Findlay v. Lendermon

Dist. Ct. erred in denying defendant-police officer’s motion for summary judgment alleging that he was entitled to qualified immunity in plaintiff’s section 1983 action alleging that defendant used excessive force during struggle with plaintiff over memory chip defendant wanted to seize as evidence from plaintiff’s surveillance camera. While plaintiff alleged that defendant had unnecessarily tackled him as he was attempting to retrieve memory chip, plaintiff failed to identify any case law that established at time of incident that he had right to be free from type of force used by defendant, or that defendant’s use of force was “plainly excessive” as objective matter.