Filed: Aug. 30, 1999
Latest Update: Mar. 02, 2020
Summary: IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT No. 98-41382 Conference Calendar JUAN ANTONIO MONTOYA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus CITY OF BROWNSVILLE ET AL., Defendants, KIRK MASSEY, Police Officer, Defendant-Appellant. - Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas USDC No. B-97-CV-112 - August 27, 1999 Before KING, Chief Judge, and JOLLY and DAVIS, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM:* Kirk Massey appeals the district court’s denial of his motion for summa
Summary: IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT No. 98-41382 Conference Calendar JUAN ANTONIO MONTOYA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus CITY OF BROWNSVILLE ET AL., Defendants, KIRK MASSEY, Police Officer, Defendant-Appellant. - Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas USDC No. B-97-CV-112 - August 27, 1999 Before KING, Chief Judge, and JOLLY and DAVIS, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM:* Kirk Massey appeals the district court’s denial of his motion for summar..
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IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT
No. 98-41382
Conference Calendar
JUAN ANTONIO MONTOYA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
versus
CITY OF BROWNSVILLE ET AL.,
Defendants,
KIRK MASSEY, Police Officer,
Defendant-Appellant.
--------------------
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Texas
USDC No. B-97-CV-112
--------------------
August 27, 1999
Before KING, Chief Judge, and JOLLY and DAVIS, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:*
Kirk Massey appeals the district court’s denial of his
motion for summary judgment in a civil rights lawsuit filed by
Juan Antonio Montoya. The motion argued that Massey was entitled
to qualified immunity. The district court held that, under
Montoya’s version of events, Massey had arrested him without
probable cause, after he had expressed an opinion about police
*
Pursuant to 5TH CIR. R. 47.5, the court has determined
that this opinion should not be published and is not precedent
except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5TH CIR.
R. 47.5.4.
No. 98-41382
-2-
officers that Massey did not like.
We have jurisdiction to review the denial of a motion for
summary judgment based on qualified immunity only to the extent
the district court’s denial turned on issues of law. Mitchell v.
Forsyth,
472 U.S. 511, 528 (1985). Although we lack jurisdiction
to review a district court’s determination that there exist
genuine issues of fact, we do have jurisdiction to review a
determination that the issues are material. Colston v. Barnhart,
146 F.3d 282, 284 (5th Cir.), cert. denied,
119 S. Ct. 618
(1998). We accept the district court’s statement of the
genuinely disputed facts, and we conduct a de novo review of the
court’s conclusions about materiality. Lemoine v. New Horizons
Ranch and Ctr., Inc.,
174 F.3d 629, 634 (5th Cir. 1999).
Whether a public official is qualifiedly immune depends on
two inquiries. Harris v. Victoria Indep. Sch. Dist.,
168 F.3d
216, 223 (5th Cir. 1999). First, a defendant is entitled to
qualified immunity when a plaintiff has failed to allege the
violation of a clearly established constitutional right.
Id.
Second, a defense of qualified immunity will succeed if the
defendant’s conduct was objectively reasonable at the time in
light of clearly established law.
Id. Massey insists that his
arrest of Montoya was objectively reasonable.
If, as Montoya testified and the district court assumed,
Massey arrested him for asserting that police officers are
arrogant, Massey violated Montoya’s right to be free from arrest
without probable cause. “The test for probable cause . . . is
whether, at the moment of arrest, the facts and circumstances
No. 98-41382
-3-
within [the arresting officer’s] knowledge and of which he had
reasonably trustworthy information were sufficient to warrant a
prudent person in believing that [the arrestee] had committed or
was committing an offense.” Harper v. Harris County, Tex.,
21
F.3d 597, 601 (5th Cir. 1994). In Montoya’s account of the
events, he had not been drinking on the day of his encounter with
Massey, and he exhibited no signs of intoxication. If that is
true, Massey did not have probable cause to arrest Montoya for
public intoxication.
Massey argues that there was probable cause to arrest
Montoya for failing to identify himself to an officer. Montoya
contends that this argument was not raised in the district court
and is waived. Massey’s argument does appear in the motion for
summary judgment, however. Montoya also contends that he was
never asked to identify himself to Massey. Montoya’s testimony
was that he refused to identify himself to another officer at the
detention facility only after Massey had arrested him and
transported him to the facility. Under Montoya’s version, “at
the moment of the arrest,” Massey could not have had probable
cause to arrest him for an event that had not yet occurred.
Harper, 21 F.3d at 601.
Because there is a genuine issue of material fact, the
denial of Massey’s motion for summary judgment is not appealable.
APPEAL DISMISSED.