Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Civil Rights — due process

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//February 11, 2014//

Civil Rights — due process

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//February 11, 2014//

Listen to this article

United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Civil

Civil Rights — due process

Even though a low-level county employee secured sexual favors in exchange for a job that didn’t exist, the county is not liable.

“In sum, we take the Supreme Court seriously when it instructs us to be wary of imposing municipal liability in circumstances like this. ‘Where a plaintiff presents a § 1983 claim premised upon the inadequacy of an official’s review of a prospective applicant’s record … there is a particular danger that a municipality will be held liable for an injury not directly caused by a deliberate action attributable to the municipality itself.’ Brown, 520 U.S. at 410. Thus, the bar is set high in terms of both culpability (deliberate indifference) and causation, whereby a plaintiff must link the hiring decision to the particular injury alleged. In our view, imposing liability on Cook County under these facts would substitute conjecture and principles of mere negligence for the ‘rigorous standards of culpability and causation’ the Supreme Court has imposed. Id. at 405. Simply put, it is too much of a stretch to say that the county not only should have known Vanaria would commit various sexual misdeeds, but that he would also invent a phony position of power that would allow him to violate the bodily integrity of someone he had no business reason to come in contact with. See Williams v. Berney, 519 F.3d 1216, 1223 (10th Cir. 2008) (city license inspector did not violate substantive due process when assaulting citizen because the use of force was outside the scope of authority given him by the city).”

Affirmed.

13-1464 Wilson v. Cook County

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Coleman, J., Griesbach, J.

Polls

Should Steven Avery be granted a new evidentiary hearing?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Legal News

See All Legal News

WLJ People

Sea all WLJ People

Opinion Digests