Kong v. Burnsville, City of

Background

This order followed an appeal and remand in an officer-involved shooting case. Sok Kong, trustee for the next of kin of Map Kong, brought claims against the City of Burnsville, Maksim Yakovlev, John Mott, and Taylor Jacobs.

In a December 2018 order, the district court granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment on the plaintiff’s claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging medical indifference under the Fourteenth Amendment. The court denied summary judgment on the § 1983 excessive-force claim under the Fourth Amendment and on the state-law negligence claim. It found that factual disputes prevented summary judgment on whether the individual defendants had qualified immunity, which generally protects government officials from liability when the law did not clearly establish that their conduct was unlawful. The court also found that the record did not clearly show compliance with the defendants’ crisis-intervention policy and therefore denied summary judgment based on official immunity for the negligence claim.

Appeal and Remand

The defendants appealed the denial of summary judgment. The Eighth Circuit reversed the district court’s ruling, holding that the defendants were entitled to qualified immunity on the Fourth Amendment claim and official immunity on the negligence claim. After the Eighth Circuit denied the plaintiff’s requests for further rehearing, it issued its mandate, returning jurisdiction to the district court.

Ruling

Consistent with the Eighth Circuit’s decision, Judge Susan Richard Nelson granted the defendants’ summary-judgment motion. The court ordered that the action be dismissed with prejudice and directed entry of judgment.