Owens v. Haas

CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit)
Citation601 F.2d 1242
Docket NumberNo. 825,D,825
PartiesDewitt OWENS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John HAAS, Alonzo Quarles, Peter Skalkos, James J. Britt, William R. Kessler, Joseph Chatowski, Michael Allen, Walter J. Flood, Defendants, and The County of Nassau, Defendant-Appellee. ocket 79-7043.
Decision Date09 July 1979

Steven E. Harbour, Philip K. Howard, New York City, of counsel, for plaintiff-appellant.

Abraham S. Altheim, New York City, Newman & Schlau, P. C., New York City, for defendant-appellee.

Before KAUFMAN, Chief Judge, SMITH, Circuit Judge, and MacMAHON, District Judge. *

J. JOSEPH SMITH, Circuit Judge:

This appeal from the dismissal of a civil action against the County of Nassau, one of several defendants, comes to us following a direction for judgment under Fed.R.Civ.P. 54(b). Plaintiff Owens sued corrections officers and the county for violation of his civil rights under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985, and for breach of contract as a third party beneficiary. Judge Pratt found that Owens had failed to state a claim against the county under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(c), and dismissed the action. 456 F.Supp. 1009 (E.D.N.Y.1978). We reverse and remand for further proceedings.

Plaintiff Owens was a federal prisoner who was cooperating with the United States Government. In order to insure his safety, he was transferred from federal prison to the Nassau County Jail in Hicksville, New York in August, 1976. This transfer was pursuant to a contract between the U.S. Bureau of Prisons and Nassau County, authorized by 18 U.S.C. § 4002. 1

The incident at issue took place on October 27, 1976. According to plaintiff, he was asleep in his cell when he was visited by a guard and told to report to the court desk downstairs to acknowledge the lodging of a warrant against him. Plaintiff Owens refused to leave his cell to sign for the warrant, protesting that "There shouldn't be another warrant out for me. I already signed for a warrant. . . ." Owens apparently believed that there was no requirement that he sign if he did not wish to do so.

Owens related that the first guard left, and sometime thereafter, First Class Corrections Officer Haas came to his cell. When Owens against refused to leave his cell, the two men argued, and Haas told Owens to "pack (his) stuff up," indicating that Owens would be taken to a more secure locked cell on a different floor. Insults were exchanged when Owens refused to leave; then Officer Haas left.

Fifteen or twenty minutes later, several officers returned to Owens' cell and ordered him to leave. An argument ensued, and Owens stepped out of his cell. Approximately seven guards were present. Owens was grabbed and beaten severely by the prison officials, resulting in lacerations, bruises, and lasting impairments which cause him to suffer blackouts to the present time.

Owens appeared before U.S. District Judge John R. Bartels of the Eastern District of New York for sentencing in an unrelated case shortly after the incident. Judge Bartels noticed that Owens was badly injured, and questioned him about the injuries. Judge Bartels then ordered a hearing on the circumstances of the incident resulting in the injuries, at which Owens and several of the prison officials testified.

Owens filed this damage suit in April, 1977, alleging violations of his constitutional rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and § 1985 and claiming damages for breach of contract as a third party beneficiary of the contract between the Bureau of Prisons and Nassau County, under 18 U.S.C. § 4002 and general contract principles. Judge Pratt rejected the § 1983 claim against the county because no official policy or pattern of constitutional violations had been pleaded so as to hold the county liable under the court's reading of Monell v. Department of Social Services of the City of New York, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978). Judge Pratt also found that Owens could not claim he was a third party beneficiary of the contract, and no private right of action existed under 18 U.S.C. § 4002. Consequently, the court dismissed the action against the county. We reverse and remand.

Section 1983 Claim

When Owens filed his complaint in 1977, municipalities could not be held liable for constitutional violations, under the immunity established as to such bodies in Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167, 81 S.Ct. 473, 5 L.Ed.2d 492 (1961). This general immunity was removed from local bodies when the Supreme Court in Monell overruled Monroe v. Pape and held that municipalities are "persons" within the meaning of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. 2

The Court in Monell left open the exact dimensions of the grounds on which a municipality could be held liable. It is clear that

a municipality cannot be held liable Solely because it employs a tortfeasor or, in other words, a municipality cannot be held liable under § 1983 on a Respondeat superior theory. (Monell, supra 436 U.S. at 691, 98 S.Ct. at 2036.)

Therefore, municipalities could only be liable for "action pursuant to official municipal policy of some nature (that) caused a constitutional tort." Id., at 691, 98 S.Ct. at 2036.

The trial court read this language as requiring that a violent incident such as the one here be part of an official policy or custom, or be one in a series of incidents of which the county is aware, for the county to be held liable for the beating of this federal prisoner. Since no such causal link was pleaded, the district court concluded that there was no basis for county liability. We believe that this reading of Monell was too narrow, and that plaintiff Owens should have been given the opportunity, after limited discovery, to amend his complaint to state a ground for holding the county liable here.

The district court was correct in noting that a mere failure by the county to supervise its employees would not be sufficient to hold it liable under § 1983. Rizzo v. Goode, 423 U.S. 362, 96 S.Ct. 598, 46 L.Ed.2d 561 (1976). However, the county could be held liable if the failure to supervise or the lack of a proper training program was so severe as to reach the level of "gross negligence" or "deliberate indifference" to the deprivation of the plaintiff's constitutional rights. Leite v. City of Providence, 463 F.Supp. 585, 590-91 (D.R.I.1978); See also Hampton v. Holmesburg Prison Officials,546 F.2d 1077, 1081-82 (3d Cir. 1976). This concept of "deliberate indifference" does not hold the county at fault for the actions of its employees on a Respondeat superior basis; it holds the county liable for its Own actions which result in deprivation of constitutional rights. See Turpin v. Mailet, 579 F.2d 152, 164-65 & n. 37 (2d Cir. 1978), Vacated, 439 U.S. 974, 99 S.Ct. 554, 58 L.Ed.2d 645, Modified, 591 F.2d 426 (2d Cir. 1979); DiMarzo v. Cahill, 575 F.2d 15, 18 (1st Cir. 1978), Cert. denied, 439 U.S. 927, 99 S.Ct. 312, 58 L.Ed.2d 320 (1978).

There is some indication in this case that a claim by Owens of failure to train or deliberate indifference of the county to violations of constitutional rights could be raised. In testimony before Judge Bartels, Officer Haas mentioned that one of the other guards involved in the incident, Officer Allen, was "fairly new" on the job. Haas also noted his philosophy that "a show of force" involving the presence of several officers is a good way to control an inmate who refused to obey an order. That an officer who is new to his job might not be properly prepared, and that a "show of force" might get out of hand in the absence of proper training, could be inferred from this testimony. The brutal and premeditated nature of the beating in this case and the number and rank of officers involved warrant the allowance of limited discovery so that the plaintiff may attempt to substantiate a claim of "deliberate indifference" by the county to the violence of prison officials, stemming from a failure to train the guards in an adequate manner.

The district court rejected liability for the county, in part, because plaintiff "asserts here not a repeated course of conduct, but only an isolated incident." Owens v. Haas, 456 F.Supp. 1009, 1012 (E.D.N.Y.1978). While some causal link must be made between the county's failure to train and the violation of constitutional rights, a single brutal incident such as this may be sufficient to suggest that link. As noted in Leite, supra, 463 F.Supp. at 590-91:

Although a city cannot be held liable for simple negligent training of its police force, the city's citizens do not have to endure a "pattern" of past police misconduct before they can sue the city under section 1983. . . . (A) municipality is fairly considered to have actual or imputed knowledge of the almost inevitable consequences that arise from the nonexistent or grossly inadequate training and supervising of a police force.

It is true that the failure to train or supervise law enforcement officers must be so grossly negligent as to constitute "deliberate indifference" in order to hold the county liable. As mentioned, though, the circumstances of this severe beating are such as to suggest official acquiescence on some level. In this case, then, Owens should be permitted to conduct limited discovery in order to determine if a case can be made for deliberate indifference by the county. Allowance of limited discovery and amendment of the complaint in this case is an appropriate way to balance the concern against entertaining groundless suits against municipalities, See Smith v. Ambrogio, 456 F.Supp. 1130 (D.Conn.1978), with the dictates of Escalera v. New York City Housing Authority, 425 F.2d 853, 857 (2d Cir.), Cert. denied, 400 U.S. 853, 91 S.Ct. 54, 27 L.Ed.2d 91 (1970):

An action, especially under the Civil Rights Act, should not be dismissed at the pleadings stage unless it appears to a certainty that plaintiffs are entitled to no relief under any state of the facts, which could be proved in support of their...

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