County of Los Angeles v. Superior Court

181 Cal.App.4th 218

104 Cal.Rptr.3d 230

COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES et al., Petitioners, v. THE SUPERIOR COURT OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Respondent CHARLES WILLIAM WEST et al., Real Parties in Interest.

No. B214842.

Court of Appeals of California, Second District, Division Three.

December 23, 2009.

As modified January 22, 2010.

CERTIFIED FOR PARTIAL PUBLICATION^*

Collins Collins Muir & Stewart, Tomas A. Guterres, Douglas Fee, Catherine M. Mathers and Christian E. Foy Nagy for Petitioners.

No appearance for Respondent.

Knickerbocker Law Corporation and Richard L. Knickerbocker for Real Parties in Interest.

OPINION

ALDRICH, J.

INTRODUCTION

Plaintiffs Charles William West, his wife Alane Marie West, and their two related business interests brought an action against the County of Los Angeles (the County), District Attorney Steve N. Cooley, chief administrative officer (CAO) David Janssen, and others,¹ seeking damages for violation of their civil rights under Civil Code section 52.1 and section 1983 of title 42 of the United States Code (section 1983), for breach of bailment, and seeking an injunction. The allegations at issue all stem from injuries plaintiffs alleged they suffered when the district attorney's office searched and seized plaintiffs' property pursuant to a warrant, and retained and damaged some of that property. All defendants moved for summary adjudication of the first four causes of action. The County and district attorney (defendants) raised statutory immunity from liability as grounds. The remaining four defendants, Janssen, Harper, McCauley, and Henry (herein referred to as the administrative defendants or, together with defendants, as all defendants), argued that after the trial court sustained their demurrer to the first amended complaint with leave to amend, plaintiffs filed a second amended complaint that named Janssen but made no allegations that any of the administrative defendants committed the acts alleged in the first four causes of action. The trial court denied the summary adjudication motion, and all defendants petitioned this court for writ of mandate. We issued an order to show cause. We now conclude that the trial court erred in denying defendants' summary adjudication motion. Accordingly, we grant the petition and direct the trial court to vacate its orders.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

1. The events giving rise to the lawsuit

Charles William West was the assistant director of real estate employed by the County's chief administrative office. Alane Marie West is Charles's wife.² The Wests are the principals in plaintiff Interstate Equities II, LLC. Plaintiff Primare was the sole proprietorship and "doing business as" of Alane since November 2005. Before that, Alane was the sole shareholder of a predecessor entity known as Primare, Inc.

In the fall of 2000, upon receipt from multiple sources of allegations that Charles was involved in criminal conduct, the public integrity division of the office of the district attorney commenced an investigation. Karen Pewitt, senior investigator in the real estate fraud unit of the district attorney's office's bureau of investigation, gathered information about Charles's interactions with certain private developers. After reviewing reports and other real estate documents related to County development, and interviewing individuals from the real estate division, the county auditor controller, the office of the CAO, and assorted federal government offices, Pewitt concluded that she possessed sufficient probable cause to seek a search warrant. A magistrate signed the search warrant at Pewitt's request and under her affidavit and statement of probable cause. Portions of the affidavit are under seal.³

The search warrant was served on September 14, 2005, at the Wests' house and office, purportedly by "District Attorney Police Investigators under the direction of Julie Silva, Senior Investigator, Bureau of Investigation, District Attorney's Office." From the Wests' house, investigators seized various documents and several computer hard drives belonging to Primare, Inc., a network server, a laptop, and passports, among other things.

On September 16, 2005, two days after execution of the warrant, Jennifer Lentz Snyder, the public integrity division's assistant head deputy district attorney, moved for an order for duplication of seized property, and attached a copy of the property receipt and inventory sheets completed by the investigators. Despite the fact that her office was under no legal obligation to move for duplication, Snyder declared, she filed the motion as a courtesy in anticipation of the Wests' request. Snyder declared that "[i]t was my intention to facilitate and expedite the process, particularly regarding the duplication of hard drives which would be necessary in order to return the computers and other electronic hardware to those from whom they were seized." The magistrate signed the order for duplication calling for return of the computers and copies of the hard drives to the Wests and retention of the original hard drives by the district attorney's office.

On four separate occasions, the People moved the court for an order to return the seized property to plaintiffs. Snyder sent a letter dated September 19, 2005, to the Wests explaining how to obtain copies of seized documents and indicating that any legal challenge to the propriety of the seizure would have to be brought to the court. Snyder sent a second such letter to the Wests.

On October 14, 2005, Pewitt released 10 computers to a representative of the Wests and their companies. Pewitt declared that she witnessed the representative put the computers in the back of a truck.

On October 24, 2005, six weeks after the search, Pewitt returned the Wests' passports.

Snyder declared that on March 7, 2006, she moved the trial court for release of evidence. The record contains no conformed copy of the request and the document in the record is unsigned by the magistrate. On April 5, 2007, and May 7, 2007, the People requested release of materials seized.

The district attorney did not personally participate in, review, or direct the gathering or evaluation of evidence, analysis of the law, or recommendations. He did not personally file criminal charges and did not decide to close the investigation. Those decisions were strictly confined to the public integrity division of the district attorney's office. Still, the district attorney was aware of the underlying circumstances of the investigation and has the ultimate authority with regard to the operations of his office as he sets policy.

At some point not established in the record, Snyder concluded, upon review of the voluminous evidence and the applicable law, that there was insufficient admissible evidence to prove criminal charges beyond a reasonable doubt against Charles. She recommended that the case be closed. As a consequence, no criminal charges were filed against the Wests or their interests in relation to this particular investigation.

2. The complaint

Instead of filing motions for return of the property, to produce copies of the business records seized, to request return of their passports, or to challenge the existence of probable cause (Pen. Code, §§ 1536.5, 1539, 1540), the Wests and their business interests sued the County, the district attorney in his official capacity, and the administrative defendants, Janssen, Harper, Henry, and McCauley. The complaint alleged, as is relevant in this proceeding, injury caused by an unreasonable search, seizure, prolonged retention, and damage to property that deprived plaintiffs of their civil rights in violation of section 52.1 of the Civil Code (first cause of action) and in violation of section 1983 (second cause of action), and that breached an involuntary bailment (third cause of action). Plaintiffs also sought an injunction against the waste of taxpayer funds (Code Civ. Proc., § 526a) (fourth cause of action).⁴

The trial court sustained the County's demurrer to the first amended complaint with leave to amend. Plaintiffs' second, and operative, complaint did not name Harper, Henry, or McCauley as party defendants. The trial court then sustained the demurrer to the third and fourth causes of action in the second amended complaint (breach of bailment and injunction) as to the administrative defendants, Janssen, Harper, Henry, and McCauley and denied leave to amend. Thus, the operative complaint contains no allegations that any administrative defendant was involved in the search or seizure of plaintiffs' belongings. Indeed, the operative complaint does not name Harper, Henry, or McCauley as a party in the first four causes of action.

3. Summary adjudication

All defendants moved for summary adjudication of the first four causes of action. They observed that these causes of action arose from the search and seizure of property pursuant to the warrant. They asserted they were entitled to summary adjudication because undisputed evidence showed, based on myriad immunities, that no defendant could be held liable to plaintiffs, and Janssen was not involved in the search and seizure.

In opposing the motion, plaintiffs asserted that the search and seizure of property exceeded the scope of the warrant, there was no probable cause for the warrant, and defendants irreparably destroyed computer data and even failed to return some property until after the complaint was filed. Plaintiffs disputed that all items belonging to them have been returned. They insisted that some personal items were not returned until after they filed their complaint, and that a Radom nine-millimeter pistol has yet to be returned. Plaintiffs also disputed that the computers were returned to them in working condition.

The trial court denied the summary adjudication motion noting, while the immunities cited protect defendants from liability for the warrant, the search, and the seizure, that the complaint...