ROBERT W. GETTLEMAN, District Judge.
Samantha Harer died from a gunshot. Her parents, plaintiffs Heather and Kevin Harer, allege that Felipe "Phil" Flores was the shooter and that the Town of Channahon covered it up as a suicide. The Harers, who are the co-executors of Samantha's estate, have moved for leave to file a second amended complaint in which they claim that Channahon's alleged cover-up denied them access to the courts. A pleading may be amended once as a matter of course. Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a)(1). Further amendments, however, require the other party's consent or the court's leave. Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a)(2). Channahon does not consent, so the Harers seek the court's leave.
A court should give leave to amend "when justice so requires."
In deciding whether the Harers have stated a claim, the court takes as true the allegations in their proposed complaint.
On February 12, 2018, in Samantha's Town of Channahon apartment, Samantha and Flores had a fight. They slept separately that night: Samantha in her bedroom; Flores, on the couch. Flores confronted Samantha the next morning at 8:00 a.m. He had taken her cell phone and discovered text conversations with another police officer. They argued. A neighbor heard banging on the walls and a woman repeatedly yelling, "Let me go."
At 8:19 a.m., Flores called 9-1-1. He told the operator that Samantha had been shot. He said that they argued, she asked him to leave, and he left. He said that he heard her "gun rack." Then a gunshot. The door was locked, so he "busted into the bedroom." He saw her unconscious with a gunshot wound to her head and a gun laying between her legs. Flores declined the operator's suggestion to perform CPR—he said that Samantha wasn't breathing and that he could see her brain matter. Police and emergency personnel arrived. They saw a gunshot wound on Samantha's head and detected a faint pulse. Blood was splattered on the front and right sleeve of Flores's sweatshirt even though he said that he was on the other side of the locked door when he supposedly heard Samantha shoot herself. Samantha was taken to the hospital and died there.
Within an hour of the shooting, the Channahon detective in charge of investigating Samantha's death, Andrew McClellan, surveyed the scene. He went there with an evidence technician. McClellan implicitly or explicitly directed the technician to make a preliminary finding of suicide. The technician obliged. Without processing any forensic evidence and without talking to Flores or any other witness, the evidence technician concluded that the scene was consistent with a suicide.
Within 24 hours of the shooting, McClellan, joined by the Channahon Chief of Police, Shane Casey, told Samantha's parents—Heather and Kevin Harer—that Samantha died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Casey and McClellan did not tell the Harers that a neighbor had heard a struggle shortly before the shooting or that Flores's sweatshirt had blood splattered on it. They told the Harers that Samantha's hand was positive for gunshot residue and that Flores was negative. Those statements were false. Tests found no gunshot residue on Samantha's hands. Tests found gunshot residue on the front and cuffs of Flores's sweatshirt—and on his right hand.
The Harers sued Flores, Crest Hill, and Channahon, bringing conspiracy and excessive force claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and
On December 28, 2018, the Harers met with Casey, the police chief, and Adam Bogart, the deputy police chief. Also present were a coroner, a Will County prosecutor, and Channahon's civil counsel. The Harers were told that there was an official finding that Samantha committed suicide—the forensic evidence showed that the gunshot wound was self-inflicted. Casey and Bogart said that Samantha's toxicology report suggested a finding of suicide. Led to believe that the official finding of suicide barred their suit, the Harers did not attend the status hearing scheduled for January 22. The court dismissed the case for want of prosecution.
The Harers later learned that the gunshot residue tests implicated Flores. And they learned that Casey and Bogart's statements about Samantha's toxicology report were false—the findings, in fact, were not consistent with suicide. The Harers retained a new lawyer, the court granted their motion to reopen, and they amended their complaint.
The Harers now seek leave to amend their complaint a second time. In their proposed second amended complaint, the Harers sue: (1) Flores, for battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress; (2) the Town of Crest Hill, for concealing evidence that officers inflict sexual and domestic violence on women; and (3) the Town of Channahon and three of its employees— Shane Casey (the police chief), Adam Bogart (the deputy police chief), and Andrew McClellan (the lead detective)—for concealing evidence that Flores killed Samantha, thus denying the Harers access to the courts.
Channahon argues that the Harers' claim for denial of access to the courts could not survive a motion to dismiss. A claim survives dismissal when it is plausible.
A person's right to access the courts must be "adequate, effective, and meaningful."
Channahon argues that the Harers must allege that they were prevented from timely suing Flores. Not so. State actors "need not literally bar the courthouse door" to violate the right to access.
The Harers state a claim for denial of access to the courts. They allege that the Channahon defendants "induced Plaintiffs to abandon the lawsuit by withholding evidence that suggested Flores' culpability while emphasizing those facts that supported a finding of suicide." They also allege that they "were led to believe that their civil case could not proceed since Samantha's death had been formally ruled a suicide." But the suicide finding allegedly was a sham because:
The Harers do not allege when they learned the truth. The court nonetheless reasonably infers that the Harers did so after their suit was dismissed for want of prosecution. They could not have been "induced" to abandon their suit or been "led to believe" that their suit could not proceed if they already knew about McClellan, Casey, and Bogart's allegedly deceptive acts and false statements.
Had the Harers known the truth, they likely would have attended the status hearings scheduled for December 28, 2018, and January 22, 2019, and the court would not have dismissed their case for want of prosecution. They would not have needed to spend time and money litigating a motion to reopen the case—a motion that Channahon deemed "scurrilous" and deserving of Rule 11 sanctions. Their efforts to vindicate their rights were delayed. Time and money are "actual concrete injur[ies],"
Channahon's cases are not on point. The plaintiffs were not deprived of meaningful access to the courts in
Nor were the plaintiffs deprived of meaningful access in
Plaintiffs Heather Harer and Kevin Harer's motion (Doc. 41) for leave to file their proposed second amended complaint is granted. The Harers must file the second amended complaint on or before July 19, 2019. All defendants are directed to respond to the second amended complaint on or before August 9, 2019. The parties are directed to file a joint status report using this court's form on or before August 16, 2019. The status hearing previously set for August 14, 2019, is continued to August 27, 2019 at 9:00 a.m.