Dale Evans v. City of Los Angeles

MEMORANDUM

Dario Machado, an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department, interlocutorily appeals the district court’s denial of his motion for summary judgment on the claims of Dale Evans and Melvin Hilliard, Sr., (Parents) that he used excessive force when he shot their son, Melvin Hilliard (Hilliard), and when he did not seek medical care for Hilliard in a timely fashion. We reverse and remand with instructions.

(1) Machado first asserts that the district court erred when it denied him qualified immunity on the excessive force claim. We agree. While our interlocutory jurisdiction extends only to legal issues, when the district court identifies a dispute of fact, our jurisdiction includes determining whether that dispute is material. Here, the disputes over whether Hilliard actually pointed a shotgun at Machado and whether Hilliard actually posed a deadly threat, are not material to the qualified immunity issue; that is, whether objectively speaking a reasonable officer could have believed that Hilliard did pose a deadly threat to the officer or to other individuals. See Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 396-97 , 109 S.Ct. 1865, 1872 , 104 L.Ed.2d 443 (1989); Anderson v.…