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Court determined federal judge had improperly instructed the jury.
PLAINS TWP. – A federal appellate court has ordered a new trial for a Plains Township woman who sued a township police officer for allowing an ex-boyfriend into her apartment to retrieve items he claims were his.
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals issued the ruling in the case of Elizabeth Harvey after determining a federal judge had improperly instructed the jury regarding the law.
Harvey filed suit in 2001, alleging officer Ronald Dombroski violated her civil rights when he permitted her ex-boyfriend to retrieve items from the apartment they shared while she was not home.
The case went to trial in December 2008. A jury ruled in favor of Dombroski. Harvey then appealed the case to the Third Circuit.
In a ruling issued March 28, the court overturned the verdict, finding that U.S. District Judge James Munley improperly instructed the jury regarding the factors it needed to weigh in deciding the case.
Under federal law a police officer can be held liable for violating a person’s rights in a repossession case only if it is shown that the officer took an active role in assisting in the repossession, the court said.
In the Harvey case, the Third Circuit Court said Munley improperly instructed the jury regarding the elements it must consider in deciding if Dombroski had taken that active role.
Harvey argued Dombroski did take an active role because he directed Harvey’s landlord to open the door to her apartment to let her ex-boyfriend in.
In his instruction to the jury, Munley advised the panel that the only question it needed to answer was whether Dombroski had ordered the landlady to open the door.
The Third Circuit said that was a legal error because the panel should have been instructed that it needed to consider the totality of the circumstances, and not a single fact, in making that determination.
The ruling returns the nearly 10-year-old case back to federal court for a second trial.