Court Opinion

ID: 9479497
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 07:20:11.765772+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:47:04.881641
License: Public Domain

K.K. HALL, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I dissent from the majority’s decision because I believe that the record below, when viewed in the light most favorable to Miller, shows the existence of a genuine issue of material fact sufficient to withstand the motion for summary judgment. Miller’s version of the events surrounding the infliction of his injuries differs in several significant respects from that recounted in the majority’s opinion, and a comparison between the two serves to illuminate why this case should have been permitted to proceed further.
I.
We are not confronted with a judgment reached after a trial in which the credibility of the witnesses could be judged by the trier of fact. Instead, this appeal involves only the pleadings, deposition testimony and various exhibits. Our review is de novo and, therefore, we are constrained to review the record under the same standards employed by the lower court. Felty v. Graves-Humphreys Co., 818 F.2d 1126, 1127-28 (4th Cir.1987). The majority baldly asserts that Leathers “reasonably perceived” that he was being threatened with bodily harm and that his actions were justifiable.1 The selective assembly of facts and allegations supporting the majority’s conclusion ignores the long-established standard for evaluating summary judgment motions: the facts and inferences to be drawn from the facts must be viewed in the light most favorable to Miller, and he is entitled “to have the credibility of his evidence as forecast assumed, his version of all that is in dispute accepted, [and] all *156internal conflicts in it resolved favorably to him.” Charbonnages de France v. Smith, 597 F.2d 406, 414 (4th Cir.1979). I will analyze the record accordingly.
II.
On January 3, 1987, Miller filed a grievance with the prison administration complaining that Officer Leathers had told another inmate that he (Miller) was a “snitch.” A correctional officer investigated the grievance by merely discussing it with Leathers and came to the conclusion that the “investigation reveals that there is no merit to inmate’s complaint.” If the truth of Miller’s grievance is assumed, and there is nothing in the record beyond the investigator’s “finding” to rebut it, then there is an ample basis to support an inference that Leathers harbored a pre-existing hostility towards Miller. Although the majority characterizes the grievance as an attempt “to resolve ongoing difficulties with [Leathers],” it is impossible to minimize the possible consequences of being labelled a “snitch.” See Harmon v. Berry, 728 F.2d 1407, 1409 (11th Cir.1984) (§ 1983 claim by inmate, alleging that prison officials endangered him by labelling him a “snitch,” allowed to proceed past service of process stage). It was this grievance form, with the investigator’s finding of “no merit,” that Leathers brought to Miller’s cell on January 7, 1987.
Upon receiving the form, Miller refused to sign it and a verbal confrontation ensued. Miller admits that he decided to verbally provoke Leathers in an attempt to get his grievances before higher authorities; however, he alleges that the threats and insults flowed both ways and that at one point, Leathers threatened to “kick [Miller’s] white ass.” Miller eventually signed and returned the form, but Leathers nevertheless decided to bring him out of his cell “to see the sergeant or lieutenant.” Leathers then removed Miller from his cell, handcuffed him and began to escort him down the hall.2
According to Miller, the verbal sparring continued as Leathers escorted Miller off the cellblock and down a flight of stairs; this trip was punctuated by several blows from Leathers’ riot baton to Miller’s back. Upon reaching a doorway which Miller claims was blocked by a food cart, he refused to move forward. Turning toward Leathers, Miller claims that Leathers insulted him and that he responded in kind. At this point, Leathers raised his baton and Miller raised his handcuffed hands to ward off the impending blow. He was struck, laughed at Leathers and was struck twice more. Miller also alleges that Leathers twice threatened to kill him during the incident. Miller sustained a fractured arm and a swollen elbow. Miller reacted by pushing the officer away and picking up a broom handle to protect himself. With the aid of some nearby officers, Miller was eventually subdued.
The district court, upon consideration of the materials submitted by both parties pursuant to Leathers’ motion for summary judgment, concluded that there was a need for the application of force, that the amount of force was not disproportionate to the need, that the injuries inflicted were de minimis, and that the force used was applied in a good faith effort to discipline Miller and was both reasonable and justified on the basis of the facts then known to Leathers. Thus, the district court concluded that Miller had no basis for recovery, and the majority agrees. I do not.
III.
The majority bases its finding that there was a need for force on the following: *157Miller’s history of violence within the prison, his insults towards Leathers, his admitted plan to provoke Leathers in order to be written up, his refusal to obey Leathers’ command to proceed through the doorway, and his act of turning around and insulting Leathers’ mother. However, Miller’s allegations directly contradict the majority’s conclusion that Miller “turned on [Leathers] in a manner indicative of an intent to carry out [his] threats.” Maj. Op. 154. If Miller’s version of the facts is to be believed, as it must at this point, he makes more than a colorable claim that Leathers intended to provoke an incident in which he would be able to injure Miller under the guise of protecting himself. Miller’s allegations also support a view that, unable to proceed through the doorway, he turned only to respond to Leathers’ latest salvo in their ongoing battle of insults and that Leathers reacted to the insult, not to any threat.
The majority’s recitation of the facts do not capture the flavor of the incident conveyed by Miller’s deposition testimony. According to Miller, the insults and coarse language flowed both ways from the outset, and Miller’s fear of being harmed first arose when he was ordered to come out of his cell and be handcuffed. He characterized the jabs to his back as an attempt by Leathers to “start something.” Most critically, Miller alleges that he raised his shackled limbs only to defend himself from the impending blow from Leathers’ baton. Nothing in Miller’s testimony evinces an intent to confront Leathers or to threaten him with physical harm at that juncture, and he raises at least a reasonable inference that his injuries were wantonly and unnecessarily inflicted. This is sufficient to create a genuine issue of material fact, ie., whether Leathers had a reasonable basis to exert the force he did.
I am sympathetic to the policy concerns noted by the majority. Prisons are places of unrelenting tension between guards and the guarded. Correctional officers must contend with the most intractable members of society, and their compensation for performing this unenviable but essential task is often woefully inadequate. Nevertheless, I am compelled to dissent because I believe, under the established standard of review, that Miller’s case should not have been disposed of by summary judgment on the existing record. The fact that the Eighth Amendment standard of liability is a difficult one to satisfy does not justify a diminished adherence to the standard for determining summary judgment motions.

. The majority applies the standard announced in Whitley v. Albers, 475 U.S. 312, 106 S.Ct. 1078, 89 L.Ed.2d 251 (1986), to the facts of this case. In Whitley, a five-member majority held that, in the context of a prison riot, the established Eighth Amendment standard of "the infliction of unnecessary and wanton pain” turned on "whether force was applied in a good faith effort to maintain or restore discipline or maliciously or sadistically for the very purpose of causing harm.” Id. at 320, 106 S.Ct. at 1084. Whether a malicious and sadistic intent is a prerequisite to an Eighth Amendment violation in other contexts is still an open question. Id. at 328, 106 S.Ct. at 1088, Marshall, J., dissenting; see also Morgan v. District of Columbia, 824 F.2d 1049, 1057 (D.C.Cir.1987) (an express intent to inflict suffering is never required to prove an Eighth Amendment violation). Because I believe that Miller’s claim should survive summary judgment under even this heightened standard, it is unnecessary to discuss the issue further.

. Prison regulations require that the removal of a disruptive inmate from his cell shall only be accomplished in the presence of a sergeant or higher-ranking officer. Miller contends that this regulation was violated when Miller was taken from his cell on January 7. The prison regulation’s requirement of an officer’s presence during removal of a disruptive inmate is arguably a response to the need to protect against the type of abuse complained of by Miller and, on the other side of the coin, as a precautionary measure to bolster the evidence against false allegations of abuse by staff. It is not unreasonable to infer, as Miller contends, that his removal from the cell in handcuffs was the initial step in Leathers' plan to harm Miller out of the sight and sound of other inmates or higher-ranking officers.