Flores v. County of Hardeman, Tex., 96-11103

• Citation: 124 F.3d 736
• Decision Date: 14 October 1997
• Docket Number: No. 96-11103,96-11103
• Parties: Carlos Perez FLORES, Individually and as Next Friend of Carlos Tudon Flores, Deceased, et al., Plaintiffs, Carlos Perez Flores, Individually and as Next Friend of Carlos Tudon Flores, Deceased, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. COUNTY OF HARDEMAN, TEXAS, et al., Defendants, County of Hardeman, Texas; Chester Ingram, Sheriff of Hardeman County, Texas, Defendants-Appellees. Christina Rose MOORE, As Next Friend of Shelley Brianne Flores, a Minor, Individually and as Next Friends of Carlos Tudon Flores, Deceased, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. COUNTY OF HARDEMAN, TEXAS, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit)

Page 736

124 F.3d 736

Carlos Perez FLORES, Individually and as Next Friend of

Carlos Tudon Flores, Deceased, et al., Plaintiffs,

Carlos Perez Flores, Individually and as Next Friend of

Carlos Tudon Flores, Deceased, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. COUNTY OF HARDEMAN, TEXAS, et al., Defendants,

County of Hardeman, Texas; Chester Ingram, Sheriff of

Hardeman County, Texas, Defendants-Appellees.

Christina Rose MOORE, As Next Friend of Shelley Brianne

Flores, a Minor, Individually and as Next Friends of Carlos Tudon Flores, Deceased, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. COUNTY OF HARDEMAN, TEXAS, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 96-11103.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

Oct. 14, 1997.

Isaac Mendoza Castro, Jeffrey Scott Davis, Castro & Davis, Hamlin, TX, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.

William Wendell Hall, Renee A. Forinash, Fulbright & Jaworski, San Antonio, TX, for County of Hardeman, Texas, Defendant-Appellee.

Charles William Oldham, Sandra Parker Hoffpauir, Oldham & Associates, Whichita Falls, TX, for Chester Infram, Sheriff of Hardeman County, Texas, Defendant-Appellee.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

Before JONES, EMILIO M. GARZA and PARKER, Circuit Judges.

ROBERT M. PARKER, Circuit Judge:

Carlos Perez Flores and Christina Rose Moore as next friend of Shelley Brianne Flores appeal the grant of summary judgment for defendants in their 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and Texas Tort Claims Act claims against Hardeman County, Texas and Hardeman County Sheriff Chester Ingram. We affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Plaintiff's decedent Carlos Tudon Flores ("Flores") committed suicide while he was a pretrial detainee in the Hardeman County Jail. Flores was arrested after a one-hour standoff with police, during which he stood on top of a building and fired a rifle, hitting two police cars. Flores was taken to the Hardeman County Jail where he was booked, strip searched and placed in a security cell. The inside of the cell was visible through a small window in the door. Hardeman County Sheriff Chester Ingram ("Ingram") gave orders to check Flores every half hour, instead of the usual one-hour checks. Ingram also ordered that Flores be stripped to his underwear and given only a mattress and pillow instead of the full issue of inmate supplies. Ingram took these precautions because, having known Flores all of his life, he felt that Flores was not acting like himself.

Flores talked to the custodial officer on duty and to another inmate that first night. Flores did not threaten or attempt suicide or exhibit any overt signs that he intended to commit suicide. Flores declined breakfast the next morning. At 11:28 Flores was taken for his arraignment, where his bail was set at $225,000. His father was present at the arraignment, and testified that he did not suspect that Flores was thinking about suicide.

After the arraignment, Flores was fingerprinted, allowed to shower and issued standard inmate supplies: a blanket, toothbrush, cup and soap. He was then placed in a larger cell and checked once an hour. The custodial officers could not visually check the toilet and shower area of the new cell from outside the cell. At 12:31 p.m. the custodial officer saw Flores walking around in his cell. At 12:45 she could not see him, but could hear him on the sound monitors. At 1:20 p.m. the officer could not see Flores, so she called out to him but he did not respond. Because female officers were not allowed to enter a male inmate's cell alone, she went to find another officer, who was standing outside the jail building. When they entered the cell, they found Flores hanging by a piece of the blanket from the shower curtain rod. The officers cut Flores down and performed CPR, but could not revive him.

Plaintiffs filed a complaint pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the Texas Tort Claims Act, alleging that Flores's Fourth, Fifth Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights had been violated. The district court granted summary judgment for defendants and plaintiffs appeal.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

To determine the appropriate standard to apply in analyzing constitutional challenges by pretrial detainees, we must first classify the challenge as an attack on a "condition of confinement" or as an "episodic act or omission." Hare v. City of Corinth, 74 F.3d 633, 644 (5th Cir.1996). A "condition of confinement" case is a constitutional attack on "general conditions, practices, rules, or restrictions of pretrial confinement." Id. In such cases we may assume, by the municipality's promulgation and maintenance of the complained of condition, that it intended to cause the alleged constitutional deprivation. Id. at 645.

However, if the complained-of harm is a particular act or omission of one or more officials, the action is characterized as an "episodic act or omission" case. See Hare, 74 F.3d at 645. In an episodic act or omission case, an actor is usually interposed between the detainee and the municipality, such that the detainee complains first of a particular act of, or omission by, the actor and then points derivatively to a policy, custom or rule (or lack thereof) of the municipality that permitted or caused the act or omission. The detainee in such a case must establish that the official(s) acted with subjective deliberate indifference to prove a violation of his constitutional rights. Scott v. Moore, 114 F.3d 51, 54 (5th Cir.1997) (en banc). To succeed in holding a municipality accountable for such a violation, the detainee must show that the municipal employee (1) violated his clearly established constitutional rights with subjective deliberate indifference and (2) the violation resulted from a municipal policy or custom adopted or maintained with objective deliberate indifference. Id., citing Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 114 S.Ct. 1970, 128 L.Ed.2d 811 (1994).

Hare, an episodic act or omission case, concerned a jail suicide much like the one here. The question remanded to the district court in that case was whether the defendants had actual knowledge of the substantial risk of suicide and responded with deliberate indifference. Hare, 74 F.3d at 650. The en banc court recently applied Hare to a pretrial detainee claim based on a rape by a jailer. Scott v. Moore, 114 F.3d 51 (5th Cir.1997). Although the plaintiff in Scott pleaded the case as a "conditions" case for failure to adequately staff, the en banc court held that it, too, was an "episodic act or omission" case.

The plaintiffs here have attempted to plead both an "episodic" case (based on Ingram's acts and omissions) and a "conditions" case (based on training and staffing policies in Hardeman County). However, it is clear after Hare and Scott that this is an episodic act or omission case. We must therefore first apply the subjective standard to the claims involving Ingram's acts and omissions. Only if we determine that Ingram violated Flores's constitutional rights do we go on to consider whether Hardeman County is liable for that violation.

SHERIFF'S LIABILITY

A detainee's right to adequate protection from known suicidal tendencies was clearly established when Flores committed suicide in January 1990. See Hare v. City of Corinth, 74 F.3d 633, 644 (5th Cir.1996). We will also assume, based on our holding in a...