FHA

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Thomas Wilson et at v. Warren County, Illinois et al

Case No.: 15-1939

Officials: BAUER and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges, and ADELMAN, District Judge

Focus: FHA

Appellant fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted in FHA claim related to private defendants seizing personal property.

“Plaintiffs also argue that Algren violated substantive due process because under the state-created danger doctrine, he was obliged to protect Wilson from the private defendants’ seizure of his property. Due Process does not require a state to protect citizens from private acts unless the state itself creates the danger. King ex rel. King v. E. St. Louis Sch. Dist. 189, 496 F.3d 812, 817 (7th Cir. 2007) (citing DeShaney v. Winnebago Cty. Dep’t of Soc. Servs., 489 U.S. 189 (1989)). Under the state created danger doctrine, a plaintiff must prove that (1) the state created or increased a danger to him, (2) the state’s failure to protect plaintiff was a proximate cause of his injuries, and (3) the state’s failure to protect the individual shocks the conscience. Id. at 817–18. Plaintiffs allege that Algren created the danger by advising Wilson’s friend that the removal of property required a court order. Plaintiffs contend that this statement amounted to an assurance that Algren would protect Wilson from the private defendants and made Wilson feel sufficiently protected that he left the gate to his property unlocked. Plaintiffs also assert that Algren then failed to protect their property, citing Carithers’ phone call regarding the legality of the property removal. But this behavior falls short of shocking the conscience. Only “the most egregious official conduct” shocks the conscience, Jackson v. Indian Prairie Sch. Dist. 204, 653 F.3d 647, 654 (7th Cir. 2011) (internal quotations and citation omitted), and Algren’s act of informing Wilson of a general legal principle—that one needs a court order in order to legally take another’s property – does not fall into that category.”

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.