Eviction

Listen to this article

7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Marilyn Zoretic v. John Darge

Case No.: 14-2998

Officials: BAUER, ROVNER, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Eviction

Appellant fails to provide evidence of material factual dispute as to whether owners of her unit were extreme and outrageous in pursuing her eviction.

“It is possible the deputies at the scene on June 5 believed they were enforcing a judge’s eviction order. But they were not, and their mistake—even if reasonable—does not entitle them to quasi‐judicial immunity. Even more problematic for the defendants, their entire argument as to why the manner in which they carried out the eviction was lawful is predicated on the legality of the eviction order. With nothing more than an order that had already been executed, they had no right to enter the residence, or to search Zoretic’s belongings. And while it may have been reasonable to enter the apartment with guns drawn for safety reasons if they had been enforcing an actual order, the same is not true for entering a civilian’s home with guns pointed for no reason at all. So they failed to meet their burden of showing that, as a matter of law, it was objectively reasonable to enter Zoretic’s apartment, search it, point their guns at the Zoretics, and detain them. Perhaps a reasonable officer would not have known that the order was not enforceable, but that is not the argument the defendants made. We reverse and remand for further proceedings on the Fourth Amendment claims.”

Affirmed in part

Reversed and remanded in part

Full Text

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.