Summary
The United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin denied Richard L. McElroy’s motion to amend his complaint to add Fourteenth Amendment claims and additional police-officer defendants. The court held that the proposed claims concerning allegedly missing gold coins were futile because Wisconsin provides adequate post-deprivation remedies for conversion and wrongful taking of personal property. The court granted defendants’ motion to dismiss and dismissed the case.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether leave to amend should be denied because the proposed Fourteenth Amendment property-deprivation claims would be futile.
- Whether the alleged unauthorized deprivation of the gold coins could support a federal procedural due process claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 when Wisconsin provides post-deprivation remedies.
- Whether defendants' motion to dismiss should be granted and the action dismissed.
Holdings
- Leave to amend may be denied when the proposed amendment would not withstand a motion to dismiss, and McElroy's proposed amendment was futile because his alleged property deprivation was remedied by available Wisconsin state-law remedies.
- An unauthorized intentional deprivation of property by a state employee does not violate the procedural requirements of the Fourteenth Amendment when a meaningful post-deprivation state remedy is available.
Key quotations
“An unauthorized intentional deprivation of property by a state employee does not constitute a violation of the procedural requirements of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment if a meaningful post-deprivation remedy for the loss is available.”
“The standard is whether Wisconsin law provides an adequate opportunity to seek redress, not whether McElory will ultimately prevail.”
Factual background
McElroy alleged that officers executing a 2021 search warrant at his residence seized gold coins and other property, but the coins were not listed in the evidence log and were not returned. He alleged that the officers either stole the coins or failed to prevent their theft. He sought to amend his § 1983 complaint to add Fourteenth Amendment claims against existing and newly identified officers and to revise his municipal-liability claim against the City.
Procedural history
McElroy filed a § 1983 action alleging that police officers seized and failed to return gold coins. The court previously dismissed his Fourth Amendment claim, denied dismissal without prejudice as to the remaining claims, and stayed the case pending the Seventh Circuit's decision in Hadley v. City of South Bend. After McElroy conceded that Hadley foreclosed his Fifth Amendment claim, he moved to amend. The court denied leave to amend as futile, granted defendants' motion to dismiss, and dismissed the lawsuit.