GENE E.K. PRATTER, District Judge.
In this lawsuit arising from Devon Cannon's encounter with the Philadelphia Police in December 2012, Mr. Cannon alleges that his constitutional rights were violated and he was the victim of various state torts. He filed suit against the City of Philadelphia (the "City"), Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey (the "Commissioner"), Philadelphia Police Officer Aaron Willis, and two John Doe Philadelphia Police Officers. Now, the Defendants move to dismiss all claims against the City and the Commissioner, as well as a civil conspiracy claim against Officer Willis. For the reasons that follow, the Court will grant the Motion with respect to Mr. Cannon's claims against the City and the Commissioner, but deny the Motion with respect to the civil conspiracy claim against Officer Willis.
On or about December 2, 2012, Mr. Cannon was driving his car in West Philadelphia with Andre Meyers as a passenger. Allegedly for no apparent reason, Officer Willis followed Mr. Cannon in his police vehicle to a nearby Lowe's Home Improvement business. Officer Willis stopped Mr. Cannon's vehicle in the Lowe's parking lot and conducted an investigatory stop, ordering Mr. Cannon to come over to Officer Willis' vehicle. Officer Willis forced Mr. Cannon against the vehicle and handcuffed him. Officer Willis then transported Mr. Cannon in his police vehicle a short distance to another part of the Lowe's parking lot, at which time Officers John Doe 1 and John Doe 2 arrived in their police vehicles. The Officers searched Mr. Cannon's vehicle without permission and did not discover anything suspicious. However, Officers Willis and Doe 1 searched the vehicle a second time and took $800.00 that they discovered in Mr. Cannon's armrest. Officer Doe 1 handed Officer Willis a portion of the money, and Officer Willis told Mr. Cannon that he "got all the big busts" and he was "going to stop you every time I see you." (Compl. ¶¶ 40-41).
Officer Willis arrested Mr. Cannon for disorderly conduct and fabricated facts and evidence to support the arrest. According to Mr. Cannon's account, Officer Willis stated that he was "catching up on paperwork" in the Lowe's parking lot when he observed Mr. Cannon cause a crowd to form. (Compl. ¶ 42). Mr. Cannon also alleges that the City and the Commissioner were "charged with the responsibility and duty of testing, hiring, training, monitoring, supervising and disciplining the individually named defendant Police Officers and all other employees of the [Philadelphia Police Department]." (Compl. ¶ 54).
The Complaint contains 13 counts, including constitutional claims against the City and Commissioner Ramsey—based on the Fourth Amendment (Count 1), First Amendment (Count 3), and Equal Protection clause (Count 5)—and a civil conspiracy claim against Officers Willis, Doe 1, and Doe 2 (Count 13). Defendants move to dismiss all the claims against the City and Commissioner Ramsey, and the civil conspiracy claim against Officer Willis.
A motion to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) tests the sufficiency of a complaint. Although Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8 requires only "a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief," Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2), in order to "give the defendant fair notice of what the . . . claim is and the grounds upon which it rests," Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted) (alteration in original), the plaintiff must provide "more than labels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do." Id. (citation omitted).
To survive a motion to dismiss, the plaintiff must plead "factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged." Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009). Specifically, "[f]actual allegations must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level. . . ." Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555 (citations omitted). The question is not whether the claimant will ultimately prevail, but whether the complaint is "sufficient to cross the federal court's threshold." Skinner v. Switzer, 131 S.Ct. 1289, 1296 (2011). An assessment of the sufficiency of a complaint is thus "a context-dependent exercise" because "[s]ome claims require more factual explication than others to state a plausible claim for relief." W. Penn Allegheny Health Sys., Inc. v. UPMC, 617 F.3d 85, 98 (3d Cir. 2010) (citations omitted).
When deciding a motion to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), the Court may look only to the facts alleged in the complaint and its attachments. See Jordan v. Fox, Rothschild, O'Brien & Frankel, 20 F.3d 1251, 1261 (3d Cir. 1994). The Court must accept as true all well-pleaded allegations in the complaint and view them in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Angelastro v. Prudential-Bache Sec., Inc., 764 F.2d 939, 944 (3d Cir. 1985). The Court must accept as true all reasonable inferences that may be drawn from the allegations, and view those facts and inferences in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. See Rocks v. City of Phila., 868 F.2d 644, 645 (3d Cir. 1989). Nonetheless, the Court need not accept as true "unsupported conclusions and unwarranted inferences," Doug Grant, Inc. v. Greate Bay Casino Corp., 232 F.3d 173, 183-84 (3d Cir. 2000) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted), or the plaintiff's "bald assertions" or "legal conclusions," Morse v. Lower Merion Sch. Dist., 132 F.3d 902, 906 (3d Cir. 1997) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted).
A. MR. CANNON'S CLAIMS AGAINST THE CITY AND COMMISSIONER RAMSEY
The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and unreasonable seizures. "To succeed on a Fourth Amendment claim, a plaintiff must show that the defendant's actions constituted a `search' or `seizure' within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment and were `unreasonable' under the circumstances." Verdier v. Borough, 796 F.Supp.2d 606, 619 (E.D. Pa. 2011). "Absent immunity or an adequate defense, a person who, acting under color of state law, directly and intentionally applies the means by which another is seized in violation of the Fourth Amendment can be held liable under § 1983." Berg v. Cnty. of Allegheny, 219 F.3d 261, 272-72 (3d Cir. 2000).
Different standards of liability apply to the City (as a municipality) and the Commissioner (as a supervisor). The City cannot be held liable for the unconstitutional acts of its employees on a theory of respondeat superior. See Monell v. Dep't of Social Servs., 436 U.S. 658, 691 (1978). Instead, the plaintiff must demonstrate that the violation of his rights was caused by either a policy or a custom of the municipality. See Beck v. City of Pittsburgh, 89 F.3d 966, 971 (3d Cir. 1996). To state a claim against the City under § 1983, Mr. Cannon must allege that (1) the City had a policy or custom that deprived him of his constitutional rights; (2) the City acted deliberately and was the moving force behind the deprivation; and (3) his injury was caused by the identified policy or custom. See Stewart v. Moll, 717 F.Supp.2d 454, 464-65 (E.D. Pa. 2010). To survive the Motion to Dismiss, Mr. Cannon must allege that the City, through one of its policymakers, affirmatively adopted the policy or acquiesced in the widespread custom that caused the violation. See Watson v. Abington Twp., 478 F.3d 144, 155-56 (3d Cir. 2007). "In limited circumstances, a local government's decision not to train certain employees about their legal duty to avoid violating citizens' rights may rise to the level of an official government policy for purposes of § 1983." Connick v. Thompson, 131 S.Ct. 1350, 1359 (2011). To be actionable under § 1983, a failure to train must amount to deliberate indifference to the rights of persons with whom the untrained employees come into contact or are foreseeably likely to do so. Id. Moreover, Mr. Cannon must allege that the City's practice proximately caused the injuries he suffered. See Losch v. Borough of Parkesburg, 736 F.2d 903, 910 (3d Cir. 1984). Proof of proximate causation requires that there be "an affirmative link between the policy and the particular constitutional violation alleged." City of Okla. City v. Tuttle, 471 U.S. 808, 823 (1985).
With respect to supervisory liability, there are two theories that may apply. First, like municipalities, "[i]ndividuals who are policymakers may be liable under § 1983 if it is shown that such defendants, `with deliberate indifference to the consequences, established and maintained a policy, practice or custom which directly caused [the] constitutional harm.'" A.M. ex rel. J.M.K. v. Luzerne Cnty. Juvenile Det. Ctr., 372 F.3d 572, 586 (3d Cir. 2004) (quoting Stoneking v. Bradford Area Sch. Dist., 882 F.2d 720, 725 (3d Cir. 1989)). Second, "a supervisor may be personally liable under § 1983 if he or she participated in violating the plaintiff's rights, directed others to violate them, or, as the person in charge, had knowledge of and acquiesced in his subordinates' violations." Id.
Next, the Court must decide which factual allegations are entitled to the assumption of truth at the motion-to-dismiss stage. The Court "must accept all of the complaint's well-pleaded facts as true, but may disregard any legal conclusions." Fowler v. UPMC Shadyside, 578 F.3d 203, 210-11 (3d Cir. 2009). The Court must also disregard "naked assertions devoid of further factual enhancement" and "threadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of action, supported by mere conclusory statements." Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678 (internal alterations omitted). In Iqbal, the Supreme Court disregarded allegations that "petitioners knew of, condoned, and willfully and maliciously agreed to subject [respondent] to harsh conditions of confinement as a matter of policy, solely on account of [his] religion, race, and/or national origin" and that "[one defendant] was the principal architect of this invidious policy, and that [another defendant] was instrumental in adopting and executing it." Id. at 680-81 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). The Supreme Court called those allegations "nothing more than a formulaic recitation of the elements of a constitutional discrimination claim," id. at 681 (internal quotation marks omitted), and dismissed those claims because they were conclusory, id. Similarly, in Santiago, our Court of Appeals explained that allegations of supervisory liability amounting to "the supervisor told the supervisee to do what they did" qualify as "a formulaic recitation of the elements of a [supervisory liability] claim." 629 F.3d at 131 (quoting Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 680-81).
The following are the allegations in Mr. Cannon's Complaint involving the City and/or the Commissioner:
Several of Mr. Cannon's allegations are "mere restatements of the elements of [his] supervisory liability claims, [and] are not entitled to the assumption of truth." Santiago, 629 F.3d at 132. In particular, the entirety of allegations (a), (b), (c), (d), (f), (g), (h), and (i) are formulaic recitations of the elements of municipal and supervisory liability, combined with conclusory allegations that the City and Commissioner Ramsey approved of or failed to stop the offensive conduct. In essence, those paragraphs allege, without additional facts, "the supervisors approved of or failed to stop what the supervisees actually did." As our Court of Appeals has explained, such allegations are not entitled to the assumption of truth. See id. at 131.
Finally, the Court must determine whether those allegations entitled to the assumption of truth state a plausible claim upon which relief may be granted. "A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged." Santiago, 629 F.3d at 132 (quoting Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678). Based on the well-pleaded allegation (e), see supra, Mr. Cannon has not stated a claim under § 1983 against the City and the Commissioner for a Fourth Amendment violation. Absent additional well-pleaded allegations, the Court cannot find it plausible that a failure to monitor overtime as alleged in paragraph 61 of the Complaint (allegation (e) above) was the "moving force" or otherwise the proximate cause of Mr. Cannon's alleged injuries.
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides: "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech. . . ." U.S. Const. amend. I. "To state a cognizable claim under § 1983 for the violation of First Amendment rights, a plaintiff must establish three elements: (1) that he engaged in constitutionally protected activity; (2) that he was subjected to adverse action sufficient to deter a person of ordinary firmness from exercising his constitutional rights; and (3) that there was a causal link between the plaintiff's constitutionally protected activity and the defendant's alleged adverse actions." See Thomas v. Independence Twp., 463 F.3d 285, 296 (3d Cir. 2006); see also Estate of Smith v. Marasco, 318 F.3d 497, 512 (3d Cir. 2003). The standards for municipal liability and supervisory liability are the same as for Mr. Cannon's Fourth Amendment claim. See supra Part IV.A.1.a.
The following are the allegations in Mr. Cannon's Complaint involving his First Amendment claim and the City of Philadelphia and/or Commissioner Ramsey:
Once again, allegations (b) and (c) constitute formulaic recitations of the elements of a supervisory and/or municipal liability claim because, in essence, they are assertions that the City and Commissioner Ramsey permitted the Officers to do what they allegedly did. Under Santiago, and absent additional factual allegations to support those assertions, they are not entitled to the assumption of truth.
Based on allegations (a), (d), (e), and (f), see supra, Mr. Cannon has failed to state a claim under § 1983 against the City and Commissioner Ramsey for a First Amendment violation. There are no well-pleaded allegations connecting the City or the Commissioner to the violation of Mr. Cannon's First Amendment rights. For example, the Complaint alleges only that the City—not Commissioner Ramsey— caused the violation of Mr. Cannon's First Amendment rights. Absent a well-pleaded allegation that Commissioner Ramsey directed or permitted the Officers to violate Mr. Cannon's First Amendment rights, the Court cannot find it plausible that Commissioner Ramsey caused Mr. Cannon's injuries. Additionally, the Complaint includes no well-pleaded allegations from which the Court can find it plausible that the City "acted deliberately and was the moving force behind the deprivation" of Mr. Cannon's First Amendment rights. See Moll, 717 F. Supp. 2d at 464-65. Consequently, the Court must dismiss Mr. Cannon's First Amendment claims against the City and the Commissioner.
The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits states from intentionally discriminating between individuals on the basis of race. See Shaw v. Reno, 509 U.S. 630, 642 (1993). "Proof of racially discriminatory intent or purpose is required to show a violation of the Equal Protection Clause." City of Cuyahoga Falls v. Buckeye Cmty. Hope Found., 538 U.S. 188, 194 (2003) (internal citations and quotation marks omitted). "Intentional discrimination can be shown when: (1) a law or policy explicitly classifies citizens on the basis of race; (2) a facially neutral law or policy is applied differently on the basis of race; or (3) a facially neutral law or policy that is applied evenhandedly is motivated by discriminatory intent and has a racially discriminatory impact." Antonelli v. New Jersey, 419 F.3d 267, 274 (3d Cir. 2005) (internal citations omitted). The standards for municipal liability and supervisory liability are the same as for Mr. Cannon's Fourth Amendment claim. See supra Part IV.A.1.a.
The following are the allegations in Mr. Cannon's Complaint involving the City of Philadelphia and/or Commissioner Ramsey:
Even assuming that all of the allegations in the Complaint are true, the Complaint fails to state a claim under the Equal Protection Clause against the City and Commissioner Ramsey because it fails to allege any discriminatory intent. The Complaint does not allege that there is a policy explicitly classifying citizens on the basis of race. Rather, the Complaint appears to state either (1) that the City and Commissioner Ramsey permit Officers to apply different standards in high crime areas, or (2) that a facially neutral law is applied differently on the basis of race. Because there is no allegation in the Complaint that either the City or Commissioner Ramsey acted based on discriminatory intent or purpose, the Equal Protection claim must fail.
The final portion of Defendants' Motion to Dismiss involves Count 13 of the Complaint, in which Mr. Cannon attempts to state a claim for civil conspiracy against Officers Willis, Doe 1, and Doe 2. "To prove a civil conspiracy [under Pennsylvania law], it must be shown that two or more persons combined or agreed with intent to do an unlawful act or to do an otherwise lawful act by unlawful means," Thompson Coal Co. v. Pike Coal. Co., 412 A.2d 466, 473 (Pa. 1979), "and that they acted with malice," Skipworth by Williams v. Lead Indus. Ass'n, Inc., 690 A.2d 169, 174 (Pa. 1997). The Defendants argue that Mr. Cannon's civil conspiracy claim should be dismissed because "agents of a single entity cannot conspire among themselves." Lackner v. Glosser, 892 A.2d 21, 35 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2006). The Defendants believe that Officers Willis, Doe 1, and Doe 2 cannot conspire, as a matter of law, because they are all members of the Philadelphia Police Department.
Defendants' argument is premised on what is known as the "intracorporate conspiracy doctrine." See Accurso v. Infra-Red Servs., Inc., 23 F.Supp.3d 494, 514 (E.D. Pa. 2014). As this Court discussed in a recent opinion, the scope of the intracorporate conspiracy doctrine under Pennsylvania law is unclear. See id. Federal courts in the Third Circuit have explained that agents acting in their individual capacities rather than their official capacities can be liable for civil conspiracy. See, e.g., Heffernan v. Hunter, 189 F.3d 405, 412-13 (3d Cir. 1999) ("[C]ourts that have followed the [intracorporate conspiracy] doctrine allow an exception when the employees have acted for their sole personal benefit and thus outside the course and scope of their employment. That exception is based on the proposition that since the employer would not be subject to liability under respondeat superior, it would not be a conspirator."); General Refractories Co. v. Fireman's Fund Ins. Co., 337 F.3d 397, 313 (3d Cir. 2003); Robison v. Canterbury Village, Inc., 848 F.2d 424, 431 (3d Cir. 1988) (noting that a conspiracy may exist between a corporation and an officer "if the officer is acting in a personal, as opposed to official, capacity"); Lee v. SEPTA, 418 F.Supp.2d 675, 681 (E.D. Pa. 2005) ("An employer and its officers and employees acting in the scope of their duties constitute one legal person for purposes of conspiracy law and therefore cannot conspire together." (emphasis added)). However, "at least one panel of the Pennsylvania Superior Court, in a nonprecedential decision, has opined that no such `exception' to the intracorporate conspiracy doctrine `is recognized by Pennsylvania state courts.'" Accurso, 23 F. Supp. 3d at 515 (quoting Lilly v. Boots & Saddle Riding Club, No. 57 C.D. 2009, 2009 WL 9101459, at *6 (Pa. Commw. Ct. July 17, 2009)). Consequently, it is not clear whether such an exception to the intracorporate conspiracy doctrine exists in Pennsylvania law.
"In the absence of a controlling decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, a federal court applying that state's substantive law must predict how Pennsylvania's highest court would decide this case." Berrier v. Simplicity Mfg., Inc., 563 F.3d 38, 45-46 (3d Cir. 2009). "In predicting how the highest court of the state would resolve the issue, [the Court] must consider `relevant state precedents, analogous decisions, considered dicta, scholarly works, and any other reliable data tending convincingly to show how the highest court in the state would decide the issue at hand.'" Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co. v. Buffetta, 230 F.3d 634, 637 (3d Cir. 2000) (quoting McKenna v. Ortho Pharm. Corp., 622 F.2d 657, 663 (3d Cir. 1980)). Because the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has neither recognized nor rejected an exception to the intracorporate conspiracy doctrine for conduct outside the scope of employment, this Court must endeavor to predict how that body would rule on this issue.
Pennsylvania courts have often applied the intracorporate conspiracy doctrine without elaborating on its reasoning or its relationship to the scope of employment, but they ordinarily apply the doctrine when defendants allegedly conspired with other agents or the principal corporation on behalf of the principal corporation. See, e.g., Lackner 892 A.2d at 26 (alleging a conspiracy to engage in improper accounting practices to deprive plaintiff of promised bonuses); Rutherfoord v. Presbyterian-University, 612 A.2d 500, 502 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1992) (alleging a conspiracy to terminate plaintiff's employment with defendant company); Weiner v. Markel Int'l Ins. Co., No. 2005-1045, 2006 WL 1142484 (Pa. Ct. Comm. Pl. Apr. 25, 2006) (alleging a conspiracy to refuse to pay benefits); Rick's Original Philly Steaks, Inc. v. Reading Terminal Market Corp., No. 2008-3822, 2008 WL 1780822 (Pa. Ct. Comm. Pl. Feb. 20, 2008) (alleging conspiracy between landlord and agent to refuse to renew lease). Here, in contrast, Mr. Cannon alleges that the Officers conspired with each other to commit an intentional tort outside the scope of their employment and providing no benefit to the City or the Philadelphia Police Department.
A useful, analogous decision from the Pennsylvania Superior Court is Shared Communications Services of 1800-80 JFK Blvd. Inc. v. Bell Atlantic Properties Inc., 692 A.2d 570 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1997). In Shared Communications, the defendants argued that "a corporate parent and its wholly owned subsidiary cannot, as a matter of law, be held liable for civil conspiracy." Id. at 572. They argued that "a parent corporation and its wholly owned subsidiary are essentially one entity and that they are therefore incapable of making an agreement with one another that could serve as the basis for a conspiracy." Id. The Superior Court held that "it does not logically follow that a parent and its wholly owned subsidiary can never be found to have `conspired' in any other context." Id. Finding it relevant that "a corporate parent may have varying degrees of involvement with its corporate subsidiary," id. at 574, the Superior Court held that the intracorporate conspiracy doctrine's application must be analyzed on a case-by-case basis. Similarly, looking to the particular facts of the instant case, Mr. Cannon's Complaint alleges that the conspiring Officers were acting outside the scope of their employment and the tort that they allegedly committed was neither directed by nor of benefit to the City or the Philadelphia Police Department.
Ultimately, the Court finds persuasive the reasoning of the federal courts in Pennsylvania that have adopted a limited scope-of-employment exception to the intracorporate conspiracy doctrine, and notes that such an exception is logically consistent with Pennsylvania law and common sense. It cannot be the case that co-agents can never be liable for civil conspiracy— even if the alleged conspiracy was outside the scope of their employment—merely because they happen to be co-workers. There must be some connection between the alleged conspirators' status as co-agents and the alleged tort for the doctrine to preclude a finding of liability.
In this case, Mr. Cannon alleges that Officer Willis conspired to commit various predicate torts, namely the constitutional torts under § 1983 in Counts 2, 4, and 6. He alleges facts that, if true, show that Officer Willis conspired with Officers Doe 1 and Doe 2 for their own benefit and not for the benefit of the City or the Philadelphia Police Department. Based on these allegations, the Court will deny the Motion to Dismiss the civil conspiracy claim against Officer Willis in his individual capacity.
The Court will deny the Motion to Dismiss as to the civil conspiracy claim against Officer Willis in his individual capacity (Count 13), but grant the Motion to Dismiss as to the Fourth Amendment claim (Count 1), the First Amendment claim (Count 3), and the Equal Protection claim (Count 5).