Bell v. Stigers, 90-2203

• Decision Date: 02 July 1991
• Docket Number: No. 90-2203,90-2203
• Citation: 937 F.2d 1340
• Parties: Ralph J. BELL, individually and as Conservator and Guardian for Sam H. Bell and Rose Ann Bell, Appellees, v. Francis L. STIGERS, Appellant. County of Washington County, Iowa; Yale H. Jarvis; Richard Allison; Alice Benischeck and Eileen Russell.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 1340

937 F.2d 1340

Ralph J. BELL, individually and as Conservator and Guardian for Sam H. Bell and Rose Ann Bell, Appellees, v. Francis L. STIGERS, Appellant County of Washington County, Iowa; Yale H. Jarvis; Richard Allison; Alice Benischeck and Eileen Russell.

No. 90-2203.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Feb. 12, 1991.

Decided July 2, 1991.

John Baker, Minneapolis, Minn., argued, for appellant. J. Hobart Darbyshire, Davenport, Iowa, and Clifford M. Greene, Minneapolis, Minn., appeared on appellant's brief.

John C. Hendricks, Davenport, Iowa, argued for appellees.

Before FAGG, Circuit Judge, HEANEY, Senior Circuit Judge, and BOWMAN, Circuit Judge.

BOWMAN, Circuit Judge.

Francis Stigers appeals from judgment of the District Court ¹ denying his motion for summary judgment. Stigers is a defendant in a 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 (1988) action resulting from a detainee's suicide attempt at the Washington County Jail, where Stigers worked as a jailer. For reasons stated below, we reverse the decision of the District Court.

I.

Stigers was on duty at the Washington County Jail on the night of November 6, 1987, when 18-year old Sam H. Bell was arrested for drunk driving. After failing a field sobriety test, Bell was taken into custody and brought to the jail by Officer Jeff Richards of the Washington, Iowa Police Department. A breathalyzer test administered at the jail confirmed that Bell was legally intoxicated. After Richards read Bell his Miranda rights and questioned him, Bell was turned over to Stigers for booking. During this procedure, Stigers performed a pat search on Bell and took possession of his shoes, jacket, pocket knife, and wallet. Stigers did not take Bell's belt, which he had failed to detect in the search. As he filled out the arrest report, Stigers asked Bell whether he had any mental disorders or anything medically wrong with him of which the jailer should be aware. Bell answered in the negative to each question. Stigers then asked Bell if he had been in jail before. Bell replied, "Nope, first time, first time for everything. Well I think I'll shoot myself." "Well sorry we don't have a gun handy," Stigers responded. "Too bad," said Bell. "So you're going to have to live through it like everybody else does," Stigers told Bell concluding the booking procedure. Amended Joint Appendix at 24 (Transcript of Sam Bell Booking Tape). Stigers did not check the suicide box in the security risk section of the Arrest Report, see Amended Joint Appendix at 12 (Arrest Report), because he did not believe Bell's remarks to be a suicide threat. Amended Joint Appendix at 40 (Deposition of Francis L. Stigers).

At approximately 11:14 p.m., Stigers placed Bell alone in a cell next to the "bull pen" area from which its two occupants could readily see and talk to Bell through the bars. Stigers conducted two jail checks before his shift ended at midnight. On his final check at 11:46 p.m., he observed Bell sleeping in his cell.

Richard Allison replaced Stigers as the jailer on duty. At 12:10 a.m., Allison dispensed medicine to the prisoners but did not recall seeing Bell. At 12:28 a.m., a prisoner in the bull pen area sounded the emergency alarm system after he saw Bell hanging by his belt from the bars of his cell door. The prisoner rang the alarm again a minute later. Allison returned to the cell area, cut Bell down from the cell door, and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation to restart Bell's heartbeat and breathing. At 12:30 a.m., Allison called for an ambulance to take Bell to a local hospital. As a result of his suicide attempt, Bell suffered permanent brain damage and physical injuries.

Bell's parents, Ralph and Rose Ann Bell, on behalf of their son and in their individual capacities, brought this section 1983 action against Washington County and five of its employees. ² Plaintiffs allege that their son's suicide attempt was caused by defendants' deliberate indifference to his medical and safety needs in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Their complaint also states pendant claims based on Iowa tort law. Defendants moved for summary judgment on the ground that plaintiffs did not make an adequate showing of deliberate indifference to a strong likelihood of suicide, and thus that plaintiffs had not established a basis for relief under section 1983. Defendants also sought summary judgment on the ground of qualified immunity and asked the court to dismiss the pendant state law claims if summary judgment was granted in their favor.

The District Court granted summary judgment in favor of the county, the sheriff, and the communications operator on duty at the jail when the suicide attempt was discovered. Bell v. County of Washington County, Iowa, 741 F.Supp. 1354, 1358, 1360-61 (S.D.Iowa 1990). However, the District Court held that summary judgment was inappropriate with respect to Stigers because "there is a genuine issue of material fact regarding whether Sam made a serious suicide threat which should have alerted defendant Stigers to Sam's suicide risk potential [and t]his issue is best resolved by the jury." 741 F.Supp. at 1359. The court also determined that Stigers was not entitled to the defense of qualified immunity because "preexisting law made it apparent in November, 1987, that a jailer's deliberate indifference to the strong likelihood that a prisoner would attempt suicide was unlawful." 741 F.Supp. at 1360.

On appeal, Stigers, who is the only remaining defendant in this action, argues that the District Court erred in concluding there was a genuine issue of material fact as to whether Sam Bell made a serious suicide threat. Stigers also reasserts his argument that he is entitled to qualified immunity. ³

II.

A.

Summary judgment is appropriate only if there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-23, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2552, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). "[A] dispute about a material fact is genuine if a reasonable jury could return a verdict in favor of either party." White v. Farrier, 849 F.2d 322, 325 (8th Cir.1988) (citing Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986)). Although the defendant seeking summary judgment "has the burden of showing that there is no genuine issue of [material] fact, [this does not relieve the plaintiff of his] own burden of producing in turn evidence that would support a jury verdict." Liberty Lobby, 477 U.S. at 256, 106 S.Ct. at 2514. If the plaintiff "fails to make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of an element essential to [his] case, and on which [he] will bear the burden of proof at trial," the defendant is entitled to summary judgment. Celotex, 477 U.S. at 322, 106 S.Ct. at 2552.

B.

A claim under section 1983 must allege that conduct of a defendant acting under color of state law deprived plaintiff of a right, privilege, or immunity secured by the Constitution or the laws of the United States. Morton v. Becker, 793 F.2d 185, 187 (8th Cir.1986). Although the Supreme Court has not expressly recognized a prisoner's right to be protected from self-inflicted harm, several circuit courts have extended the Eighth Amendment analysis of Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 97 S.Ct. 285, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976), to prisoner suicide cases. ⁴ Under Estelle, a prisoner's Eighth Amendment rights are violated if his custodians exhibit deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs. Id. at 106, 97 S.Ct. at 292. Medical needs encompass treatment for mental ills as well as aid for the prisoner's physical maladies. "A psychological or psychiatric condition can be as serious as any physical pathology or injury, especially when it results in suicidal tendencies." Partridge v. Two Unknown Police Officers, 791 F.2d 1182, 1187 (5th Cir.1986); see also Torraco v. Maloney, 923 F.2d 231, 234 (1st Cir.1991) ("the eighth amendment also protects against deliberate indifference to an inmate's serious mental health and safety needs"). However, a complaint that a jailer was negligent in failing to recognize an inmate's suicidal tendencies does not rise to a valid claim of mistreatment under the Eighth Amendment. "Medical malpractice does not become a constitutional violation merely because the victim is a prisoner." Estelle, 429 U.S. at 106, 97 S.Ct. at 292. Because inmate suicides are analyzed as the jailer's failure to provide appropriate medical care, "deliberate indifference has become the barometer" by which these claims are tested. Popham v. City of Talladega, 908 F.2d 1561, 1563 (11th Cir.1990). "The deliberate standard is met only if there were a 'strong likelihood, rather than a mere possibility,' that self-infliction of harm would result." Edwards v. Gilbert, 867 F.2d 1271, 1276 (11th Cir.1989) (citing State Bank of St. Charles v. Camic, 712 F.2d 1140, 1146 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 995, 104 S.Ct. 491, 78 L.Ed.2d 686 (1983)).

Recently, our own circuit identified deliberate indifference as the governing standard in section 1983 jail suicide cases. Rellergert ex rel. Rellergert v. Cape Girardeau County, Mo., 924 F.2d 794, 796 (8th Cir.1991). Thus, as correctly stated by the District Court, "to prevail under section 1983 for a violation of substantive rights, under either the eighth or fourteenth amendments, plaintiffs must establish that defendant[ ] displayed 'deliberate indifference' to a strong likelihood, rather than a mere possibility that Sam Bell would attempt suicide." 741 F.Supp. at 1358 (citing Edwards, 867 F.2d at 1274-76). Based on our review of the record, we conclude that the plaintiffs have not made a showing sufficient to establish that Stigers was deliberately indifferent to a strong likelihood that Sam Bell would attempt suicide.

We are guided by the reasoning of Rellergert:

Generally, the deliberate indifference issue in inmate...