Cowart v. Erwin

• Decision Date: 13 September 2016
• Docket Number: No. 15–10404,15–10404
• Citation: 837 F.3d 444
• Parties: Mark A. Cowart, Plaintiff–Appellee, v. Erwin, SRT Officer, Defendant–Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

837 F.3d 444

Mark A. Cowart, Plaintiff–Appellee,

v.Erwin, SRT Officer, Defendant–Appellant.

No. 15–10404

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

Filed September 13, 2016

Daron L. Janis, Esq., Taylor Freytag Brinkman, Jason Levi Sanders, Esq., Attorney, Locke Lord, L.L.P., Dallas, TX, for Plaintiff–Appellee.

Dolena Tutt Westergard, District Attorney's Office for the County of Dallas, Dallas, TX, for Defendant–Appellant.

Before STEWART, Chief Judge, and OWEN and COSTA, Circuit Judges.

PRISCILLA R. OWEN, Circuit Judge:

Former prisoner Mark A. Cowart filed suit against four Dallas County Jail detention officers, including Special Response Team Officer Erwin, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and state law, claiming that the officers beat him without justification. After the officers unsuccessfully argued that Cowart failed to exhaust administrative remedies as required by the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), a jury trial ensued. The jury found Erwin liable as to all claims, awarding both compensatory and punitive damages. On appeal, Erwin assails the district court's ruling on her PLRA defense as well as its denial of her post-verdict motions. We affirm.

I

Cowart originally filed suit against the Dallas County Jail, Officer Erwin and various John Doe officers. After the district court dismissed the John Doe defendants and the Jail, we vacated the dismissal to permit discovery regarding the identity of other involved officers.¹ Cowart ultimately proceeded against Erwin and three other detention officers—Officers Garrett, Weeks, and Holt—and asserted claims for excessive force and bystander liability under § 1983, as well as assault under state law. The officers moved for summary judgment, arguing in relevant part that Cowart failed to comply with the PLRA's exhaustion requirement and that Cowart's claims were barred by qualified and official immunity. After the district court denied the motion, a magistrate judge held an evidentiary hearing to resolve factual disputes underlying the officers' PLRA defense.

At the hearing, Cowart testified that he handed a grievance form to an officer at the jail on April 22, 2009, just eight days after Cowart's altercation with the officers. Cowart did not receive a response from the jail's Grievance Board, however, prior to his May 21, 2009 transfer to the custody of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. A grievance officer testified that no response, either interim or final, was issued because the Board never received a grievance from Cowart.

Crediting Cowart's testimony, the magistrate judge concluded that Cowart satisfied the PLRA's exhaustion requirement by handing his grievance to a jail staff member. He determined that the PLRA required nothing further, as the jail's grievance procedures became unavailable to Cowart when he was transferred from the jail's jurisdiction.² The district court adopted the magistrate's findings and conclusions and the suit proceeded to trial.

At trial, the jury heard sharply divergent testimony regarding the altercation between Cowart and the detention officers. All parties agree that on April 14, 2009, several detention officers conducted a “shakedown” of the tank in which Cowart was housed. The officers ordered the inmates to line up against the wall and assume a submissive position—on their knees, hands behind their heads, and elbows touching the wall.

Cowart testified that he became uncomfortable in the position and asked to stand, but was denied permission to do so. He admitted that he stood up anyway, but was forced back to his knees by two officers—Garrett and Weeks—amidst the officers' racial epithets. Cowart admitted that he “mouthed off” in kind.

According to Cowart, the interaction escalated quickly from there, and we consider the evidence in the light most favorable to him, as the prevailing party. Presumably in reaction to Cowart's verbal responses, Erwin walked in front of Cowart, who was on his knees and held in position by Garrett and Weeks, and punched him twice in the face. Immediately after, a “swarm” of officers took Cowart to the ground and began beating him; officers kicked, punched, and stomped upon Cowart, and sprayed him with mace. At some point, Cowart temporarily lost consciousness. Eventually, the officers attempted to lift Cowart to his feet exclusively by his arms—now handcuffed behind him—causing Cowart great pain. In response to his protests, Cowart was sprayed again with mace by Officer Holt and dropped on his face. Cowart was subsequently removed from the tank and escorted to the nurses' station by multiple officers, including Erwin. En route, an unidentified officer slammed Cowart's head into the elevator wall. At no point did Cowart physically threaten the officers or fight back.

Cowart's testimony was largely corroborated by five inmate witnesses. Each recalled that multiple officers attacked Cowart and that Cowart was not resisting. However, while each inmate could identify Erwin, or an officer matching Erwin's description, none could identify Erwin's co-defendants as participants.

Testifying officers presented a different story. Erwin testified that she took Cowart down to the ground when he “came off the wall” and cursed at the officers. She denied punching Cowart. Other officers had difficulty recalling the events, but each testified that no officer punched, kicked, stomped upon, or otherwise used unreasonable force against Cowart. Multiple officers claimed Cowart was resisting and only minimal force was used to subdue him. An incident report completed by Erwin described Cowart as “belligerent” and reported that he was taken down with “minimal force.”

Despite the conflicting testimony, it is undisputed that Cowart was transported to Parkland Hospital later that evening. There, an emergency room physician diagnosed Cowart with contusions of the face, scalp, and neck, a neck sprain, and a ruptured eardrum, and noted that Coward had tenderness and swelling on his right hand. At trial, the physician testified that such injuries were consistent with severe trauma. Cowart testified that he still experiences a ringing in his ear and has difficulty gripping objects due to nerve damage in one hand, which limits his employment options.

The jury returned a verdict finding Erwin alone liable on all claims and awarded Cowart $10,000 in compensatory damages and $4,000 in punitive damages. The district court entered judgment on the verdict, denying Erwin's renewed post-verdict motion for judgment as a matter of law or a new trial. Erwin timely appealed.

On appeal, Erwin challenges the district court's determination that Cowart complied with the PLRA's exhaustion requirement, as well as the district court's denial of her post-verdict motion for judgment as a matter of law and for new trial.

II

We review the district court's legal rulings regarding exhaustion of administrative remedies de novo and its factual findings for clear error.³

We review the district court's denial of a motion for judgment as a matter of law de novo, “applying the same standard as the district court.”⁴ When a case is tried to a jury, a motion for judgment as a matter of law “is a challenge to the legal sufficiency of the evidence supporting the jury's verdict.”⁵ “In resolving such challenges, we draw all reasonable inferences and resolve all credibility determinations in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party,” and will uphold the verdict “unless there is no legally sufficient evidentiary basis for a reasonable jury to find as the jury did.”⁶

Finally, we “review a district court's denial of a motion for a new trial for abuse of discretion.”⁷ But when the district court has denied a new trial motion, “[o]ur review is particularly limited” and “we must affirm the verdict unless the evidence—viewed in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict—points so strongly and overwhelmingly in favor of one party that the court believes that reasonable men could not arrive at a contrary [conclusion].”⁸

III

We first address Erwin's threshold argument that Cowart failed to exhaust administrative remedies. The PLRA requires prisoners to exhaust “such administrative remedies as are available” prior to filing a § 1983 action regarding prison conditions.⁹ The prison's grievance procedures, and not the PLRA, define the remedies that are available and must thus be exhausted.¹⁰ “This circuit has taken a ‘strict’ approach to § 1997e's exhaustion requirement, under which prisoners must not just substantially comply with the prison's grievance procedures, but instead must ‘exhaust available remedies properly .’ ”¹¹ Because “exhaustion is an affirmative defense, the burden is on [Erwin] to demonstrate that [Cowart] failed to exhaust available administrative remedies.”¹²

It is undisputed that the Dallas County jail provides a two-step grievance procedure: First, a prisoner must submit a written grievance to any staff member at the jail (Step 1); second, a prisoner must appeal an adverse decision to the Detention Service Manager (Step 2). According to the jail's inmate handbook, the Grievance Board, upon receiving a grievance, “sends a[n] interim reply to the inmate showing grievance receipt, and the grievance criteria the grievance is judged on.” The Board sends the interim reply to the prisoner within 15 days of receipt; an answer within 60 days.

Erwin does not contest the magistrate's factual finding that Cowart submitted a Step 1 grievance to a jail staffer. She further acknowledges that the parties previously stipulated that Step 2 of the process was not at issue, given Cowart's transfer to TDCJ custody prior to the lapse of the Board's 60–day response period.¹³

Erwin contends that Cowart was required to appeal, or take some other action, when he failed to receive a timely interim response from the Board. Erwin asserts that Cowart was familiar with the grievance process and acknowledged that he “should have known” something had gone amiss when he did not...