Hill v. Dekalb Regional Youth Detention Center
| Decision Date | 27 December 1994 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 92-8854,92-9318,s. 92-8854 |
| Citation | 40 F.3d 1176 |
| Parties | Shirley HILL, Individually and Mark Anthony Hill, Individually, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. DEKALB REGIONAL YOUTH DETENTION CENTER, et al., Defendants, County of Dekalb, Georgia a/k/a Dekalb Regional Youth Detention Center, Faye Swain, Defendants-Appellants. Shirley HILL, Individually and Mark Anthony Hill, Individually, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. DEKALB REGIONAL YOUTH DETENTION CENTER, et al., Defendants, County of Dekalb, Georgia a/k/a Dekalb Regional Youth Detention Center, Donald Wilkinson and Dolphus Lewis, Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
Joan F. Roach, Melinda Bruley White, Robert H. Walling, Dekalb County Attys. Office, Decatur, GA, for Dekalb County.
William C. Joy, Sr. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jennifer L. Hackemeyer, Cynthia Honssinger Frank, Dept. of Law, Atlanta, GA, for Swaine, Wilkinson & Lewis.
Michael T. Bennett, Robert H. Benfield, Jr., Bennett, Callahan & Schloegel, Atlanta, GA, for appellees.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
Before ANDERSON and BIRCH, Circuit Judges, ATKINS *, Senior District Judge.
These consolidated interlocutory appeals arise from denials of summary judgment where governmental employees claimed qualified immunity and the county maintained no responsibility in connection with the sexual assault upon a minor while in the custody of a youth detention center. The district court determined that the individual governmental defendants were ineligible for qualified immunity, and that the county incurred liability through implementation of its policies and procedures. We REVERSE and REMAND.
Plaintiff-appellee Mark Anthony Hill, then age sixteen, was in the custody of the Dekalb Regional Youth Detention Center 1 ("DRYDC") in August, 1987. 2 During his detention at DRYDC, Hill experienced various gastrointestinal illnesses. On the afternoon of August 6, 1987, one of the guards advised defendant-appellant Faye Swain, Senior Youth Development Worker 3 at the facility, that Hill was complaining of stomach cramps. 4 Swain went to Hill's cell and talked with him concerning his symptoms and general medical condition. She encouraged him to calm down because doctors at Grady Memorial Hospital previously advised that emotional problems and distress could strain his digestive system. Swain gave Hill two Tylenol tablets and Mylagen, a medication for stomach discomfort. She also told him that, if he did not feel better in an hour, then he would be seen by a nurse.
Subsequently, a guard informed Swain that Hill had just reported that he was urinating blood. Swain arranged transportation for Hill to be seen by the nurse at the Dekalb County Police Department, located in the adjacent building. Because of miscommunication by the nurse, Hill was unable to enter the Police Department. Swain then arranged for a urine sample to be provided to the nurse. The nurse reported that there was blood in the urine and advised further medical attention.
Swain arranged for Hill to be transported to Grady Memorial Hospital, which provided medical services for detainees from DRYDC for no charge. Hill waited for care at Grady for eight to ten hours. A second urinalysis performed at the hospital as well as x-rays were negative. Hill was returned to the DRYDC with prescription medication.
Hill arrived at the DRYDC at 4:20 A.M. on August 7, 1987. Swain, who was scheduled to leave work at 11:00 P.M. on August 6, 1987, had remained at the facility until Hill returned because she was concerned about him and had saved his supper for him. She gave Hill his supper, administered his prescription medication, locked him in his cell, and ordered that he be allowed to sleep late that morning because of his lack of sleep the night before. Swain then left the DRYDC. Thereafter, Hill claims that he was sexually assaulted by two or three adult male members of the DRYDC staff. 5
Although Hill discovered blood in his underwear between 9:00 A.M. and 10:00 A.M. on August 7, 1987, when he used the bathroom, he did not report this to any DRYDC personnel on the morning shift. Swain returned to work on August 7, 1987, at 3:00 P.M. When Swain checked on Hill at the beginning of her shift, he told her that his stomach was hurting, but conceded at his deposition that she had no reason to think that his complaints were other than a continuation of his ailments from the day before, and that he was constipated. Swain encouraged Hill to calm down and administered his prescription medicine. When Hill said that he was feeling better, Swain left his cell. She instructed two of the guards to check on Hill every fifteen minutes, and she checked on him regularly.
Subsequently, Hill reported to a guard that he had blood in his underwear. The guard observed a blood smear in Hill's underwear and immediately notified Swain, who began arrangements to take Hill to a hospital. Because of the long delay experienced by Hill in receiving medical care at Grady Memorial Hospital the day before, Swain began calls to contact Hill's mother, plaintiff-appellee Shirley Hill, to ascertain if he had private insurance so that he could be seen at nearby Dekalb General Hospital. 6 At approximately 4:30 P.M., 7 Swain spoke directly with Shirley Hill and asked her to bring her son's insurance card to the DRYDC at 8:00 P.M. after the dinner hour. 8 Shirley Hill, however, promptly left her home for the DRYDC.
When Hill was served dinner in his cell, he reported pain in his abdomen, but that he would attempt to eat. Five minutes later, Hill informed a guard that he was vomiting blood. Swain checked on Hill immediately, determined that he had lost his dinner, and administered his prescription medication.
Following her arrival at the DRYDC, Shirley Hill did not see her son until 6:30 P.M. 9 Hill was transported in a state car 10 to Dekalb General Hospital at approximately 7:45 P.M. During his examination at Dekalb General Hospital, 11 doctors questioned Hill regarding homosexual activity. For the first time, Hill reported that he had been sexually assaulted by adult male personnel at the DRYDC. Hill alleges that he was threatened with his life by his assailants if he disclosed the incident. Hill had never advised Swain or other DRYDC personnel that he was afraid of anyone on the staff. Swain averred by affidavit that she had not observed any unusual or suspicious conduct by DRYDC staff prior to Hill's assault, and that she had no reason to suspect that the alleged perpetrators, defendants in the district court case, would sexually assault a detainee.
In August, 1989, Shirley and Mark Hill filed in the Northern District of Georgia a complaint alleging constitutional violations pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 and pendent state tort claims against the DRYDC, Dekalb County, the Georgia Department of Human Resources, and various individuals connected with the DRYDC. Defendants-appellants Swain; Dolphus Lewis, Director of the DRYDC; Donald Wilkinson, Director of Field Services for the Georgia Department of Human Resources, Division of Youth Services; and Dekalb County filed summary judgment motions. The individual appellants, all sued in their individual and official capacities, claimed qualified immunity, and Dekalb County contended that it had no liability because it had no control or jurisdiction over the DRYDC when Hill's sexual assault and alleged unreasonable delay in medical treatment occurred. The district court denied summary judgment; these interlocutory appeals 12 followed.
As an initial procedural issue, we address our consideration of Lewis and Wilkinson's summary judgment motion based on qualified immunity with pendent state claims. The Hills argue that we should not review Lewis and Wilkinson's summary judgment motion because they failed to obtain a substantive decision in the district court, and that their appeal involves only the procedural issue of whether they improperly were denied an extension of time to file their claims of qualified immunity. To resolve this issue, we must review the record and the concerns involved with claims of qualified immunity entitlement.
On August 30, 1991, the district court issued an order directing plaintiffs to serve their discovery responses on defendants "by September 6, 1991." R7-148 (emphasis added). The court gave defendants thirty days from the receipt of these discovery responses to file their respective summary judgment motions. Inexplicably, this order was not filed in the clerk's office until September 5, 1991, and it was not entered on the docket until September 9, 1991. Presuming that this order was mailed to counsel, clearly plaintiffs could not have received notice that they were to file their discovery responses by September 6, 1991, and they also were entitled to three additional days to comply with mail notification. Fed.R.Civ.P. 6(e).
The Hills filed discovery responses to Dekalb County and other defendants on September 11, 1991, and filed depositions, including that of Swain, on September 13, 1991. On October 16, 1991, counsel for the State Attorney General representing the governmental defendants, including six individual governmental employees, moved for an extension of time to file summary judgment motions for Lewis and Wilkinson. Counsel explained that defendants had consented to allowing the Hills approximately two and a half months to prepare their discovery responses; that defendants had received the Hills' discovery responses on September 16, 1991; that counsel had worked diligently to prepare summary judgment motions for four of the six individual defendants represented, including Swain; that counsel was unable simultaneously to complete summary judgment motions during the prescribed thirty-day period for Lewis and Wilkinson "[d]...
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