Davis v. Rennie, 99-1453

• Citation: 264 F.3d 86
• Decision Date: 05 June 2001
• Docket Number: No. 99-1453,99-1453
• Parties: (1st Cir. 2001) JASON DAVIS, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. PAUL RENNIE, RICHARD GILLIS, MICHAEL HANLON, LEONARD FITZPATRICK, NICHOLAS L. TASSONE, and JOYCE WIEGERS, Defendants, Appellants. Heard
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (1st Circuit)

Page 86

264 F.3d 86 (1st Cir. 2001)

JASON DAVIS, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. PAUL RENNIE, RICHARD GILLIS, MICHAEL HANLON, LEONARD FITZPATRICK, NICHOLAS L. TASSONE, and JOYCE WIEGERS, Defendants, Appellants.

No. 99-1453

United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit

Heard June 5, 2001

Decided September 5, 2001

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

[Hon. Morris E. Lasker, Senior U.S. District Judge] [Copyrighted Material Omitted]

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Christopher M. Perry, with whom Brendan J. Perry, Terance P. Perry, and Brendan J. Perry & Associates, P.C., were on brief, for appellee.

Howard R. Meshnick and James A. Sweeney, Assistant Attorneys General, with whom Thomas F. Reilly, Attorney General, was on brief, for appellants.

Before Selya, Circuit Judge, Cyr, Senior Circuit Judge, and Lipez, Circuit Judge.

LIPEZ, Circuit Judge.

Jason Davis, an involuntarily committed mental patient, brought suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act, and other statutes against multiple defendants after being punched repeatedly in the head during a physical restraint at Westborough State Hospital. A jury awarded Davis $100,000 in compensatory damages and $1.55 million in punitive damages, concluding that the appellants violated Davis's substantive due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. Joyce Wiegers, the head nurse who ordered the restraint, and Leonard Fitzpatrick, Richard Gillis, Michael Hanlon, Paul Rennie, and Nicholas L. Tassone, mental health workers who participated in the restraint, appeal the portion of the judgment against them. They argue that the district court erred in instructing the jury about Davis's claims; that there is insufficient evidence for a reasonable jury to have found that they violated Davis's constitutional rights; that they are entitled to qualified immunity; and that the evidence does not support a punitive damages award. We affirm the judgment against each of the appellants.

I.

Although we must assess challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, Cigna Ins. Co. v. Oy Saunatec, Ltd., 241 F.3d 1, 6 (1st Cir. 2001), we recount some of the factual disputes at trial to provide a more complete sense of the issues before the jury.

At the time of the events relevant to this case, Jason Davis, 28 years old, suffered from schizo-affective and bipolar disorders. He had a history of substance abuse and suicide attempts and had been hospitalized between 10 and 12 times since the age of 17. He was involuntarily committed to Westborough State Hospital (Westborough) for periods during 1991 and 1992. After threatening to kill his father, he was committed to Westborough for a third time on May 12, 1993. Davis spent about a month in Westborough's Hennessey Building, a locked wing of the hospital, and then transferred to Chauncy Hall, an unlocked wing.

On August 12, 1993, Davis and another patient, Dean Dexter, violated hospital rules by leaving the grounds without permission. Davis testified that he told Dexter that he was unhappy because no one had visited him on his birthday two days earlier, and that Dexter suggested that they go drinking. The patients walked to a nearby liquor store and bought beer, vodka, and wine coolers. At about 11 a.m., Davis and Dexter went into the woods behind the store and began drinking.

Westborough staff sent Greg Plesh, a special state police officer assigned to the hospital for security, and Frantz Joseph, a mental health worker (MHW), to look for the missing patients. While Joseph watched for Davis and Dexter on the road next to the liquor store, Plesh went into the woods, where he found the patients. Davis and Dexter did not threaten Plesh or resist when he asked them to walk back to his car with him. At the car, Plesh and a second police officer handcuffed Davis and Dexter and took them back to Chauncy Hall with Joseph. There, medical staff decided that the patients should be medically evaluated in a more secure unit because they had been drinking. The staff instructed Plesh, Joseph, and the second police officer to take the patients to Hennessey Unit 2A.

Plesh and Joseph arrived with Davis and Dexter at Hennessey at about noon. Plesh took off the patients' handcuffs in the lobby, as policy required. According to Plesh, who is Davis's key witness, Davis and Dexter were loud and boisterous as they rode the elevator up to Hennessey 2A. When they arrived at the unit, Head Nurse Joyce Wiegers told Plesh to take Davis and Dexter to the day hall. Wiegers had not received notice from Chauncy Hall that Davis and Dexter were coming. As Head Nurse for Hennessey 2A, Wiegers was responsible for 37 patients and several staff, about half of whom were outside on a picnic.

Wiegers told Davis and Dexter to stay in the day hall while she called a doctor to evaluate them. According to Plesh and Davis, Dexter came out of the day hall after a few minutes and made sexually inappropriate comments to a second nurse, Sheila Mall. Plesh said that Mall got upset and called to Wiegers, who sent Dexter back to the day hall and asked Plesh to stay with the patients until male MHWs could be called in from the picnic. Plesh said that Dexter and Davis were "loud and demanding" and that there was "continuing escalation" between the patients and the nurses.

MHWs Phillip Bragg, Michael Hanlon, and Paul Rennie responded to Wiegers's call for assistance. Wiegers, Bragg, and Hanlon testified that as the MHWs stood at the door of the day hall, Davis smacked one hand with his fist and said things like "I'll kill you" and "I'll break your neck" while looking at the MHWs. Davis denied this account and testified that Dean Dexter made the verbal threats and threatening gestures to the MHWs.

Wiegers directed Bragg, Hanlon, and Rennie to separate Dexter and Davis by putting Davis in the unit's "quiet room," which had a mattress on the floor, and Dexter in the "four-point room," which had a bed with four-point mechanical restraints. Each patient was to be secluded with the door left open and an MHW stationed outside. The MHWs took Davis to the quiet room without incident. Once inside, they asked him to take off his belt and shoes, as policy required. Hanlon, Wiegers, and Bragg testified that Davis threw the belt at Hanlon and hit him in the chest. Plesh, who was watching from the hallway, said that the belt might have hit one of the MHWs by rebounding after Davis threw it at the wall. Davis denied throwing the belt at Hanlon.

Although Wiegers told Plesh and Joseph that they could leave, she said they should be prepared to return if necessary. Hanlon and Rennie stood outside the open door of the quiet room. Bragg was also standing in the hallway. Davis testified that Bragg and Rennie "were laughing, making comments about the facts that we were idiots or something or drunks. They just thought the whole thing was funny." Davis said that when he asked the MHWs if he could leave the room to smoke, Rennie said "you are going to have to go through us," and "what do you think that you're going to do? Are you going to kick our ass?" Rennie denied making these comments. Davis said that he considered Rennie a friend and that Rennie was acting "like he was someone else," which upset him.

In response to his lawyer's questions about how Rennie's comments made him feel, Davis said: "I did something really stupid. I turned around to the wall and tried to do a double drop kick." Davis testified that he tried to kick twice and executed poorly, and that Bragg and Rennie "were laughing, saying that I looked like a toad." Davis said that his back was to Rennie when he attempted the kicks, and that he "just aimed towards the wall." Hanlon also said that Davis's kicks did not connect with anyone, though he characterized them as threatening. Rennie testified that the kicks were directed at him and that one kick hit his arm. With Hanlon standing by, Rennie physically restrained Davis. The restraint did not injure Davis. However, Davis testified that Rennie choked him and threw him to the mat with "deadly force."

At this point, Wiegers called a "green alert stat" asking any available male staff to come to Hennessey 2A. Plesh responded, as did MHWs Fitzpatrick, Gillis, Tassone, and Jeffrey Flowers. When they arrived, Davis was sitting on the mattress in the quiet room. Wiegers told the MHWs to take Davis to the four-point room and put him in mechanical restraints. Tassone, who knew Davis well from an earlier admission to Hennessey, talked to the patient and the two agreed that Davis would walk to the four-point room himself rather than be carried in by the MHWs. Davis got up from the mattress and walked through the door of the quiet room with Hanlon ahead of him, Tassone on one side, and Rennie behind. Plesh and Bragg were in the hallway and Gillis and Fitzpatrick were still in the quiet room. Plesh testified that as Davis walked out of the room, Bragg "got right in Jason's face and made a comment to Jason." Plesh did not hear what Bragg said. Bragg denied making any comment to Davis. Davis said that after the take-down in the quiet room, Rennie taunted Davis by saying "I thought you were tough," and that in response as they walked into the hallway Davis spun and kicked Rennie hard in the stomach. Davis said about his decision to kick Rennie: "There was no way I was going to let him strap me to that bed. There was no way I was going to let that continue. But at the same time there was like no way out."

Davis's kick sent Rennie to the floor. Bragg, Fitzpatrick, Gillis, Hanlon, and Tassone began trying to physically restrain Davis. Plesh, who characterized himself as an "extra male" at the scene, watched from a few feet away. Wiegers testified that she was "back and forth constantly" and "would be gone maybe for seconds" as she...