Theresa Laws v. Borough of Lansdale

NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT ________________ No. 24-1562 ________________ THERESA MARIA LAWS, Appellant v. BOROUGH OF LANSDALE; LANSDALE POLICE DEPARTMENT, Municipal liability under Monell; CHIEF MICHAEL B. TRAIL, in personal and official capacities; SERGEANT AMANDA NORTH, in personal and official capacities; SERGEANT LIAM PYSKATY, in personal and official capacities; POLICE OFFICER MATTHEW ERBELE, in personal and official capacities; POLICE OFFICER DREW FREED, in personal and official capacities; CHRIS KUNKEL, Director of Public Works; JASON VAN DAME, Director of Community; SCOTT S. GRIBLING ________________ On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (D.C. No. 2:23-cv-01339) District Judge: Honorable Anita B. Brody ________________ Submitted under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a) on March 3, 2025 Before: MATEY, FREEMAN and ROTH, Circuit Judges (Opinion filed: April 28, 2025) ________________ OPINION* ________________

ROTH, Circuit Judge Theresa Laws appeals the District Court’s order dismissing her complaint for failure to state a claim in an action for malicious prosecution under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and derivative claims for municipal liability. For the following reasons, we will affirm.

I. Background1 Laws filed suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania after more than a decade of acrimony between Laws and her former next- door neighbor Scott Gribling. Laws and Gribling share a long history of calling the Lansdale Police Department on each other in response to various disturbances and conflicts. The conflict at the center of Laws’ suit happened in February 2021. Gribling called police after he noticed signs posted in the rear window of Laws’ car. The signs read: CONVICTED CRIMINAL ALERT! A convicted, violent drug offender lurks and stalks on Shaw Ave. He did jail time and is fresh off of probation. He is harassing me filling [sic] false claims against my auto insurance policy (that got dropped) and false police reports. This is an individual that killed and ate his pet rabbits that he claimed to love! This is an extremely violent person who beat his girlfriend unmercifully multiple times and remains in a home bought with drug sale proceeds because his sheisty [sic] immoral parents bought it from him for $1 after his arrest to hide it from the state.

Warning!!! Do not go into any house in Lansdale without completing a free criminal background check on the occupants! Do not hire anyone to work inside or outside your home without running their name through this site!

Tell all your friends and family about this!2 Sgt. Amanda North of the Lansdale Police Department responded to Gribling’s call and filed two counts of harassment against Laws.3 In Sgt. North’s Affidavit of Probable Cause, she wrote that she was “very familiar” with Gribling and Laws’ history, recognized the car as being “owned and operated” by Laws, and understood the signs to be about Gribling, “who was arrested in April 2016 for domestic assault and possession charges.”4 Sgt. North noted that “[t]here ha[d] been multiple reports” of Laws “harassing” Gribling “regarding his arrest and posting his criminal history on her residence and vehicle,” and that Laws “was cited in 2018 for a similar incident where [Gribling’s] criminal history was posted on [Laws’] vehicle and her residence.”5 Laws was not arrested but was required to be fingerprinted and photographed, and to attend her preliminary hearing via videoconference. On April 7, 2021, Magistrate Judge Edward Levine dismissed the charges.

Just under two years later, on April 6, 2023, Laws filed suit against the Borough of Lansdale, the Lansdale Police Department, several members of the police department, including Sgt. North, and other borough employees (collectively “Lansdale Defendants”), as well as against Gribling. The Lansdale Defendants and Gribling separately moved to dismiss the complaint under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), and Gribling alternatively moved for a more definite statement. The District Court granted the latter motion and ordered Laws to revise her complaint. In her subsequent Amended Complaint, Laws alleged constitutional claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, asserting malicious prosecution, First Amendment retaliation, Equal Protection and Fourth Amendment violations, and supervisory and municipal liability. Laws also raised state law tort claims alleging false arrest and malicious prosecution against Gribling. The Lansdale Defendants and Gribling again moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim.

This time the District Court granted the motions. The court held that the existence of probable cause to charge Laws with harassment for the February 2021 incident and the fact that Laws was never detained were fatal to many of her claims. The court also held that Laws failed to establish prima facie cases for her Equal Protection, supervisory liability, and municipal liability claims. Laws appealed the dismissal of her § 1983 malicious prosecution and municipal liability claims.6 II. Jurisdiction and Standard of Review The District Court had federal question jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1331, and supplemental jurisdiction over Laws’ state law claims under 28 U.S.C. § 1367(a). We have appellate jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and “exercise plenary review over rulings on motions to dismiss.”7 In reviewing a district court’s ruling on a 12(b)(6) motion, “we construe the complaint in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, accept all ‘well-pleaded factual allegations’ as true, and examine whether the complaint contains ‘sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim for relief that is plausible on its face.’”8 We “may affirm on any basis supported by the record.”9 III. Discussion The District Court properly dismissed Laws’ complaint for failure to state a malicious prosecution claim under § 1983. Laws bases her malicious prosecution claim on criminal harassment charges she faced after the February 2021 dispute with Gribling.

A Fourth Amendment malicious prosecution claim requires a plaintiff to show that: “(1) the defendants initiated a criminal proceeding; (2) the criminal proceeding ended in [the] plaintiff’s favor; (3) the proceeding was initiated without probable cause; (4) the defendants acted maliciously or for a purpose other than bringing the plaintiff to justice; and (5) the plaintiff suffered deprivation of liberty consistent with the concept of seizure as a consequence of a legal proceeding.”10 We agree with the District Court that Laws’ claim fails on the third and fifth elements.

Addressing the third element, a malicious prosecution violation requires that “the proceeding was initiated without probable cause.”11 “Far from demanding proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, ‘probable cause exists if there is a fair probability that the person committed the crime at issue.’”12 Laws was charged with harassment under § 2709(a)(7), which requires that a person act “with intent to harass, annoy or alarm another” by “communicat[ing] repeatedly” and under § 2709(a)(3), which requires the same intent while “engag[ing] in a course of conduct or repeatedly commit[ting] acts which serve no legitimate purpose.” As demonstrated in her Affidavit of Probable Cause, Sgt. North had probable cause to charge Laws with criminal harassment given Laws’ ownership of the vehicle displaying the signs, her history of repeated communications and acts directed toward Gribling without a “legitimate purpose,” and the fact that Sgt. North had previously cited Laws for a similar incident in which Laws had placed signs in her car windows describing Gribling’s criminal history.13 Sgt. North’s observations are supported by Laws’ Amended Complaint, and dozens of exhibits attached to Laws’ original Complaint, detailing the police response to numerous prior disputes between the neighbors.14 Gribling reported Laws’ February 2021 communications as harassment, and the language and presentation of the communications were clearly intended to be alarming to the reader, for example: “CONVICTED CRIMINAL ALERT!” and “[a] convicted, violent drug offender lurks and stalks on Shaw Ave.”15 While the charges against Laws were later dropped, there can be no malicious prosecution where there was probable cause to charge the defendant at the outset.

Turning to the fifth element of a malicious prosecution claim, Laws fails to show that she “suffered deprivation of liberty consistent with the concept of seizure as a consequence of a legal proceeding.”16 We have held that “[p]retrial custody and some onerous types of pretrial, non-custodial restrictions constitute a Fourth Amendment seizure.”17 Laws, in contrast, was never in custody nor was she subject to any other burdensome pre-trial restrictions on her liberty. Pursuant to a criminal summons, Laws was required to have her fingerprints and photo taken and appear at her preliminary hearing, but these actions do not rise to the level of an unreasonable seizure by the government under the Fourth Amendment.18 Under these facts, Laws fails as a matter of law to state a claim for malicious prosecution.

The District Court also properly dismissed Laws’ municipal liability claims against Lansdale and the Lansdale Police Department under Monell v. Department of Social Services.19 In Monell, the Supreme Court held that § 1983 “plainly imposes liability on a government that, under color of some official policy, ‘causes’ an employee to violate another’s constitutional rights.”20 We have repeatedly recognized “that, if there is no violation in the first place, there can be no derivative municipal claim.”21 That is the case here. Because we find that Laws has not pleaded a plausible constitutional violation, her derivative claims for municipal liability also fail.

Alternatively, we will affirm the District Court’s order because Laws’ opening brief does not offer any explanation, or cite to any authority, in support of her substantive arguments. “It is well settled that an appellant’s failure to ... argue an issue in his opening brief constitutes [forfeiture] of that issue on appeal.”22 The argument section of Laws’ opening brief consists of a bald assertion that “the complaint speaks for itself” followed by a list of dates without explaining their relevance.23 That is plainly insufficient.

IV. Conclusion For the foregoing reasons, we will affirm the District Court’s judgment and order.