court. See People v. Carter,
699 N.E.2d 35, 38
(N.Y. 1998) (“Responsibility for scheduling an arraignment date and
securing a defendant’s appearance lies with the court, not the People.”).
The court failed to comply with this requirement, resulting in
overdetention of Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry. These overdetentions were
caused by the court’s failure to schedule and conduct timely arraignments
rather than a lapse by the sheriff or wardens. See Webb v. Thompson, 643
F. App’x 718, 726 (10th Cir. 2016) (unpublished) (Gorsuch, J., concurring
in part and dissenting in part) (“[T]he only relevant law anyone has cited
to us comes from state law, and it indicates that the duty to ensure a
7
constitutionally timely arraignment in Utah falls on the arresting officer—
not on correctional officers.”).
Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry argue that the sheriff and wardens could
have mitigated the risk of overdetention by keeping track of whether
detainees had been timely arraigned, requesting arraignments for those who
had been overdetained, or bringing detainees to court prior to a scheduled
arraignment. But the sheriff and wardens did not cause the overdetention.
At most, the sheriff and wardens failed to remind the court that it was
taking too long to arraign Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry. But even with such a
reminder, the arraignments could only be scheduled by the court itself. See
Estate of Brooks ex rel. Brooks v. United States,
197 F.3d 1245, 1248 (9th
Cir. 1999) (holding that the county did not cause the overdetention,
reasoning that the county could only ask for federal help and that the
county lacked the “ability itself to bring the prisoner before the
appropriate judicial officer”). 4
4
The dissent points out that (1) Estate of Brooks involved a federal
detainee’s claim against a county and (2) our case involves a state
detainee. Dissent at 14 n.7. This difference shrouds the underlying
rationale in Estate of Brooks. There the court reasoned that the county’s
policies did not cause the overdetention because the county lacked
authority to release the detainee or bring him before a federal magistrate
judge. Estate of
Brooks, 197 F.3d at 1248. Here the defendants did not
cause the overdetention because they could not have initiated an
arraignment and, as discussed below, the plaintiffs have disavowed any
argument that the sheriff or wardens could have ordered release. See pp.
10-11, below.
8
The plaintiffs rely in part on Armstrong v. Squadrito,
152 F.3d 564
(7th Cir. 1998), and Oviatt ex rel. Waugh v. Pearce,
954 F.2d 1470 (9th
Cir. 1992). In those cases, a clerical error prevented the court from
discovering the arrests and the need to schedule arraignments. 5 But here,
Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry do not allege a failure to tell the court of their
arrests in sufficient time to conduct the arraignments within fifteen days.
Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry also rely on Jauch v. Choctaw County,
874
F.3d 425 (5th Cir. 2017), and Hayes v. Faulkner County,
388 F.3d 669 (8th
Cir. 2004). But the conclusions in Jauch and Hayes are not precedential,
pertinent, or persuasive.
In Jauch, the sheriff’s office adopted a procedure of holding
defendants in jail without any court proceeding until the reconvening of
the circuit court that had issued the capias warrants.
Jauch, 874 F.3d at
430, 435. This procedure resulted in detention for 96 days, with jail
officials rejecting the defendant’s requests to be brought before a judge.
Id. at 428. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the sheriff could
Although the circumstances differed in Estate of Brooks, the court
reasoned that the jailers’ limited powers prevented causation. That
rationale is applicable and persuasive.
5
Oviatt arguably implies that jailers can cause an arraignment delay
by failing to remind a court to schedule the arraignment. To the extent that
Oviatt draws this implication, we disagree.
9
incur liability for the institution of this unconstitutional policy.
Id. at 436-
37. 6
In our view, Jauch bears limited applicability. Jauch rested on
Mississippi law and the jailers’ authority to release detainees when they
had been detained too long without an opportunity for bail.
Id. In
interpreting Mississippi law, the court pointed to Sheffield v. Reece,
28 So.
2d 745, 748 (Miss. 1947), which had required sheriffs to prevent detention
“‘for an unreasonable length of time.’”
Jauch, 874 F.3d at 437 (quoting
Sheffield,
28 So. 2d at 748). As Jauch pointed out, Sheffield had
recognized the responsibility of the sheriff to release an arrestee who has
been detained too long without bail.
Id. at 437.
Here, however, Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry have not alleged that they
could have been released. To the contrary, they expressly disavowed this
theory in their opening brief:
[The district court] . . . noted that the [county jail] was legally
prohibited from releasing detainees without a valid court order.
Yet Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry never argued that
Defendants should have unconditionally released them from
jail, so the fact that the [county jail] may have been prohibited
from releasing them absent a court order is irrelevant.
6
On the basis of the sheriff’s policy, the county also incurred liability.
Jauch, 874 F.3d at 436.
10
Appellants’ Opening Br. at 29 (citation omitted). In light of this disavowal
of an argument that Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry should have been released,
Jauch provides little guidance on what the sheriff and wardens could have
done to avoid the due process violations other than remind the state trial
court of its failure to schedule timely arraignments. 7
Hayes, too, provides little that is pertinent or persuasive. There an
arrestee alleged that (1) he should have been brought before a judge in a
timely manner and (2) no one from the jail had told him when his court
7
In Jauch, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently denied a
petition for rehearing en banc. See Jauch v. Choctaw Cty., ___ F.3d ___, No.
16-60690,
2018 WL 1542262 (5th Cir. Mar. 29, 2018) (Southwick, J.,
dissenting from denial of rehearing en banc). Judge Southwick—joined by
five other judges—dissented from the denial, arguing that the sheriff
should have obtained qualified immunity.
Id. at *1. In making this
argument, the dissent concluded that
under Mississippi law, the state district court had the sole
responsibility to schedule an arraignment and
no federal law clearly established that the sheriff would violate
the U.S. Constitution by following state law.
Id. at *4-6. In reaching these conclusions, the dissent observed that under
Mississippi law, the jailers could not prevent the overdetention because the
state district court had the exclusive authority to schedule and conduct
arraignments. See
id. at *1 (“I cannot discern how these defendants had
any effect on when this plaintiff was considered for release.”);
id. (“There
was no obligation on the sheriff to have Jauch arraigned because that is a
duty that falls elsewhere.”);
id. at *4 (“The clear responsibilities relevant
to this case are those of the county’s circuit court judges.”);
id. (“There
was no obligation on the sheriff to have Jauch arraigned because that is a
duty that falls elsewhere.”).
11
date was (even though one had been set at the time of arrest). Hayes v.
Faulkner Cty.,
388 F.3d 669, 672 (8th Cir. 2004). The Eighth Circuit Court
of Appeals concluded that an extended detention without a first
appearance, after an arrest by warrant, violated the Due Process Clause of
the Fourteenth Amendment.
Id. at 673. The court added that responsibility
for the arrestee’s overdetention fell on the jailers, who could not delegate
responsibility for the first appearance to the court.
Id. at 674.
But Hayes sheds no light on what the jailers here could have done to
ensure timely court proceedings. In Hayes, the Eighth Circuit apparently
relied on a state procedural rule: Arkansas Rule of Criminal Procedure 8.1.
This rule requires arrestees to be brought before the court “‘without
unnecessary delay.’”
Id. at 675 (quoting Ark. R. Crim. P. 8.1).
Like Arkansas, New Mexico requires “[e]very accused” to be
“brought before a court . . . without unnecessary delay.” N.M. Stat. Ann.
§ 31-1-5(B). Arkansas’s version goes no further, omitting any mention of
who is required to bring the arrestee to court. Ark. R. Crim. P. 8.1. New
Mexico takes a different approach, clarifying elsewhere that the arresting
officer is obligated to bring the defendant to court “without unnecessary
delay.” N.M. Stat. Ann. § 31-1-4(C). 8
8
This statute did not apply here, for the plaintiffs do not allege that
they were arrested by officers subject to the defendants’ supervisory
12
Unlike the Arkansas rule, New Mexico’s version of the rule does not
impose any duties on the sheriff or warden to bring an arrestee to court in
the absence of a scheduled arraignment. In light of this difference between
the Arkansas and New Mexico rules, we see nothing in Hayes to tell us
what the sheriff or wardens could have done to provide timely
arraignments for Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry.
The approach taken in Hayes is also inconsistent with our own
precedent. The Hayes court attributed responsibility to the jailers based
solely on federal law, not state law. By contrast, our precedent directs us
to focus on state law when determining the scope of the defendants’
responsibility to ensure prompt hearings. See Wilson v. Montano,
715 F.3d
847, 854 (10th Cir. 2013) (“We consider New Mexico state law insofar as
it bears on the scope of each appellant’s responsibility to ensure a prompt
probable cause determination.”).
And as we have discussed, New Mexico law did not require the
sheriff or wardens to bring Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry to court. Accordingly,
once the arresting officers brought Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry to the jail and
the court was notified of the arrests, New Mexico law required the court
(not the sheriff or wardens) to schedule timely arraignments.
authority. We thus have no occasion to decide whether a cause of action
could have been asserted against the arresting officers or their supervisors.
13
Under New Mexico law, Jauch and Hayes provide little guidance to
us in addressing the issue framed by Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry. They allege
that the state trial court failed to schedule timely arraignments and that the
sheriff and wardens told the court about the arrests early enough for timely
arraignments. But Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry did not sue the court; they sued
the sheriff and wardens, officials that could not have caused the
arraignment delays because of their inability to schedule the arraignments.
III. The Dissent’s Theory
The dissent argues that we have analyzed the wrong right. According
to the dissent, the right to an arraignment within fifteen days is “‘an
expectation of receiving process,’” which cannot alone be a protected
liberty interest. Dissent at 4-5, 8, 13 (quoting Olim v. Wakinekona,
461
U.S. 238, 250 n.12 (1983)). Thus, the dissent reasons that the right at issue
must be the right to freedom from pretrial detention rather than the right to
a timely arraignment. Based on this reasoning, the dissent concludes that
our misplaced focus on arraignment has caused us to improperly focus on
the state district court’s role and overlook actions that the defendants
could have taken, such as releasing Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry.
We have focused on the plaintiffs’ right to timely arraignment
because that’s what the plaintiffs have alleged. As the dissent admits, Mr.
Moya and Mr. Petry are imprecise about their asserted right, conflating the
right to an arraignment within fifteen days of arrest and the right to
14
pretrial release (or bail). This conflation is understandable because the
rights are coextensive under their theory of the case.
Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry recognize freedom from detention as an
applicable liberty interest. See, e.g., Joint App’x at 7 (stating in the
complaint that the New Mexico Constitution creates a right to pretrial
liberty);
id. at 83 (asserting in district court briefing that Mr. Moya and
Mr. Petry “have a liberty interest in not being unnecessarily detained
without the opportunity to post bail”); Appellants’ Opening Br. at 16 (“The
principal protected liberty interest that may be created by state law is the
freedom from detention.”). But Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry also allege a right
to an arraignment within fifteen days of arrest. See, e.g., Joint App’x at 14
(alleging in the complaint that “[b]ecause detainees charged in New
Mexico district courts . . . are guaranteed the right under state law to have
their conditions of release set at the least restrictive level to assure their
appearance and the safety of . . . the community within fifteen days of their
indictment or arrest, they have a federally protected liberty interest in this
right”);
id. at 69 (asserting in district court that “Plaintiffs had a liberty
interest in having bail set within fifteen days of their arrest”); Appellants’
Opening Br. at 36 (“In summary, under settled procedural due process
principles, Defendants deprived Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry of their liberty
interest in a prompt pretrial arraignment . . . .”).
15
Under the theory articulated by Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry, the
defendants violated the right to freedom from detention by failing to
ensure timely arraignments. See, e.g., Appellants’ Opening Br. at 41 (“The
Complaint alleged that the failure to implement any policies ensuring that
detainees appear before a district court within fifteen days of indictment or
arrest caused Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry to be injured.”). The rights are
coextensive to Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry because to them, a violation of the
right to a timely arraignment resulted in violation of their right to freedom
from prolonged detention. 9
Yet the dissent disregards the claim of delay in the arraignment
because this claim would founder based on the absence of a due-process
violation. The dissent may be right about the absence of a due-process
violation from a delay in an arraignment. 10 But in our view, we should
interpret the claim and appeal based on what the plaintiffs have actually
9
This link is illustrated by the plaintiffs’ definition of the class. In the
complaint, Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry identified the class to include everyone
detained at the same facility as the named plaintiffs within the previous
three years “who [had not been] brought before a district court within
fifteen days of their indictment or arrest to have their conditions of release
set or reviewed.” Joint App’x at 12-13. Timely arraignment is so
fundamental to Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry’s claims that the fifteen-day
demarcation defines class membership.
10
As noted above, we have assumed for the sake of argument that the
arraignment delays would result in a deprivation of due process. See p. 4,
above.
16
said rather than which possible interpretation could succeed. In district
court, the plaintiffs based their claim on the delays in arraignments. And
on appeal, the plaintiffs have consistently framed their argument based on
the arraignment delays. The dissent’s theory is not the theory presented by
the plaintiffs. 11
As discussed above, the defendants were powerless to cause timely
arraignments because arraignments are scheduled by the court rather than
jail officials. The dissent agrees.
But the dissent theorizes that jail officials could have simply
released Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry. This theory is not only new but also
contrary to what Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry have told us, for they expressly
disavowed this theory: “Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry never argued that
Defendants should have unconditionally released them from jail . . . .”
Appellants’ Opening Br. at 29; see pp. 10-11, above. Thus, Mr. Moya and
Mr. Petry have waived reliance on that theory as a basis for reversal. See
Modoc Lassen Indian Hous. Auth. v. U.S. Dep’t of Hous. & Urban Dev.,
864 F.3d 1212, 1224 n.8 (10th Cir. Jul. 25, 2017) (stating that a theory
never raised was waived as a basis for reversal).
11
For this reason, we need not decide whether Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry
would have stated a valid claim if they had alleged a broader right to
freedom from pretrial detention (unrelated to Rule 5-303(A)’s fifteen-day
requirement). We are deciding only the validity of the theory advanced by
Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry.
17
Even if it were otherwise appropriate to raise the issue sua sponte,
the dissent’s theory would create a Catch-22 for jailers. Under New
Mexico law, jailers commit a misdemeanor and must be removed from
office if they deliberately release a prisoner absent a court order. N.M.
Stat. Ann. § 33-3-12. Thus, a jailer would be forced to choose between
committing a crime and facing civil liability under § 1983.
According to the dissent, jailers can eventually defend themselves
based on the Supremacy Clause. But Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry do not
challenge the constitutionality of the state law preventing release in the
absence of a court order. See Estate of Brooks ex rel. Brooks v. United
States,
197 F.3d 1245, 1248 (9th Cir. 1999) (affirming the dismissal of a
§ 1983 claim involving overdetention when the county defendant was
required under state law to hold the plaintiff detainee until receiving an
order from the United States and the plaintiff made no allegation that the
statute was unconstitutional).
Even if Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry had challenged the constitutionality
of the state law, the Supremacy Clause would supply cold comfort to a
jailer facing this dilemma, particularly in light of the dissent’s
acknowledgment that there is no bright-line rule for when a delayed
arraignment becomes a due-process violation. See Dissent at 5-11. We need
not decide whether the Constitution would subject jailers to this Catch-22.
* * *
18
The state trial court’s alleged failure to schedule timely arraignments
cannot be attributed to the sheriff or wardens. Thus, the complaint does not
plausibly allege a basis for supervisory liability of the sheriff or wardens.
IV. Municipal Liability
Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry also assert § 1983 claims against the county,
alleging that it failed to adopt a policy to ensure arraignments within
fifteen days. These claims are based on the alleged inaction by the sheriff
and wardens. But, as discussed above, the sheriff and wardens did not
cause the arraignment delays. Thus, the county could not incur liability
under § 1983 on the basis of the alleged inaction. See Schneider v. City of
Grand Junction Police Dep’t,
717 F.3d 760, 777 (10th Cir. 2013); see
generally note 2, above. Therefore, we affirm the dismissal of the claims
against the county.
V. Leave to Amend
In opposing dismissal, Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry stated generically
that amendment would not be futile and that they should have the
opportunity to amend if an element were deemed missing from the
complaint. The district court dismissed the complaint without granting
leave to amend. Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry argue that the district court erred
by refusing to allow amendment of the complaint.
Generally, leave to amend should be freely granted when justice
requires, but amendment may be denied when it would be futile. Full Life
19
Hospice, LLC v. Sebelius,
709 F.3d 1012, 1018 (10th Cir. 2013). We
conclude that the district court did not err because amendment would have
been futile based on the plaintiffs’ submissions.
We ordinarily apply the abuse-of-discretion standard when reviewing
a denial of leave to amend. Fields v. City of Tulsa,
753 F.3d 1000, 1012
(10th Cir. 2014). But here, the district court denied leave to amend based
on futility. In this circumstance, “our review for abuse of discretion
includes de novo review of the legal basis for the finding of futility.”
Miller ex rel. S.M. v. Bd. of Educ. of Albuquerque Pub. Schs.,
565 F.3d
1232, 1249 (10th Cir. 2009).
The complaint fails to allege a factual basis for supervisory or
municipal liability. To cure the pleading defect, the plaintiffs needed to
add factual allegations tying the arraignment delays to a lapse by the
sheriff or wardens. The plaintiffs did not say how they could cure this
pleading defect. Instead, they stated only that amendment would not be
futile if the complaint had omitted an element. They did not tell the district
court what they could have added to attribute the arraignment delays to the
sheriff or wardens.
Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry have failed to say even now how they could
have cured this defect in the complaint. As a result, the district court did
not abuse its discretion in denying leave to amend the complaint. See Hall
v. Witteman,
584 F.3d 859, 868 (10th Cir. 2009) (holding that the district
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court did not abuse its discretion in denying leave to amend when the
claimant had failed to explain how an amendment would cure the
deficiencies identified by the district court).
VI. Conclusion
Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry allege a deprivation of due process when
they were detained for more than fifteen days without arraignments. We
can assume, without deciding, that this allegation involved a constitutional
violation. But Mr. Moya and Mr. Petry sued the sheriff, wardens, and
county, and these parties did not cause the arraignment delays. Thus, the
district court did not err in dismissing the complaint or in denying leave to
amend.
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