Estate of Ford v. Ramirez-Palmer

• Decision Date: 23 August 2002
• Docket Number: No. 01-15769.,01-15769.
• Citation: Estate of Ford v. Ramirez-Palmer, 301 F.3d 1043 (9th Cir. 2002)
• Parties: ESTATE OF Jeffrey FORD; Eva Ford, individually and in her capacity as Administrator of the Estate of Jeffrey Ford; Thomas Ray Ford, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Ana M. RAMIREZ-PALMER, Defendant, and Edward Caden; Eric Arnold; Robert Williams, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 1043

301 F.3d 1043

ESTATE OF Jeffrey FORD; Eva Ford, individually and in her capacity as Administrator of the Estate of Jeffrey Ford; Thomas Ray Ford, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Ana M. RAMIREZ-PALMER, Defendant, and Edward Caden; Eric Arnold; Robert Williams, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 01-15769.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted July 11, 2002.

Filed August 23, 2002.

J. Scott Smith, Angelo, Kilday & Kilduff, Sacramento, CA, for the defendants-appellants.

Stan Casper, Casper, Meadows & Schwartz, Walnut Creek, CA, and John Houston Scott, Prentice & Scott, San Francisco, CA, for the plaintiff-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California; Garland E. Burrell, Jr., District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-99-01234-GEB.

Before: CANBY and RYMER, Circuit Judges, and BERTELSMAN,^* Senior District Judge.

Opinion by Judge RYMER; Partial Dissent by Judge CANBY.

RYMER, Circuit Judge.

This appeal raises the question of whether, after Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 121 S.Ct. 2151, 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001), qualified immunity may be denied in an Eighth Amendment case solely because there is triable issue of fact as to whether a prison official was deliberately indifferent to an inmate's safety.

Jeffrey Ford, an inmate at the California Medical Facility-Vacaville (CMF), was killed by his cellmate James Diesso while they were housed in the CMF Psychiatric Administrative Segregation Unit (PAS). Ford's family and Estate brought an action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the State of California and a number of prison officials, including Associate Warden Edward Caden for allowing Diesso to be double-celled, and Correctional Lieutenant Eric Arnold and Correctional Sergeant Robert Williams for allowing Ford to be double-celled with Diesso.¹ Caden, Arnold and Williams moved for summary judgment on their defense of qualified immunity. We held in Hamilton v. Endell, 981 F.2d 1062 (9th Cir.1992), that a finding of deliberate indifference (or of a triable issue as to it) necessarily precludes a finding of qualified immunity. Relying on Hamilton, and deciding the issue before Saucier, the district court denied the motion because it found that there were triable issues of fact whether each was deliberately indifferent to a substantial risk of serious harm.

The correctional officers appeal, arguing that Saucier requires an additional inquiry into whether a reasonable officer would have understood that his decision was impermissible under the Eighth Amendment. We agree, and hold that Hamilton was undermined by Saucier. Even though the constitutional issue turns on the officers' state of mind (here, deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of serious harm), courts must still consider whether—assuming the facts in the injured party's favor—it would be clear to a reasonable officer that his conduct was unlawful. As the district court's analysis stopped short of this step, we complete it and conclude that Caden, Arnold and Williams are entitled to qualified immunity. The information available to them did not make it so clear that Diesso would harm Ford that no reasonable officer could have agreed to allow them to be celled together. We therefore reverse.

I

The material facts as to the correctional officers' conduct are essentially undisputed. To the extent there is a dispute, we recite them in the light most favorable to the Fords.

CMF housed approximately 3,100 inmates at the time the events in this case occurred, most in need of medical or psychiatric services.² Inmates were housed in different units depending upon the level of psychiatric care required. Administrative Segregation Units (ASU) were used for inmates who required removal from the general population because of safety or security concerns. PAS was one of three ASU units; it had 38 cells, 36 of which were equipped to house two inmates. In addition to ASUs, CMF also maintained a psychiatric observation unit known as S-3. It had 18 cells and served as housing for suicidal inmates or inmates whose behavior was so significantly out of control that it posed an extreme danger to themselves or others.

The broadest classification for inmates receiving psychiatric care was "J." Category "J" inmates were considered sufficiently mentally ill that they could not be housed in the general population, but were generally medication-compliant. Classifications were made by the Institution Classification Committee (ICC). An inmate who ICC determined could be double celled safely had a "D" suffix designation; when it was determined that an individual inmate could not be double-celled safely, he was given an "S" suffix. A unit lieutenant had authority to order an inmate single-celled before an ICC hearing could be convened.³ Inmates could also ask to be double-celled together by signing a "CDC 128-B" form. The decision whether two inmates could be celled together was made by the unit's housing sergeant or lieutenant.

The sergeant or lieutenant making a decision to double-cell particular inmates was supposed to review the inmate's central file (which showed known enemies and disciplinary history), the "victim predator" list (which was maintained by each unit office and showed whether an inmate was a "victim" or "predator"), and the "CDC 114A" form (which provided a chronology of the inmate's most recent ASU history). An inmate was designated as a "predator" if he had a history of physical assaults on staff or inmates, use of a deadly weapon, inciting disturbances, sexual offenses, or a pattern of predatory or manipulative behavior. CMF policy precluded housing a designated "victim" with a "predator," but permitted housing a "predator" with an inmate who was not designated as a "victim."

Diesso, who was a category J inmate, was first placed in the PAS unit at the end of January 1997 after stabbing another inmate (evidently an effeminate homosexual) 17 times with a makeshift knife because that inmate had threatened to expose Diesso as a homosexual. Diesso was characterized as "extremely violent and dangerous" and was designated a "predator" as early as January 1995. He was involved in a number of attacks on guards or other inmates between 1993 and 1997, and, after assignment to PAS, in additional violent altercations with another inmate on January 30, 1997, a peace officer on May 20, 1997, and other inmates on July 22, 1997, January 3, 1998, and May 21, 1998. Diesso had been double-celled without problems with other inmates, including those known to staff to be homosexual, and with Ford. Ford was also a category J inmate, who was widely known to PAS staff as an effeminate homosexual. Diesso was not outwardly homosexual, but he was reputed to engage in homosexual behavior, and often requested to be celled with known homosexuals.⁴

On June 6, 1998 Diesso was celled with inmate Deckard, also a "predator" and a much larger man than Diesso. Correctional Officer Matthew Sanchez found Diesso wearing home-made knee pads, elbow pads, and a headband, saying "Get Deckard out of here" and "They've taken me off my meds." Sanchez confirmed that Diesso had been taken off his medication, and removed him from the cell. Sanchez testified that he wrote an "S" on Diesso's 114A form, and on the grease-wipe "housing board." The 114A for June 6 indicates that Diesso was "acting strange" and was prescribed temporary medication. The June 7 form 114A indicates that Diesso was "banging on door" and asking to see the doctor for more medication. Neither form has an "S" entry. On June 8 Diesso was taken to the S 3 unit for observation. He was returned to PAS on June 19, where he was double-celled with inmate Nobles.

Meanwhile, on June 9 Diesso had been approved for transfer to a special handling unit at Corcoran State Prison which is reserved for extremely dangerous inmates. On June 23, he appeared before the ICC, which Caden chaired, for a 30-day review. The ICC decided to retain Diesso in PAS pending his transfer, and left Diesso's "D" suffix (for double-celling) designation in place.

At some point after Diesso's return to PAS, Sanchez and Correctional Sergeant Todd Wasco became aware that Diesso wanted to cell with Ford but did not allow it to happen. On June 26, 1998, Arnold (then a new correctional lieutenant for PAS) was on duty and was told by another correctional officer that Ford was not getting along with his cellmate. He was also told that Ford and Diesso had previously been celled together without incident. Arnold talked to Williams, who had been a housing sergeant in PAS since August 1997. Williams asked another officer to canvass the unit to find someone who would be willing to move. The officer told Williams that Ford and Diesso were willing to be celled together and that Ford's cellmate was willing to cell with Nobles. Williams was familiar with both Ford and Diesso, knew that Diesso was classified as a "predator" but Ford was not classified as a "victim," and had recently reviewed the central files for both inmates. He told Arnold that Diesso and Ford were not enemies, did not have any gang-related conflict with each other, and that he approved the transfer. Ford and Diesso signed CDC 128-B forms dated June 26, 1998 requesting to be double-celled with each other. Arnold authorized the transfer of Ford to Diesso's cell.

On June 27, Arnold presided over a disciplinary hearing involving Diesso which arose out of a fight between Diesso and another inmate on May 21. A report that Arnold saw during that proceeding indicated that Diesso had said he thought the other inmate was up to something so "I just snapped."

Ford was transferred to Diesso's cell on the 27th. During the early morning hours of June 29, Diesso attacked and killed Ford. Ford suffered blunt force trauma to the head, abrasions and lacerations on the face, lacerations on his legs and back, and ligature strangulation. The walls of the cell were covered...