Joel W. Martin v. City of New Orleans and David Michell

JERRE S. WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge.

In the early morning hours of October 6, 1979, plaintiff-appellee Joel Martin was walking through the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana with his girlfriend, his brother, and a few of his brother’s friends. He was standing on Bourbon Street at the corner of Bienville when suddenly he was struck in the back of the neck with what he later discovered to be a bullet from the revolver of New Orleans policeman David Michell, the defendant-appellant.

Martin filed suit against Officer Michell and the New Orleans Police Department alleging that Michell had acted…