Brooks v. Warden

• Citation: 800 F.3d 1295
• Decision Date: 03 September 2015
• Docket Number: No. 13–14437.,13–14437.
• Parties: Fred Dalton BROOKS, Plaintiff–Appellant, v. WARDEN, Deputy Warden William Powell, Deputy Warden June Bishop, SMU Unit Manager McMillan, Defendants–Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

800 F.3d 1295

Fred Dalton BROOKS, Plaintiff–Appellant

v.WARDEN, Deputy Warden William Powell, Deputy Warden June Bishop, SMU Unit Manager McMillan, Defendants–Appellees.

No. 13–14437.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

Sept. 3, 2015.

Erica J. Hashimoto, University of Georgia School of Law, Athens, GA, GDCP Warden, Georgia Diagnostic and Classification SP–Trust Fund, Jackson, GA, for Plaintiff–Appellant.

Fred Dalton Brooks, Jackson, GA, pro se.

Susan L. Rutherford, Samuel Scott Olens, Georgia Department of Law, Atlanta, GA, for Defendant–Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia. D.C. Docket No. 5:12–cv–00281–CAR.

Before MARCUS, ROSENBAUM and GINSBURG,^* Circuit Judges.

Opinion

MARCUS, Circuit Judge:

Fred Dalton Brooks is currently incarcerated in the Special Management Unit (“SMU”) at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison (“GDCP”) in Jackson, Georgia. He has brought two Eighth Amendment claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 : one against Warden Carl Humphrey, Deputy Warden William Powell, Deputy Warden June Bishop, and SMU Unit Manager James McMillan stemming from injuries he sustained during a prison riot; and another against only Deputy Warden Powell based on the conditions of his confinement at Spalding County Hospital following the riot.

Brooks alleges that within days of being placed in the SMU, he received threats of physical and sexual assault from the inmate in the adjacent cell. He reported these threats but no action was taken. The cell doors in the SMU were known to open unintentionally. One day, all 32 doors in his SMU dormitory opened simultaneously, a riot ensued, and he was brutally attacked by the inmate who had threatened him. He was taken to the hospital for three days, where he was placed in maximum-security restraints. He was given medicine that gave him loose stools, but the guard refused to lower his waist-chains so he could defecate. He was forced to defecate in his jumpsuit for two days and sit in his own excrement, during which time the guard laughed and taunted him. Brooks brought deliberate indifference claims relating to both incidents in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia. The district court dismissed both.

After thorough review, we affirm the dismissal of Brooks's failure to protect claim arising out of the prison riot, but reverse as to his claim that his Eighth Amendment rights were violated by his alleged mistreatment at the hospital. Brooks did not adequately allege a substantial risk of serious harm in the period leading up the prison riot. However, he did adequately plead an Eighth Amendment violation arising out of his three-day hospital stay. Moreover, as to the claim that Brooks had been confined in conditions lacking in basic sanitation, Deputy Warden Powell is not entitled to qualified immunity. He was put on fair notice both by our caselaw and the knowledge that forcing a prisoner to soil himself over a two-day period while chained in a hospital bed creates an obvious health risk and is an affront to human dignity.

Because Brooks has not alleged any physical injury resulting from his hospital stay, under the Prison Litigation Reform Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(e), he cannot recover compensatory or punitive damages. We do hold today, however, that Brooks can proceed with his claim for nominal damages for a violation of his Eighth Amendment rights, and we remand to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I.

Brooks's amended complaint alleged the following essential facts. Brooks was placed in the Special Management Unit on February 7, 2012, under the direct orders of Humphrey, Powell, and Bishop. The SMU has six dormitories, each of which contains 32 individual cells. Brooks's cell was located in the E-dorm, adjacent to a cell occupied by inmate Tremayne Watson. Within days of Brooks's arrival, Watson allegedly threatened to physically attack and sexually assault him. (Brooks was, at the time, 64 years old; five feet, nine inches tall; and 155 pounds.) Despite being in a separate cell from Watson, Brooks feared for his safety. He gave “detailed notes” of Watson's threats to Humphrey, Powell, Bishop, and McMillan. Brooks was not moved from his cell.

On February 29, 2012, all 32 doors in the E-dorm opened simultaneously while a maintenance man and officer were in the control booth, and a violent riot broke out. Watson attacked Brooks: he put him in a chokehold, punched him in the face, and beat him over the head with a ten-pound food tray, leaving Brooks with serious wounds, broken teeth, and a concussion. Watson then dragged Brooks on his hands and knees into Brooks's cell and forced Brooks to perform oral sex. After the riot was quelled, Brooks was initially taken to the prison infirmary for treatment, but his injuries were serious enough to require that he be transferred to Spalding County Hospital.

Brooks remained in the hospital for three days. Throughout his stay, Brooks was shackled with leg irons and maximum-security waist-chain handcuffs. He was guarded at all times by Deputy Warden Powell and three other correctional officers. He received medicine that “caused [his] bowels to have the liquidity of water.” During his second day at the hospital, Brooks began asking and then pleading with Powell to allow him to use the toilet. Powell refused to temporarily lower Brooks's waist-chains so he could defecate. Instead, Brooks was forced to soil his jumpsuit for the remainder of his stay in the hospital. Powell and the correctional officers “laughed and made fun of” Brooks during this ordeal.¹

The prison officials moved to dismiss the complaint and Brooks responded. In his Response, Brooks alleged for the first time that “the opening of cell doors, even multiple cell doors[,] in the SMU occurs regularly and is known by all the Defendants.” He added that “multiple prisoners can sometimes get out of their cells simultaneously.” Brooks also claimed that “most of the inmates housed in [the] SMU have been put there because they have committed acts of violence ... in the prison system,” and that it was a “well known fact” that “Watson [was] the most violent and troublesome inmate in [the] SMU.”

On July 18, 2013, the magistrate judge entered a Report recommending that the Motions to Dismiss be granted in their entirety. As for the failure to protect claim, the magistrate judge concluded that Brooks's allegations did not suggest that the defendants had subjective knowledge of a strong likelihood that Brooks would be subject to an attack in prison. The court noted that the complaint had not alleged that Brooks and Watson had ever been outside their cells simultaneously, or that Watson “otherwise had the opportunity to carry out the threats.” The magistrate judge also reasoned that the failure to move Brooks to another cell (farther from Watson) “amount[ed] only to negligence,” not deliberate indifference. As for Brooks's hospital treatment claim, the magistrate judge concluded that Powell was protected by qualified immunity because “the facts alleged [did] not involve a risk to Plaintiff's health or safety,” and, therefore, it was not clearly established that Powell's conduct violated the Eighth Amendment.

On August 8, 2013, Brooks moved for reconsideration of the magistrate judge's Report and Recommendation. The district court treated the motion as an objection to the magistrate's Report, and construed the new factual allegations as a second Motion to Amend. Brooks conceded that he “did not allege that Defendants could have foreseen ... that the maintenance man would open all the cell doors” in the SMU. However, he maintained that the defendants “knew that multiple cell door openings ‘could’ occur” because “similar cell door openings have occurred on prior occasions in [the] SMU.” He claimed that “[t]here have been numerous instances of inmates being able to get out of their cells without authorization.” As for his treatment at the hospital, Brooks reiterated that he was “forced to lie in his own excrement during his entire hospitalization,” thereby directly exposing him to a significant health risk. Notably, Brooks did not allege that he sustained any physical injury as a result. Finally, he also claimed that Powell “refused to allow the nursing staff to clean” Brooks's body and refused to allow him to use an adult diaper.

The district court denied Brooks's re-styled Motion to Amend as “futile” because “[e]ven with these new allegations [he] fail[ed] to allege colorable Eighth Amendment claims for the same reasons stated in the [magistrate judge's] Recommendation.”

Brooks timely appealed and was appointed counsel by this Court.

II.

We review de novo the dismissal of a complaint for failure to state a claim under Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ; we accept all factual allegations as true and consider them in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Starship Enters. of Atlanta, Inc. v. Coweta Cnty., 708 F.3d 1243, 1252 (11th Cir.2013). We review the denial of a motion to amend for an abuse of discretion, but whether the motion is futile is a question of law that we review de novo. Smith v. Fla. Dep't of Corr., 713 F.3d 1059, 1063 (11th Cir.2013) (per curiam). A district court's “denial of leave to amend is justified by futility when the complaint as amended is still subject to dismissal.” Hall v. United Ins. Co. of Am., 367 F.3d 1255, 1263 (11th Cir.2004) (quoting Burger King Corp. v. Weaver, 169 F.3d 1310, 1320 (11th Cir.1999) (internal quotation mark omitted)). In determining whether a complaint survives Rule 12(b)(6), we ask whether the complaint contains “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007). “A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the...