Austin v. Johnson

• Decision Date: 25 April 2003
• Docket Number: No. 02-41137 Summary Calendar.,02-41137 Summary Calendar.
• Citation: 328 F.3d 204
• Parties: David AUSTIN, Individually and next Friend of "John E", a Minor; Sandra Austin, Individually and as next Friend of "John E", a Minor, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Patrick A. JOHNSON, Individually and in Official Capacity; Cleran Gipson, Drill Instructor, STAR Boot Camp, Harrison County, Texas, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 204

328 F.3d 204

David AUSTIN, Individually and next Friend of "John E", a Minor; Sandra Austin, Individually and as next Friend of "John E", a Minor, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Patrick A. JOHNSON, Individually and in Official Capacity; Cleran Gipson, Drill Instructor, STAR Boot Camp, Harrison County, Texas, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 02-41137 Summary Calendar.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

April 25, 2003.

Rehearing Denied May 28, 2003.

Darren Keith Coleman, Boon, Shaver, Echocs & Coleman, Longview, TX, for Plaintiffs-Appellees.

Christi Johnson Kennedy, Robert Scott Davis, Flowers Davis, Tyler, TX, for Defendants-Appellants.

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

Before HIGGINBOTHAM, SMITH and CLEMENT, Circuit Judges.

JERRY E. SMITH, Circuit Judge:

"John E," a minor,¹ was caught stealing a candy bar and, as punishment, was ordered to attend a one-day boot camp, where he suffered severe symptoms from heat stroke. John E's parents sued the camp operator, Harrison County, the camp director, and a camp worker, alleging, inter alia, the violation of his Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights. The district court granted plaintiffs' partial motion for summary judgment denying the defendant camp directors the defenses of qualified and official immunity. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.

I.

A justice of the peace found John E guilty of taking candy from a concession stand at school and sentenced him to three months' probation, a $30 fine, and a one-day boot camp of his choosing. Sandra Austin, John E's mother, and David Austin, his stepfather, selected the "Strength Through Academics and Respect," or STAR, boot camp conducted by the Harrison County Juvenile Probation Department. The Austins met with the camp director, Sergeant Major Patrick Johnson, who explained that John E would be required to perform physical exercises and should bring Gatorade. John E received a required physical examination at which the doctor found him capable of engaging "in military style training and exercise."

On June 26, 1999, the date of the camp, the Austins dropped John E off at a local high school at 5:30 a.m. Though permitted to stay and observe, the Austins left, planning to return twelve hours later when the camp was scheduled to end. In the morning, John E and the other children performed exercises, including push-ups, sit-ups, side straddle hops, and jogging. One exercise required John E to carry a ruck sack weighing between 57 and 70 pounds. He complained to Johnson that the ruck sack straps dug into his shoulders and that he was having difficulty performing the exercises. Johnson stated that he felt John E was lazy or had an attitude problem.

At lunch, John E drank two cups of Gatorade but did not finish his meal. During the afternoon march, he complained to Johnson that he felt sick, but was told to continue. John E collapsed several times before he was taken into the school building between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. The activity log kept by defendant Cleran Gipson, a drill instructor, states that John E became dehydrated and "fell out" at 3:00 p.m.² Johnson rendered first aid, but at some point, John E vomited and became unconscious. An ambulance was called at 4:42 p.m.

John E suffered from serious conditions such as hyperpyrexia³ and acute rhabdomyolysis⁴ resulting from heat stroke; he was admitted to a local hospital, where his temperature was 107.9° Fahrenheit, and later was transferred to Children's Hospital in Dallas, where he remained for over two weeks, suffering from acute renal failure, acute hepatitis, and pancreatitis. He has since made a full recovery without permanent damage.

Suing under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, plaintiffs contend that Johnson and Gipson inflicted cruel and unusual punishment and failed to summon needed medical care in violation of John E's Fourteenth and Eighth Amendment rights. They also assert Texas state law claims for negligence, gross negligence, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty.⁵ Plaintiffs filed a partial motion for summary judgment that Johnson and Gipson are not entitled to the defense of qualified immunity and official immunity. In turn, Johnson and Gipson filed a cross-motion for summary judgment based on the same defenses. The district court considered both motions and granted plaintiffs' partial motion for summary judgment.

II.

The "denial of a claim of qualified immunity, to the extent that it turns on an issue of law, is an appealable `final decision' within the meaning of 28 U.S.C. 1291 notwithstanding the absence of a final judgment." Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 526, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985); see also Behrens v. Pelletier, 516 U.S. 299, 313, 116 S.Ct. 834, 133 L.Ed.2d 773 (1996). By granting plaintiffs' motion for partial summary judgment preventing defendants' use of a qualified and official immunity defense, the court denied defendants' cross-motion for summary judgment. We have jurisdiction, because the court determined plaintiff's allegations made out the violation of a clearly established constitutional right; the denial of qualified immunity did not rest on the sufficiency of evidence as to whether the alleged conduct occurred. Pelletier, 516 U.S. at 312-13, 116 S.Ct. 834.

III.

Qualified immunity is "an entitlement not to stand trial or face the other burdens of litigation." Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 526, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985). The initial question is whether, "taken in the light most favorable to the party asserting the injury, [] the facts alleged show the officer's conduct violated a constitutional right." Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 201, 121 S.Ct. 2151, 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001). We cannot pretermit whether a constitutional violation is properly alleged. Siegert v. Gilley, 500 U.S. 226, 232, 111 S.Ct. 1789, 114 L.Ed.2d 277 (1991).

Second, even where the officer violated constitutional rights, we ask whether "the contours of the constitutional right in question were sufficiently clear that a reasonable officer would understand that what he is doing violates that right." Estep v. Dallas County, Texas, 310 F.3d 353, 360 (5th Cir.2002) (citation omitted). Although there does not have to be a case directly on point, Petta v. Rivera, 143 F.3d 895, 899 (5th Cir.1998), the plaintiff should seek to identify "cases of controlling authority in [the] jurisdiction at the time of the incident which clearly establish the rule on which they seek to rely," or "a consensus of cases of persuasive authority such that a reasonable officer could not have believed that his actions were lawful." Wilson v. Layne, 526 U.S. 603, 609, 119 S.Ct. 1692, 143 L.Ed.2d 818 (1999). Qualified immunity protects "all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law." Wooley v. City of Baton Rouge, 211 F.3d 913, 918-19 (5th Cir.2000). An official's conduct is therefore objectively reasonable unless "all reasonable officials would have realized the particular challenged conduct violated the constitutional provisions sued on." Id.

At summary judgment, all inferences are typically drawn in favor of the nonmoving party. Reid v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 784 F.2d 577, 578 (5th Cir.1986). The court followed Saucier, which states that in a qualified immunity determination, the facts should be construed in the light most favorable to the party asserting the injury. 533 U.S. at 201, 121 S.Ct. 2151 (emphasis added); Felton v. Polles, 315 F.3d 470, 477 (5th Cir. 2002). Though the court granted plaintiffs' motion to deny defendants use of qualified immunity, it also considered, and implicitly denied, defendants' cross-motion for summary judgment. Because the court drew all reasonable inferences in favor of plaintiffs, we will do the same, treating this as defendants' motion for summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity.

IV.

Plaintiffs assert two Eighth Amendment claims: that the STAR camp constituted cruel and unusual punishment and that defendants were deliberately indifferent to John E's medical needs. The court concluded that plaintiffs alleged a violation of both, without even deciding whether the Eighth Amendment applies to a one-day boot camp.⁶ It stated that "[t]he use of the heavy weighted ruck sacks which cause pain and injury, along with the forced run in the hot sun which endangers health is an obvious case of unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain totally without penological justification." As for the deprivation of John E's medical needs, the court summarily found that, taking the facts in a light most favorable to plaintiffs, "deliberate indifference to a prisoner's serious medical needs constitutes the unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain."

A.

State defendants do not incur Eighth Amendment liability unless "the individual was being held in custody after criminal conviction." Johnson v. City of Dallas, 61 F.3d 442, 444 (5th Cir.1995) (citation omitted). Defendants do not deny that John E was convicted of a crime or that his one-day of boot camp served as punishment. Rather, they contend that John E was not incarcerated, noting that he was free to select the date and location of his punishment, and that his parents could (but declined to) observe his participation.

In Ingraham v. Wright, 430 U.S. 651, 669-70, 97 S.Ct. 1401, 51 L.Ed.2d 711 (1977), the Court found the Eighth Amendment inapplicable to corporal punishment in schools, observing that schoolchildren have little need for the amendment's protection because schools are open institutions where children may leave without physical restraint. A prisoner's incarceration, by contrast, "deprives him of the freedom to be with family and friends and to form the other enduring attachments of normal life." Id. (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). The Court found that the Eighth Amendment is implicated once the state "has secured a formal adjudication of guilt in...