Opinion ID: 785861
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: the merits of the summary judgment motions

Text: 50 The threshold issue in any Section 1983 lawsuit is whether the plaintiff has sufficiently alleged a deprivation of a constitutional right. Estate of Smith v. Marasco, 318 F.3d 497, 505 (3d Cir.2003). Because Section 1983 does not create any substantive rights, the plaintiff must be able to point to an independent constitutional or statutory right. Brown v. Commonwealth of Pa. Dep't of Health Emer. Med. Servs. Training Inst., 318 F.3d 473, 477 (3d Cir.2003).
51 The Rivas family contends that Garcia and Rodriguez are liable because they allegedly exposed Mr. Rivas to a danger that he otherwise would not have encountered. 6 The Rivas family refers to the state-created danger theory of liability. While our consideration of the state-created danger doctrine started with Brown v. Grabowski, 922 F.2d 1097 (3d Cir.1990), it was not until Kneipp v. Tedder, 95 F.3d 1199 (3d Cir.1996) that we held a viable claim could be asserted where the state had created a danger. We explained in Kneipp that in order to state such a claim a plaintiff must show: (1) that the harm ultimately caused to the plaintiff was foreseeable and fairly direct; (2) the state actor acted in willful disregard for the plaintiff's safety; (3) there was some relationship between the state and the plaintiff; and (4) the state actor used his authority to create an opportunity for danger that otherwise would not have existed. Id. at 1208. 52 In Kneipp, a police officer stopped a married couple returning home on foot after a night of drinking at a local tavern. The police determined that both individuals were intoxicated, but the husband was given permission to leave, and he assumed the police would take his wife either to the hospital or the police station. Instead, the police let the woman proceed home on foot alone. She was found later that night at the bottom of an embankment, where she had fallen and suffered debilitating injuries as a result of her exposure to the cold. On those facts, we held that there was a triable issue as to whether the police had affirmatively placed the wife in a position of danger such that she had made a viable showing under Section 1983. See id. at 1201-03. 53 Applying Kneipp 's four elements here, we find that the Rivas family has adduced sufficient evidence (evidence which the EMTs dispute), as to whether Garcia and Rodriguez deprived Mr. Rivas of his right to be free from a state-created danger. 54 First, was the harm to Mr. Rivas fairly foreseeable? On the morning in question, it is undisputed that Mr. Rivas was suffering from one or more seizures. Both Garcia and Rodriguez knew that Mr. Rivas was either in the throes of, or coming out of, a seizure when they arrived. Both Garcia and Rodriguez had learned during their medical training that seizure victims should not be restrained, even when the convulsions appear to have ended. They had also been instructed to ensure that a patient's airway should remain open and unobstructed. 7 They called for police assistance shortly after arriving on the scene. 55 According to the testimony of one of the police officers, Garcia and Rodriguez informed the police that Mr. Rivas had assaulted one of them, but did not inform the police about Mr. Rivas's medical condition or warn the officers that Mr. Rivas should not be restrained. Given this evidence and the inferences most favorable to the Rivas family as the non-movants, a reasonable jury could find that the harm which befell Mr. Rivas was a foreseeable and fairly direct result of the actions taken by Garcia and Rodriguez. 56 Second, we conclude that the Rivas family has produced sufficient, albeit disputed, evidence to raise a material issue as to whether Garcia and Rodriguez exhibited the standard of culpability necessary to impose liability. Although Kneipp remains good law today, recent cases have refined this second element in the four-part test. Most notably, the Supreme Court has held, in the context of a high-speed police chase resulting in death, that a Section 1983 plaintiff had to demonstrate that the police officers' conduct shocked the conscience in order to establish a constitutional violation under the Due Process Clause. County of Sacramento v. Lewis, 523 U.S. 833, 118 S.Ct. 1708, 140 L.Ed.2d 1043 (1998). Because the officers in that case had to act `in haste, under pressure, and frequently without the luxury of a second chance,' the Supreme Court explained that only an intent to harm standard of culpability would shock the conscience. Id. at 853, 118 S.Ct. 1708 (quoting Whitley v. Albers, 475 U.S. 312, 320, 106 S.Ct. 1078, 89 L.Ed.2d 251 (1986)). 57 Because conduct that shocks the conscience under one set of circumstances may not have the same effect under a different set of circumstances, the standard of culpability for a substantive due process violation can vary depending on the situation. In Miller v. City of Philadelphia, 174 F.3d 368 (3d Cir.1999), for example, we recognized that a social worker who attempts to remove a child from his or her parents' custody does not, in contrast to a police officer engaged in a high-speed pursuit, have to make split-second decisions. Id. at 375. Nevertheless, we noted that a social worker in those circumstances must act with some urgency and does not have the luxury of proceeding in a deliberate manner. Id. We therefore held that the shock-the-conscience test could be met only by adducing evidence that the social worker's actions were grossly negligent or arbitrary, a less onerous standard than an intent-to-harm standard. Id. at 375-76. 58 In Ziccardi v. City of Philadelphia, 288 F.3d 57 (3d Cir.2002)-a case involving emergency medical actions-we further elaborated on the necessary state of mind to prove due process violations in situations where a state actor must act with some urgency. We noted that Miller, at 174 F.3d at 375-76, appears to have demanded proof of something less than knowledge that the harm was practically certain but more than knowledge that there was a substantial risk that the harm would occur. Ziccardi, 288 F.3d at 66. We ultimately settled on the following test: [W]e understand Miller to require in a case [where an official had to act with some urgency], proof that the defendants consciously disregarded, not just a substantial risk, but a great risk that serious harm would result.... Id. 59 We subsequently held that the shock-the-conscience standard also applied to emergency medical personnel. In Brown v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Health Emergency Medical Services Training Institute, 318 F.3d 473 (3d Cir.2003), the parents of an infant who died of asphyxia sued, among others, two EMTs who had responded to the 911 call. The parents alleged, among other things, that the EMTs had gotten lost on their way to the child's residence and thereby a delay occurred in removing a grape from the child's throat. Id. at 481. We announced in Brown that the `shocks the conscience' standard should apply in all substantive due process cases if the state actor had to act with some urgency. Id. at 480. We further held that the shock-the-conscience standard applied to the actions of emergency medical personnel-who likewise have little time for reflection, typically making decisions in haste and under pressure. Id. 60 Thus, the Rivas family can only meet the second element of the Kneipp test by presenting evidence that Garcia's and Rodriguez's conduct shocks the conscience by consciously disregarding a substantial risk that Mr. Rivas would be seriously harmed by their actions. Rodriguez and Garcia both claim that Mr. Rivas was physically combative and attempted to strangle Rodriguez when she first entered the apartment. If that allegation is true, then it was reasonable for them to call for police back-up. 8 In fact, Garcia testified that the attack on Rodriguez led him to believe that Mr. Rivas was a mental patient, not a seizure victim. 61 On the other hand, there is evidence in the record which suggests that Mr. Rivas did not attack Rodriguez and that Rodriguez simply panicked at the sight of Mr. Rivas walking towards her with his arms extended in front of him. A jury crediting this version could find that Rodriguez and Garcia unnecessarily called for police assistance. More importantly, it would then appear that there had been a misrepresentation to the police that Mr. Rivas had attacked Rodriguez, leading to the conclusion that Garcia and Rodriguez neglected to tell the police that Mr. Rivas was suffering from a seizure and should not be restrained. 9 62 In sum, these contrasting facts satisfy us that summary judgment could not be granted at this stage. A jury could find, based on this version of events, that Garcia and Rodriguez consciously disregarded a great risk of serious harm to Mr. Rivas by misrepresenting the assault and then abandoning Mr. Rivas to the police, particularly since EMTs are supposed to render aid to those in need of medical assistance. If Garcia and Rodriguez misrepresented the assault, not only did they abdicate their duty to render medical assistance, but they placed Mr. Rivas in greater danger by falsely accusing him of acting violently. A jury could find, depending on whose testimony it credits, that such conduct shocks the conscience. 10 63 The third element in the Kneipp test inquires whether there existed some relationship between the state and the plaintiff. The relationship requirement under the state-created danger theory contemplates a degree of contact such that the plaintiff was a foreseeable victim of the defendant's acts in a tort sense. See Kneipp, 95 F.3d at 1209 n. 22. 64 In Morse v. Lower Merion School District, 132 F.3d 902 (3d Cir.1997), we explained that the relationship must be sufficiently close to exclude those instances where the state actor creates only a threat to the general population, but not so restrictive as to limit the scope of § 1983 to those instances where a specific individual is placed in danger. Id. at 913. Attempting to find a workable medium between those two ends of the spectrum, we held in Morse that the plaintiff must be a member of a discrete class of persons subjected to the potential harm brought about by the state's actions. Id. 65 On the existing record, a jury could find that Mr. Rivas was a member of a discrete class of individuals subjected to a potential harm caused by Garcia and Rodriguez's actions. The EMTs were responding to a 911 call. The very purpose of their visit to the Rivas household was to provide medical care to Mr. Rivas and to reduce, to the extent possible, the amount of danger in which he found himself as a result of his seizure. If the jury credits Officer Callaghan's testimony that he and Officer Slater were told by the EMTs that Mr. Rivas physically assaulted Rodriguez but were not given any information about his medical condition, it is foreseeable that Mr. Rivas would be among the discrete class of persons placed in harm's way as a result of Garcia and Rodriguez's actions. See Morse, 132 F.3d at 913 (explaining that [t]he primary focus when making ... [the relationship] determination is foreseeability). 66 The last element of the Kneipp test asks whether the state actor used his or her authority to create an opportunity, which otherwise would not have existed, for the specific harm to occur. See Kneipp, 95 F.3d at 1209. A reasonable factfinder could conclude that the EMTs' decision to call for police backup and then (1) inform the officers on their arrival that Mr. Rivas had assaulted Rodriguez, (2) not advise the officers about Mr. Rivas's medical condition, and (3) abandon control over the situation, when taken together, created an opportunity for harm that would not have otherwise existed. Were it not for those acts, Mr. Rivas presumably could have remained in the apartment's bathroom for the duration of his seizure without incident.
67 The Rivas family asserts that the police used excessive force against Mr. Rivas during their encounter with him and thereby violated his constitutionally protected right. The Supreme Court has held that all claims of excessive force by police officers, in the context of an arrest, investigatory stop, or other seizure, should be analyzed under the Fourth Amendment. Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 395, 109 S.Ct. 1865, 104 L.Ed.2d 443 (1989). A claim for excessive force under the Fourth Amendment requires a plaintiff to show that a seizure occurred and that it was unreasonable. Curley v. Klem, 298 F.3d 271, 279 (3d Cir.2002). A seizure occurs [w]henever an officer restrains the freedom of a person to walk away. Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1, 7, 105 S.Ct. 1694, 85 L.Ed.2d 1 (1985). Because it is undisputed that a seizure occurred in this case, the only question is whether it was unreasonable. 68 An excessive force claim must be evaluated from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight and must embody the allowance for the fact that police officers are often forced to make split-second judgments-in circumstances that are often tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving-about the amount of force that is necessary in a particular situation. Graham, 490 U.S. at 396-97, 109 S.Ct. 1865. The inquiry turns on objective reasonableness, meaning that the standard is whether the police officer's actions [were] `objectively reasonable' in light of the facts and circumstances facing the officer, regardless of the officer's intent or motivation. Id. at 397, 109 S.Ct. 1865. 69 Factors to consider in making a determination of reasonableness include the severity of the crime at issue, whether the suspect poses an immediate threat to the safety of the officers or others, and whether he actively is resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight. Graham, 490 U.S. at 396, 109 S.Ct. 1865. Additional factors include the possibility that the persons subject to the police action are themselves violent or dangerous, the duration of the action, whether the action takes place in the context of effecting an arrest, the possibility that the suspect may be armed, and the number of persons with whom the police officers must contend at one time. Sharrar v. Felsing, 128 F.3d 810, 822 (3d Cir.1997). The reasonableness of the use of force is normally an issue for the jury. See Abraham v. Raso, 183 F.3d 279, 290 (3d Cir.1999). 70 While some courts freeze the time frame and consider only the facts and circumstances at the precise moment that excessive force is applied, other courts, including this one, have considered all of the relevant facts and circumstances leading up to the time that the officers allegedly used excessive force. See, e.g., Abraham, 183 F.3d at 291.
71 The Rivas family emphasizes that Mr. Rivas committed no crime and presented no threat to anyone when Officers Slater, Callaghan and Capuana arrived at the Rivas household. The family claims the police officers were informed of Mr. Rivas's medical condition upon entering the apartment and should have allowed Mr. Rivas to remain in the bathroom until the paramedics, who were in transit, arrived. Instead, the officers ordered Mr. Rivas to leave the bathroom. The family claims Mr. Rivas had a second seizure as he walked down the hallway and the police officers responded by throwing him to the ground. Officer Capuana's testimony could support the theory that Mr. Rivas had a second seizure as he passed through the kitchen. 72 The Rivas family emphasizes that the force escalated after Mr. Rivas was on the living room floor. Officer Callaghan allegedly sat on Mr. Rivas's back while the other two officers restrained his legs and attempted to place handcuffs on Mr. Rivas. The family contends the officers repeatedly pushed Mr. Rivas's face into the floor, which made it difficult for him to breathe. According to testimony given by the EMTs, Officer Callaghan jammed a flashlight into Mr. Rivas's mouth at one point during the struggle and later struck him in the head with the same flashlight. 11 73 The police officers contend that the level of force they employed was necessary because Mr. Rivas bit them and tried to grab Officer Callaghan's weapon. We must, however, at the summary judgment stage consider only those facts alleged by [the plaintiff], taken in the light most favorable to him. Curley, 298 F.3d at 280. As the District Court pointed out, Mrs. Rivas argues that her husband could not have reached for anything since he appeared to be in the middle of another seizure and his face was pushed into the floor. We explained in Bennett v. Murphy, 274 F.3d 133, 137 (3d Cir.2002), that a police officer who is accused of having used excessive force is not precluded from arguing that he reasonably perceived the facts to be different from those alleged by the plaintiff, but that  contention ... must be considered at trial.  Id. at 137 (emphasis added). As such, we must assume at the summary judgment stage that Mr. Rivas, who was laying face down on the floor, was simply flailing his arms due to his seizure. 74 When viewed in the light most favorable to the Rivas family, these facts are sufficient to support the claim that Officers Callaghan, Slater and Capuana may have used excessive force to quiet Mr. Rivas. See Curley, 298 F.3d at 280 (finding unreasonable seizure where police officer mistakenly shot port authority officer). Once the officers ordered Mr. Rivas out of the bathroom, they effected a legal seizure by restraining his freedom of movement. Assuming that Mr. Rivas began to have a medical seizure as he and the officers walked through the kitchen (although his condition may not have been recognized by the officers), it was for the jury to decide if the ensuing takedown and force applied by the officers was objectively reasonable.
75 The Rivas family alleges that Officers Farallo and O'Donnell used excessive force on Mr. Rivas after he fell out of the stretcher on the way down the stairs. Specifically, the Rivas family alleges that, [w]hile Rivas was on the porch, face down, bound hand and foot, having sustained a head injury, bleeding from the nose and mouth, and having been unconscious just minutes before his fall, Farallo and O'Donnell, along with Officer Longo, collectively pressed down on his back with the weight of their bodies until he again lost consciousness, became cyanotic, and died of asphyxiation. 76 O'Donnell testified that, following Mr. Rivas's fall from the stretcher, he helped carry Mr. Rivas from the stairs to the porch landing, where Mr. Rivas was once again placed face down. Mr. Rivas's hands were handcuffed behind his back and there is evidence suggesting that Mr. Rivas's ankles were still bound by cloth restraints, which had been applied by Garcia before Mr. Rivas was removed from the living room. 77 Officer O'Donnell, who helped carry Mr. Rivas down the stairs, must have known that Mr. Rivas had just fallen out of the stretcher head first and had lost control of his bowels and had vomited, clear signs that he was not well. There was also testimony that a pool of blood had formed around Mr. Rivas's head on the porch. 78 A reasonable jury could find from these facts that Mr. Rivas did not present a threat to anyone's safety as he lay in a prone position on the enclosed porch, hands and ankles secured behind his back. Yet there is testimony in the record that, in order to restrain Mr. Rivas and subdue him, Officers Farallo and O'Donnell, along with Officer Longo, collectively pressed down on Mr. Rivas's back with all of their weight until he became still and unconscious. It was immediately following these acts that the paramedics noticed Mr. Rivas was cyanotic and had stopped breathing. Assuming that Mr. Rivas was handcuffed and had his ankles tied at that time, a reasonable jury could find that the continued use of force against Mr. Rivas was excessive. See, e.g., Clash v. Beatty, 77 F.3d 1045 (7th Cir.1996).
79 We turn now to the question of whether Garcia and Rodriguez are entitled to qualified immunity. An appellate court reviewing the denial of a defendant's claim of qualified immunity must ask itself whether the legal norms allegedly violated by the defendant were clearly established at the time of the challenged actions. Mitchell, 472 U.S. at 528, 105 S.Ct. 2806. Because the incidents in question occurred more than two years after we issued our decision in Kneipp, supra, it follows that the right to be free from a state-created danger was clearly established by this Court by November of 1998, when Garcia and Rodriguez responded to the Rivas family's 911 call for medical assistance. Our inquiry does not, however, end there. 80 It is not enough that the constitutional right was clearly established in a general sense at the time the incident occurred. Rather, [t]he contours of the right must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right. Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 640, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987). The relevant, dispositive inquiry in determining whether a right is clearly established is whether it would be clear to a reasonable [official] that his conduct was unlawful in the situation he confronted. Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 202, 121 S.Ct. 2151, 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001). 81 In Kneipp, which we discussed earlier, public officials abandoned a victim with whom they had direct contact. In reaching our decision in Kneipp, we relied on, among others, the following cases: Reed v. Gardner, 986 F.2d 1122, 1127 (7th Cir.1993) (police officer who removed a sober driver and left behind a passenger whom he knew to be drunk with the keys to the car was subject to liability under 42 U.S.C. § 1983) and White v. Rochford, 592 F.2d 381, 385 (7th Cir.1979) (police officers who arrested uncle for drag racing and left minor children alone in abandoned car on the side of highway deprived children of their due process rights). Both of those cases involved public officials abandoning citizens in dangerous situations. 82 We discern from these cases that, as of November 1998, our case law had established the general proposition that state actors may not abandon a private citizen in a dangerous situation, provided that the state actors are aware of the risk of serious harm and are partly responsible for creating the opportunity for that harm to happen. As the Supreme Court explained in Hope v. Pelzer, 536 U.S. 730, 122 S.Ct. 2508, 153 L.Ed.2d 666 (2002), in some cases a general constitutional rule already identified in the decisional law may apply with obvious clarity to the specific conduct in question, even though `the very action in question has [not] previously been held unlawful.' Id. at 741, 122 S.Ct. 2508 (quoting U.S. v. Lanier, 520 U.S. 259, 263, 117 S.Ct. 1219, 137 L.Ed.2d 432 (1997) (citation omitted)). 83 In sum, we find that the preexisting law of state-created danger jurisprudence was clearly established. As such, it was sufficient to put Garcia and Rodriguez on notice that their conduct, if deemed unlawful, would not shield them with immunity. 12
84 The Supreme Court held in Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 121 S.Ct. 2151, 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001) that qualified immunity also applies to Fourth Amendment excessive force claims. Id. at 206, 121 S.Ct. 2151. Consequently, even if an officer uses force that was objectively unreasonable, he may nevertheless be protected from individual monetary liability if he reasonably believed, based on the facts and circumstances known to him, that the force used was lawful. Stated somewhat differently, an official who violated an individual's constitutional right, but not a clearly established constitutional right, may have acted in an objectively reasonable manner and would thereby be protected from liability by qualified immunity. The relevant, dispositive inquiry in determining whether a right is clearly established is whether it would be clear to a reasonable officer that his conduct was unlawful in the situation he confronted. Id. at 202, 121 S.Ct. 2151. 85 We have discussed this second prong of a qualified immunity defense above when we addressed the Rivas's claims against the EMTs. The factors we noted there are the same factors that apply here. In sum: under all the circumstances relevant to the officers' restraint and handling of Mr. Rivas, did their actions constitute excessive force and, if they did, was their violation of Mr. Rivas's constitutional right a clearly established one? Mitchell, 472 U.S. at 528, 105 S.Ct. 2806. Because the facts to be determined are disputed and as such are the function of the jury, the District Court did not err in denying summary judgment to the officers.