Estate of Slater Ex Rel. Casablanca v. King County

MEMORANDUM

The Estate of James Lewis Slater, Jr., Laura Casablanca, Dawn Hamilton and the Estate of James Lewis Slater, Sr., appeal the judgment in favor of King County and police officer Peter J. Cougan, which followed the district court’s grant of summary judgment on the civil rights action brought by the Slater family. See 42 U.S.C. § 1983 . The Slater family also appeals the district court’s denial of its motions for partial summary judgment. We affirm.

(1) The Slater family first asserts that Cougan violated Slater’s right under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution to be free from an unreasonable seizure — here the use of force by Cougan, who shot Slater while responding to a 911 call (in which Casablanca reported acts of domestic violence by Slater). The district court determined that Cougan was entitled to qualified immunity. As we see it, Cougan’s use of deadly force did not violate Slater’s constitutional rights. It was reasonable under the circumstances, and there are no disputes of fact that could lead to a contrary conclusion. Therefore, we affirm. In general, any use of force by an officer must be “objectively reasonable under the circumstances,”…