Municipal Liability in Police Misconduct Lawsuits

Recent officer-involved shootings and public allegations of police misconduct have sparked legal discussion around accountability for law enforcement. Much of this discussion has come to focus on reforming qualified immunity, a complicated legal doctrine that can shield officers from liability in police misconduct lawsuits. However, plaintiffs may have another option for recourse that does not require grappling with qualified immunity: Under the Monell doctrine, a plaintiff can sue an officer’s municipal employer for promulgating unconstitutional policies or practices that precipitate officer misconduct. Well-established law holds that municipalities are not entitled to either absolute or qualified immunity in actions brought under Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act of 1871, or through the relevant law used by plaintiffs to seek recovery for alleged violations of their constitutional rights. Therefore, even when an officer is ultimately immune from liability under the doctrines of absolute or qualified immunity, the plaintiff might still be able to make out a valid claim against the officer’s employer.

The Monell doctrine has been invoked as a principle theory of liability in several recent, prominent instances of alleged police misconduct. For example, a trustee for George Floyd’s next of kin recently filed a wrongful death lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota not only against the four officers involved in Floyd’s death in their individual capacities but also against the City of Minneapolis for promulgating unconstitutional policies and practices that precipitated Floyd’s death. And recent use-of-force incidents involving Eric Garner, Laquan MacDonald, Freddie Gray and Walter Scott all yielded accelerated settlements with municipalities—presumably, at least in part, because the local governments decided it was better to quickly settle rather than litigate or pay out plaintiffs’ potential Monell claims in addition to their state law tort claims.

Monell equips civil rights plaintiffs with a powerful tool to avoid qualified immunity in seeking recovery in police misconduct lawsuits. But the doctrine has its limitations.

The Foundations of Municipal Liability

Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act of 1871, codified at 42 U.S.C. § 1983, provides:

Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State … subjects … any citizen of the United States … to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law[.]

Section 1983 vests every person with a right to sue a state actor (for example, the state itself or local government) operating under the color of law for constitutional violations. For example, plaintiffs claiming that an officer used excessive force might sue the officer under Section 1983 for violating their Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable seizure. In other cases involving police misconduct, plaintiffs might sue under Section 1983 for 14th Amendment equal protection or due process deprivations, for violations of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, or for violations of a person’s speech and association protections guaranteed by the First Amendment.

For many years, litigants were unable to sue local governments under Section 1983 for police misconduct. In 1961, the Supreme Court made clear in Monroe v. Pape that Congress did not intend municipalities to be included within Section 1983’s meaning of “person.” However, the Supreme Court reversed course in 1978, holding in Monell v. Department of Social Services that “Congress did intend municipalities and other local government units to be included among those persons to whom § 1983Become a supporter of IT Security News and help us remove the ads.