Estate of Adriano Roman, Jr. v. City of Newark, New Jersey, et al.
SocialSecurity FourthAmendment Privacy
Whether joint and several liability applies under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, where a plaintiff alleges unconstitutional search by multiple officers
QUESTIONS PRESENTED 1. 42 U.S.C. § 1983 incorporates fundamental concepts of tort law. A fundamental concept of tort law is joint and several liability, which shifts the burden to plausible joint tortfeasors to apportion their own fault and liability. Do pleadings under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 incorporate joint and several liability? 2. Ifso, where a plaintiff pleads that multiple police officers began a warrantless and unconstitutional search of premises as a group, and pleads that a state criminal court has already held that the search was unconstitutional at its inception, has the plaintiff adequately pled a Fourth Amendment violation against the officers, such that the plaintiff need not identify the actions of each officer during the search, which are unknowable because the plaintiff was face-down and handcuffed on the floor?