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Marie Woolfolk, Administratrix of the Estate of Eric Rahmal Woolfolk Leroy and Marie Woolfolk v. Darren Smith City of Pine Bluff, Arkansas

Marie WOOLFOLK, Administratrix of the Estate of Eric Rahmal Woolfolk; Leroy and Marie Woolfolk, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Darren SMITH; City of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, Defendants-Appellants

Woolfolk v. Darren Smith City of Pine Bluff, Ark., 81 F.3d 741 (8th Cir. 1996)
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Court
Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit · U.S. Courts of Appeals
Decided
March 12, 1996
Docket
No. 95-3014
Judges
Loken, Bright, Arnold
Citations
81 F.3d 7411996 WL 1623481996 U.S. App. LEXIS 4226

Opinion — Per Curiam

PER CURIAM.

Darren Smith, a newly-hired, off-duty, out-of-uniform police officer, chased suspect Eric Woolfolk on foot to make an arrest, cornered Woolfolk in a narrow carport where the two struggled, and shot and killed Woolfolk when he began hitting Smith in the head with a plastic trash can lid. Woolfolk’s parents then commenced this § 1983 action, asserting a Fourth Amendment excessive force claim against Smith and a failure-to-train claim against Smith’s employer, the City of Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The district court 1

denied defendants’ motion for summary judgment and they appeal, arguing that we have jurisdiction because the district court denied Smith’s claim of qualified immunity.

The Supreme Court narrowed our jurisdiction to hear interlocutory qualified immunity appeals when it limited such appeals to a district court’s “determination about pre-existing ‘clearly established’ law.”

Johnson v. Jones, — U.S.-,-, 115 S.Ct. 2151, 2158 , 132 L.Ed.2d 238 (1995). In this case, the law concerning when a police officer may use deadly force to arrest a fleeing suspect was established in Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1, 11-12 , 105 S.Ct. 1694, 1701 , 85 L.Ed.2d 1 (1985):

[I]f the suspect threatens the officer with a weapon or there is probable cause to believe that he has committed a crime involving the infliction or threatened infliction of serious physical harm, deadly force may be used if necessary to prevent escape, and if, *743 where feasible, some warning has been given.

After reviewing the facts presented in the summary judgment motion papers, the district court denied Smith’s motion for summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds because it found genuine issues of fact regarding whether Woolfolk was a fleeing felony suspect, whether Woolfolk knew Smith was a police officer, whether Woolfolk was harming Smith or was a threat to harm others, and whether Smith acted reasonably in entering the cramped carport.

As the Supreme Court predicted in Johnson v. Jones, its new standard of appeal-ability can be difficult to apply.

See, e.g., Miller v. Schoenen, 75 F.3d 1305, 1308-09 (8th Cir.1996). In this case, Smith has dealt with that difficulty by ignoring it. After careful review of the summary judgment record, we conclude that this is the type of fact-based qualified immunity decision that is not appropriate for interlocutory appeal.

See Behrens v. Pelletier, — U.S.-,-, 116 S.Ct. 834, 842 , 133 L.Ed.2d 773 (1996).

The City has also appealed the district court’s denial of the City’s motion for summary judgment. We conclude that the Woolfolks’ failure-to-train claim against the City is not “inextricably intertwined” with Smith’s claim of qualified immunity. Therefore, even if we could review Smith’s claim of qualified immunity, we would have no jurisdiction to immediately review the district court’s denial of summary judgment to the City.

See Swint v. Chambers County Comm’n, — U.S.-,-, 115 S.Ct. 1203, 1212 , 131 L.Ed.2d 60 (1995);

Kincade v. City of Blue Springs, 64 F.3d 389, 394-95 (8th Cir.1995), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 116 S.Ct. 1565 , 134 L.Ed.2d 665 (1996).

The appeal is dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.

1

. The HONORABLE WILLIAM R. WILSON, JR., United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

How later courts describe this case

Explanatory parentheticals written by citing courts — 1 in all; the most informative distinct ones are shown.

Cited by 15 cases

View all citing references →
1996: 21997: 41998: 11999: 12001: 12004: 22005: 22010: 12017: 119962026peak 1997 · 4

Relies on it most ⓘ

  1. Kilburn v. Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya376 F.3d 1123 (D.C. Cir. 2004)
  2. Craighead v. Lee399 F.3d 954 (8th Cir. 2005)
  3. Tabatha Manning v. Vaughn Cotton862 F.3d 663 (8th Cir. 2017)
  4. Elliott v. Leavitt105 F.3d 174 (4th Cir. 1997) · Dissent
  5. Felder ex rel. Felder v. King599 F.3d 846 (8th Cir. 2010)
  6. Rein v. Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya162 F.3d 748 (2d Cir. 1998)

Most recent

  1. Tabatha Manning v. Vaughn Cotton862 F.3d 663 (8th Cir. 2017)
  2. Felder ex rel. Felder v. King599 F.3d 846 (8th Cir. 2010)
  3. Craighead v. Lee399 F.3d 954 (8th Cir. 2005)
  4. Shenita Craighead v. Michael A. Lee399 F.3d 954 (8th Cir. 2005)
  5. Kilburn, Blake v. Islamic Repub Iran376 F.3d 1123 (D.C. Cir. 2004)
  6. Kilburn v. Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya376 F.3d 1123 (D.C. Cir. 2004)

Citing references are not a citator: they show that a later opinion cites this case, not whether it followed, distinguished, or overruled it. Check negative history before relying on this case.

Authorities cited 6

DepthCaseCited by
Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985) 3,754
Johnson v. Jones, 515 U.S. 304 (1995) 2,315
Behrens v. Pelletier, 516 U.S. 299 (1996) 1,746
Swint v. Chambers Cnty. Comm'n, 514 U.S. 35 (1995) 1,189
Kincade v. City of Blue Springs, 64 F.3d 389 (8th Cir. 1995) 91
Miller v. Schoenen, 75 F.3d 1305 (8th Cir. 1996) 60

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