Youker v. Douglas County

162 Wash.App. 448

258 P.3d 60

Jason YOUKER, Appellant,

v.DOUGLAS COUNTY, a municipal corporation, and Lisa White, a single woman, and William Black and Jane Doe Black, a marital community, Respondents.

No. 29165–1–III.

Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 3.

April 19, 2011.Publication Ordered Aug. 18, 2011.

Julie Ann Anderson, Attorney at Law, Wenatchee, WA, for Appellant.Stanley Allen Bastian, Jeffers Danielson Sonn & Aylward PS, Wenatchee, WA, for Respondents.SIDDOWAY, J.

[162 Wash.App. 453] ¶ 1 Jason Youker appeals the summary judgment dismissal of his malicious prosecution, false arrest, and related claims against Douglas County and two of its deputies arising out of a search, arrest, and ultimately-terminated prosecution. We agree that the malicious prosecution, false arrest, and false imprisonment claims were properly dismissed, and that the prosecutor's informed decision to charge Mr. Youker broke the causal chain to most of the elements of Mr. Youker's claimed damages. We find that the basis for dismissing Mr. Youker's invasion of privacy claim, at least with respect to damages directly related to the search, was insufficiently briefed below and on appeal and therefore reverse and remand with respect to that claim for briefing and re-argument.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

¶ 2 On April 20, 2007, Jason Youker's ex-wife, JoAnn Youker, visited the Douglas County Sheriff's Office and notified the dispatch office that she wished to provide information on a crime committed by her ex-husband. The dispatch office relayed notice of Ms. Youker's visit to Deputy Lisa White, who was next on rotation and would be assigned the matter but who was out on patrol, and Deputy William Black, who was in the deputies' room. The dispatch office simultaneously ran a check on Ms. Youker, and transmitted information to both deputies that Ms. Youker was subject to a no-contact order prohibiting her from having contact with her ex-husband and was subject to an outstanding arrest warrant out of East Wenatchee for [f]ail to appear or fail to comply. Clerk's Papers (CP) at 164. Deputy White read the information on the computer screen in her patrol car and returned to the sheriff's office to meet with Ms. Youker.

¶ 3 Deputy Black reviewed the information on the arrest warrant and no-contact order and met with Ms. Youker briefly while awaiting Deputy White's return from patrol. He was told by Ms. Youker that her ex-husband was a convicted felon and was in possession of a rifle, which she knew was forbidden. On Deputy White's arrival, Ms. Youker repeated the allegation to her, telling the deputy that she had asked her husband to get rid of the rifle several times because there were children in the house, but he refused. Ms. Youker offered to show the officers where the rifle was hidden in the residence she claimed to share with Mr. Youker on Nancy Street in East Wenatchee. She told them that she and Mr. Youker had lived together at the Nancy Street residence for the prior five months. As these conversations were taking place, the dispatch office generated a report of its contact from Ms. Youker that indicated a different, Tonasket address for Ms. Youker. The report could have been accessed by the deputies, but there is no evidence that they ever did access or become aware of the reported Tonasket address prior to traveling to Mr. Youker's home with Ms. Youker.

¶ 4 After confirming that Mr. Youker was a convicted felon, the deputies drove Ms. Youker to the residence. The deputies had been told by Ms. Youker that Mr. Youker had gone to Spokane for the day and would not be present at the home, and he was not. Deputy White asked Ms. Youker if she had a key to the home and Ms. Youker said she did not, but that the home was unlocked.

¶ 5 Relying on Ms. Youker's consent to search the home, the deputies entered and were directed by Ms. Youker to a 30–30 rifle and ammunition located under a bed. While inside the residence, Deputy White was shown mail addressed to Mr. Youker and Ms. Youker as well as Ms. Youker's clothing in a closet. Ms. Youker signed a consent to search form.

¶ 6 Upon returning to the sheriff's office, Deputy White learned that the nature of Ms. Youker's outstanding arrest warrant was a violation of a domestic violence protective order in favor of Mr. Youker. Deputy White arrested Ms. Youker on the warrant.

¶ 7 That afternoon, Deputy White also completed a notice of arrest and probable cause statement for the arrest of Jason Youker and completed a handwritten incident report, which identified an address other than the Nancy Street address as a mailing address for Ms. Youker. CP at 72. The next day, Deputy White obtained signed statements from Ms. Youker's two minor children, one being her son with Mr. Youker, corroborating Mr. Youker's ownership of the rifle.

¶ 8 Deputy White also pulled over and arrested Mr. Youker the next day. When the deputy advised him that he was under arrest for being a felon in possession of a firearm, Mr. Youker asked her what gun and she responded it was the rifle under his bed. CP at 56. According to Deputy White's report, Mr. Youker stated that the rifle belonged to Ms. Youker, who brought it with her when she moved in with her son. The deputy's report also indicates that Mr. Youker told her, when asked, that he and his ex-wife had lived together at the residence for about four months. Enroute to the jail, Mr. Youker accused Ms. Youker of setting him up and placing the gun under the bed; he said the gun had been in storage and she must have gotten it out of storage while he was in Spokane. CP at 56.

¶ 9 On April 23, 2007, Mr. Youker made his initial appearance in court. The court determined that probable cause for the arrest existed based upon the evidence before it, which included Deputy White's original notice of arrest and probable cause statement. The information provided in the probable cause statement as to Ms. Youker's addresses and the no-contact order was limited to the following:

I confirmed that Jason Youker was a convicted felon. JoAnn advised me that they have lived together at this residence for approximately 5 months. JoAnn was not aware that the no contact order was still in [e]ffect.

CP at 52.

¶ 10 Based upon the materials provided to the Douglas County prosecutor's office by the sheriff's office the prosecutor decided to file charges against Mr. Youker, and on April 25, 2007, an information was filed with the superior court charging Mr. Youker with unlawful possession of a firearm in the first degree, a felony. CP at 90–91; RCW 9.41.040. The materials provided to the prosecutor's office by Deputy White included all of the witness statements, the arrest warrant for Ms. Youker, and the incident and dispatch-generated reports identifying other addresses for Ms. Youker.

¶ 11 The charges against Mr. Youker were dismissed by Douglas County on August 6 because the United States Attorney's Office had elected to pursue a federal charge against Mr. Youker based upon the same incident.

¶ 12 Mr. Youker moved in the federal proceeding to suppress evidence of the rifle and ammunition. The district court heard evidence on October 26, 2007, and scheduled argument on the suppression motion for a later date. Prior to the date for argument, the assistant United States attorney assigned to the case learned of witnesses whose testimony would contradict the government's key witness and determined that, if believed, their testimony could raise a reasonable doubt as to Mr. Youker's guilt. The government filed a motion to dismiss the indictment without prejudice on February 21, 2008.

¶ 13 Mr. Youker commenced this action against Douglas County and Deputies Black and White on April 17, 2009, in Chelan County Superior Court. The court granted a motion to transfer the case to Douglas County over Mr. Youker's objection.

¶ 14 Following the transfer to Douglas County, the defendants moved for summary judgment. The trial court granted the motion.

¶ 15 Mr. Youker filed a motion for reconsideration and submitted further declarations from himself and Ms. Youker, attesting that he had allowed her to stay with him for only several weeks in December 2006, a time when she and his son were otherwise homeless; that he insisted that she leave at the end of December at which point she moved to her parents' home in Tonasket; that in late March 2007 she learned that Mr. Youker was in a new relationship and began following him, a violation of the no-contact order that he reported; that on the day the home was searched, she had taken her rifle and ammunition to Mr. Youker's home, which she knew would be unlocked because his employees needed access to inventory at his home; and that she placed the rifle and ammunition under his bed, and then went to the Douglas County sheriff to file the criminal complaint.

¶ 16 The defendants opposed the motion for reconsideration on the merits and on grounds it was untimely. The trial court denied the motion. Mr. Youker appeals both the transfer of venue and the dismissal of his claims.

ANALYSIS

I.

¶ 17 Mr. Youker commenced his action in Chelan County in reliance on RCW 36.01.050(1), which provides that actions against a county may be commenced in the superior court of such county, or in the superior court of either of the two nearest judicial districts. The purpose of the statute is to alleviate concerns of hometown bias when suing counties. See Cossel v. Skagit Cnty., 119 Wash.2d 434, 438, 834 P.2d 609 (1992), overruled on other grounds by Shoop v. Kittitas Cnty., 149 Wash.2d 29, 65 P.3d 1194 (2003).

¶ 18 In answering, the county and the deputies (whose submissions have been joint and, for convenience, will hereafter be referred to collectively as the County) denied that venue was proper and simultaneously moved to transfer venue to Douglas County, relying on RCW 4.12.020, which provides in part that

[a]ctions for the following causes shall be tried in the...