Feagley v. Waddill

Decision Date04 April 1989
Docket NumberNo. 88-1172,88-1172
PartiesJames Wilburn FEAGLEY, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Bill WADDILL, Superintendent, Abilene State School, et al., Defendants-Appellants.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Helen R. Bright, Toni Hunter, Asst. Attys. Gen., Jim Mattox, Atty. Gen., Austin, Tex., for defendants-appellants.

David Ferleger, Philadelphia, Pa., for plaintiffs-appellees.

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

Before GOLDBERG, GARWOOD, and JOLLY, Circuit Judges.

GARWOOD, Circuit Judge:

Defendants-appellants Bill Waddill, Ric Savage, Rodney Oliver, Vernon "Buzzy" Andress, Jimmy Minor, Steven Yeakley, Dennis May, Virginia McPherson, and Secta Gammage (collectively, defendants) appeal the district court's denial of their motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity. At the same time, plaintiffs-appellees James Wilburn Feagley, Billie Jean Feagley, and the estate of Ellen Darlene Feagley move that the appeal be dismissed. We grant appellees' motion and dismiss the appeal.

Facts and Proceedings Below

In August 1963, Ellen Darlene Feagley (Darlene), then eleven years old, was involuntarily committed to the Abilene State School, a Texas institution for the mentally retarded, and she remained there as an involuntary resident until her death in 1985. Darlene was severely retarded, suffered from grand mal epilepsy, and was partially paralyzed on her right side. Plaintiffs allege, inter alia, that during the last two years of her confinement Darlene was kept in a building that failed to meet even the most elementary standards, that she did not receive adequate medical care or training, that she was unduly restrained, that she was repeatedly injured, and that she was drowned when she was sent without supervision to an unlocked and unstaffed swimming pool on September 18, 1985. Plaintiffs further alleged that each of the defendants, as employees at the Abilene State School, engaged in various courses of conduct and took and failed to take certain actions respecting Darlene, which, among other things, caused her injuries and other physical harm and eventually led to her death. Some of these were alleged to have been knowing or reckless.

On May 12, 1986, plaintiffs filed this action against defendants under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. Plaintiffs sued defendants in both their official and their individual capacities, and in addition to compensatory damages for the allegedly unconstitutional denial of care, infliction of injury, and death of Darlene at the Abilene State School, plaintiffs also sought exemplary damages and declaratory relief. After defendants filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings, the district court dismissed with prejudice the claims against defendants in their official capacities and likewise dismissed the claims for declaratory relief. The district court also ordered plaintiffs to amend their complaint to address the issue of qualified immunity, which plaintiffs did on March 9, 1987.

On July 20, 1987, defendants filed a motion for summary judgment in which they claimed that they were entitled to qualified immunity from suit. On August 24, 1987, the district court denied this motion. Subsequently, on November 19, 1987, defendants filed a second motion for summary judgment. In connection with this second motion, defendants filed a statement of undisputed facts and issues of law that listed as undisputed facts only that in August 1963 her parents had Darlene committed to Abilene State School, a state institution, and that she died there in September 1985. It further generally asserted that plaintiffs' allegations reflected that Darlene suffered from seizures prior to August 1963 and that the complained of conduct by defendants was entirely in the scope of their employment at Abilene State School. Defendants also filed excerpts from several of their own depositions, only one of which had been filed with the district court (or is in the record). See Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). In response, plaintiffs submitted three affidavits, including one by an expert witness. There was no further filing in respect to the motion by defendants. On February 4, 1988, the district court denied defendants' second motion for summary judgment. In denying this motion, the district court determined that a cause of action under section 1983 had been asserted and that none of the defendants had established entitlement to qualified immunity. On March 2, 1988, defendants filed a notice of appeal along with a motion to stay proceedings pending the outcome of appeal. On March 22, 1988, the district court denied defendants' motion to stay proceedings. However, on April 4, 1988, a motions panel of this Court granted the requested stay and also ordered that plaintiffs' motion to dismiss the appeal be carried with the case.

Discussion

As a general rule, only a final judgment of the district court is appealable. See 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1291. Because the order presently under review, the denial of a motion for summary judgment, is interlocutory rather than final in character, to be appealable it must fall within an exception to section 1291. Under the collateral order doctrine set forth in Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 69 S.Ct. 1221, 93 L.Ed. 1528 (1949), an interlocutory order is appealable if it falls within "that small class which finally determine claims of right separable from, and collateral to, rights asserted in the action, too important to be denied review and too independent of the cause itself to require that appellate consideration be deferred until the whole case is adjudicated." Cohen, 69 S.Ct. at 1225-26. Included within that "small class" is the denial of a motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity "to the extent that it turns on an issue of law." Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 2816-17, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985). Accordingly, if disputed factual issues material to immunity are present, the district court's denial of summary judgment sought on the basis of immunity is not appealable. See Lion Boulos v. Wilson, 834 F.2d 504, 509 (5th Cir.1987); Mahoney v. Hankin, 844 F.2d 64, 68-69 (2d Cir.1988).

To determine whether this order is appealable, we need to know where, in this particular social and factual matrix, the protections of qualified immunity end and liability begins. In Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982), the Supreme Court held that the plaintiffs must establish that the defendants' conduct violated "clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known" in order to prevail on their claims against the defendants. Id. 102 S.Ct. at 2738. In Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987), the Court further refined the principles of qualified immunity by holding that the right allegedly violated by the defendant's conduct "must have been 'clearly established' in a more particularized ... sense: The contours of the right must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right," id. 107 S.Ct. at 3039 (emphasis added), an inquiry which the opinion infers may often be "fact specific." Id. at 3040.

The constitutional rights possessed by an involuntarily committed mentally retarded person include, in addition to "adequate food, shelter, clothing and medical care," the liberty interest in reasonably safe conditions and freedom from undue bodily restraints, and "such training as an appropriate professional would consider reasonable to ensure his safety and to facilitate his ability to function free from bodily restraints." Youngberg v. Romeo, 457 U.S. 307, 102 S.Ct. 2452, 2458-59, 2461-62, 73 L.Ed.2d 28 (1982). The institutionalized retarded person's rights to safety and freedom from bodily restraints, however, "are not absolute; indeed to some extent they are in conflict.... [T]here are occasions in which it is necessary ... to restrain the movement of residents--for example, to protect them as well as others from violence. Similar restraints may also be appropriate in a training program. And an institution cannot protect its residents from all dangers of violence if it is to permit them to have any freedom of movement." Id. 102 S.Ct. at 2460 (footnote omitted). Nor need there be a " 'compelling' or 'substantial' necessity" in order to "justify use of restraints or conditions of less than absolute safety," for such a requirement "would place an undue burden on the administration of institutions ... and also would restrict unnecessarily the exercise of professional judgment." Id. at 2461. Rather, "liability may be imposed only when the decision by the professional is such a substantial departure from accepted professional judgment, practice, or standards as to demonstrate that the person responsible actually did not base the decision on such a judgment." Id. at 2462 (footnote omitted). Although Youngberg (which preceded Harlow, Mitchell, and Anderson ) did not present a qualified immunity issue, 102 S.Ct. at 2456 n. 13, the Court there noted, "In an action for damages against a professional in his individual capacity, however, the professional will not be liable if he was unable to satisfy his normal professional standards because of budgetary constraints; in such a situation, good-faith immunity would bar liability. Id. at 2462.

Justice Blackmun, in his concurring opinion (joined in by Justices Brennan and O'Connor) in Youngberg, noted that although the majority did not address the matter "it would be consistent with the Court's reasoning today" to impose an obligation to provide "such training as is reasonably necessary to prevent a person's pre-existing self-care skills from deteriorating because of his commitment." Id. at 2464 (emphasis in original). While Justice Blackmun's opinion suggests a disposition on his...

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