Opinion · Supreme Court of the United States
Belcher v. Stengel
429 U.S. 118
- Type
- Opinion
- Court
- Supreme Court of the United States
- Jurisdiction
- Federal
- Date
- 1976-11-30
- Topic
- litigation
explaining that "whether an officer was on or off duty when the challenged incident occurred" is not dispositive | explaining that "whether an officer was on or off duty when the challenged incident occurred" is not dispositive | nature of act performed, not clothing of actor or duty status, determines whether action is under color of law | action under color of state law when regulation required off-duty police officer to take action "in any type of police or criminal activity" 24 hours a day | action under color of state law when regulation required off-duty police officer to take action "in any type of police or criminal activity” 24 hours a day | nature of act performed, not duty status, determines whether "color of state law” present | dismissing writ as improvidently granted
Citator
- Cited by
- 32 opinions
This case grew out of a barroom affray in Columbus, Ohio, in the course of which the petitioner, an off-duty Columbus police officer, shot and killed two people and permanently disabled a third. The injured victim and the representatives of the deceased victims, who are the respondents here, brought an action against the petitioner in a Federal District Court under 42 U. S. C. § 1983.1 A jury awarded them monetary
The petition for certiorari, which we granted on April 5, 1976, 425 U. S. 910, presented a single question:
“Does the fact that an off-duty police officer, out of uniform, is required by police department regulation to carry a weapon at all times, establish that any use of that weapon against the person of another, even though the officer is engaged in private conduct at the time, [is] an act 'under color of law’ within the meaning of 42 U. S. C. § 1983?” 2
The case having now been fully briefed and orally argued, it appears that the question framed in the petition for certiorari is not in fact presented by the record now before us. For in addition to the said police department regulation, there was evidence before the jury that showed: (1) The petitioner had been awarded workmen’s compensation benefits for the injuries he had received in the affray, on the ground that the injuries had been incurred in the course of his employment; (2) the petitioner, after the affray, had been granted official leave on account of injuries received “in line of duty under circumstances relating to Police duties”; (3) a Board of Inquiry convened to investigate the barroom episode had determined that the petitioner’s “actions were in the line of duty.”
Now that plenary consideration has shed more light on this case than in the nature of things was afforded at the time the petition for certiorari was considered, we have concluded that the writ should be dismissed as improvidently
It is so ordered.
Section 1983 provides:
“Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof 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, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress.”
At no time during this litigation has the petitioner questioned the respondents’ claim that, if the petitioner was acting “under color of .law,” there was a deprivation of the respondents’ “rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws” within the meaning of 42 ü. S. C. § 1983.