Court Opinion

ID: 9489658
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:20:40.594771+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:53:38.583748
License: Public Domain

DUGGAN, District Judge,
concurring in part, and dissenting in part.
I concur with the majority except with respect to Nurse Ahlers. While I agree that the evidence, viewed in a light most favorable to plaintiff, could lead a jury to conclude that Nurse Ahlers had the opportunity and ability to prevent the beating, I am not persuaded that she had a “clearly established” duty to do so. I am aware of no precedent from this or any other court that has imposed liability on an individual (other than a police, correctional or security officer) for his or her failure to intervene, simply because he or she was, arguably, in a position to have prevented the beating.1
The doctrine of qualified immunity is intended to shield from suit those officials whose wrongful conduct2 was not clearly established as a constitutional violation at the time the conduct occurred. “For a right to be clearly established, the contours of the right must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what [s]he is doing violates that right. To be outside the scope of qualified immunity, the very action in question need not have previously been held unlawful, but the unlawfulness must be apparent in light of pre-existing law.” Thomas v. Whalen, 51 F.3d 1285, 1289-90 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 116 S.Ct. 518, 133 L.Ed.2d 426 (1995). See Walton v. City of Southfield, 995 F.2d 1331, 1335-36 (6th Cir.1993).
While Nurse Ahlers’ inaction was, at the very least, improper, I do not believe that it was “clearly established” that her failure to intervene would be deemed a constitutional violation. Because I do not believe that any decisions from this Court, or any other court for that matter, outline “the contours of the right” in a sufficiently clear manner so that a reasonable official in Nurse Ahlers’ position would understand that what she was doing (or not doing) violates a constitutional right, see Whalen and Walton, I believe that Nurse Ahlers is entitled to qualified immunity. I would therefore affirm the District Court’s decision with respect to her.

. I agree with the majority that defendant Glover, a security officer, occupies a “law enforcement” position and thus is not entitled to qualified immunity.

. In discussing the issue of “immunity”, we assume that the conduct was "wrongful”; otherwise, there would be no need to discuss the issue of immunity.