Boag v. Chief of Police

Boag was convicted of a misdemeanor in Portland Municipal Court on July 1, 1963, and served three months of a six months sentence. On April 12, 1974, an Oregon Circuit Court vacated and set aside the 1963 conviction. The Court gave no reasons for its decision, but Boag contends he had argued that because he had been tried without counsel or waiver of his right to counsel the 1963 conviction violated his Sixth Amendment right to counsel under Argersinger v. Hamlin, 407 U.S. 25, 92 S. Ct. 2006, 32 L. Ed. 2d 530 (1972) (applying Gideon to misdemeanors) and Berry v. Cincinnati, 414 U.S. 29, 94 S. Ct. 193, 38 L. Ed. 2d 187 (1973) (making Argersinger retroactive). On May 23, 1980, Boag filed this civil rights complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging he had been falsely imprisoned because the 1963 conviction was unconstitutional. The district court dismissed on the ground that since the complaint was filed more than 17 years after Boag's conviction and imprisonment, the action was barred by the six year Oregon statute of limitations, O.R.S. § 12.080(2).