Michael Alan Crooker v. Thomas Mulligan, 788 F.2d 809, 1st Cir. (1986)

788 F.
2d 809
Michael Alan CROOKER, Plaintiff, Appellant,

v.
Thomas MULLIGAN, et al., Defendants, Appellees.
No. 85-1811.
United States Court of Appeals,

First Circuit.
Submitted Feb. 6, 1986.
Decided April 16, 1986.
Michael Alan Crooker, Springfield, Mass., on brief, pro se.

Richard T. Egan, City Sol., Harry P. Carroll, Deputy City Sol., and
Edward M. Pikula, Asst. City Sol., Springfield, Mass., on brief, for
appellees.
Before CAMPBELL, Chief Judge, COFFIN and BOWNES, Circuit
Judges.
PER CURIAM.
In his appeal of the district court's dismissal 1 of his 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 action,
Crooker, proceeding pro se, argues: (1) the district court was in error to
conclude that Higgins, a Massachusetts State Trooper sued in his official
capacity, was immune from suit under the Eleventh Amendment; (2) the district
court was wrong to conclude that a search and seizure executed by the
defendants was reasonable; and (3) the district court should not have granted
summary judgment on the issue of whether defendants were protected by good
faith immunity against alleged interference with Crooker's right of access to the
courts. We consider each argument in turn.
21. Immunity of Higgins, a Massachusetts State Trooper.

3
We do not find it necessary to discuss at length Crooker's contention that the

complaint against Higgins should not have been dismissed on grounds of
sovereign immunity. We conclude, infra, that Crooker has failed to state any
constitutional violation because the defendants' actions are protected by good

faith immunity. Therefore, we affirm the district court's dismissal against
Higgins on that basis.
2. Reasonableness of the Search
4
Crooker insists that the officers' seizure of his legal files, papers, and law books
was unreasonable.2 He alleges that the search warrant did not authorize the
seizure of his legal material; that he was deprived of legal papers, files and law
books, in derogation of his right of access to the courts (see point 3, infra ); and
that his files were not promptly returned to him. Crooker did not properly
challenge the validity of the warrant itself, and we reject the argument that the
district court should have been "on notice," due to Crooker's various pending
cases, that Crooker thought the warrant objectionable.3 Thus, we address only
whether the seizure of the legal files, papers, and law books was reasonable.
The warrant authorized a search for
5
firearms,
rifles, shotguns, dangerous weapons, explosive devices or chemical
substances or components or information necessary to the production of such
devices, false, fraudulent or stolen means of identification, false, fraudulent or stolen
checks, false, fraudulent or stolen credit cards, or any items, papers or effects that
are pertinent to, give evidence of or exhibit information relating to the above.
6
The warrant authorized a search of Crooker's first floor apartment as well as a

search of a "two drawer metal file cabinet in the bedroom next to the bed."
Crooker's argument against the seizure's reasonableness rests almost

exclusively on United States v. Tamura, 694 F.2d 591 (9th Cir.1982). Tamura
was a direct appeal of a criminal conviction; agents had a warrant to seize three
categories of records from a business place: the warrant was specific as to the
records to be seized. When the employees refused to help the agents, the agents
seized all accounting records for the years in question--eleven boxes, thirtyfour file drawers and seventeen drawers of cancelled checks. In refusing to
reverse Tamura's conviction, the court noted as follows:
8 is true that all items in a set of files may be inspected during a search, provided
It
that sufficiently specific guidelines for identifying the documents sought are
provided in the search warrant and are followed by the officers conducting the
search.... However, the wholesale seizure for later detailed examination of records
not described in a warrant is significantly more intrusive, and has been characterized
as the kind of "investigatory dragnet that the fourth amendment was designed to
prevent."
9
Tamura, 694 F.2d at 595, quoting United States v. Abrams, 615 F.2d 541, 543
(1st Cir.1980).4
10
Crooker would equate the seizure of his legal papers and files to the wholesale
seizure which occurred in Tamura. There is a significant difference, however.
The uncontradicted affidavit of one of the seizing officers, Officer Meara,
indicated that documents within the scope of the warrant were found among the
legal papers. A picture of the open file cabinet reveals a section of the cabinet
denominated "Legal Research/Cases, Etc." which is followed by a series of
files marked with case names and docket numbers. In his affidavit in support of
the motion to dismiss, Officer Meara explained that when he opened the file
cabinet, he saw a section marked "legal papers" which included, among other
things, "paper work and documents which related to ... the subject of the search
warrant ... [and] [a]dditional evidence of other attempted fraud and other
criminal activity...."Thus, unlike the wholesale seizure challenged in Tamura,
Crooker is complaining about the officers' seizure of a "section" of the
documents in the cabinet, a section which contained relevant documents
intermingled with other documents.
11
We have found a number of cases upholding the seizure of documents, both

incriminating and innocuous, which are not specified in a warrant but are
intermingled, in a single unit, with relevant documents. See, e.g., United States
v. Slocum, 708 F.2d 587, 605-06 (11th Cir.1983) (seizure of folder containing
both innocent material and incriminating material upheld); United States v.
Christine, 687 F.2d 749, 760 (3d Cir.1982); United States v. Wuagneux, 683
F.2d 1343, 1353 (11th Cir.1982), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 814, 104 S.Ct. 69, 78
L.Ed.2d 83 (1983); United States v. Beusch, 596 F.2d 871, 877 (9th Cir.1979).
We are not inclined to decide whether the section of the file cabinet at issue
here is itself a single unit or is sufficiently analagous to a single unit so as to
apply the above stated rule.
12
Rather, we decide that the doctrine of good faith immunity applies to shield the
officers from liability for damages for the seizure of Crooker's legal material.
Cf. Malley v. Briggs, --- U.S. ----, 106 S.Ct. 1092, 89 L.Ed.2d 271 (1986)
(qualified immunity is accorded officer whose request for warrant allegedly
caused an unconstitutional arrest; standard is the same for search warrants. Id. -- U.S. at ----, 106 S.Ct. at 1098-1100); BCR Transport Co., Inc. v. Fontaine,
727 F.2d 7, 10 (1st Cir.1984) (even if defendant officer lacked probable cause
for obtaining and executing search and arrest warrants, he can still avoid Sec.
1983 liability if he can demonstrate his good faith in securing and executing
warrants).
13
In Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982),
the Supreme Court indicated that the test for qualified immunity is the
"objective reasonableness" of the actor's conduct, measured by reference to
clearly established law. Id., Harlow, 457 U.S. at 818, 102 S.Ct. at 2738; see
Floyd v. Farrell, 765 F.2d 1, 4-5 (1st Cir.1985). "If a plaintiff proves some
peculiar or unusual source, specially known to the defendant, then, by
hypothesis, this is what the defendant, as a reasonable man, must take into
account." Krohn v. United States, 742 F.2d 24, 31 (1st Cir.1984).
14
In the case at bar, the officers had a search warrant authorizing them to search
the file cabinet, as well as the apartment, for various enumerated items. Their
investigation of the file cabinet revealed relevant material, specified in the
warrant, within a section of legal files and materials. Under these
circumstances, and given the concededly uncertain state of the law as to what
exactly may be seized when innocuous material is intermixed with relevant
material, we conclude that the officers' actions were objectively reasonable and
that the doctrine of good faith immunity protects them from liability for
damages.
15
As to Crooker's contention that the defendants did not promptly return his files
to him, we do not think this renders the search unreasonable, and we can
discern no independent constitutional violation.
3. Right of Access/Qualified Immunity

16
Crooker insists that the issue of the defendants' qualified immunity for the
alleged violation of his right of access to the courts was a jury question and
should not have been decided by summary judgment. He argues additionally
that the officers were not entitled to immunity. He claims his right of access
was violated when the defendants retained his legal files, and he argues that the
defendants knew or should have known--that they were "put on notice by
correspondence, this lawsuit, and hearings in a state court"--that their continued
retention of the files would interfere with his access to the courts. Crooker
maintains that one of his actions was dismissed because he could not respond to
discovery requests and that other pending cases are "in jeopardy." The files
have since been returned.
17
In Harlow v. Fitzgerald, the court indicated a preference for summary judgment

resolution of qualified immunity issues. Hence, Crooker's first argument lacks
merit. We proceed to apply the facts of this case to the good faith immunity
standards set out above.
18
In civil rights/habeas corpus actions, the "right of access" generally refers to the
right of prisoners to be provided with adequate legal tools or expertise. See
Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 97 S.Ct. 1491, 52 L.Ed.2d 72 (1977); Johnson
v. Avery, 393 U.S. 483, 89 S.Ct. 747, 21 L.Ed.2d 718 (1969). The right has
been applied, in a slightly different context, to reach actions taken against
prisoners in retaliation for litigation. See, e.g., Hall v. Sutton, 755 F.2d 786,
787 (11th Cir.1985); McDonald v. Hall, 610 F.2d 16, 18 (1st Cir.1979).
19
We are not convinced that the action Crooker complains of--retention of his
legal files--violates his right of access to the courts. The right of access is not
infinitely elastic, and even if we were to accept its application in this context,
we are unwilling to charge these officers with such prescience. Accordingly, we
do not accept the proposition that the officers knew or should have known that
their retention of Crooker's legal files violated this right.
20
Having concluded that the district court's disposition of this case was correct,
we affirm its decision.
The district court dismissed in part and granted summary judgment in part
Crooker has redefined this issue somewhat on appeal, to challenge the seizure
of the entire file cabinet. While Crooker noted, in a motion filed after the
defendants moved to dismiss, that the officers had seized the file cabinet, he did
not pursue this point below and he made no attempt to amend his complaint to
include it. Therefore, defendant Meara's affidavit in support of the motion to
dismiss relates only to the seizure of the legal files. Similarly, the district
court's opinion discusses only the reasonableness of the files' seizure. We
conclude that the issue of the reasonableness of the file cabinet's seizure was
not properly presented to the district court, and thus we express no opinion on
it. See Johnston v. Holiday Inns, Inc., 595 F.2d 890, 894 (1st Cir.1979)
Crooker argues on appeal, for the first time, that the police initially gained
access to his house by subterfuge, prior to obtaining a warrant. He contends the
district court should have realized, based on his other pending lawsuits, that the
lawfulness of the means used to obtain enough information to support the
issuance of a warrant was in issue. Since Crooker chose to present his
grievances seriatim, spreading them out in separate actions, it was not
unreasonable for the district court to deal with them one at a time. Especially in
the case of a prolific litigant, like Crooker, it cannot reasonably be expected

that each complaint somehow incorporates by reference all the other complaints
4
Abrams was a challenge to a search warrant. The court concluded that the
warrant failed to meet the requirement of particularity because the officers'
discretion was unfettered, there was no limitation as to time and no description
as to which records were to be seized

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788 F.

Michael Alan CROOKER, Plaintiff, Appellant,

United States Court of Appeals,

Michael Alan Crooker, Springfield, Mass., on brief, pro se.

21. Immunity of Higgins, a Massachusetts State Trooper.

We do not find it necessary to discuss at length Crooker's contention that the

constitutional violation because the defendants' actions are protected by good

The warrant authorized a search of Crooker's first floor apartment as well as a

Crooker's argument against the seizure's reasonableness rests almost

We have found a number of cases upholding the seizure of documents, both

3. Right of Access/Qualified Immunity

In Harlow v. Fitzgerald, the court indicated a preference for summary judgment

the case of a prolific litigant, like Crooker, it cannot reasonably be expected

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