Gregory v. City of Vallejo

ORDER

This matter is before the court on the motion by the City of Vallejo (“City”), former Chief of the City Police Department (“PD”) Robert Nichelini (“Chief Ni-chelini”), and former police officer Chase Calhoun (“Officer Calhoun”) (collectively “defendants”) for summary judgment. (Defs.’ Mot. Summ. J., ECF No. 29.) Erika Gregory (“Ms. Gregory”) and Loren Mollner (“Mr. Mollner”) (collectively “plaintiffs”) oppose the motion. (Pis.’ Opp’n, ECF No. 43.) The court held a hearing on the matter on August 29, 2014, at which Nick Casper appeared for plaintiffs and Furah Faruqui for defendants. As explained below, the court DENIES in part and GRANTS in part defendants’ motion.

I. UNDISPUTED FACTS

The claims in this case brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 arise out of Officer Calhoun’s killing of plaintiffs’ dog, Belle. (See generally Pis.’ First Am. Compl. (“Compl.”), ECF No. 10.) Plaintiffs are a married couple. (ECF No. 45 ¶ 1.) Belle was an eleven-year-old Labrador-Catahou-la-mix weighing about 70 pounds. (Gregory Decl. ¶ 2, ECF No. 38; Gregory Dep. 58:18-23, Casper Deck, Ex. 1, ECF No. 36-1.) In addition to Belle, plaintiffs owned two other dogs: Flicka, a fourteen-year-old blind…