O'Connor v. Huard
| Decision Date | 07 April 1997 |
| Docket Number | 96-1824,Nos. 96-1823,s. 96-1823 |
| Citation | 117 F.3d 12 |
| Parties | Ernest P. O'CONNOR, Jr., Plaintiff--Appellee, v. Deborah HUARD, Defendant--Appellant. Ernest P. O'CONNOR, Jr., Plaintiff--Appellant, v. Deborah HUARD, Defendant--Appellee. . Heard |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
William R. Fisher, Portland, ME, with whom Ivy L. Frignoca and Monaghan, Leahy, Hochadel & Libby were on brief for Deborah Huard.
William C. Knowles, Portland, ME, with whom Jacqueline W. Rider and Verrill & Dana were on brief for Ernest P. O'Connor, Jr.
Before TORRUELLA, Chief Judge, BOWNES, Senior Circuit Judge, and STAHL, Circuit Judge.
On March 15, 1994, Plaintiff-Appellee-Cross-Appellant Ernest P. O'Connor, Jr. ("O'Connor"), who was a pretrial detainee at the Kennebec County Jail ("the Jail") during all times relevant to the case, brought this Section 1983 suit for compensatory and punitive damages and declaratory relief against Alfred Cichon ("Cichon"), a physician's assistant at the Jail, and Catherine Mesaric ("Mesaric") and Appellant-Cross-Appellee Deborah Huard ("Huard"), Corrections Sergeants at the Jail. O'Connor contended that, while he was being held as a pretrial detainee, Cichon deprived him of medical attention, which amounted to cruel and unusual punishment, and that he was punished in violation of his due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. On January 20, 1996, summary judgment was granted in Cichon's favor. Prior to trial, Mesaric was dismissed from the suit.
The case against Huard was tried before a jury in June 1996. At the close of O'Connor's case, Huard moved for a directed verdict. The district court took the motion under advisement. At the close of all evidence, Huard renewed her motion, which the district court denied. The jury returned a verdict in O'Connor's favor, finding that Huard had violated his Fourteenth Amendment due process rights, and awarding him one dollar in compensatory damages. The court then instructed the jury on punitive damages, which the jury, after deliberating, declined to award. Huard filed a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and a motion for a new trial, which the district court denied. Huard appeals the district court's jury instructions, the denial of her motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, and the award of attorney's fees to O'Connor. O'Connor cross-appeals the jury's refusal to grant him actual compensatory and punitive damages. We affirm.
On review of a jury verdict, we recite the facts in the light most favorable to that verdict. See Ferragamo v. Chubb Life Ins. Co., 94 F.3d 26, 27 n. 1 (1st Cir.1996). Huard was a Corrections Sergeant at the Jail during all times relevant to this case. O'Connor was initially incarcerated in the Jail for a brief period in January 1993. On January 18, 1993, O'Connor told Huard that "he needed his medication." She instructed him to fill out a Medical Request form, and when he did so, she forwarded the form to the Medical Department. Pursuant to his request, O'Connor met with the Jail's physician's assistant, Cichon, for a medical evaluation. O'Connor asked Cichon for Xanax or Valium to treat anxiety. Cichon diagnosed O'Connor as suffering from "anxiety disorder," for which he prescribed Xanax. Soon thereafter, O'Connor was released from the Jail.
On October 30, 1993, O'Connor was placed in pretrial detention at the Jail, where he remained for approximately six months. O'Connor again submitted a request for medication, which Cichon now denied, because he could not verify O'Connor's medical history, believed that O'Connor did not suffer from an anxiety disorder, and was concerned about O'Connor's history of drug abuse.
During this detention, an animosity developed between Huard and O'Connor, eventually leading to daily verbal confrontations. O'Connor called Huard names that evidenced O'Connor's disdain for what he believed was Huard's sexual orientation. Huard, in turn, called O'Connor "a scumbag, a low-life, a dirtbag, a drug addict, creep." Huard taunted O'Connor about his failure to get the medication he desired and his inability to cope without it. O'Connor would react to these taunts by kicking doors and banging the bars of his cell and by hurling verbal abuse at Huard. As a result of these actions, O'Connor would be removed from his cell and placed in administrative lockdown. Frequently, during these administrative lockdowns, the other inmates on the cell block would be restricted to their cells.
Huard argues that the magistrate's instructions to the jury did not properly reflect the elements O'Connor was required to prove in order to succeed on his Fourteenth Amendment claim. In reviewing assertions of error in the jury charge, we determine whether the instructions adequately reflect the law applicable to the controlling issues without tending to confuse or mislead the jury. See United States v. Fulmer, 108 F.3d 1486, 1494 (1st Cir.1997).
The instructions to the jury were as follows:
Plaintiff claims that his constitutional rights were violated when defendant deliberately provoked him into rage attacks and then disciplined him for his resulting outbursts. Specifically, his allegation is that he was punished without due process of law, in violation of his rights under the 5th and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution.
At the time of his incarceration at the Kennebec County Jail plaintiff was a pretrial detainee. In other words, he had not been convicted of a crime, but was being held pending trial. Under such circumstances, plaintiff could only be subjected to the restrictions and conditions of the detention facilities so long as those conditions and restrictions did not amount to punishment.
Not all restrictions and conditions during pretrial detention amount to punishment in the constitutional sense, however. Once the government has exercised its authority to detain a person pending trial, it may obviously impose conditions or restrictions necessary to effectuate the legitimate goals of maintaining institutional security and ensuring the detained person's presence at trial.
The question for you to decide is whether defendant imposed conditions or restrictions upon plaintiff that were reasonably related to those legitimate goals or whether they were arbitrary or without purpose.
Absent a showing of an expressed intent on defendant's part to punish plaintiff, that question will generally turn on whether the conditions or restrictions could have been used for a legitimate purpose and whether they are excessive in relation to that legitimate purpose.
If you find the conditions or restrictions were arbitrary or without purpose, you may infer that the purpose of the conditions or restrictions was punishment, and, therefore, unconstitutional.
Trial Transcript, vol. III, at 440-41.
These instructions accurately reflect the law as it relates to a pretrial detainee's claim of punishment in violation of the Due Process Clause. The government may detain one accused of a crime prior to trial in order to ensure his presence at trial. See Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 536, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 1872-73, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979). Prior to an adjudication of guilt, however, a state government may not punish a pretrial detainee without contravening the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause. See id. at 535, 99 S.Ct. at 1871-72. The government may, however, impose administrative restrictions and conditions upon a pretrial detainee that effectuate his detention, see id. at 537, 99 S.Ct. at 1873, and that maintain security and order in the detention facility, see id. at 536, 99 S.Ct. at 1872-73. When confronted with a charge by a pretrial detainee alleging punishment without due process, the "court must decide whether the disability is imposed for the purpose of punishment or whether it is but an incident of some other legitimate governmental purpose." Id. at 538, 99 S.Ct. at 1873.
Thus, if a particular condition or restriction of pretrial detention is reasonably related to a legitimate government objective, it does not, without more, amount to "punishment." Conversely, if a restriction or condition is not reasonably related to a legitimate goal--if it is arbitrary or purposeless--a court permissibly may infer that the purpose of the governmental action is punishment that may not constitutionally be inflicted upon detainees qua detainees.
Id. at 538-39, 99 S.Ct. at 1874. The government has a valid interest in managing the detention facility and, toward that end, may employ administrative measures that may be discomforting or are of a nature that the detainee would not experience if he were released while awaiting trial. See id. at 540, 99 S.Ct. at 1874-75. Barring "substantial evidence" that an administrative measure is an exaggerated response to these considerations, "courts should ordinarily defer to their expert judgment in such matters." Id. at 540 n. 23, 99 S.Ct. at 1875 n. 23.
Huard's claim of error addresses a conceptually different issue. Huard argues that the magistrate's instructions were erroneous because they failed to incorporate the appropriate standard, which she contends is the Eighth Amendment "deliberate indifference" standard applied when a pretrial detainee alleges a denial of appropriate medical care. Huard's contention misconceives the claim at issue in this case. O'Connor's allegation as it related to Huard was that she intentionally provoked or incited him into "rage attacks" by relentlessly taunting him. O'Connor claimed that Huard engaged in such actions so that she could subsequently discipline him by imposing "administrative lock down." Given the nature of O'Connor's claim, the magistrate was correct in denying Huard's request to incorporate "deliberate indifference" instructions into the jury charge.
We emphasize that nothing in the resolution of this case or in...
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