Estate of Barnwell v. Grigsby
| Decision Date | 21 January 2020 |
| Docket Number | No. 18-5480,18-5480 |
| Parties | ESTATE OF DUSTIN BARNWELL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MITCHELL GRIGSBY; RICHARD STOOKSBURY; DAVID RANDLE; ROBERT COOKER, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION
File Name: 20a0031n.06
On November 11, 2011, Dustin Barnwell took eight prescription muscle relaxant pills and lost consciousness. Barnwell's girlfriend, Shasta Gilmore, called 911 to report that Barnwell was possibly overdosing and trying to fight her. Two police officers and four paramedics responded to the call. The officers held Barnwell down while the paramedics treated him. Pursuant to their intubation protocols, the paramedics administered a series of drugs, including a paralytic called succinylcholine. After the paramedics intubated him, Barnwell was transported to the hospital and died soon after.
Gilmore, on behalf of Barnwell's estate, sued the paramedics, officers, and Roane County, Tennessee. Her complaint alleged federal claims under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985, health care liability claims, and state-law battery claims. The district court dismissed each of Gilmore's claims at various stages of the litigation, culminating in the entry of judgment as a matter of law in favor of the defendants after three days of trial.
On appeal, Gilmore challenges the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendants on her § 1983 unlawful-restraint claim and related state-law battery claim; dismissal of her health care liability claim for failure to comply with statutory filing requirements; and grant of judgment as a matter of law in favor of the defendants on her § 1983 excessive-force claim and related state-law battery claim. Gilmore also raises Fifth Amendment and Seventh Amendment claims on appeal. For the following reasons, we affirm.
On November 11, 2011, Barnwell, Gilmore, and their daughter visited Barnwell's friend, Aaron Sweat, around 4:30 or 5:00 p.m. Sweat gave Barnwell Flexeril pills (cyclobenzaprine hydrochloride), a prescription muscle relaxant. Barnwell took the pills and later collapsed on his couch, having lost consciousness. When Gilmore could not wake Barnwell, she grew concerned that he had overdosed. Gilmore contacted her mother, Cherry Turner, and Sweat for help. According to Sweat, Barnwell started kicking him and became combative when Sweat tried to wake him. Turner confirmed as much in her signed statement to the police, noting that Barnwell was kicking and trying to bite them.
A few minutes after 8:00 p.m., Gilmore called 911. She told the dispatcher that Barnwell had taken Flexeril. Gilmore emphasized Barnwell's combative behavior to the dispatcher and noted that he kept trying to fight her.
Officers Mitch Grigsby and Richard Stooksbury were the first of the defendants to respond. Gilmore informed Grigsby and Stooksbury that Barnwell had obtained eight Flexeril pills earlierthat day and passed out around 7:00 p.m. She warned them both that Barnwell was very combative. Stooksbury tried to wake Barnwell verbally and, when that failed, by shaking his foot.
The parties recount what happened next differently.
Grigsby and Stooksbury attested that Barnwell woke up and immediately started kicking Stooksbury. The officers tried to control Barnwell using "soft-arm techniques" on his arms and legs. DE 99-5, Stooksbury Aff., Page ID 597. Barnwell continued to be combative, tried to bite the officers and Turner, and refused to tell them what drugs he took. After Barnwell cycled in and out of consciousness several times, Stooksbury and Grigsby put Barnwell on the floor facedown and held him there until the paramedics arrived.
Gilmore, on the other hand, testified that the two officers were pushing Barnwell down on the couch and slamming his legs down each time he tried to sit up or move. According to Gilmore, one of the officers grabbed Barnwell's arm and threatened to break it if Barnwell tried to bite him. She recalls Grigsby and Stooksbury being so rough that she asked them to "please stop before [they] kill him." DE 365, Trial Tr. Vol. II, Page ID 9632. The officers then flipped Barnwell off the couch and pinned him to the floor. According to Gilmore, Barnwell did not try to bite, kick, or punch anyone during this time. Despite her 911 call stating Barnwell was combative, Gilmore later backtracked, claiming that she "miscommunicated" Barnwell's combativeness. Id. at 9640. In Turner's courtroom testimony, she also denied seeing Barnwell try to bite, kick, spit on, or injure the officers in any way. Her initial statement to the police in 2011, however, told a different story.
Around the time that the officers moved Barnwell to the floor, paramedics David Randle and Mike Myers arrived. Based on Barnwell's "very combative" condition and the need to treat him, Randle and Myers asked the officers to handcuff Barnwell. DE 99-6, Randle Aff., Page ID694. Shortly thereafter, two more paramedics, Robert Cooker and Mark Carter, joined the fray. The paramedics observed that Barnwell had a highly elevated blood pressure and heart rate and seemingly could not control his movements, including banging his head against the floor. Barnwell's breathing was also irregular. Based on their assessment of Barnwell's condition and what they had discerned from Gilmore, the paramedics' diagnosis was that Barnwell was suffering from an overdose or cerebral hemorrhage.
The paramedics then decided "to place an IV so that [they] could administer medications intended to control [Barnwell's] involuntary movements . . . by causing paralysis and loss of reflexes." Id. at Page ID 695. They needed to control Barnwell's movements in order to intubate him to assist with his breathing and heart function. It was at this point that Gilmore recalls Stooksbury turning to her and saying "We're about to knock him out." DE 365, Trial Tr. Vol. II, Page ID 9648. The officers then instructed Gilmore and Turner to go outside while the paramedics continued to treat Barnwell.
The paramedics began the intubation sequence. The Roane County Rapid Sequence Paralysis and Intubation ("RSI") Protocol's "Assessments and Indications" call for RSI on patients who are "[s]everely combative" or those for whom "[all] standard attempts to establish an airway have failed." DE 202-1, RSI Protocol, Page ID 3319. The RSI Protocol involves the administration of multiple drugs for sedation and paralysis, including succinylcholine. Succinylcholine works to paralyze the muscles, including the lungs and diaphragm. A patient who is administered succinylcholine requires assistive ventilations. To perform the RSI, Randle established an IV line, and Cooker administered four drugs in sequence, including 150 milligrams of succinylcholine. Once they achieved paralysis, Randle and Cooker intubated Barnwell—thatis, they placed a tube in his trachea to assist with breathing. By this time, the officers had removed the handcuffs.
Barnwell went into cardiac arrest. The paramedics administered another drug to counter the loss of heart function and started CPR. Randle and Cooker continued to provide CPR while transporting Barnwell to the hospital. During transport, they noticed a brown fluid in the endotracheal tube. The paramedics then removed the tube, placed an oral airway, and manually ventilated Barnwell. When they arrived at the hospital, an emergency room doctor took over. Thirty minutes later, Barnwell died.
According to the autopsy report, the cause of death was Excited Delirium Syndrome1 ("EDS") associated with cyclobenzaprine overdose. The report noted that Barnwell's underlying heart disease contributed. The supplemental toxicology report indicated cyclobenzaprine in Barnwell's blood at toxic levels. The medical examiner concluded that Barnwell's Flexeril (cyclobenzaprine) overdose led to his EDS state, which ultimately caused his death.
In November 2012, Gilmore filed a complaint in state court, naming two officers, four paramedics, and Roane County as defendants. Based on the officers' restraint of Barnwell and the paramedics' institution of RSI Protocol, Gilmore asserted claims under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983-1985 and under the Tennessee Health Care Liability Act ("THCLA"), as well as state-law claims for battery. The defendants removed the case to federal court.
In 2013, the defendants moved to dismiss the THCLA claim based on Gilmore's failure to comply with the statutory filing requirements. The defendants moved for summary judgment onthe same basis after Gilmore filed an amended complaint. The district court entered summary judgment in favor of the defendants and dismissed Gilmore's THCLA claim with prejudice.
In 2016, the defendants moved for summary judgment on the remaining claims. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Grigsby, Stooksbury, and Myers based on qualified immunity and dismissed Gilmore's unlawful-restraint claim against these three defendants. The district court denied qualified immunity to Grigsby, Stooksbury, Cooker, and Randle on the § 1983 excessive-force claim premised on their administering succinylcholine to Barnwell. Roane County and paramedics Myers and Carter were dismissed.2
Grigsby, Stooksbury, Cooker, and Randle appealed the 2016 order denying them qualified immunity. A panel of this court dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction because the defendants' arguments relied on their own versions of the facts. Estate of Barnwell v. Grigsby, 681 F. App'x 435, 440-42 (6th Cir. 2017).
On remand, only Gilmore's § 1983 excessive-force claim and related state-law battery claim remained.
Trial began on October 3, 2017 and ended on October 6, 2017, after the conclusion of Gilmore's proof. The defendants moved for judgment as a matter of law under Fed. R. Civ. P. 50. Finding...
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