Opinion
No. 18-35382
12-13-2019
MOISES E. PONCE ALVAREZ, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. KING COUNTY, a municipal corporation, Defendant, and ADAM R. BUCHAN, in his individual capacity; et al., Defendants-Appellees.
NOT FOR PUBLICATION
D.C. No. 2:16-cv-00721-RAJ MEMORANDUM Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington
Richard A. Jones, District Judge, Presiding Before: WALLACE, CANBY, and TASHIMA, Circuit Judges.
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
Moises E. Ponce Alvarez appeals pro se from the district court's order denying his Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(a) motion for a new trial following a jury verdict for defendants in his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action alleging excessive force. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We review for an abuse of discretion. Kode v. Carlson, 596 F.3d 608, 611 (9th Cir. 2010). We affirm.
The district court did not abuse its discretion by denying Alvarez's motion for a new trial because there was evidence to support the jury's verdict that defendants' use of force was reasonable and not excessive. See Kingsley v. Hendrickson, 135 S. Ct. 2466, 2473 (2015) (describing considerations for evaluating whether use of force was reasonable); see also Kode, 596 F.3d at 612 ("[W]here the basis of a Rule 59 ruling is that the verdict is not against the weight of the evidence, the district court's denial of a Rule 59 motion is virtually unassailable. In such cases, we reverse for a clear abuse of discretion only where there is an absolute absence of evidence to support the jury's verdict." (citation and internal quotation marks omitted)).
AFFIRMED.