Kedra v. City of Philadelphia
Facts
The complaint alleged that Philadelphia police officers and homicide detectives, along with supervisory officials, unlawfully arrested, detained, searched, threatened, and beat multiple members of the Kedra family and Richard Rozanski between December 1975 and early 1977. Plaintiffs alleged warrantless entries and searches, denial of counsel, excessive force, and criminal charges brought without probable cause, along with a continuing pattern of harassment. The City was alleged to have employed all individual defendants, and supervisory officials were alleged to have known of, directed, consented to, and supervised the misconduct. Plaintiffs also asserted related Pennsylvania tort claims against the officers and the City.
Issue
Whether the complaint should be dismissed for improper representation of minor plaintiffs, misjoinder, failure to state claims under §§ 1985 and 1986, lack of action under color of state law as to individually sued officers, statute of limitations, insufficient allegations against supervisory officials, and lack of municipal liability under § 1983 or directly under the Fourteenth Amendment. The court also had to decide whether to exercise pendent jurisdiction over the asserted Pennsylvania claims.
Rule
Minor children may sue through a representative under Rule 17(c). Under Rule 20(a), joinder is proper where claims are reasonably related and arise from the same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences, and absolute identity of events is unnecessary. For § 1983, misuse of state-conferred authority in connection with governmental functions satisfies the under-color-of-state-law requirement even if the defendant acted outside lawful authority. In Pennsylvania, separate aspects of a § 1983 claim receive separate limitations treatment by analogy to the most similar state tort: false arrest is governed by a one-year period, false imprisonment by two years where not inextricably intertwined with arrest, assault and battery by two years, unlawful search by at least two years here, and malicious prosecution by one year from accrual. Supervisory officials may be liable if they directly directed, controlled, or knowingly supervised the unconstitutional acts, and a civil rights complaint must contain enough factual basis to show the claim has some basis in fact. A municipality cannot be liable under § 1983 on respondeat superior alone; liability requires allegation that official policy or custom caused the injury.
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If the officers move to dismiss for misjoinder because the incidents were separated by time and involved different combinations of defendants, how should the court rule?