Backe v. LeBlanc, No. 11-40460 (5th Cir. 2012)
Annotate this CaseAppellees, several individuals, claimed that the City of Galveston police used excessive force against them. Appellees filed this 42 U.S.C. 1983 against Appellants Steven LeBlanc and and Charles Wiley, former city manager and former chief of police for the City, respectively, and over a dozen individual officers. Appellees claimed that LeBlanc and Wiley were individually liable for failing to train the responding officers, especially on the appropriate use of force. Appellants moved to dismiss on qualified immunity under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). The district court refused to rule on Appellants' threshold qualified immunity defense, concluding it was premature to address the qualified immunity defense before general discovery. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the district court's order, holding that the district court abused its discretion by withholding its ruling pending general discovery and by failing to limit discovery to facts necessary to rule on Appellants' qualified immunity defense. Remanded.
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