Opinion ID: 2785909
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: e., whether the record is capable of

Text: supporting a particular factual finding, rather than a particular legal conclusion -- “are not sufficiently distinct to warrant interlocutory appeal.” If appellate courts were to overlook this separability problem in the context of fact-based qualified immunity appeals and accept jurisdiction, those courts “may well be faced with approximately the same factual issue again, after trial,” and interlocutory review would prove an unwise use of appellate resources. Id. at 358–59 (citations omitted) (quoting Johnson, 515 U.S. at 314, 316–17; Mlodzinski v. Lewis, 648 F.3d 24, 27 (1st Cir. 2011)). In Cady, we faulted the defendants for failing to “develop the argument that, even drawing all the inferences as the district court concluded a jury permissibly could, they are ‐46‐ entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Id. at 359–60. We acknowledged that there had been cases in which the defendants had accepted as true the plaintiffs’ version of the facts (and the reasonable inferences from those facts), and we had exercised jurisdiction. Id. at 360 (citing Mlodzinski, 648 F.3d at 28). The defendants in Cady, however, had not done so; instead, their briefing disputed “both the facts identified by the magistrate judge as well as the inferences proffered by the plaintiff and deemed reasonable by the magistrate judge.” Id. We explained: With respect to each individual defendant, the defendants’ briefing objects to the way the district court construed the facts and argues that the district court and magistrate judge erred in their conclusions as to what a reasonable juror could find. Those fact-based arguments are inextricably intertwined with whatever “purely legal” contentions are contained in the defendants’ briefs: were we to attempt to separate the legal from the factual in order to address only those arguments over which we might permissibly exercise jurisdiction, we simply would not know where to begin. . . . [T]he defendants’ brief repeatedly attacks the district court’s factual conclusions, making no effort to separate fact-based arguments from “purely legal” ones. Id. The defendants’ “fact-based challenge[s],” we explained, “would . . . not defeat jurisdiction if [they] were advanced in the alternative. But nowhere in the defendants’ brief does ‐47‐ there appear any developed argument that the defendants are entitled to summary judgment even if the district court’s conclusions about the record were correct.” Id. at 361. We therefore concluded that, “[b]ecause the defendants fail[ed] to pose even the qualified immunity question in a manner that would permit us to conclude that ‘the answer to it does not depend upon whose account of the facts is correct,’ we lack[ed] the authority to provide an answer.” Id. (quoting Stella, 63 F.3d at 75). Penn v. Escorsio, 764 F.3d 102 (1st Cir. 2014), petition for cert. filed, 83 U.S.L.W. 3586 (U.S. Dec. 15, 2014) (No. 14-709), is our latest substantive decision on the subject. As with Cady, Penn involved allegations that corrections officers were deliberately indifferent to the serious medical needs of a pretrial detainee, Lalli, and the defendant officers had moved for summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds. The defendants did not dispute that “clearly established law at the time Lalli attempted suicide dictated officers must take some reasonable measures to thwart a known, substantial risk that a pre-trial detainee will attempt suicide.” Id. at 105. “Rather,” we explained, Defendant Winslow argues he was not deliberately indifferent, and therefore did ‐48‐ not violate Lalli’s rights because “the summary judgment record does not support finding a genuine issue as to whether Winslow actually knew of the risk [that Lalli would attempt suicide] or whether Winslow was deliberately indifferent to that risk.” Similarly, Defendant Escorsio argues she “was not deliberately indifferent to Lalli’s Fourteenth Amendment rights because she took some action to avert the risk of harm.” But these discussions “nowhere develop the argument that, even drawing all the inferences as the district court concluded a jury permissibly could, they are entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Instead, Winslow’s arguments take issue with the district court’s factual determinations as to his knowledge of risk and his efforts -- or lack thereof -- to abate that risk. Similarly, Escorsio’s arguments dispute the court’s factual finding that she may have taken essentially no action to avert the risk Lalli would attempt suicide when she returned him to Cell 135. As we recently stated in Cady, these “fact-based challenge[s] would, of course, not defeat jurisdiction if . . . advanced in the alternative. But nowhere in the defendants’ brief does there appear any developed argument that the defendants are entitled to summary judgment even if the district court’s conclusions about the record were correct.” As such, we have no basis on which to exercise jurisdiction over whether Defendants violated Lalli’s clearly established rights through deliberate indifference to the risk that he would attempt suicide. Id. at 111 (alterations in original) (footnote omitted) (citations omitted). ‐49‐