CIVIL RIGHTS-FALSE POLYGRAPH

Mervilus v. Union Cnty., 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 17760 (3d Cir. July 13, 2023). Emmanuel Mervilus sued Detective John Kaminskas for fabricating polygraph evidence and Kaminskas’s supervisors for failing to train or supervise his polygraph work. We decide two principal questions. First, did Mervilus introduce sufficient evidence to try his fabrication-of-evidence claim against Kaminskas? We hold he did. Second, is his Monell v. Dep’t of Soc. Servs., 436 U.S. 658, 98 S. Ct. 2018, 56 L. Ed. 2d 611 (1978), claim against Kaminskas’s employer, Union County, viable even if Kaminskas did not fabricate evidence? We hold it is because a jury might not render an inconsistent verdict if it found the County liable but Kaminskas not culpable. Here, it would be consistent for the jury to find Kaminskas not liable because he lacked bad faith in conducting the exam, while simultaneously holding the County liable for failing to train or supervise him. Cf. Fagan v. City of Vineland, 22 F.3d 1283, 1292 (3d Cir. 1994) (“It is easy to imagine a situation where an improperly trained police officer may be ignorant of the danger created by his actions and inflicts injury.”). Thus, Mervilus may ultimately prevail on his failure to train and supervise theory against Union County even if Kaminskas avoids liability. On the other hand, Mervilus’s second Monell theory— that the County customarily fabricated exams—depends on Kaminskas being complicit in that scheme, and thus would be untenable if the jury finds for Kaminskas. To be clear, our analysis is limited to determining whether either of Mervilus’s Monell theories depends on his claim against Kaminskas. We express no view on whether his claims based on these theories are triable. The result is a remand for the District Court to decide in the first instance as to Union County. We therefore affirm the District Court’s summary judgment for Vaniska on counts 2 and 5 only; we vacate and remand on counts 3 and 6 with no view expressed on the merits. Second, because a Monell claim is the way to sue municipalities, we affirm the summary judgment for Union County on counts 3 and 6, which, to repeat, are not Monell claims.