CA3: Failure to factually plead lack of PC or malice for a 4A malicious prosecution claim makes it fail

Karkalas v. Marks, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 3868 (3d Cir. Feb. 11, 2021):

Without crediting the deficient allegations, Karkalas has failed to plausibly allege two essential elements of a Fourth Amendment malicious prosecution claim: lack of probable cause and malice. A federal indictment triggers a rebuttable presumption of probable cause to prosecute. See Goodwin v. Conway, 836 F.3d 321, 329 (3d Cir. 2016); Rose v. Bartle, 871 F.2d 331, 353 (3d Cir. 1989); see also Kaley v. United States, 571 U.S. 320, 328 (2014) (“[A]n indictment fair upon its face and returned by a properly constituted grand jury … conclusively determines the existence of probable cause to believe the defendant perpetrated the offense alleged.” (citations and internal quotation marks omitted)). And without the allegations concerning the individual defendants’ statements to the grand jury, the remainder of the complaint does not rebut that presumption. See Rose, 871 F.2d at 353 (explaining that the presumption of probable cause “may be rebutted by evidence that the [indictment] was procured by fraud, perjury or other corrupt means”). Likewise, without the excluded conclusory allegation of malice, the remaining allegations — which do not reflect a prosecution motivated by “ill will” or “spite” or some “extraneous improper purpose,” Lippay v. Christos, 996 F.2d 1490, 1502 (3d Cir. 1993) (citation omitted) — do not plausibly suggest that the prosecutor or the investigator acted maliciously.

Karkalas has therefore failed to state a Fourth Amendment malicious prosecution claim, as the complaint does not plausibly allege two necessary elements. Accordingly, the individual defendants are entitled to qualified immunity for this claim. See Bennett v. Murphy, 274 F.3d 133, 136 (3d Cir. 2001) (“If the plaintiff fails to make out a constitutional violation, the qualified immunity inquiry is at an end; the officer is entitled to immunity.”).

This entry was posted in § 1983 / Bivens, Probable cause, Qualified immunity. Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.