Beck v. Wilson

• Decision Date: 29 July 2004
• Docket Number: No. 03-3211.,03-3211.
• Parties: Melissa Dawn BECK, Plaintiff/Appellee, v. Roy C. WILSON; Felix Vincenz; Enrique Dos Santos; Kenneth Lyle, Defendants, Frances J. Joy, Defendant/Appellant, John D. Nacy, Defendant, Julie Houchins, Defendant/Appellant, Paul West; Darlene Kelley, Defendants, Michael Cox, Defendant/Appellant, Billie Jean Oakley; Vicky Cole; Dewey Potter, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

377 F.3d 884

Melissa Dawn BECK, Plaintiff/Appellee, v. Roy C. WILSON; Felix Vincenz; Enrique Dos Santos; Kenneth Lyle, Defendants Frances J. Joy, Defendant/Appellant John D. Nacy, Defendant Julie Houchins, Defendant/Appellant Paul West; Darlene Kelley, Defendants, Michael Cox, Defendant/Appellant, Billie Jean Oakley; Vicky Cole; Dewey Potter, Defendants.

No. 03-3211.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: April 12, 2004.

Filed: July 29, 2004.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Nannette K. Laughrey, J. Counsel who presented argument on behalf of the appellants Cox and Houchins was Doug Leyshock, Assistant Attorney General, Jefferson City, MO. Virginia H. Murray, Assistant Attorney General, Jefferson City, MO also presented argument of behalf of appellant Houchins.

Counsel who presented argument on behalf of the appellee was Stuart H. King of Springfield, MO.

Before MORRIS SHEPPARD ARNOLD, RILEY, and COLLOTON, Circuit Judges.

RILEY, Circuit Judge.

While involuntarily committed at the Fulton State Hospital Alcohol and Drug Abuse Rehabilitation Unit (ADA Unit), Melissa Dawn Beck (Beck) alleges she was sexually assaulted by a fellow male patient. Beck filed this lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (2000) against multiple Fulton State Hospital (FSH) employees, claiming violations of her substantive due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. On motions for summary judgment, the district court granted qualified immunity to four FSH employees, but denied qualified immunity to Michael Cox (Cox), Julie Houchins (Houchins), and Frances Joy (Joy). Cox, Houchins, and Joy appeal. We reverse.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Summary

The ADA Unit is a 20-bed, inpatient substance abuse treatment facility for men and women. The ADA Unit has four unisex bathrooms located along a single hallway opposite patient bedrooms. When Beck was admitted, patients could not lock the bathrooms and bedrooms from the inside; only staff members could lock doors from the outside with a key. The testimony regarding the bathroom locking mechanisms was in conflict; however, we review the evidence in the light most favorable to Beck. The ADA Unit also contained no internal surveillance cameras. Staff could observe and monitor the hallway, bathrooms, and bedrooms from a nurses' station located at one end of the hallway. ADA Unit policy requires a staff member to be present at the nurses' station at all times to monitor the hallway and to prevent patients from entering bedrooms other than their assigned room, or from entering a bathroom when occupied by another patient. Another ADA Unit policy requires staff members to perform and record visual verifications or "face checks" of each patient every fifteen minutes.

In April 2001, the Circuit Court of Boone County, Missouri, ordered Beck involuntarily committed to the ADA Unit for thirty days. Beck had no criminal history and was committed for abusing Xanax, which Beck used to treat her migraine headaches. At the time, Joy was the ADA Unit Manager charged with developing and implementing policies and procedures. Houchins, a registered nurse, worked as an evening shift supervisor in the ADA Unit. Cox, a substance abuse counselor assistant, also worked in the ADA Unit.

When Beck was admitted to the ADA Unit on April 17, 2001, she was the only female patient. On her first evening in the ADA Unit, Beck told her counselor and Houchins she was uncomfortable with and afraid of the male patients in the ADA Unit. Beck told Houchins male residents whistled at her and referred to Beck as "baby girl." Beck did not identify for Houchins any of the male patients whom Beck feared. Houchins comforted Beck and allowed her to dine that evening at the nurses' station away from the male patients.

The following evening, Beck joined other patients outside on the patio for a smoking break. Cox supervised the patients on the patio, and Houchins was assigned to the nurses' station. Cox and Houchins were the only two employees working in the ADA Unit. After Beck finished smoking, she re-entered the building. Cox remained outside with the other patients. Beck stopped by the nurses' station, saw Houchins in the medication room preparing medications, spoke briefly to Houchins, and picked up a bath towel. Beck then collected some toiletries from her bedroom, and entered the bathroom farthest from the nurses' station. After Beck entered the unsecured bathroom, a male inpatient, D.P., slipped inside the bathroom, grabbed Beck, sexually assaulted her, and threatened to kill her children if she reported the assault. Following the assault, Beck showered and returned to her room. In the days immediately following the assault, D.P. repeatedly threatened Beck, telling her he knew where she lived and she best keep quiet, lest he would harm Beck and her children.

On April 25, 2001, Beck described for Houchins a "hypothetical" involving a patient being assaulted and threatened in a bathroom. Houchins asked Beck whether her inquiry concerned an actual event or a hypothetical situation. Beck responded she was describing a hypothetical. Houchins told Beck, if such an incident actually occurred, she would advise her supervisor and staff would deal with the incident. Houchins then asked Beck whether the unnamed patient in the hypothetical was D.P., and told Beck she would not report the hypothetical in her evening nursing notes based on Beck's fear that a staff member might show D.P. the nursing notes. Houchins was later disciplined for not reporting the hypothetical incident, and she did not appeal the discipline.

On April 26, 2001, Beck informed Joy about D.P.'s sexual assault and threats. Joy immediately removed Beck from the ADA Unit, and then Joy informed her supervisors of Beck's allegations. Later that day, D.P. was transferred to another FSH building, and Beck was returned to the ADA Unit, where Beck remained until her early discharge on May 2, 2001.

Beck's alleged assault was the first sexual assault known and reported to have occurred in the ADA Unit, although other patients and staff members had reported previous incidents of unwelcome sexual behavior. Before the alleged sexual assault occurred, no patient in the ADA Unit had complained to Joy about D.P., nor did Joy know D.P. had a history of committing sexual assaults. However, Joy was aware D.P. was convicted of assault and was serving a 60-month sentence.

B. Procedural Summary

In March 2002, Beck filed this section 1983 lawsuit, alleging multiple FSH employees violated her substantive due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. In Count I, Beck alleged twelve defendants, including Cox, Houchins, and Joy, violated her substantive due process rights by recklessly or with deliberate indifference placing her in an unsafe environment and failing to protect her by inadequately supervising male patients in the ADA Unit. In Count II, Beck alleged several supervisory defendants, including Joy, implemented inadequate policies and failed to train or supervise properly ADA Unit staff members. In Count III, Beck alleged a state-law battery claim against D.P. based on the purported sexual assault.

After Beck's lawsuit was filed, five defendants were dismissed. The remaining seven defendants filed motions for summary judgment, contending the record failed to establish a substantive due process violation. Alternatively, the defendants argued if Beck had established a constitutional violation, they were entitled to qualified immunity. The district court concluded Beck failed to present a submissible case against several defendants, but had presented a submissible case on Count I against Cox and Houchins. The district court concluded:

Houchins and Cox were the staff members on duty at the time of the rape on April 18, 2001. Houchins and Cox were not only aware of the general threat of violence posed by the patients in the ADA Unit, but Beck had expressed her specific fears and concerns directly to Houchins a day before the rape occurred, giving her time to deliberate regarding what actions were needed to protect Beck. Houchins and Cox also knew that Beck could not lock the bathroom door herself to provide security and therefore was particularly vulnerable if they failed to monitor visually the movement of ADA unit patients. Nonetheless, Houchins and Cox failed to monitor the location of Beck and D.P. on the night of April 18, 2001, either by doing 15 minute "face checks" or by ensuring that a staff member was at the nurses' station at all times to prevent two people [from] entering the bathroom at the same time. A reasonable jury could, therefore, conclude that Houchins and Cox were aware that Beck had a substantial risk of serious harm and were deliberately indifferent to it.

(internal citations omitted).

On Count II, the district court granted summary judgment based on qualified immunity to several supervisory defendants, but denied summary judgment to Joy. The court reasoned:

[A] reasonable jury could conclude that Joy was deliberately indifferent to Beck's constitutional rights. As the Manager of the ADA Unit, Joy was aware that the Unit was designed to be co-ed, with only two staff members on duty at night, no interior security cameras, and doors that could not be locked from the inside. In addition, Joy testified that she knew that many of the patients had criminal histories and that substance abusers had a propensity to be violent. Further, it can be inferred from Joy's frequent presence in the ADA Unit that she knew that Beck was the only female patient in a Unit full of recovering male substance abusers with little or no self-control, leaving Beck particularly vulnerable to attack.

... Joy was on notice that the failure to train or supervise her staff was "so likely to result in a violation of constitutional rights that the need for training is patently...