Walton v. Alexander

• Citation: 44 F.3d 1297
• Decision Date: 17 February 1995
• Docket Number: No. 93-7313,93-7313
• Parties: , 97 Ed. Law Rep. 93 Joseph WALTON, as next friend of Christopher Walton, a Minor, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Alma ALEXANDER, et al., Defendants, Alma Alexander, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit)

Page 1297

44 F.3d 1297

63 USLW 2526, 97 Ed. Law Rep. 93

Joseph WALTON, as next friend of Christopher Walton, a Minor, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Alma ALEXANDER, et al., Defendants Alma Alexander, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 93-7313.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

Feb. 17, 1995.

J. Stephen Wright, Frascogna, Courtney, Wright, Biedenharn & Smith, Jackson, MS, for appellant.

Duncan L. Lott, Booneville, MS, for appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.

Before POLITZ, Chief Judge, KING, GARWOOD, JOLLY, HIGGINBOTHAM, DAVIS, JONES, SMITH, DUHE, WIENER, BARKSDALE, GARZA, Emilio M., DeMOSS, BENAVIDES, STEWART, and PARKER, Circuit Judges.

E. GRADY JOLLY, Circuit Judge:

[N]othing in the language of the Due Process Clause itself requires the State to protect the life, liberty, and property of its citizens against invasion by private actors. The Clause is phrased as a limitation on the State's power to act, not as a guarantee of certain minimal levels of safety and security. It forbids the State itself to deprive individuals of life, liberty, or property without 'due process of law,' but its language cannot fairly be extended to impose an affirmative obligation on the State to ensure that those interests do not come to harm through other means. Nor does history support such an expansive reading of the constitutional text. Like its counterpart in the Fifth Amendment, the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment was intended to prevent government 'from abusing [its] power, or employing it as an instrument of oppression.' ¹

Christopher Walton was not harmed by the acts of the state or by a state actor; Christopher Walton was harmed by the acts of a private party. He was harmed while attending a state institution, the Mississippi School for the Deaf, as a resident student. He was twice sexually molested by a fellow classmate. He sued the superintendent of the Mississippi School for the Deaf, Alma Alexander, under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. He alleged that the state violated his substantive due process right to bodily integrity under the Fourteenth Amendment because Alexander failed to take appropriate steps to protect him from these sexual assaults by a fellow student. Superintendent Alexander sought dismissal of the suit on summary judgment, asserting qualified immunity on the basis that her constitutional duty, if any, to protect students from the acts of fellow students was not clearly established law at the time of the sexual assaults. The district court denied Alexander's claim of qualified immunity. She then filed this interlocutory appeal. We reverse the district court. Although we agree that a very narrow class of persons who stand in a "special relationship" with the state enjoys a clearly established constitutional right to some degree of state protection from known threats of harm by private actors, this "special relationship" only arises when a person is involuntarily confined or otherwise restrained against his will pursuant to a governmental order or by the affirmative exercise of state power. This relationship does not arise solely because the state exercises custodial control over an individual such as is the case when a person voluntarily resides in a state facility. Consequently, we conclude that because no "special relationship" existed between the state and Walton, Superintendent Alexander owed Walton no constitutional duty of protection from harm inflicted upon him at the instance of his classmate. We, therefore, reverse the district court's denial of immunity to Superintendent Alexander and remand for entry of judgment in her favor.

I

During 1987-1988, the Mississippi School for the Deaf (the "School") was one of several state supported institutions available throughout the state to deaf children. Local school districts were obligated to provide deaf educational facilities if more than five deaf students were located within the district. In addition to public facilities, there were private deaf institutions in Mississippi. Deaf children were free to attend either a public or private facility located in Mississippi. Once choosing to attend the Mississippi School for the Deaf, however, those students residing on campus were under the twenty-four hour custody of the School and subjected to strict rules concerning what they were allowed to do and when they could come and go. School employees maintained close supervision over these students and reported any misconduct to the school superintendent.

Christopher Walton was a resident student attending the School during 1987-1988. During the latter part of 1987, a fellow classmate sexually assaulted Walton. This incident was reported to school officials, including defendant Alexander. Alexander filed a report with the Mississippi Department of Public Welfare. Pursuant to the School's policies, both the School and the Mississippi Department of Public Welfare conducted an investigation of the assault. After notifying the parents of both children, the School provided counselling for each child and suspended both children for three days.

Upon return from suspension, the two students were placed in separate dormitories. Budgetary constraints, however, forced the school to close one of the two male dormitories in 1988. Consequently, the boys were again housed in the same building. Walton was assigned a separate unit with a private bathroom, designed to keep him out of the bathrooms with the other male students. Walton, unfortunately, was assaulted a second time by the same classmate. Alexander was not informed of this second assault.

On November 14, 1991, Walton filed suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 against Alexander. Walton alleged a violation of his substantive due process right to bodily integrity under the Fourteenth Amendment based on Alexander's failure to protect him from the sexual assaults. Following the denial of her motion for summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds, Alexander filed this interlocutory appeal pursuant to Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985).

The panel majority, ² relying on DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services, 489 U.S. 189, 109 S.Ct. 998, 103 L.Ed.2d 249 (1989), held that Superintendent Alexander stood in a clearly established "special relationship" to Walton that imposed on her a duty not to be deliberately indifferent to Walton's due process rights. The panel reasoned that Walton fell within the clearly established "category of persons in custody by means of 'similar restraints of personal liberty,' " as those held involuntarily, such as prisoners and involuntarily committed mental patients. The panel majority, however, reversed the district court's denial of immunity after concluding that Alexander did not act with deliberate indifference to the rights of Walton.

Judge Garwood concurred in the result reached by the panel majority, which reversed the denial of summary judgment. Judge Garwood, however, argued that the result should have been reached by avoiding the constitutional issues and deciding only that the facts did not support deliberate indifference to Walton's alleged rights. With regard to Walton's alleged constitutional rights, Judge Garwood concluded that because Walton attended the School voluntarily, he was not taken in custody and held against his will by the affirmative exercise of state power. Thus, no "special relationship" was created. Finally, Judge Garwood found inconceivable the majority's conclusion that this "special relationship" was clearly established law in 1988. He concluded that no decision of the United States Supreme Court, this court, or any district court in this circuit tended to support this erroneous deduction.

II

The central issue we address today is whether the state created a "special relationship" with Walton, as a resident student under its custodial care, so that it owed some duty ³--arising under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution--to protect Walton's bodily integrity from third party non-state actors. We conclude that, as a matter of law, it did not.

III

Because this is a case on appeal from the denial of a motion for summary judgment, we review the record de novo. Calpetco 1981 v. Marshall Exploration, Inc., 989 F.2d 1408, 1412 (5th Cir.1993). Under Rule 56(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, we examine evidence presented to determine that there is "no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." FED.R.CIV.P. 56(c). Once a properly supported motion for summary judgment is presented, the burden shifts to the non-moving party to set forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 249, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2511, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); Brothers v. Klevenhagen, 28 F.3d 452, 455 (5th Cir.1994), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 639, 130 L.Ed.2d 545 (1994). We must review "the facts drawing all inferences most favorable to the party opposing the motion." Matagorda County v. Russell Law, 19 F.3d 215, 217 (5th Cir.1994).

A

Alexander has interlocutorily appealed the denial of qualified immunity. This doctrine insulates her from being forced to litigate the consequences of her official conduct, Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 527, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 2816, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985), unless the plaintiff establishes that she violated a constitutional right that was clearly established at the time of the alleged incident. Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818-19, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2738, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982); Spann v. Rainey, 987 F.2d 1110, 1114 (5th Cir.1993). In analyzing whether Superintendent Alexander is entitled to qualified immunity, we must follow the structural analysis set out by the...