Boswell v. Sherburne County, 87-5187

• Decision Date: 11 August 1988
• Docket Number: No. 87-5187,87-5187
• Parties: Wanda Charlene BOSWELL, individually and as personal representative of the Estate of Joseph Boswell, Appellee, v. The COUNTY OF SHERBURNE, Richard Witschen, Sheriff of Sherburne County, individually and in his official capacity; John Doe Daniels, Chief Jailer, Sherburne County Jail, individually and in his official capacity; Valerie Lero, Jailer, Sherburne County Jail, individually and in her official capacity; Nancy Riecken, Jailer, Sherburne County Jail, individually and in her official capacity, Appellants, Donny Dorf, Jailer, Sherburne County Jail, individually and in his official capacity; City of Elk River, Elk River Fire & Ambulance Service, Steven Dittbenner, Ralph Barsody, John Follmer.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 1117

849 F.2d 1117

Wanda Charlene BOSWELL, individually and as personal representative of the Estate of Joseph Boswell, Appellee, v. The COUNTY OF SHERBURNE, Richard Witschen, Sheriff of

Sherburne County, individually and in his official capacity;

John Doe Daniels, Chief Jailer, Sherburne County Jail,

individually and in his official capacity; Valerie Lero,

Jailer, Sherburne County Jail, individually and in her

official capacity; Nancy Riecken, Jailer, Sherburne County

Jail, individually and in her official capacity, Appellants,

Donny Dorf, Jailer, Sherburne County Jail, individually and

in his official capacity; City of Elk River, Elk

River Fire & Ambulance Service, Steven

Dittbenner, Ralph Barsody, John Follmer.

No. 87-5187.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Dec. 15, 1987.

Decided June 21, 1988.

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied Aug. 11, 1988.

Joseph Marshall, Circle Pines, Minn., for appellants.

Marc Slonim, Seattle, Wash., for appellee.

Before LAY, Chief Judge, HEANEY and MAGILL, Circuit Judges.

MAGILL, Circuit Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION.

Richard Witschen, Sheriff of Sherburne County, Minnesota; Steven Daniels,* chief jailer, Sherburne County Jail; Valerie Lero, jailer, and Nancy Riecken, jailer, (collectively, appellants) together appeal from a district court ¹ order denying their motion for summary judgment. The district court disagreed with appellants' assertion that they are entitled to qualified immunity for any violation of Wanda Charlene Boswell's (Boswell) constitutional rights while she was a pretrial detainee in the Sherburne County Jail. Because we agree with the district court, we affirm.

II. FACTS.

The district court's denial of summary judgment comes to us as an appealable interlocutory decision because appellants' motion was based on the defense of qualified immunity. Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 530, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 2817, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985). Mitchell instructs that we need "not consider the correctness of plaintiff's version of the facts," when reviewing a denial of summary judgment. Id. at 528, 105 S.Ct. at 2816. Therefore, as we illuminate the facts of this case, we do so in the light most favorable to Boswell. Myers v. Morris, 810 F.2d 1437, 1459 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 97, 98 L.Ed.2d 58 (1987).

Shortly after midnight on March 24, 1984, Boswell was arrested for operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol. She was taken to the Sherburne County Jail in Elk River, Minnesota, to be held on that charge and on warrants for her arrest issued by two other Minnesota counties. While booking Boswell, jailer Valerie Lero learned that Boswell was six and one-half months pregnant and was having a problem pregnancy. Boswell related to Lero that she had had abnormal vaginal discharge, and had fainted three days earlier. She also stated that she was under the care of a physician, and gave her doctor's phone number to Lero. While showering, Boswell discovered that she was bleeding. She immediately informed Lero. Lero gave Boswell sanitary pads before locking her into a cell for the night, but made no attempt to contact Boswell's physician or any other trained medical personnel. Lero failed to record Boswell's bleeding in her log, and neglected to communicate any of the information she had concerning Boswell's medical condition to the next jailer, Nancy Riecken, who relieved Lero at 6:00 a.m.

About 7:00 a.m., Riecken was called by Boswell. Boswell was cramped, bleeding, and in pain, and she asked Riecken to get her a doctor. Riecken refused and told Boswell that she would not be released until she posted bail.

Boswell's pain and bleeding became worse. When she went to the bathroom, she realized she had passed some blood clots and saved them to prove to Riecken that she needed immediate medical attention. As her cramps intensified, she pounded on the cell door for help. When Riecken responded, Boswell showed her the clots and a bloody sanitary pad. She again requested medical help. Riecken continued to insist that Boswell--whose family was in Onamia, Minnesota, sixty miles from Elk River--post bail before she could be released. Riecken's only concession was to permit Boswell to phone her mother-in-law, Shirley Boyd. Mrs. Boyd assured Boswell that she would try to raise bail, and she told Boswell to have Riecken call her if Riecken did not believe Boswell needed immediate medical attention. When Boswell finished speaking with her mother-in-law, she again asked Riecken for medical assistance; Riecken again refused. Instead, Riecken called Mrs. Boyd, and informed her that Boswell was having some difficulty with her pregnancy. Mrs. Boyd told Riecken that if Boswell was having cramps and passing blood, Boswell needed to get to a hospital immediately, because she had a history of fast deliveries. Mrs. Boyd added that even if she could raise the bail money, it would take her a long time to drive from her home in Onamia to Elk River. Riecken continued to insist that she needed "$150 to let Boswell out."

At some point during Boswell's travail, Riecken notified chief jailer Daniels of Boswell's condition. At Daniels' direction, Riecken contacted the two counties with outstanding warrants, Crow Wing County and Becker County, and attempted to persuade them to authorize her release without bail. ² Becker County refused, and Riecken continued to insist that Boswell would have to post bail before she could be released. Neither Riecken nor Daniels took any action to contact Boswell's doctor or any other trained medical personnel. Instead, they left Boswell, cramped and bleeding, to languish in her jail cell while they waited for someone to take Boswell off their hands.

While Boswell's family sought frantically to raise the bail money in Onamia, Boswell's condition worsened. As her cramps became more frequent and intense, she began crying out for help. Riecken took no steps other than to place another call to Mrs. Boyd's home, where she spoke with Mrs. Boyd's husband William and reiterated that bail would have to be posted before Boswell could be released. As Boswell continued to cry for help, Riecken told her to lie down and put her feet up, because nothing else could be done until the Boyds arrived with the bail money.

At about ten o'clock that morning, a local Elk River police officer, Thomas Tyler, stopped by the Sherburne County Jail before beginning his shift. Riecken questioned Tyler, an emergency medical technician, about the signs of miscarriage. When Tyler showed surprise at these questions, Riecken mentioned Boswell. Tyler then offered to look at Boswell. As he walked down the corridor toward her cell, he could hear her cries, which were "quite loud." Tyler found Boswell bleeding and in considerable pain. After a brief examination, Tyler instructed Riecken to call an ambulance. As Boswell was being transferred by ambulance to the hospital, she began giving birth. Her baby, Joseph Boswell, was born at the hospital, where he died thirty-four minutes later.

Boswell filed this 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 action against Sherburne County and the appellants in their individual and official capacities, alleging, among other claims, that appellants' deliberate indifference to Boswell's serious medical needs violated her eighth and fourteenth amendment rights. After some discovery, appellants moved for summary judgment, and submitted a supporting memorandum which raised the defense of qualified immunity. The district court denied appellants' motion for summary judgment.

On appeal, appellants maintain that their obligation to provide medical treatment to a pregnant pretrial detainee was not clearly established at the time this incident took place, and that they are therefore entitled to be immunized against the constitutional claims that Boswell raises in this action.

III. DISCUSSION.

We start with first principles. Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982), established that "government officials performing discretionary functions, generally are shielded from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Id. at 818, 102 S.Ct. at 2738.

The Harlow Court refashioned the qualified immunity doctrine by rejecting any inquiry into an official's state of mind in favor of a wholly objective standard. Id. Consequently, in determining whether an official may prevail on his qualified immunity defense, we confine our consideration solely to the purely legal question whether "the legal norms allegedly violated by the defendant were clearly established at the time of the challenged actions * * *." Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 528, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 2816, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985).

This purely legal question is somewhat complicated in this case because Boswell was a pretrial detainee, not a convicted prisoner. Pretrial detainees have not received a formal adjudication of the charges against them and as such are beyond the power of the state to punish. See Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 523, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 1865, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979). They are therefore accorded the due process protections of the fourteenth amendment, protections "at least as great" as those the eighth amendment affords a convicted prisoner. City of Revere v. Massachusetts General Hospital, 463 U.S. 239, 244, 103 S.Ct. 2979, 2983, 77 L.Ed.2d 605 (1983). While it is well-settled that convicted prisoners find protection in the eighth amendment against prison officials' "deliberate indifference" to their "serious medical needs," Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 106, 97 S.Ct. 285, 292, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976), it is an open question ³ whether the fourteenth amendment provides pretrial detainees with a greater degree of protection against denial of medical care than the Estelle "deliberate indifference" standard. Whitley v. Albers, 475...