Davis v. Wessel

• Decision Date: 07 July 2015
• Docket Number: No. 13–3416.,13–3416.
• Citation: 792 F.3d 793
• Parties: Earl Sidney DAVIS, Plaintiff–Appellee, v. Seth C. WESSEL and George Lay, Defendants–Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

792 F.3d 793

Earl Sidney DAVIS, Plaintiff–Appellee

v.Seth C. WESSEL and George Lay, Defendants–Appellants.

No. 13–3416.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued Oct. 3, 2014.

Decided July 7, 2015.

Daniel R. Campbell, Attorney, McDermott, Will & Emery, Chicago, IL, for Plaintiff–Appellee.

Nadine J. Wichern, Attorney, Office of the Attorney General, Chicago, IL, for Defendants–Appellants.

Before POSNER, ROVNER, and TINDER, Circuit Judges.

Opinion

TINDER, Circuit Judge.

Earl Sidney Davis, a civil detainee, sued security guards Seth Wessel and George Lay pursuant to the substantive component of the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause and 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging Wessel and Lay refused to remove Davis's hand restraints while he used the restroom and then laughed as he struggled to unzip his pants and urinate. A jury found in favor of Davis and awarded him $1,000 in compensatory damages. Wessel and Lay appeal, contending that the district court erred in instructing the jury and denying their motion for judgment as a matter of law. We vacate the judgment and remand for a new trial.

I. BACKGROUND

Davis is a civil detainee pursuant to the Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act (“SVP Act”), 725 ILCS 207/1 –207/99, in the custody of the Illinois Department of Human Services, and housed at its high-security Rushville Treatment and Detention Facility (“Facility”). The SVP Act permits a person who has been convicted of a sexually violent offense to be civilly detained beyond his criminal sentence, possibly indefinitely but subject to periodic review, if he is found to be “dangerous” because he “suffers from a mental disorder that makes it substantially probable that [he] will engage in acts of sexual violence” in the future. 725 ILCS 207/5(f), 9, 40, 55. Wessel and Lay worked at the Facility as Security Therapy Aids, i.e., security guards.

Davis, then proceeding pro se, filed a complaint in district court under § 1983, alleging (as relevant here) that Wessel and Lay refused to remove his “black box” hand restraints while he used a restroom in a Madison County, Illinois courthouse, and watched and laughed as he struggled to unzip his pants, urinate, and zip his pants, which caused him psychological pain and physical pain in his wrists. After the district court denied Wessel and Lay's motion for summary judgment, the case proceeded to jury trial, with two law students representing Davis. (The law students, Daniel Campbell and Adam Hearn of the University of Illinois College of Law Federal Civil Rights Clinic, were provisionally admitted to practice as attorneys for the purposes of this case pursuant to Central District of Illinois Local Rule 83.5(A).)

The jury heard evidence that, on May 22, 2008, Davis, then 65–years–old and measuring 5'6? in height, appeared in the courtroom of Madison County Judge James Hackett. Davis was secured with leg shackles, a wrist chain, handcuffs, and a black-box restraint. A black-box restraint fits over the chain between handcuffs and a portion of the cuffs themselves, largely immobilizing the hands in front of the body approximately two inches apart. A photo of handcuffs fitted with a black-box restraint is below.

Wessel and Lay were the security guards assigned to transport and guard Davis during his courthouse excursion. (A third guard who assisted in transporting Davis is omitted from this discussion because he is not relevant to the appeal.)

Davis testified as follows. During his hearing, Davis asked Judge Hackett if he could use the restroom without wearing the handcuffs and black-box restraint. Judge Hackett in turn asked Wessel and Lay “if they had a problem with that and they said no.” After the hearing, Wessel and Lay escorted Davis to a restroom in a non-public corridor behind the courtroom, which Davis had used more than 15 times before. The restroom, which was 8'x5', had a sink with a metal toilet attached to it, a trash can, a small ceiling vent, and no windows.

Once they arrived at the restroom, Wessel and Lay did not remove Davis's hand restraints. Davis asked “them if they were going to take [the hand restraints] off and they said no.” Davis told them that he had a written order from Judge Hackett in his legal folder in their possession stating that “all restraints” were to be removed when he used the restroom at the courthouse. Davis told them that he only wanted the hand restraints removed “so [he] can use the bathroom.” Wessel and Lay “refused to look at [his] legal material” and “said they didn't care.” With the restraints in place, Davis struggled to unzip his pants, urinate, and zip his pants while Wessel and Lay held the door open, watched, and laughed. Davis got urine “all over” his pants and fingers, and he could not reach the sink to wash his hands. Using the restroom while wearing the handcuffs caused pain in Davis's wrists, and he felt “[h]umiliated” and “degraded.” Davis had to defecate as well, but because he was in restraints, he had “no choice” but “to hold it” until he returned to the Facility over three hours later, which hurt his stomach.

Davis identified a February 13, 2001 order from Judge Hackett as the written order he referenced to Wessel and Lay. The order states in its entirety: “Shackles shall be removed [at] courthouse in order to allow [Davis] to utilize restroom (handcuffs, too).” The attorney representing Davis in the proceedings before Judge Hackett testified that he understood this to be a standing order. The parties stipulated to the following facts based upon the district judge's conversation with Judge Hackett during a trial recess: Judge Hackett had no specific recollection of any occurrences on May 22, 2008 (over four years earlier); he sometimes allowed detainees to use the restroom behind his second-floor courtroom; he recalled that Davis had a problem with his wrists, and he usually ordered a detainee's restraints removed while they were in his courtroom; he usually did not enter standing orders, but had done so before; and he usually left security matters to security personnel.

Wessel and Lay both testified that they did not specifically recall the events of May 22, 2008, although they stipulated that they did not remove Davis's hand restraints while he used a restroom at the courthouse. Both testified that they “always” took detainees to use the restroom on the first floor of the courthouse, rather than the one behind the second-floor courtroom. Both recognized that Facility directives permitted them to remove restraints “[w]ithin a secure facility in order to utilize the restroom” and “[p]er orders of the presiding judge while the [detainee] is in the courtroom.” Both testified that the courthouse restrooms were not within a “secure facility.”

Lay testified that when he is outside the Facility he “leave[s] all [detainees] in restraints, no matter who they are.” Wessel similarly testified that if a detainee “requested that [Wessel] remove [the] hand restraints so that [the detainee] could use the restroom,” his “answer would be no” because of “security protocol.” Wessel testified that he had observed detainees urinate while wearing black-box restraints, and he believed detainees had defecated while wearing them as well. Wessel said that his practice is not to hold the door wide open while a detainee uses the restroom, but instead to leave the door “cracked” open so he can have an “eye on their presence in the room and their movement.” Wessel denied ever laughing at a detainee using the restroom or ever witnessing any other guard laughing at a detainee using the restroom.

The district judge instructed the jury that “[t]o succeed on his due process claims against Defendants Lay or Wessel,” Davis had the burden of proving that the defendant under consideration “subjected [Davis] to bodily restraint which was not rationally related to legitimate security purposes, or was excessive in relation to those purposes, or was done in a manner which amounted to harassment for the purpose of humiliating and inflicting psychological pain on [Davis] for no legitimate reason.” Wessel and Lay had objected to this instruction and instead proposed a liability instruction stating that Davis had to prove that they “maliciously and sadistically” refused to remove the restraints. The judge also declined to give an instruction proposed by Wessel and Lay that stated: “You have heard evidence about whether the conduct of one or more defendants may have violated a court order. You may consider this evidence in your deliberations. But remember that the issue is whether the defendants used excessive force against the plaintiff, not whether a court order might have been violated.”

The jury returned a verdict in favor of Davis as to his “claim of unconstitutional restraints,” awarding Davis $1,000 in compensatory damages and no punitive damages. Wessel and Lay appealed after the district court denied their motion for judgment as a matter of law or new trial.

II. DISCUSSION

Wessel and Lay press three arguments on appeal. First, they contend that the district court committed prejudicial error by failing to instruct the jury that the standard for liability requires a showing of intent. Next, they contend that the district court committed prejudicial error by declining to give their proposed “court order” instruction, quoted above. Finally, they contend that the district court erred in denying their motion for judgment as a matter of law.

A. Elements Instruction

“We review jury instructions as a whole, ‘analyzing them deferentially to determine whether they accurately state the law and do not confuse the jury.’ ” Johnson v. Gen. Bd. of Pension & Health Benefits of United Methodist Church, 733 F.3d 722, 732–33 (7th Cir.2013) (quoting Rapold v. Baxter Int'l Inc., 718 F.3d 602, 609 (7th Cir.2013) ), cert. denied, –––U.S. ––––, 135 S.Ct. 92, 190 L.Ed.2d 76 (2014). “[I]n order to obtain a new trial based on an incorrect jury instruction, [an appellant] must establish both...