'Fajitagate' Case Ends Quietly at Ninth Circuit

The much-ballyhooed "Fajitagate" litigation, which plaintiff lawyers had hoped the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals would use to establish new precedent on police misconduct, has ended with a whimper.

After grilling lawyers for the city of San Francisco before a crowd of Boalt Hall law students earlier this year, a three-judge panel issued a short unpublished opinion today affirming U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White's grant of summary judgment. The ruling likely ends Jade Santoro's and Adam Snyder's attempt to recover damages for a 2002 assault by off-duty policy officers that began over a bag of steak fajitas.

"Plaintiffs did not tender sufficient evidence to create a genuine issue of material fact as to whether a city policy of inadequate discipline for officers' on-duty misconduct was the proximate cause of three off-duty officers' decision to assault the plaintiffs for their bag of steak fajitas," wrote the court in its unsigned opinion. The panel comprised Judges John Noonan, Sidney Thomas and Jay Bybee.

—  Scott Graham