Court Opinion

ID: 9546380
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:28:37.087687+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:16:22.349305
License: Public Domain

Justice LOHR
dissenting:
The majority holds that Mary L. Henderson failed to allege facts in her amended complaint sufficient to state a claim that the defendants created the dangerous situation that resulted in a vicious and prolonged attack upon her by William Sojka, an inmate at the state correctional facility at which Henderson was employed. As a result, the majority concludes that the district court properly dismissed Henderson’s claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1994). I agree with Judge Taubman’s dissent to the court of appeals’ affirmance of the dismissal. See Henderson v. Romer, 910 P.2d 48, 55 (Colo.App.1995) (Taubman, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part). I would hold that the allegations in the amended complaint, viewed in the light most favorable to Henderson, amply support a reasonable inference that defendants Wager and Price (defendants), who were supervisory officials at the state correctional facility, deprived her of her Fourteenth Amendment substantive due process rights by intentionally or recklessly creating the danger resulting in the attack upon Henderson or rendering her more vulnerable to that attack. I therefore respectfully dissent and would remand the case to the court of appeals with instructions to vacate the district court’s order of dismissal.
I.
For the purpose of assessing whether a trial court properly granted a motion to dismiss, “the allegations of the complaint must be viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff.” Dunlap v. Colorado Springs Cablevision, 829 P.2d 1286, 1291 (Colo.1992). *1163Dismissal is not warranted “‘unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief.’” Id. (quoting Davidson v. Dill, 180 Colo. 123, 131-32, 503 P.2d 157, 162 (1972)). A complaint may not be dismissed if its allegations support relief on any possible theory. Dunlap, 829 P.2d at 1290.
I agree substantially with the analytical framework set forth in the majority opinion. As a general rule, “a State’s failure to protect an individual against private violence simply does not constitute a violation of the Due Process Clause.” DeShaney v. Winnebago County Dep’t of Social Servs., 489 U.S. 189, 197, 109 S.Ct. 998, 1004, 103 L.Ed.2d 249 (1989). Accordingly, § 1983 provides no remedy for such an injury. See id.1 As the majority opinion notes, this rule has two important exceptions. These exceptions permit a § 1983 action when (1) a “special relationship” exists between the state and the injured plaintiff, or (2) the state intentionally or recklessly creates the danger resulting in the harm to the plaintiff or renders the plaintiff more vulnerable to the harm. Uhlrig v. Harder, 64 F.3d 567, 571-72, 572 n. 7 (10th Cir.1995), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 116 S.Ct. 924, 133 L.Ed.2d 853 (1996). In addition, the injured party must show that the state action “ ‘shock[s] the conscience.’ ” Id. at 571 (quoting Collins v. City of Harker Heights, 503 U.S. 115, 126, 112 S.Ct. 1061, 1069, 117 L.Ed.2d 261 (1992)).
In DeShaney, the United States Supreme Court first alluded to the existence of the second exception, suggesting that a state breaches a constitutional duty to protect an individual from harm when it plays a part in the creation of the danger to the individual or makes the individual more vulnerable to the danger. See 489 U.S. at 201,109 S.Ct. at 1006. The majority opinion correctly states that this exception is not satisfied when a state’s failure to conform to a standard of care would constitute mere negligence under state tort law. See Collins, 503 U.S. at 128, 112 S.Ct. at 1070. Instead, a supervisory employee whose conduct is imputable to the state must possess a culpable mental state permitting the inference that the supervisor either intentionally harmed the plaintiff or that the supervisor intentionally or recklessly placed the plaintiff in a situation presenting an unreasonable risk of harm. Uhlrig, 64 F.3d at 573. A supervisor acts “recklessly” when the supervisor “recognizes the unreasonable risk and actually intends to expose the plaintiff to such risks without regard to the consequences to the plaintiff.” Id. at 574 n. 8. Such action has sometimes been characterized as “deliberate indifference.” L.W. v. Grubbs, 974 F.2d 119, 123 (9th Cir.1992).
I am compelled to disagree, however, with the majority opinion’s application of this analytical framework to the facts of this case as set forth in Henderson’s amended complaint. The complaint alleges that on February 28, 1992, Henderson was attacked and tortured by an inmate at the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility while Henderson was working alone in her assigned office performing her job duties of distributing aspirin and other items to the inmates. Inmates, including Sojka, were allowed access to the office during a ten minute period each morning pursuant to official policy and procedure. During this period on February 28, Sojka attacked Henderson and held her hostage with the broken shank of a mirror. Over a span of five and one-half hour's’ Sojka beat Henderson, tortured her, cut her neck, face, and hands, and shocked her repeatedly with an electrical cord in an attempt to electrocute her.
According to the complaint, Sojka’s attack was part of a broader conspiracy among the prisoners to effect an escape from the facility. The complaint further alleges that Henderson and other employees had notified Wager, a facility supervisor, of evidence of “the impending attack and hostage taking *1164threat” at least a week prior to the attack on Henderson. Henderson “requested that [Wager] take action to prevent the attack and hostage taking.” Pursuant to official policy, Henderson forwarded a confirmatory memorandum “outlining evidence of the inmates’ conspiracy” to Wager and Price, facility superintendent, “several days prior to the incident.” The complaint goes on to allege that despite these entreaties, Wager and Price took no action. Four days before the attack, when Henderson inquired of Wager what preventive measures he had taken in response to her report of the conspiracy, Wager replied to the effect that “he couldn’t be ‘shuffling people around’ and ‘we don’t want to rock the boat.’” In addition, the complaint alleges that the defendants knew Sojka was unreasonably dangerous, based on his psychological rating, to be incarcerated in the Arkansas Valley facility and the housing unit where Henderson worked. The complaint alleges that Wager received information the day before the attack that an inmate had warned another employee not to come to work the next day. This information, taken together with the information previously provided by Henderson, strongly suggested that the escape attempt would take place the very next day. The complaint makes the further allegation that the defendants, notwithstanding their awareness of an impending escape attempt and the danger to Henderson in particular, required Henderson to work on the day of the attack without having provided protection or taken any other steps to forestall the attack visited upon her.
Because of the defendants’ inaction in refusing to respond to the general threat of the impending escape attempt and the specific danger to Henderson, and their action in requiring her to work without having implemented any safety measures, the amended complaint alleges that the defendants:
(f) intentionally placed Mary [Henderson] in a situation of danger created by them with reckless indifference, in unguarded proximity with an inmate unreasonably dangerous for the facility.
(g) ... intentionally or recklessly failed to take any action in response to multiple warnings of the impending action by inmates to protect Mary.
(h)... intentionally placed Mary in a situation of known danger of their creation with deliberate indifference to that danger, after receiving warning of a pending incident.
The majority opinion nevertheless concludes that Henderson’s amended complaint is deficient. In particular, the majority opinion cites Collins for the determination that Henderson’s allegations show only that the defendants created an unsafe work environment. Maj. op. at 1160. In Collins, Larry Michael Collins, an employee of the city of Harker Heights, Texas, died of asphyxia after entering a manhole to unplug a sewer line. 503 U.S. at 117, 112 S.Ct. at 1064. His widow brought a § 1983 action against the city, alleging that the city created an unreasonable risk of harm to Collins by “following a custom and policy of not training its employees about the dangers of working in sewer lines and manholes, not providing safety equipment at jobsites, and not providing safety warnings.” Id. Although the widow alleged that the city’s conduct was intentional, the Supreme Court held that her complaint did not set forth a cognizable constitutional violation because its factual allegations essentially set forth a claim for mere negligence. See id. at 128, 112 S.Ct. at 1070. The Court noted that the widow “does not even allege that [Collins’] supervisor instructed him to go into the sewer when the supervisor knew or should have known that there was a significant risk that he would be injured. Instead, she makes the more general allegation that the city deprived [Collins] of life and liberty by failing to provide a reasonably safe work environment.” Id. at 125-26, 112 S.Ct. at 1069.
The Court’s decision in Collins is thus distinguishable on its facts. In the present case, Henderson does not simply allege that the defendants knew of the dangers inherent in working at a correctional facility and yet did nothing. She alleges, rather, that both Price and Wager knew of the specific danger to her due to the impending escape attempt and yet consciously chose to ignore’ that threat. She also alleges that Price and Wa*1165ger were aware of Sojka’s unusually dangerous propensities and that official policy and procedure “allowed inmates to visit [Henderson’s] office between approximately 6:20 and 6:30 a.m. each morning to obtain items such as aspirin or other personal items.” Moreover, her allegations support the reasonable inference that the defendants affirmatively took steps to put Henderson in a position of danger and increase her vulnerability. Even though the defendants had information that a mass escape attempt was imminent and that Henderson would be particularly vulnerable, they required her to work at a duty assignment where she was alone and in direct contact with prisoners without having implemented any measures to promote her safety.
Because Henderson’s complaint alleges that Price and Wager knew of Sojka’s violent nature but did nothing to assure Henderson’s safety, this ease is similar to Grubbs. See 974 F.2d at 120-21. In Grubbs, the plaintiff worked as a registered nurse at a state medium security custodial institution for young male offenders. Id. at 120. The defendants, who were the plaintiffs supervisors, selected an inmate committed for violent sex offenses to work with the plaintiff alone in the prison’s medical clinic. Id. As a result of this dangerous situation, the inmate assaulted, battered, kidnapped, and raped the plaintiff. Id. As in the present case, the defendants in Grubbs asserted that their conduct was not actionable under § 1983 because it amounted to mere negligence. Id. In reversing the district court’s dismissal of the complaint for failure to state a claim, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected this argument, noting that the defendants, by assigning the inmate to work with the plaintiff, created an opportunity for him to assault her “that would not otherwise have existed.” Id. at 121.
As in Grubbs, the defendants in the present case had specific knowledge of the threat Sojka posed if left alone with someone in a vulnerable position. Moreover, Henderson had repeatedly warned the defendants that the requirement that she work alone with minimal physical protection posed an unreasonable risk to her unless preventive measures were taken—especially in light of evidence of an impending escape attempt. According to the complaint, however, the defendants consciously disregarded this threat and required Henderson to work without having implemented any precautionary measures whatsoever. Although they did not actually require Henderson to work with Sojka, they created the situation that enabled him to have access to her while she worked alone in her office. In addition, the allegations of the complaint indicate that the defendants were aware of the exact day that the risk to particularly vulnerable employees, such as Henderson, would substantially increase.2 Despite this knowledge, the defendants remained consciously indifferent to the consequences of the grave risk to Henderson because alleviating that risk would be inconvenient. In my view, such conscious indifference evinces a degree of culpability absent in ordinary negligence eases.
Thus, it is reasonably inferable from Henderson’s allegations that the defendants recklessly created an opportunity for Sojka to assault Henderson because the enhanced danger on the day in question was obvious. *1166See Cornelius v. Town of Highland Lake, 880 F.2d 348, 354 (11th Cir.1989) (‘“If the state puts a man in a position of danger and then fails to protect him, it will not be heard to say that its role was merely passive; it is as much an active tortfeasor as if it had thrown him into a snake pit.’ ”) (quoting Bowers v. DeVito, 686 F.2d 616, 618 (7th Cir.1982) (alteration in original)); Medina, 960 F.2d at 1496 (“[G]iven the fact that reckless intent involves an unreasonable disregard of a known great risk rather than intent to cause a particularized harm, the defendant’s reckless conduct may be considered to be directed toward the plaintiff if the plaintiff is closely and immediately tied to the perceived substantial risk.”). Under these circumstances, the defendants’ alleged conduct affirmatively increased Henderson’s vulnerability to a specific, known danger. See DeShaney, 489 U.S. at 201, 109 S.Ct. at 1006 (state not liable under § 1983 for beatings of child by father because, “[w]hile the State may have been aware of the dangers that [the child] faced ... it played no part in their creation, nor did it do anything to render [the child] any more vulnerable to them.”); Cornelius, 880 F.2d at 357 (§ 1983 claim stated when defendants created potentially dangerous situation and placed the plaintiff in a distinct position of danger); Jarvis v. Deyoe, 892 P.2d 398, 400 (Colo.App.1994) (§ 1983 claim cognizable, even in noncustodial setting, if the state affirmatively created or enhanced the risk of harm).
In addition to alleging intentional or reckless creation of danger or increased vulnerability to danger resulting in injury, a plaintiff must allege facts that “shock the conscience” in order to state a § 1983 claim against the state for acts committed by third persons. See Uhlrig, 64 F.3d at 574. In Uhlrig, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals first stated that even if a defendant’s conduct “intentionally or recklessly caused injury to the plaintiff,” “the plaintiff must demonstrate a degree of outrageousness and a magnitude of potential or actual harm that is truly conscience shocking.” 64 F.3d at 574. The court did not precisely define the type of conduct that shocks the conscience, but stated that the parameters of the requirement “must necessarily evolve over time from judgments as to the constitutionality of specific government conduct.” Id. The court found that the defendants’ conduct in that case did not shock the conscience because their actions “resemble[d] those typical of legitimate governmental decisions in times of scarcity—that is, the making of difficult policy choices to reconcile various competing social, political and economic forces.” Id. at 576. Recently, the Tenth Circuit has more specifically elucidated the test for determining when intentional or reckless conduct may be considered to be “outrageous.” In Williams v. Denver, 99 F.3d 1009, 1016 (10th Cir.1996), the court stated that the motivation for the defendant’s conduct is a factor to consider in determining whether such conduct is conscience shocking:
In assessing whether the official conduct at issue is arbitrary or conscience-shocking in a constitutional sense, however, the risk of harm must be weighed against the justification for creating that risk. Conduct that is justified and therefore not arbitrary in one circumstance may be so unjustified as to be unconstitutional under different circumstances.
Id.3 To determine an official’s “justification” for creating a risk, the court stated that an “official’s state of mind is significant,” and conduct “which is motivated by an improper purpose is unquestionably more likely to shock the conscience than the same actions done for legitimate reasons.” Id. at 1017 n. 8.
If Henderson had merely alleged that the defendants failed to act in the face of the general prospect of a future escape attempt, it would be difficult to conclude that then-conduct was conscience-shocking. However, the amended complaint also alleges that the defendants knew that Sojka had especially dangerous propensities and that an escape attempt involving hostage taking was immi*1167nent. The complaint alleges further that Wager’s reaction to Henderson’s inquiry as to what action he had taken in response to the impending escape attempt was “to the effect that he couldn’t be ‘shuffling people around’ and ... ‘we don’t want to rock the boat.’ ” From this latter allegation it can reasonably be inferred that the defendants’ motivation for requiring Henderson to report to work without having taken any steps in response to her concerns was improper. Specifically, a reasonable inference can be drawn from this allegation that the defendants failed to take action because it would be inconvenient, not because of important considerations of prison administration. In light of this improper motivation, and the actual harm of a generally foreseeable nature that resulted, the defendants’ conduct clearly rises to a level of outrageousness that shocks the conscience. Cf. Williams, 99 F.3d at 1017 n. 8 (police officer’s conduct in responding to non-emergency call conscience-shocking because he was “speeding for its own sake” and his action posed great risk of harm). Although the defendants’ action in requiring Henderson to work without having taken any action to promote her safety could have been consistent with her substantive due process rights in the absence of knowledge of an impending escape attempt, the threat of hostage taking, and the particular dangerous propensities of inmate Sojka, the circumstances alleged in the amended complaint adequately state a claim for violation of those rights.
II.
I am not unmindful of the majority opinion’s cautionary note that “ ‘[t]he doctrine of judicial self-restraint requires us to exercise the utmost care whenever we are asked to break new ground in this field.’ ” Maj. op. at 1156 (quoting Collins, 503 U.S. at 125, 112 S.Ct. at 1068). Although this admonition is well-taken, this is simply not a ease where we are being asked to “break new ground.” As Judge Taubman noted in his concurring and dissenting opinion in the court of appeals, “at least four federal circuit courts of appeal have recognized the danger creation exception to DeShaney and allowed a § 1983 claim to go forward.” Henderson, 910 P.2d at 57 (Taubman, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part). Although the majority acknowledges that a motion to dismiss requires the reviewing court to view all allegations of a complaint in favor of the plaintiff, in my view the majority opinion fails to apply that standard to the facts of this case. When the allegations in Mary Henderson’s complaint are construed in her favor, the conclusion is inescapable that the defendants’ culpable action or inaction unreasonably increased the risk of Sojka’s brutal attack and thereby created the danger to which she was unnecessarily exposed. The circumstances alleged are truly conscience shocking. I would hold that the amended complaint adequately states a claim under § 1983 upon which relief can be granted. I therefore dissent to the majority’s affirmance of the court of appeals judgment upholding the district court’s dismissal of that claim.
KIRSHBAUM and SCOTT, JJ., join in this dissent.

. 42 U.S.C. § 1983 provides, in relevant part:
Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State ... subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States ... to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or imnu-nities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress.
42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1994).

. Although the complaint does not allege that the defendants could foresee that the escape attempt would necessarily result in an attack upon Henderson specifically, such an allegation is not required to support a § 1983 claim that a state actor was deliberately indifferent to a known, great risk to a specific individual. In Medina v. City and County of Denver, 960 F.2d 1493, 1496 (10th Cir.1992), the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals stated that "[i]t is not ... necessary that the defendant know the specific identity of each person within [a specifically definable group] in order for his conduct to be deemed directed toward the individuals within the group.” Thus, Henderson sufficiently alleges that the defendants could foresee that their reckless conduct would put her at substantial risk by alleging that she was peculiarly vulnerable to the consequences of the impending escape attempt, that the defendants knew of Sojka's unusually dangerous proclivities, and that the defendants had information of the precise day on which the attempt would occur. See id. (defendant may be liable for reckless conduct under § 1983 if plaintiff is member of specifically definable group, defendant's conduct puts members of group at substantial risk of serious, immediate, and proximate harm, risk was obvious or known, and defendant acted recklessly in conscious disregard of risk).

. In Williams the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a summary judgment determination in a § 1983 action that a police officer had not acted unconstitutionally in circumstances where the officer caused an accident resulting in death by speeding and running a red light while responding to a non-emergency call. 99 F.3d at 1017.