Opinion ID: 183975
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: Bishop claims that we lack jurisdiction to consider the Deputies' interlocutory appeal from the district court's denial of their motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity. Under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 (2006), we have jurisdiction to hear an appeal only from a final decision of the district court. Denial of summary judgment is usually considered an interlocutory order, not a final judgment, and thus not appealable to this court. See, e.g., Phelps v. Coy, 286 F.3d 295, 298 (6th Cir.2002) (citing Johnson v. Jones, 515 U.S. 304, 309, 115 S.Ct. 2151, 132 L.Ed.2d 238 (1995)). However, denial of a motion for summary judgment on the ground of qualified immunity may be deemed a final, appealable order because the qualified immunity doctrine exists partly to protect officials from having to stand trial, and a defendant wrongly forced to go to trial loses the benefit of the immunity even if exonerated after trial. See id. (citing Johnson, 515 U.S. at 311-12, 115 S.Ct. 2151). Thus, a party may immediately appeal a denial of summary judgment if (1) the defendant is a public official asserting qualified immunity, and (2) the issue on appeal is not what facts the parties may be able to prove, but whether the plaintiff's facts, taken at their best, show a violation of clearly established law. Williams v. Mehra, 186 F.3d 685, 689 (6th Cir.1999) (citing Johnson, 515 U.S. at 311, 115 S.Ct. 2151). A denial of a claim of qualified immunity is immediately appealable only if the appeal is premised not on a factual dispute, but rather on neat abstract issues of law. Johnson, 515 U.S. at 317, 115 S.Ct. 2151 (citation omitted); see Ortiz v. Jordan, ___ U.S. ___, 131 S.Ct. 884, 891-92, 178 L.Ed.2d 703 (2011). The key issue in this case is whether the Deputies were deliberately indifferent to Bishop's safety needs. The legal standard for deliberate indifference is a question of law, and the Deputies' knowledge and conduct are questions of fact. Thus, the question in this casewhether the Deputies' conduct, as alleged by Bishop, could constitute deliberate indifferenceis a mixed question of law and fact. We have held that we have jurisdiction to consider an appeal from a denial of qualified immunity if the defendant does not dispute the facts alleged by the plaintiff for purposes of the appeal. Alternatively, [i]f, instead, the defendant disputes the plaintiff's version of the story, the defendant must nonetheless be willing to concede the most favorable view of the facts to the plaintiff for purposes of the appeal. Berryman v. Rieger, 150 F.3d 561, 563 (6th Cir.1998) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). In their briefs, the Deputies state that they concede Bishop's version of the facts for purposes of this appeal. See Reply Brief on Appeal of Defendants-Appellants at 2-3 ([D]efendants do not contest the facts or invite the Court to re-examine and decide disputed fact questions.... Defendants predicate their position, as they must under Johnson v. Jones , on Bishop's version of the facts.). Because the Deputies do not dispute the basic facts for purposes of this appeal, the case turns on a question of law: whether, interpreting the facts as alleged by Bishop, defendants are entitled to qualified immunity from Bishop's Eighth Amendment claims. Cf. Williams, 186 F.3d at 690. We have jurisdiction to consider whether Bishop's facts, admitted by the Deputies for purposes of this appeal, show a violation of clearly established law. See, e.g., Leary v. Livingston Cnty., 528 F.3d 438, 441 (6th Cir.2008); Williams, 186 F.3d at 690; Berryman, 150 F.3d at 563. Therefore, the district court's denial of qualified immunity is a final order under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we have jurisdiction to decide the case on the merits. See Williams, 186 F.3d at 690. Thus, we must analyze whether, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to Bishop, the district court's legal determination that the defendants could have acted with deliberate indifference was correct.