Tyrone Merritt v. County of Los Angeles

In this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action, Tyrone Merritt alleged that he was subjected to excessive force and an unlawful arrest for grand theft auto. He appeals from the district court’s order granting a judgment notwithstanding the verdict in favor of the defendant County of Los Angeles, and from the conditional granting of a new trial based upon an allegedly faulty jury instruction. He further contends that the district court erred in denying several pretrial motions seeking to amend his complaint to substitute the actual names of the law enforcement officers who were involved in his arrest for the fictitiously named Doe defendants. We affirm in part, and vacate and remand in part.

I

BACKGROUND

At all times relevant to this action, Tyrone Merritt was the proud, if unfortunate, owner of a 1983 Spartan automobile, which he had purchased from Ronald Sparks. The Spartan is “a mid-30s looking automobile” manufactured by Sparks by altering a new Nissan. Most significantly, because of the way this unique car is manufactured, it displays two different Vehicle Identification Numbers (“VIN”). During the process of creating a Spartan from a Nissan, Sparks would lawfully remove the VIN from the…