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HILDEBRANDT v. CITY OF FAIRBANKS5/1/1998
ld liable under § 1983 for failing to train its officers in pursuit driving even if the individual officer did not violate the Constitution. Thus, Hildebrandt contends that the superior court erred in requiring him to prove that the officer's conduct shocked the conscience (i.e., violated the Constitution).
A municipality is a "person" subject to liability under § 1983. Monell v. Department of Soc. Servs. of City of N.Y., 436 U.S. 658, 690-91, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978). A municipality cannot, however, be held liable under § 1983 on a theory of vicarious liability; it can only be held liable when it was the wrongdoer. Collins v. City of Harker Heights, Tex., 503 U.S. 115, 122, 112 S.Ct. 1061, 117 L.Ed.2d 261 (1992). The United States Supreme Court has explained:
Congress did not intend municipalities to be held liable unless action pursuant to official municipal policy of some nature caused a constitutional tort. In particular, we conclude that a municipality cannot be held liable solely because it employs a tortfeasor — or, in other words, a municipality
cannot be held liable under § 1983 on a respondeat superior theory.
Monell, 436 U.S. at 691, 98 S.Ct. 2018 (emphasis omitted). A municipality may be directly responsible under § 1983 when an employee executes a governmental policy or custom that inflicts constitutional injury . Id. at 694, 98 S.Ct. 2018.
A municipality may face liability under § 1983 for "constitutional violations resulting from its failure to train municipal employees." City of Canton, Ohio v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378, 380, 109 S.Ct. 1197, 103 L.Ed.2d 412 (1989). The United States Supreme Court, however, has carefully circumscribed municipalities' potential liability; not all possibly injurious failures to train will give rise to liability under § 1983. Collins, 503 U.S. at 123, 112 S.Ct. 1061. The Court has stated:
f a city employee violates another's constitutional rights, the city may be liable if it had a policy or custom of failing to train its employees and that failure to train caused the constitutional violation. In particular, we held that the inadequate training of police officers could be characterized as the cause of the constitutional tort if — and only if — the failure to train amounted to "deliberate indifference" to the rights of persons with whom the police come into contact.
Id. at 123-24, 112 S.Ct. 1061. Thus, a successful § 1983 claim for municipal liability for failure to train has several key elements: a plaintiff must show that his or her constitutional rights have been violated; the municipality must have had a policy (failure to train) that constitutes deliberate indifference to the plaintiff's constitutional rights; and the policy must have been the cause of the constitutional violation. See Canton, 489 U.S. at 389-90, 109 S.Ct. 1197; Lewis v. Sacramento County, 98 F.3d 434, 446-47 (9th Cir. 1996), cert. granted, ___ U.S. ___, 117 S.Ct. 2406, 138 L.Ed.2d 173 (1997) (granting summary judgment to municipality on § 1983 claim arising out of police chase, but denying summary judgment to individual officer because genuine issue of material fact remained regarding whether officer violated plaintiffs' constitutional rights).
Hildebrandt, relying heavily on Fagan v. City of Vineland, 22 F.3d 1283, 1291-94 (3d Cir. 1994), contends that the City can be held liable under § 1983 even in the absence of a constitutional violation by Williamson. In Fagan the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that a municipality can be liable under § 1983 and the Fourteenth Amendment for failure to train officers in high-speed pursuit even if no officer involved in the chas
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