Opinion ID: 778466
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Hays' Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law

Text: 9 We review a district court's denial of a motion for judgment as a matter of law de novo. Van Steenburgh v. Rival Co., 171 F.3d 1155, 1158 (8th Cir.1999). We must look at the evidence in the light most favorable to the inmates, give them the benefit of all reasonable inferences, and assume the jury resolved all evidentiary conflicts in their favor. Id. We will overturn the verdict only if no reasonable juror could have found in favor of the inmates. Id. 10 The Eighth Amendment requires prison officials to take reasonable measures to guarantee the safety of the inmates. Hudson v. Palmer, 468 U.S. 517, 526-27, 104 S.Ct. 3194, 82 L.Ed.2d 393 (1984). However, not every injury to a prisoner translates into constitutional liability for prison officials responsible for the victim's safety. Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 834, 114 S.Ct. 1970, 128 L.Ed.2d 811 (1994). A prison official is liable for violating the Eighth Amendment in a failure to protect case only when two requirements are met. First, the inmate must show that he is incarcerated under conditions posing an objectively substantial risk of serious harm. Id. Second, the inmate must prove that, subjectively, the prison official was deliberately indifferent to the inmate's health or safety. Id. 11 Hays claims that his motion for judgment as a matter of law should have been granted because Lawrence and Kirksey failed to prove the objective prong of the Farmer test. Hays does not argue on appeal that he lacked the requisite mental culpability that forms the second prong of the Farmer test. Instead, Hays claims that the inmates suffered only de minimis injuries from the pepper spray, and thus were not subjected to a substantial risk of serious harm. To support this claim, Hays argues that his conduct was analogous to the prison official's conduct in Jones v. Shields, 207 F.3d 491 (8th Cir.2000), where we found that an inmate sprayed with pepper spray did not establish an Eighth Amendment violation. In Jones, an inmate while out of his cell refused a work order and when ordered to his barracks became loud and argumentative. The prison official used pepper spray on the inmate in response to the outburst. Id. at 493. The spray was dispensed in a one-second burst from a small can with a trigger and the inmate testified that the effects of the spray cleared within forty-five minutes. Id. at 494. The court held that the prison official's administration of [pepper spray] in this prison setting resulted in de minimis injury for Eighth Amendment purposes. Id. at 495. 12 Jones, however, did not hold that all applications of pepper spray result in de minimis injury. Instead, the Jones court reasoned that a factual inquiry should take place consider[ing] the extent of the pain inflicted in order to determine whether a constitutional deprivation has occurred. Id. The facts here are quite different than those in Jones. The inmate in Jones refused direct orders from prison officials to return to his barracks and became threatening. Furthermore, the inmate in Jones was not confined to his cell and was much larger than the prison official who used the spray. Id. at 497. Jones concluded that the limited application of pepper spray was a tempered response when faced with a recalcitrant inmate. Id. at 496. Here, on the other hand, Lawrence and Kirksey were confined to their cell and the evidence does not show that they disobeyed orders. 13 In addition, while the prisoner in Jones was sprayed with a burst from a small can with a trigger, id. at 494, the evidence at trial established that Lawrence and Kirksey were doused with pepper spray from a MK-46, which, as previously noted, is a large cannister resembling a fire extinguisher with a twelve to fourteen-inch wand attached. The facts in this case do not support Hays' claim that the inmates suffered de minimis injuries. Unlike in Jones, here, the inmates' faces and bodies were soaked in pepper spray as a result of Hays' call for the movement team. In fact, their entire cell was covered with the spray. One of the officers even proclaimed: that is some bad stuff. Kirksey claimed that he experienced spotting on his lower body for almost two years following the incident. Lawrence testified that he has suffered problems with his skin and eyes following the incident. Hays argues that the injury claims by the inmates were refuted by the testimony and records of the nurse who treated them. However, as the inmates' brief correctly points out, quoting Phillips v. Collings, 256 F.3d 843, 847 (8th Cir.2001), [c]redibility determinations, the weighing of the evidence, and the drawing of legitimate inferences from the facts are jury functions, not those of a judge. Based on the facts adduced at trial, a jury could reasonably conclude that Hays orchestrated a vicious attack on the inmates for no legitimate reason. 14 Hays also argues that the jury verdict proves that the inmates' injuries were de minimis because it only awarded nominal damages of one dollar per inmate. However, that is not the law of this circuit. As we explained in Howard v. Barnett, 21 F.3d 868, 873 (8th Cir.1994), force that is excessive within the meaning of the Eighth Amendment is compensable if it causes the prisoner actual injury, even if the injury is not of great significance. In fact, we have held that [a]n injury warranting nominal damages is not necessarily the result of a de minimis use of force. Stated differently, it is possible for a use of force to be excessive and in violation of the Eighth Amendment, and yet result in injury having no or only nominal monetary value. Foulk v. Charrier, 262 F.3d 687, 701 (8th Cir.2001). 15 Hays claims that even if the inmates successfully demonstrate an Eighth Amendment violation, he is nonetheless entitled to qualified immunity. Government officials have qualified immunity from suit if their conduct does not violate clearly established constitutional rights of which a reasonable person should have known. Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). This doctrine, however, is of no avail to Hays. It was well-established at the time of Hays' acts that failing to protect inmates from a foreseeable attack violates the Eighth Amendment when an official is deliberately indifferent to a substantial risk of serious harm. Estate of Davis v. Delo, 115 F.3d 1388, 1395 (8th Cir.1997) (affirming verdict finding prison officials liable for failing to protect inmates from excessive use of force by another prison official). 16 Hays argues that Estate of Davis did not clearly establish that his conduct was unconstitutional because in that case a prison official was found liable for using excessive force, whereas here the jury found against the inmates on their claim of excessive force against defendant McCory, who actually sprayed the inmates. Hays argues that it has not been clearly established that he is required to protect an inmate from a colleague's constitutional use of force. This argument fails because it ignores the jury instructions provided in this case. In order to find McCory liable for using excessive force, the instructions required the jury to find that the force he used was excessive and applied maliciously and sadistically for the very purpose of causing harm, and not in a good faith effort to achieve a legitimate purpose. Joint Appendix at 497 (emphasis added). In all likelihood, the jury did not find McCory liable because it felt that McCory was simply following Hays' orders, and did not spray the inmates maliciously and sadistically. McCory testified that he was not even present when Hays said Niggers get naked. Instead, McCory arrived at the cell with no knowledge of why Hays had called for the movement team. Therefore, a jury finding that McCory was not liable for an excessive use of force does not mean the jury concluded that the entire pepper spraying incident was a constitutional use of force. 17 In fact, the jury instructions concerning the failure to protect claim against Hays required the jury to first find that McCory used excessive force, which they did. Joint Appendix at 501. These two findings are entirely consistent. A jury could find that McCory used excessive force on Hays' verdict form, but find in favor of McCory because he did not use such force maliciously and sadistically. Indeed, that appears to be what the jury found. In sum, the fact that the jury did not find McCory liable does not establish that Hays is entitled to qualified immunity. Orchestrating an unnecessary pepper spray shower violated clearly established rights of which a reasonable person should have known. Harlow, 457 U.S. at 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727.