Giron v. Corrections Corp. of Am., 98-2231
| Decision Date | 10 September 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. 98-2231,98-2231 |
| Parties | (10th Cir. 1999) TANYA GIRON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CORRECTIONS CORPORATION OF AMERICA, a Delaware corporation; THOMAS NEWTON, Warden; DANNY TORREZ, Corrections Officers in their individual capacities, Defendants-Appellees |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR TTHE DISTRICT OF NEW MEXICO. D.C. No. CIV-96-980-LH
[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Paul J. Kennedy (Mary Y.C. Han and Kristin Morgan-Tracy with him on the brief), Albuquerque, New Mexico, for Plaintiff-Appellant.
Gail Gottlieb, Sutin, Thayer & Browne, Albuquerque, New Mexico, for Defendants-Appellees Corrections Corporation of America and Thomas Newton.
Mark S. Jaffee, Lassen, Jaffee & Stiff, Albuquerque, New Mexico, for Defendant-Appellee Danny Torrez.
Before EBEL, KELLY, and LUCERO, Circuit Judges.
After the alleged rape of Plaintiff-Appellant Tanya Giron by Defendant-Appellee Danny Torrez, a corrections officer at the New Mexico Women's Correctional Facility ("NMWCF") where Ms. Giron was incarcerated, Ms. Giron brought the following claims in district court: (1) a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim against Mr. Torrez, alleging that the rape constituted excessive force in violation of her Eighth Amendment rights (count I); (2) a § 1983 claim against Defendant-Appellees Thomas Newton and Corrections Corporation of America ("CCA") for deliberate indifference to the substantial risk that Ms. Giron would be sexually assaulted, given the segregation unit's design and staffing (count II); (3) a § 1983 claim against Warden Newton and CCA for failure to provide Ms. Giron with adequate medical care after the alleged rape (count III); (4) assault, battery, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress by Mr. Torrez (count IV); (5) negligence on the part of CCA and Warden Newton for failing to institute appropriate safeguards against the sexual assault of female inmates by prison employees (count V), and (6) statutory liability on the part of CCA pursuant to N.M. Stat. Ann. § 33-1-17(D)(2) & (3) (Michie 1998 Repl. Pamp.) (count VI).
The district court granted summary judgment to CCA and Warden Newton on counts II and III. The case then proceeded to trial. At the close of Ms. Giron's case, the district court granted judgment as a matter of law in favor Warden Newton on the negligence claim, count V. The case was submitted to the jury on the § 1983 and intentional tort claims against Mr. Torrez and the negligence claim against CCA. The jury returned a verdict for these Defendants on all counts, and judgment was entered.
On appeal, Ms. Giron contends that the district court erroneously granted summary judgment to CCA and Warden Newton on her § 1983 "conditions of confinement" claims, ignoring evidence that the design of the NMWCF segregation unit placed female inmates at substantial risk of sexual assault. She also argues that the district court deprived her of a fair trial by erroneously instructing the jury on the issue of consent. Finally, she challenges the jury instruction on her §1983 claim against Mr. Torrez. According to Ms. Giron, the district court improperly instructed the jury that, to find Mr. Torrez liable for using excessive force in violation of the Eighth Amendment, it must find both that (1) he forced her to have sexual intercourse and (2) the use of force was applied maliciously and for the purpose of causing harm. Our jurisdiction arises under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for a new trial on the § 1983 claim against Mr. Torrez.
On May 26, 1994, Mr. Torrez had sexual intercourse with Ms. Giron in her cell at NMWCF, while he worked as a corrections officer and she was an inmate in the segregation unit. Ms. Giron claims that Mr. Torrez raped her, whereas he characterizes the act as consensual. There were no eyewitnesses. Ms. Giron reported the alleged rape to all levels of authority at NMWCF and immediately underwent medical examination and treatment. She then brought suit in district court against CCA, Warden Newton, and Mr. Torrez.
Warden Newton and CCA moved for partial summary judgment on counts II and III. In response, Ms. Giron offered evidence that the segregation unit was designed so that male officers in the control center could see each female inmate's head, shoulders, torso above the breasts, and legs below the thigh as she undressed to shower. The placement of the showers also prevented officers in the control center from observing persons entering or leaving Ms. Giron's cell. In her deposition, Ms. Giron's expert, Kathryn Monaco, stated that these "unnecessary" design features "heighten[ed] the sexuality and [made] it more likely that [a rape would] occur." Aplt. App. at 122-23. Moreover, the lack of food slots in cell doors in the segregation unit required officers to enter the cells to deliver and retrieve food trays. Ms. Monaco opined that this situation created "a security risk to the staff and offenders," id. at 124, and that inadequate staffing exacerbated the danger.
The district court granted summary judgment for CCA and Warden Newton on counts II and III, holding that the undisputed evidence did not demonstrate failure to provide reasonably safe prison conditions (count II) and Ms. Giron was given legally-adequate medical examination and psychological counseling (count III). The case then went to trial on the remaining claims, and after the district court granted judgment as a matter of law to Defendant Newton, the jury found no liability on the part of Defendants Torrez and CCA, the only remaining Defendants.
Ms. Giron challenges the grant of summary judgment on her § 1983 claims against CCA and Warden Newton. The remainder of her appeal centers on three jury instructions given at trial Instruction No. 8 on Mr. Torrez' use of excessive force in violation of Ms. Giron's Eighth Amendment rights under § 1983; Instruction No. 12, defining "consent"; and Instruction No. 13, defining "effective consent." Although Ms. Giron argues that the consent instructions deprived her of a fair trial, she does not appeal the jury verdict on her intentional tort claims. Nor does she appeal the district court's grant of judgment as a matter of law in favor of Warden Newton on the negligence claim, nor the jury's finding that CCA was not negligent.
Ms. Giron appeals from the grant of summary judgment to CCA and Warden Newton on her § 1983 "conditions of confinement" claims. She first contends that the court "discounted copious evidence" when it concluded that Defendants were not deliberately indifferent to a substantial risk that she would be sexually assaulted at NMWCF. Aplt. Br. at 18.
According to Defendants, we are precluded from reviewing this issue because the district court granted judgment as a matter of law in favor of Defendant Newton on the negligence claim and the jury likewise rendered an adverse special verdict against Ms. Giron on her negligence claim against Defendant CCA. Ms. Giron did not meet the lesser burden of proving negligence. See Bowen v. City of Manchester, 966 F.2d 13, 17 (1st Cir. 1992) (). Because she does not appeal from these adverse determinations, Defendants argue, she may not contend that a reasonable jury could find them deliberately indifferent under § 1983. Ms. Giron's only response is that the jury was required to find liability on Mr. Torrez's part before it could impose liability upon CCA for negligence and the jury was not properly instructed with regard to his liability. See Aplt. Reply Br. at 11-12.
The Eighth Amendment requires prison officials to "provide humane conditions of confinement," which includes taking "reasonable measures to guarantee the safety of inmates." See Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 832 (1994) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). An inmate claiming that officials failed to prevent harm first "must show that [she] is incarcerated under conditions posing a substantial risk of serious harm." Id. at 834. Then she must demonstrate that the officials had a "'sufficiently culpable state of mind,'" id. (quoting Wilson v. Seiter, 501 U.S. 294, 297 (1993)) that is, their acts or omission arose from "deliberate indifference to inmate health or safety." Id. (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Declining to adopt an objective definition of deliberate indifference, the Farmer Court held that "a prison official cannot be found liable under the Eighth Amendment for denying an inmate humane conditions of confinement unless the official knows of and disregards an excessive risk to inmate health and safety." Id at 837. "'[D]eliberate indifference' is a stringent standard of fault." Board of County Comm'rs of Bryan County v. Brown, 520 U.S. 397, 410 (1997). "A showing of simple or even heightened negligence will not suffice." Id. at 407.
The doctrine of collateral estoppel or issue preclusion applies to § 1983 actions, see Allen v. McCurry, 449 U.S. 90, 105 (1980), but the doctrine requires separate actions, not present here. See Montana v. United States, 440 U.S. 147, 153 (1979); Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436, 443 (1970); United States v. Sherman, 912 F.2d 907, 908-10 (7th Cir. 1990). Still, we must be alert to the potential for inconsistent factual findings in the same proceeding. We may not disregard the unappealed determination of the district court (as a matter of law) and the jury (as a matter of fact) that Plaintiff failed to prove even negligence under state law. That being so, Plaintiff cannot now argue that she should be allowed to establish deliberate indifference (a higher standard of proof) when she could not prove negligence (a lesser standard of proof) as to the same conduct. Stated another way, Ms. Giron is bound, as are we, by...
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