THOMAS M. DURKIN, District Judge.
Before the Court is Defendant Will County's motion for summary judgment. For the following reasons, that motion will be granted.
In its previous memorandum opinion and order in this case, the Court held that, because Will County is not Defendant Griebel's employer,
Plaintiff subsequently filed the Second Amended Complaint in which she alleged the identical respondeat superior claims against Will County as she had alleged in the First Amended Complaint. Included in the Second Amended Complaint is the same allegation found in the First Amended Complaint that Will County "is or was the employer of the Defendant Officer Griebel." R. 136 at 9 (¶ 62). That allegation, of course, is directly contrary to the law set forth in this Court's previous ruling as discussed above. Moreover, Plaintiff's realleging of respondeat superior claims against Will County in Counts VI and VII of the Second Amended Complaint is in direct contravention of the Court's earlier ruling dismissing Will County from those counts with prejudice. Because this Court dismissed Will County from Plaintiff's respondeat superior claims with prejudice, and because those claims are without legal merit for the reasons previously given in the Court's February 24, 2017 memorandum opinion and order, the Court now enters summary judgment in favor of Will County on Counts VI (battery) and VII (IIED) of the Second Amended Complaint.
The only claim against Will County that survived Will County's motion to dismiss the First Amended Complaint was Count V, which asserted a claim against Will County for "[i]ndemnity . . . pursuant to 745 ILCS 10/9-102." R. 62 (¶¶ 57-59); see R. 129 at 21 (Klinger, 2017 WL 736895, at *7). Plaintiff realleges that same claim in Count V of the Second Amended Complaint. See R. 136 at 8-9 (¶¶ 61-63).
An indemnity claim against a county arises out of Carver v. Sheriff of LaSalle County, Illinois, 243 F.3d 379 (7th Cir. 2001) (Carver I). In that case, the Seventh Circuit was faced with the "recurring question" of "[w]ho pays official-capacity judgments in Illinois when the wrongdoer is an independently-elected officer," like a county sheriff (or one of his appointed deputies)? Id. at 381. Independently elected officials "lack authority to levy taxes or establish their own budgets. This leads the independently-elected officers to contend that the counties must pay; but the counties, which are unable to control the conduct of the officers, insist that they cannot be held liable because an official-capacity judgment runs against the office and not against an `employee' of the county." Id. (emphasis in original). The Seventh Circuit certified the question to the Supreme Court of Illinois, id. at 386, which, in its response, considered whether Section 9-102 of the Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act applied to the situation. See Carver v. Sheriff of La Salle Cnty., 787 N.E.2d 127, 135-40 (Ill. 2003) (Carver II). Section 9-102 states that
745 ILCS 10/9-102. The Supreme Court of Illinois held that the "office of sheriff" is a "local public entity" within the meaning of Section 9-102, and, therefore, that Section 9-102 "authorizes the sheriff (as the local public entity) to pay any judgment or settlement for compensatory damages for which the office of the sheriff is liable." Carver II, 787 N.E.2d at 138. As a result, the court held, only the county sheriff has authority under Section 9-102 "to settle litigation filed against the sheriff's office and to direct the office to pay that settlement." Id.
Pursuant to Carver II, if Griebel was acting within the scope of his employment, Section 9-102 imposes respondeat superior liability on his employer, which is the Sheriff's Office, not Will County. Yet Count V of the Second Amended Complaint is labeled "745 ILCS 10/9102-Indemnity," and seeks to hold Will County, but not the Sheriff's Office, liable as the "employer of the Defendant Officer Griebel" for any judgment entered against Griebel. R. 136 at 8-9 (¶¶ 61-63). Even though as written Count V is improper, Plaintiff is correct to include Will County in this lawsuit. This is because, "although the sheriff has authority to settle claims filed against the sheriff's office pursuant to section 9-102,[
After receiving this direction from the Illinois Supreme Court regarding the role the county versus the sheriff's office plays in a lawsuit brought to recover for injuries sustained as a result of the conduct of a sheriff's office employee, the Seventh Circuit opined on "an additional point of federal law," which the court said flowed from the Carver II decision. According to the Seventh Circuit, "[b]ecause state law requires the county to pay, federal law deems it an indispensable party to the litigation." Carver v. Sheriff of LaSalle Cnty., Illinois, 324 F.3d 947, 948 (7th Cir. 2003) (Carver III) (citing Fed. R. Civ. P. 17). Thus, the court held, Carver II gives rise to the rule "that a county in Illinois is a necessary party in any suit seeking damages from an independently elected county officer (sheriff, assessor, clerk of court, and so on) in an official capacity." Id.
What this all means for the present case is that, because of the peculiar relationship created by the Illinois statutory scheme between a sheriff's office and the county, Plaintiff needed to sue both entities. See, e.g., Estate of Sims ex rel. Sims v. Cnty. of Bureau, 506 F.3d 509, 517 (7th Cir. 2007) ("we agree with the plaintiffs that Bureau County would have been a necessary party to the case if the complaint had stated a claim against the Sheriff in his official capacity") (emphasis added). But Plaintiff has bypassed the Sheriff's Office entirely in the Second Amended Complaint. While Plaintiff named the Will County Sheriff as a defendant in this case, the only claim against him was a Monell claim in the First Amended Complaint that was dismissed and not re-pled in the Second Amended Complaint.
To correct these problems, when she filed the Second Amended Complaint Plaintiff should have followed the Court's direction in its previous memorandum opinion order and substituted the Sheriff's Office for Will County as a defendant in Counts V, VI, and VII, which all seek respondeat superior liability pursuant to Section 9-102. She could have then added a separate indemnity claim against Will County pursuant to Carver II.
Notwithstanding the above, Will County proceeds as if it had agreed to the addition of the Sheriff's Office as a defendant in Counts V, VI, and VII. The County seeks summary judgment in its favor on Plaintiff's indemnity claim against it on the ground that, if the Sheriff's Office has no respondeat superior liability under Section 9-102, then Will County has no indemnification liability. The County's approach will work only because the Sheriff's Office and Will County are represented by the same attorneys (otherwise, the County would have no authority to agree to add the Sheriff's Office as a defendant in Plaintiff's respondeat superior claims). However, the Sheriff's Office must actually be added to those claims for there to be a live controversy. Therefore, the Court sua sponte orders that the Second Amended Complaint be amended to add the Sheriff's Office as a defendant in Counts V, VI, and VII. Further, the Second Amended Complaint is amended to reflect that the indemnity claim against Will County applies to the claims against the Sheriff's Office in Counts V, VI, and VII.
Will County argues that the undisputed facts show that the Sheriff's Office has no respondeat superior liability for Griebel's alleged conduct in this case because Griebel was not acting within the scope of his employment, as required for the Sheriff's Office to be held liable for either Plaintiff's state law or § 1983 claims against Griebel. The Court agrees.
"To ascertain when an employee's conduct is within the scope of employment, the Illinois Supreme Court has adopted § 228 of the Restatement (Second) of Agency (2004)." Copeland v. Cnty. of Macon, 403 F.3d 929, 932 (7th Cir. 2005) (citing Pyne v. Witmer, 543 N.E.2d 1304, 1308 (Ill. 1989)). Section 228 provides:
Restatement (Second) of Agency § 228 (2004).
The Court agrees with Will County that Plaintiff has not put forth a disputed jury question for finding that Griebel's conduct satisfies either the "time and place limits" of the Restatement or the requirement that Griebel's conduct be "actuated, at least in party, by a purpose to serve the master" (hereinafter "the purpose requirement"). In particular, the Court finds Will County's citation to Anderson on both points persuasive. In Anderson, Judge Feinerman held that a City of Chicago police officer was not acting within the scope of his employment when he attempted, as an off-duty officer in civilian attire, to initiate an arrest while on personal business outside the courthouse in Wheaton, Illinois. 250 F. Supp. 3d at 346. Judge Feinerman's decision sets forth the relevant law and analysis, which the Court will not go into here except to address the specific points raised by Plaintiff in opposition to Will County's summary judgment motion.
First, contrary to Plaintiff's contention, Doe v. City of Chicago, 360 F.3d 667, 672 (7th Cir. 2004), does not state an absolute rule against deciding the scope of employment issue at the summary judgment stage. For instance, Anderson was decided at the summary judgment stage. Doe merely observes that the scope issue cannot be resolved if facts concerning the officer's conduct that are relevant to the scope issue are in dispute. Where the facts relevant to the scope issue are not in dispute, or where, even under the facts as alleged by the plaintiff, the scope issue must be decided against the plaintiff as a matter of law, there is no reason to defer resolution of that question until after a trial on the plaintiff's claims against the officer in question. See, e.g., Stern v. Ritz Carlton Chi., 702 N.E.2d 194, 196 (Ill. App. 1998) ("if no reasonable person could conclude from the evidence that an employee was acting within the course of employment" then the court should "hold as a matter of law that the employee was not so acting") (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). The Court can decide the scope question here by reference to undisputed facts together with any disputed facts resolved, for purposes of this opinion only, in Plaintiff's favor.
Second, Griebel's belief (as stated at his deposition) that he has authority as a sworn officer to step in and protect people who are at risk of harm regardless of where he is or what he is doing at the time, does not establish the existence of disputed issues of fact on the purpose requirement. Griebel may believe he had the authority as a Will County Deputy Sheriff to act as he did when he was at the McDonald's in Cook County, but that belief does not mean his actions were actuated by a purpose to serve the Will County Sheriff's Office. In Anderson, the plaintiff argued that the Chicago police officer was acting within the scope of his employment when he initiated an arrest while off-duty on personal business in a distant county because the City of Chicago Police Department regulations state that one goal of the Department is "[e]nforcement of all laws and ordinances." 250 F. Supp. 3d at 349. Judge Feinerman rejected the notion that "when the regulations say `all laws and ordinances,' they truly mean all laws and ordinances," because "that would mean that a Chicago police officer serves the City's goals when he nabs a suspected wrongdoer anywhere—not just elsewhere in Illinois but also, presumably, while vacationing in Hawaii. An interpretation of the CPD Regulations that compels officers to enforce a littering ban in Honolulu cannot be correct." Id. at 250 (emphasis in original). As Judge Feinerman observed, "[t]he Chicago Police Department's law enforcement responsibilities within the city limits are daunting enough as it is, and Wheaton has its own police force to handle matters in Wheaton." Id. Thus, Anderson holds that "[o]nly conduct that advances an officer's employer's particular objectives, not those of other entities that may have related goals, satisfies the third criterion." Id. (emphasis added). Here, Griebel's stated purpose of providing a police function while at the McDonald's outside his jurisdictional authority
Plaintiff argues that Griebel's subjective beliefs raise a disputed fact question on this issue. But "[t]he law is well-settled in Illinois that an agent cannot confer power himself and his agency or authority cannot be established by showing what he said or did." Wolf v. Liberis, 505 N.E.2d 1202, 1206 (Ill. App. 1987) (citations omitted). And while Illinois law makes it the "duty of every [law enforcement officer], when a criminal offense or breach of the peace is committed or attempted in his or her presence, forthwith to apprehend the offender and bring him or her before a judge, to be dealt with according to law; to suppress all riots and unlawful assemblies, and to keep the peace," 725 ILCS 5/107-16, this provision does not speak to jurisdictional authority. Pursuant to statute, that authority generally is limited, i.e., "[a] police officer has authority to act" only in "his or her police district, which consists of [t]he territory which is embraced within the corporate limits of adjoining municipalities within any county in this State." Harroun v. Addison Police Pension Bd., 865 N.E.2d 273, 278 (Ill. App. 2007) (internal quotation marks omitted) (citing 65 ILCS 5/7-4-8 and 65 ILCS 5/7-4-7). Outside of his or her police district (or any other exception),
Fourth, Plaintiff relies on the accoutrements of Griebel's office as a deputy sheriff, and specifically, his badge, uniform, and appearance as being a police officer, to argue that he acted within the scope of his employment. In the first place, the record does not support Plaintiff's contention that Griebel presented himself as a police officer. There is no evidence in the record to dispute Griebel's testimony that he arrived at the McDonald's that night on a party bus as part of a birthday celebration for a friend. He was dressed in a kilt and had his bagpipes with him, which, at the request of his friend's fiancé, he had been playing at various stops along the party bus route. Klingler unequivocably testified at her deposition no less than eleven times
Plaintiff argues, however, that Nuñez testified he saw Griebel's Emerald Society badge
Unlike Kenya, "[t]his is not a case in which [Griebel] was conducting police business within the city limits and briefly strayed into a neighboring town." Anderson, 250 F. Supp. 3d at 348. It is also undisputed here that Griebel was wearing his Emerald Society uniform, which is a bagpiper's kilt, not a police officer's uniform, that he did not have his Will County Deputy Sheriff's badge or gun, and that he did not identify himself as a police officer when he attempted to, as he said, "keep the peace."
Finally, Plaintiff relies on a line of cases suggesting that the scope of employment analysis ought to be broadened when the employee in question is a police officer. See R. 182 at 5. To begin with, Plaintiff cites no case law that would indicate the Illinois Supreme Court has adopted that view. Moreover, and in any event, the argument is misplaced in the context of the facts of this case. The theory advanced in the case law to which Plaintiff cites is not that the scope question ought to be expanded whenever a police officer is involved. Instead, Judge Posner explained the rationale of the theory as follows:
Doe, 360 F.3d at 671 (internal citations omitted).
Reliance on this theory of liability in this case is misplaced because the issue addressed by Judge Posner in Doe was solely whether the purpose requirement of the Restatement test should be expanded. Although Judge Posner did not address whether the police officer in that case was officially off- or on-duty when he committed the tort in question, the officer clearly was otherwise acting within the scope of his employment in terms of time and place—he was a police officer in the same district as the plaintiff whose house he broke into, and he obtained her address from a previous traffic stop he had made while on duty in his district.
Unlike the officer in Doe, Griebel did not have at the time of the alleged torts and, outside of special circumstances such as if he were on a special assignment for Will County, he never did or will have as a deputy sheriff in Will County any official power to act as a law enforcement officer in the City of Chicago. To simultaneously stretch the limits of both the time and place requirement and the purpose requirement, as the Court would have to do here if it were to adopt Plaintiff's argument, would virtually nullify the scope of employment limitation on respondeat superior liability and render a law enforcement employer liable for any tort committed by its officers regardless of place, time, or context. Even accepting in its entirety Plaintiff's version of the facts, this is not a case of a "rogue police officer" who committed a tort by abusing the power he would not otherwise have but for his employment as a deputy sheriff in Will County. As discussed, the McDonald's was not located within the jurisdiction of Griebel's employer and Griebel was not on-duty at the time of the incident. See Anderson, 250 F. Supp. 3d at 348 ("Anderson points to no case in which a police officer who was both off-duty and far outside his jurisdiction was held to be acting within the scope of his employment.") (emphasis in original). Griebel was not at the McDonald's on Will County Sheriff's Office business; he was not wearing his deputy sheriff's uniform; and he did not display his deputy sheriff's badge. He did not serve any interest of Will County when he took the actions that he did, and there is no evidence that he represented otherwise to Plaintiff or anyone else. Even if Judge Posner's observations in Doe were the law, they would not help Plaintiff here.
For the foregoing reasons, Defendant Will County's motion for summary judgment, R. 166, is granted.