Chapman v. Keltner

• Decision Date: 21 February 2001
• Docket Number: No. 00-2959,00-2959
• Citation: 241 F.3d 842
• Parties: (7th Cir. 2001) Vickie R. Chapman, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Howard Keltner, Yoshida Williams and DuPage County, an Illinois municipal corporation, Defendants-Appellees
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 842

241 F.3d 842 (7th Cir. 2001)

Vickie R. Chapman, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Howard Keltner, Yoshida Williams and DuPage County, an Illinois municipal corporation, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 00-2959

In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Argued January 26, 2001

Decided February 21, 2001

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 98 C 6295--Joan B. Gottschall, Judge. [Copyrighted Material Omitted]

Before Bauer, Manion, and Rovner, Circuit Judges.

Bauer, Circuit Judge.

On October 8, 1997, DuPage County Deputy Sheriffs Howard Keltner and Yoshida Williams arrested Vickie Chapman, who was dressed in a fuchsia bathrobe and slippers, pursuant to a warrant upon her discharge from Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, Illinois. Chapman had been hospitalized for about five days, recovering from bowel resection surgery, which entailed making a nine-inch incision across her lower abdomen and pelvic area. Prior to her discharge, Dr. Bruce Dillon gave her instructions. During this conversation, Chapman asked if she could take the two stairs leading to the front door of her house. She says that Dr. Dillon okayed it so long as she took them "one at a time." Dr. Dillon does not specifically recall giving Chapman this instruction, but says that he probably would have. The only instruction written on the discharge record, however, was "no heavy lifting."

Once inside the hospital, Keltner and Williams showed the nurse the arrest warrant. The nurse asked about the conditions at the jail infirmary, and called the infirmary nurse to inquire further. The nurse then told the officers that Chapman could be taken to jail without any problems. Chapman was arrested and handcuffed with her hands in front of her body. Keltner and Williams escorted her to a van, one of the types of vehicles authorized by the DuPage County Sheriff's Office, along with squad cars, to transport prisoners. As the van door was opened, Chapman refused to get in because her incision might rip open and said, "the step is too high, the doctor told me not to take stairs except one at a time." Keltner told her that she had to go to jail in the van. Chapman asked if she could slide into the van backwards and sit on the floor. Keltner said no because she had to sit in the seat. Keltner decided that he and Williams would assist Chapman into the van, with one on each side for support. As Chapman stepped up, the incision opened and began to bleed. During the drive to jail, Chapman cried and trembled, and although Keltner commented on her crying, Chapman did not reveal what had happened. Upon arriving at the jail, the officers similarly assisted her out of the van. Chapman was processed and attended court. Her husband posted the bond deposit. Chapman left jail with her husband and headed to the emergency room at Hinsdale Hospital. Her incision had separated one centimeter and, according to her expert, caused a hernia.

Chapman filed a three-count complaint. Count One, brought under 42 U.S.C. sec. 1983, claimed a Fourteenth Amendment violation in that the officers were deliberately indifferent to her serious medical needs. Count Two, also arising under sec. 1983, stated a Fourth Amendment violation in that the officers used excessive force during her arrest. Count Three stated, in pertinent part, a claim against the officers for willful and wanton conduct under Illinois law. Keltner and Williams moved for summary judgment, which was granted in their favor on all three counts. In so granting, the district court determined that Chapman's allegations were "not fully supported by the evidence obtained through discovery." Chapman appealed.

We review a grant of summary judgment de novo, construing all facts and drawing all reasonable inferences from the record in the light most favorable to the nonmovant. Summary judgment is proper when the record reveals no genuine issue of material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c). The meat of Chapman's appeal is that by requiring her to step up into the van, which was more than twice as high as an ordinary stair, after she told the officers that the step was too high and that her doctor instructed her not to take stairs except one at a time, the officers (1) were deliberately indifferent to her serious medical needs by intentionally interfering with her prescribed treatment, (2) used excessive force during her arrest, and (3) were willful and wanton by showing a conscious disregard for or an utter indifference to her safety. We affirm the district court's decision as to each claim.

I. Count I: Fourteenth Amendment-- Deliberate Indifference

The Eighth Amendment protects prisoners from deliberate indifference to a serious injury or medical need. See Zentmyer v. Kendall County, 220 F.3d 805, 810 (7th Cir. 2000) (quoting Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 104 (1976)). This protection is extended to arrested persons and pretrial detainees under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. See id. To prevail the detainee must satisfy an objective and a subjective element, namely that: (1) an objectively serious injury or medical need was deprived; and (2) the official knew that the risk of injury was substantial but nevertheless failed to take reasonable measures to prevent it. See Henderson v. Sheahan, 196 F.3d 839, 845 (7th Cir. 1999). Under the first prong, an objectively serious injury or medical need is "'one that has been diagnosed by a physician as mandating treatment or one that is so obvious that even a lay person would easily recognize the necessity for a doctor's attention.'" Zentmyer, 220 F.3d at 810 (quoting Gutierrez v. Peters, 111 F.3d 1364, 1373 (7th Cir. 1997)). The parties do not dispute that Chapman's condition was serious. Under the second prong, it must be shown "that the official was aware of the risk and consciously disregarded it nonetheless." Mathis v. Fairman, 120 F.3d 88, 91 (7th Cir. 1997) (citing Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 840-42 (1994)). Neither negligence nor even gross negligence is a sufficient basis for liability; rather, liability attaches only if the conduct is intentional or criminally reckless. See Salazar v. City of Chicago, 940 F.2d 233, 238 (7th Cir. 1991). Deliberate indifference can arise by a failure to provide prompt treatment for serious medical needs or by intentionally interfering with treatment once prescribed. See Estelle, 429 U.S. at 104- 05.

Chapman relies on Martin v. Board of County Comm'rs, 909 F.2d 402 (10th Cir. 1990) to argue that the officers were deliberately indifferent by intentionally interfering with treatment prescribed by her doctor. Chapman contends that her doctor proscribed her from taking stairs, that she told the officers of this proscription, and that they interfered with it by assisting her in doing exactly what her doctor proscribed her from doing. There is no evidence, however, that the doctor totally prohibited Chapman from taking stairs. As the district court noted, the evidence suggests "at most, that her physician told her to avoid stairs in general, and to climb stairs one at a time." Indeed, Chapman's own deposition testimony is that the doctor told her that if she took stairs to take them "one at a time." Also, the written discharge record only forbade "heavy lifting," not stair climbing. The record, therefore, reflects that the doctor's "prescribed treatment" was not to avoid stairs altogether. Based on the record evidence, we cannot conclude that the officers deliberately disregarded the doctor's prescribed treatment for Chapman by assisting her in stepping into the van.

Further, even if the doctor had totally prohibited Chapman from stair climbing, there is no evidence that the officers were aware of this blanket ban. True, Chapman told the police of her doctor's orders when she said, "the...