Opinion ID: 2976544
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Steve Bronsink

Text: Plaintiff has failed to allege sufficient facts to prove that defendant Steve Bronsink violated Lanman’s constitutional rights. While it is alleged that Bronsink was present and perhaps involved in Lanman’s restraint, plaintiff has failed to allege, with any particularity, the unconstitutionality of Bronsink’s individual actions. Thus, summary judgment should be granted in his favor. In sum, drawing all inferences in favor of plaintiff, a reasonable factfinder could conclude that defendants James Siegfried, Mike Morey, George White, Robert Hinson, and Julie Stiver, R.N., restrained Lanman in a dangerous face-down position, with pressure on his back and possibly his neck, with his ankles crossed and extended towards his head. They also could conclude that these defendants ignored Lanman’s pleas for them to get off so he could breathe and failed to notice that he was having “obvious difficulty breathing.” Indeed, under plaintiff’s version of the facts given by eyewitness patient Richard Hunter, Lanman was “noticeably more calm” after two to three minutes of struggling, and five minutes later, “he wasn’t resisting at all. He looked like he was passed out.” According to Hunter’s account of the events, it was not until that point, when Lanman had become unconscious, that one of the hospital staff members noticed he wasn’t breathing and the hospital staff slowly got off of him, rolled him on his back, and began CPR. Again, viewing the facts in the light most favorable to plaintiff, a jury could conclude based on the affidavit of Dr. Werner U. Spitz that Lanman “died as a result of the consequences of positional asphyxia committed by the defendant Hospital staff members,” and not as a result of Lanman’s underlying cardiovascular disease, doxepin toxicity and extreme physical exertion as defendants assert. Defendants had been trained under NAPPI (Nonabusive Physical and Psychological Intervention) to never restrain a patient face down on the floor or put pressure on the patient’s back because of the danger of suffocation. They also had been taught that they should cross a patient’s ankles and pull the feet up towards the back of the head only as a technique to exit a seclusion room. The facts taken in the light most favorable to plaintiff reveal that defendants used unapproved and dangerous restraint techniques to control Lanman. The facts also show that defendants continued No. 06-2263 Lanman v. Hinson, et al. Page 11 to use these dangerous techniques after two to three minutes of struggling when Lanman was “noticeably more calm,” and five minutes later, when “he wasn’t resisting at all . . . [h]e looked like he was passed out.” Under these facts, a reasonable factfinder could find that defendants James Siegfried, Mike Morey, George White, and Robert Hinson knew that their actions created a substantial risk of serious harm to Lanman, yet they disregarded this knowledge by continuing to restrain him in a dangerous manner for five minutes after he had ceased resisting. A reasonable factfinder could also conclude that defendant Julie Stiver, R.N., as the nurse in charge of the restraint procedure, is liable for her subordinates’ unconstitutional actions and/or that she substantially departed from professional judgment in her supervision of the resident care aides’ deliberately indifferent actions. Therefore, we find, viewing the facts in the light most favorable to plaintiff, that a reasonable factfinder could conclude that defendants James Siegfried, Mike Morey, George White, Robert Hinson, and Julie Stiver, R.N., violated Lanman’s Fourteenth Amendment substantive due process right to freedom from undue bodily restraint. However, we also find that summary judgment should be granted in favor of defendants Edwina Koehn-Koldenhof, R.N., Jean Prandine, Linda Shaffer-Price, and Steve Bronsink because plaintiff has failed to allege sufficient facts demonstrating that their actions violated Lanman’s constitutional rights. B. Constitutional Right Was Clearly Established However, even if defendants violated Lanman’s constitutional right, if at the time of the alleged violations it would not have been clear to defendants that their actions were unlawful in the situation they confronted, they are entitled to qualified immunity. Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 201-02 (2001). Officials do not enjoy qualified immunity simply because the exact conduct in question has not previously been held unlawful by a court, but “in the light of pre-existing law the unlawfulness must be apparent.” Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 640 (1987). “[A]n action’s unlawfulness can be apparent from direct holdings, from specific examples described as prohibited, or from the general reasoning that a court employs.” Feathers v. Aey, 319 F.3d 843, 848 (6th Cir. 2003). Overall, “[t]he contours of the right must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right.” Id. Here, at the time of the alleged constitutional violation, it would have been clear to defendants that their actions would violate Lanman’s Fourteenth Amendment substantive due process right to be free from undue bodily restraint. It is not determinative that defendants’ exact conduct has not previously been held unlawful by a court. In Youngberg, the Supreme Court recognized that involuntarily confined patients in state institutions enjoy the right to freedom from undue bodily restraint; bodily restraint is undue when and to the extent professional judgment deems this unnecessary to assure safety or to provide treatment. 457 U.S. at 324. As we discussed supra, the voluntary/involuntary distinction,2while perhaps relevant to whether the state has the duty to protect patients from third-party harm, is irrelevant to the right of individuals, whatever their status, to be free from physical abuse at the hands of the State. Thus, it would have been clear to defendants that Lanman enjoyed the Fourteenth Amendment right to freedom from undue bodily restraint recognized in Youngberg and reenforced by our Court in Terrance. The facts viewed in the light most favorable to plaintiff demonstrate that defendants knew because of their NAPPI training that restraining a patient face-down on the floor and putting pressure on a patient’s back posed a substantial risk of asphyxiation. Despite knowledge of this risk, defendants chose to restrain Lanman using these dangerous restraint techniques. Their actions were 2 We note, though, that the Second Circuit has found that Youngberg’s affirmative duties of care and protection from third-party harm extend to voluntary and involuntary residents alike. Society for Good Will to Retarded Children v. Cuomo, 737 F.2d 1239, 1245-46 (2d Cir. 1984). No. 06-2263 Lanman v. Hinson, et al. Page 12 objectively unreasonable given the fact that plaintiff’s eyewitness testified that defendants continued to restrain Lanman in this dangerous position five minutes after he wasn’t resisting at all and looked like he was passed out. It would have been clear to defendants that it was not necessary to continue restraining a patient who looked like he was passed out with techniques that pose a substantial risk of asphyxiation. A reasonable official in defendants’ positions would understand that his actions violated Lanman’s constitutional right to freedom from undue bodily restraint. Therefore, we find that the right was clearly established at the time of Lanman’s restraint, and defendants James Siegfried, Mike Morey, George White, Robert Hinson, and Julie Stiver, R.N., are not entitled to qualified immunity.