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Denise Hughes, as Administrator of the Estate of Edwin Dewayne Moss v. Monique N. Locure, Administratrix of the Estate of Darian K. Locure

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, No. 23-10954 · judgment January 29, 2026


2%
estimated cert probability
(petition-stage, structural)
Conference-stage estimate: 8%
GVR risk 0%

Well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Question presented

Whether on January 19, 2021—when Macon County, Alabama Deputy Sheriff Darian K. Locure struck and killed Plaintiff-Petitioner’s decedent, Edwin Dewayne Moss—it was clearly established that a law-enforcement officer can face legal liability under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for a substantive due-process violation where that officer physically injures a private person through the “officer’s intentional misuse of his [or her] vehicle”—as reasoned in County of Sacramento v. Lewis, 523 U.S. 833, 854 n.13 (1998) (emphasis in original), and Browder v. City of Albuquerque, 787 F.3d 1076, 1082-83 (10th Cir. 2015) (Gorsuch, J., writing for the Tenth Circuit), and Dean for & on behalf of Harkness v. McKinney, 976 F.3d 407, 417- 20 (4th Cir. 2020). And, if so, whether this means that the Eleventh Circuit’s contrary holding in Hughes v. Locure, 166 F.4th 121, 128-30 (11th Cir. 2026), granting qualified immunity on the ground that this same right was not clearly established—over two decades post-Lewis and approaching a decade post-Browder—conflicts with this Court’s precedent and creates a circuit split warranting resolution on certiorari review.

Counsel of record

For petitioner
David Lanier Luck
Morgan & Morgan

For respondent
Jamie Helen Kidd Frawley
Webb McNeill Frawley PC

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. Jul 15 2026
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/28/2026.
  2. Jul 15 2026
    Reply of petitioner Denise Hughes filed. (Distributed)
  3. Jul 01 2026
    Brief of respondent Monique Locure in opposition filed.
  4. May 20 2026
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including July 1, 2026.
  5. May 19 2026
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from June 1, 2026 to July 1, 2026, submitted to The Clerk.
  6. Apr 29 2026
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due June 1, 2026)