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Michael Fortin v. Jacob Titcomb

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Before Lynch, Chief Judge, Lipez and Thompson, Circuit Judges.

A federal jury awarded appellant Michael Fortin $125,000 in damages against a Wells, Maine police officer after finding that the officer negligently used force in arresting Fortin in 2007. In a post-judgment ruling, the district court reduced the award to $10,000 – the maximum set by the Maine Tort Claims Act (“MTCA” or “Act”) for the personal liability of government employees. See Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 14, § 8104-D. On appeal, Fortin argues that the MTCA’s personal-liability cap is inapplicable here because the officer was covered by an insurance policy that triggered a higher limit under the Act.

After carefully examining the statutory scheme, cases interpreting the MTCA, and the insurance policy, we have determined that the appeal turns on two unresolved questions of Maine law. Specifically,whether Fortin is limited to recovery of a $10,000 award depends on the unexplored relationship among several provisions of the MTCA governing damage awards against government employees. Our analysis may also require determining what interpretive rule should be applied to ambiguous insurance policies providing MTCA liability coverage. We have found “no clear controlling precedents” in Maine law to guide us on these issues, which require policy choices we believe are properly reserved for the state’s courts. Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 4, § 57. Hence, we certify the two questions identified below to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court (“the Law Court”). See id.; Me. R. App. P. 25(a).

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