Opinion ID: 8414547
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Mulvania’s Claims

Text: On November 7, 2010, two police officers arrested Joan Mulvania for domestic battery. They brought her to the Rock Island County Jail, but upon arrival, Mulvania refused to exit the vehicle. Several corrections officers moved her from the car to a holding cell in the jail. Mulvania’s speech was slurred, and she screamed obscenities, refused to cooperate with the officers, and was physically combative. The officers testified that Mulvania appeared intoxicated and was acting erratically. Mulvania claims she was experiencing a “posh-traumatic stress disorder flashback.” She disputes that the officers smelled alcohol on her breath. Defendants acknowledge that they did not smell alcohol, but they rely on hospital laboratory results from that day in which Mulvania tested positive for cocaine and cannabinoids. Once in the holding cell, Mulvania refused to change from her clothes into a jail uniform, which is part of the jail’s booking process for all detainees. The defendants claim that misdemeanor detainees are permitted to change in a private room when they are cooperative; however, the plaintiffs dispute this. When detainees are not cooperative, the Sheriff permits officers to use reasonable force to ensure compliance with the policy. After Mulvania refused to change into the jail uniform, two female corrections officers and three or four male officers restrained her and removed her clothing. They placed Mulvania on her stomach, held her arms straight over her head, and then lifted her shirt off. During this process, Mulvania banged her head against the floor and yelled, “They’re going to rape me.” After they removed her clothing, the officers draped a jail uniform over her naked body and left the holding cell. Several minutes later, Mulvania had a seizure and was brought to the hospital. After she returned from the hospital, she was released from the jail without any charges.
In November 2010 Mulvania filed this suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Rock Island County and the Sheriff of Rock Island County. She alleged that the officers unlawfully arrested her, detained her without probable cause, conducted an unconstitutional strip search, used unreasonable force by shackling her, continued to detain her after she was informed that she would not be prosecuted, and sexually assaulted her because of her sexual orientation. Mulvania amended her complaint numerous times over the next several years, dropping most of her original claims and adding new ones, including the underwear claim. On April 15, 2015, Mulvania sought to file a fourth amended complaint in which she intended to “delete all of the allegations pertaining to the individual defendants and to clarify plaintiffs official capacity claims against the Sheriff.” She also sought to add a new claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The district court denied her motion as it pertained to the Americans with Disabilities Act. The court said the new claim did not relate back to the third amended complaint and that it was not in the interest of justice to amend the complaint once again to add that new claim after so many years of litigation. The court permitted plaintiffs to file a fourth amended complaint “that includes only the allegations related to the underwear claim.” When the plaintiffs filed their fourth amended complaint, however, they included not only the underwear claim but also Mulvania’s earlier excessive force claim. The Sheriff moved to strike those allegations because they exceeded the court’s order granting leave to amend the complaint. On March 31, 2016, the district court granted the motion to strike, but also proceeded to address the merits of the claim to avoid deciding the case on a “procedural technicality.”
Mulvania claims the Rock Island County Jail has a widespread custom or practice of using excessive force to require detainees to change into jail-issued uniforms. She acknowledges that the jail’s official policy authorizes a use-of-force continuum to ensure compliance with the uniform policy. She claims that in practice, however, excessive force is the norm. The district court Concluded that Mulvania put forward insufficient evidence of such a custom or practice of using excessive force. We agree. We review de novo the district court’s decision granting the Sheriffs motion for summary judgment. Chaib v. Geo Group, Inc., 819 F.3d 337, 340 (7th Cir. 2016). We construe all facts in the light most favorable to Mulvania, who is the non-moving party. Id. Summary judgment is appropriate if there is no genuine dispute of material fact and the Sheriff is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). Mulvania relies on two statements by corrections officers to support her claim of a widespread practice of using excessive force to ensure compliance with the jail’s uniform policy. Officer Bailey testified in his deposition, “When someone refuses to remove their clothes, we have to take their clothes away from them and give them a jumpsuit.” Officer Nesseler testified that if a detainee refuses to remove her clothing, ‘We just take ’em off.” Neither of these statements is evidence of the use of excessive force, let alone a widespread practice of it. The first statement is consistent with the Sheriffs stated use-of-force continuum policy. The second statement is quoted misleadingly by plaintiffs. Officer Nes-seler’s “We just take ’em off’ statement responded to the question: “how would you go about taking a detainee’s clothes off?” Her response is not evidence of any use of excessive force. Mulvania argues, however, that the defendants did not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence in their motion for summary judgment. She claims that the district court raised this argument on its own and failed to give her notice and a reasonable time to respond on the issue as required by Rule 56(f). This is not correct. The defendants did argue that there was insufficient evidence of a widespread practice of excessive force in their motion. They claimed that Mulvania “cannot show that the policy of the Sheriff requires excessive force given the circumstances” nor can she “show a widespread practice or custom based on only her arrest and detention.” That was sufficient to require her to come forward with evidence of a widespread practice. It was not an error for the district court to decide the motion on these grounds.
Mulvania argues next that the district court abused its discretion when it denied her motion for leave to amend her complaint to include a claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq. The ADA claim sought to challenge the jail’s intake procedures, alleging that the jail’s' practice of enforcing the uniform policy before providing mental health screening was unlawful. Mulvania alleged that she had PTSD and was experiencing a flashback during her intake, and that the jail policy failed to accommodate her disability. The district court denied Mulvania’s motion for two reasons. First, the court said her motion did not relate back to the original pleading under Rule 15(c)(1) and was thus timebarred. The court noted that none of Mulvania’s earlier complaints included any reference to PTSD or mental health screening. Second, the court said that amending the complaint to allow the ADA claim would not further the interests of justice. See Fed R. Civ. P. 15(a). The court noted that Mulvania was attempting to recast her claims after years of litigation and that the lengthy delay in bringing the ADA claim seemed strategic. We review for abuse of discretion the district court’s denial of Mulvania’s motion to amend her complaint. Hall v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co., 469 F.3d 590, 594 (7th Cir. 2006). As a general rule, district courts should liberally grant leave to amend pleadings. Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a); Roman v. Davis, 371 U.S. 178, 182, 83 S.Ct. 227, 9 L.Ed.2d 222 (1962) (reversing denial of leave to amend by citing Rule 15(a)(2)’s mandate to freely grant leave to amend and stating “this mandate is to be heeded”); Barry Aviation Inc. v. Land O’Lakes Municipal Airport Comm’n, 377 F.3d 682, 687 & n.3 (7th Cir. 2004) (collecting cases). This liberal approach to amendments is particularly important where the law is uncertain, such as with pleading standards. Runnion v. Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago & Northwest Indiana, 786 F.3d 510, 520 (7th Cir. 2015) (“In the wake of Twombly and Iqbal, there remain considerable uncertainty and variation among the lower courts as to just how demanding pleading standards have become .... In the face of that uncertainty, applying the liberal standard for amending pleadings, especially in the early stages of a lawsuit, is the best way to ensure that cases will be decided justly and on their merits.”) (citations omitted). Despite this generally liberal approach to pleading amendments, the district court did not abuse its discretion in this case. The court quite reasonably found that Mulvania’s amendment would not have furthered the interests of justice. Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a). We have noted that “district courts have broad discretion to deny leave to amend where there is undue delay, bad faith, dilatory motive, repeated failure to cure deficiencies, undue prejudice to defendants, or where the amendment would be futile.” Arreola v. Godinez, 546 F.3d 788, 796 (7th Cir. 2008); accord, e.g., Runnion, 786 F.3d at 520 (noting undue delay is sound basis for denying leave to amend pleadings). Here, the district court found that the plaintiffs had unreasonably delayed introducing the ADA claim, and the court suggested that the delay was strategic. Mulva-nia could have alleged the ADA claim at the beginning of the suit. The lengthy delay could not be justified by newly discovered information. Moreover, allowing the new claim after several years of litigation would have burdened the defendants by requiring them to engage in-substantial additional discovéry. The court also found that the claim would be futile because it would be barred by the two-year statute of limitations for ADA claims. The district court set forth sufficient reasons to deny the proposed amendment. It did not abuse its discretion.