Opinion ID: 785861
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: EMTs Garcia and Rodriguez- State-Created Danger

Text: 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.