Robert Contreras v. Julio Benavides

MEMORANDUM

Plaintiff Robert Contreras sued Defendant LAPD Officers Julio Benavides and Mario Mores, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 , for using excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Defendants shot Plaintiff four times in the back, in the course of arresting him in connection with a drive-by shooting. A jury found in favor of Plaintiff and awarded him $5,725 million in damages. Defendants timely appeal from the district court’s denial of their motions to dismiss and for judgment as a matter of law. Reviewing de novo, we affirm. See Sanders v. Kennedy, 794 F.2d 478, 481 (9th Cir.1986) (per curiam) (stating the standard of review for a motion to dismiss); Acosta v. City of Costa Mesa, 718 F.3d 800, 828 (9th Cir.2013) (per curiam) (stating the standard of review for a renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law).

1. The district court correctly denied Defendants' motion to dismiss this action as barred by the statute of limitations. Although Defendants raised the statute of limitations as one of nine affirmative defenses in their answer to the complaint, they did not include the statute of limitations as a defense that they would pursue in the pretrial order, and they…