Harper v. Lawrence County, Ala.

• Citation: 592 F.3d 1227
• Decision Date: 06 January 2010
• Docket Number: No. 09-10226 Non-Argument Calendar.,09-10226 Non-Argument Calendar.
• Parties: Sheila T. HARPER, personal representative of the estate Mitchell Vinson Harper, deceased, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. LAWRENCE COUNTY, ALABAMA, a county organized and existing under the laws of the State of Alabama, Lawrence County Commission, a governmental entity organized and existing under the laws of the state of Alabama, et al., Defendants, Gene Mitchell, an individual, Kenneth Mitchell, an individual, Mary Brown, an individual, Wilford Jerome Reed, an individual, Kevin Blake Robinson, an individual, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (11th Circuit)

592 F.3d 1227

Sheila T. HARPER, personal representative of the estate Mitchell Vinson Harper, deceased, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. LAWRENCE COUNTY, ALABAMA, a county organized and existing under the laws of the State of Alabama, Lawrence County Commission, a governmental entity organized and existing under the laws of the state of Alabama, et al., Defendants, Gene Mitchell, an individual, Kenneth Mitchell, an individual, Mary Brown, an individual, Wilford Jerome Reed, an individual, Kevin Blake Robinson, an individual, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 09-10226 Non-Argument Calendar.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

January 6, 2010.

Gary L. Willford, Jr., Daryl L. Masters, Webb & Eley, P.C., Montgomery, AL, for Defendants-Appellants.

Charles J. Kelley, Holt, Mussleman, Kelley & Morgan, Florence, AL, Justin Lee Smith, Silas G. Cross, Jr., Cross, Poole, Goldasich & Fischer, LLC, Tuscaloosa, AL, for Harper.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Before MARCUS, WILSON and FAY, Circuit Judges.

FAY, Circuit Judge:

The court hereby withdraws the opinion issued in the matter on October 7, 2009 and substitutes the following therefore.

This appeal requires us to determine whether the district court properly rescinded its order converting a motion to dismiss into a motion for summary judgment. We must also determine whether the court properly denied Defendants qualified immunity. After reviewing the record and the parties' briefs, we AFFIRM IN PART AND REVERSE IN PART.

I. FACTS

A. Background

The following facts are taken from Plaintiff's Complaint. On April 24, 2007 Mitchell Vinson Harper was arrested by Town Creek, Alabama police officer Joe Fike for failing to appear in court on public intoxication charges. Fike transported Harper to the Lawrence County Jail in Alabama¹ where he was processed and incarcerated by Kevin Blake Robinson, a night-shift jailer. As alleged, Harper did not receive an "appropriate or reasonable" medical examination and/or screening upon admission to the jail.

According to the Complaint Harper was an alcoholic, and while in jail he experienced severe alcohol withdrawal. He displayed symptoms of that affliction, including hallucinations, slurred speech, incoherence, and difficulty walking. Robinson and/or Wilford Jerome Reed, another night-shift jailer, contacted Fike and informed him of Harper's strange behavior. Fike informed one or both of them that he (Fike) would contact Jerry Garrett (Town Creek's police chief) about Harper's behavior, and that the Town Creek Defendants² would make a decision regarding Harper's medical care. During a shift change Robinson and/or Reed informed Tim Taylor, a Lawrence County day-shift jailer, of Harper's behavior. Moreover, inmates informed Taylor, Reed and Robinson of Harper's strange behavior, informing them that Harper was saying "crazy things," was "talking off the wall," and was having trouble keeping his balance. Harper did not receive any medical care and died of problems related to alcohol withdrawal in the Lawrence County Jail on April 28, 2007, four days after his arrest.

Plaintiff Sheila T. Harper, the personal representative of Harper's estate, filed a two-count Complaint on April 14, 2008 against the following Defendants: Lawrence County, the Lawrence County Commission, Lawrence County Sheriff Gene Mitchell, jail administrator Kenneth Mitchell, jail administrator Mary Brown, Taylor, Reed, Robinson, the City of Town Creek, Garrett, and Fike. See D.E. #1. In Count I Plaintiff sued all Defendants under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for deliberate indifference to Harper's serious medical needs, as prohibited by the Fourteenth and Eighth Amendments.³ In Count II Plaintiff sued all Defendants for negligence and wantonness under Alabama state law for failing to provide medical treatment.⁴

B. Procedure

On May 6, 2008 Defendants Gene Mitchell, Kenneth Mitchell, Brown, Reed, and Robinson filed a motion to dismiss the Complaint under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) with attached exhibits.⁵ See D.Es. #27-28. In their motion Defendants asserted the defense of qualified immunity to the section 1983 claims against them in their individual capacities.⁶ See id. Plaintiff filed an opposition with her own attached exhibits. See D.E. #36. Defendants filed a motion to strike Plaintiff's response or, in the alternative, to convert their Rule 12(b)(6) motion to a motion for summary judgment under Rule 56. See D.E. #42.

The district court granted the alternative requested relief and converted the motion to dismiss to a motion for summary judgment. See D.E. #44. The court later rescinded that order, finding that "the current body of evidence simply is insufficient to support a ruling on a motion for summary judgment." See D.E. #66. Analyzing the motion as a motion to dismiss, the court denied qualified immunity on the section 1983 claims against Gene Mitchell, Kenneth Mitchell, Brown, Reed, and Robinson. See id. Those Defendants appeal both rulings here—the court's decision to rescind its order converting their motion to dismiss into a motion for summary judgment, and the denial of their qualified immunity. We address each issue in turn.⁷

II. DISCUSSION

A. Conversion of Motion for Summary Judgment Back into Motion to Dismiss

Defendants claim that the district court erred in rescinding its order converting their motion to dismiss to a summary judgment motion. We disagree. It is permissible for a district court to rescind its own interlocutory order. See, e.g., Toole v. Baxter Healthcare Corp., 235 F.3d 1307, 1315 (11th Cir.2000) ("In this case, the court's order for a new trial was an interlocutory order, and therefore the trial court had the power to revoke it and reinstate the judgment."); Hardin v. Hayes, 52 F.3d 934, 938 (11th Cir.1995) (district court may reconsider and amend interlocutory orders at any time before final judgment).

We review a district court's reversal of its own interlocutory order for abuse of discretion. See, e.g., Lanier Const., Inc. v. Carbone Props. of Mobile, LLC, 253 Fed.Appx. 861, 863 (11th Cir.2007) ("[T]the district court's denial of [the plaintiff's] motion for leave to amend the complaint was simply an interlocutory decision ... which the district court had ample discretion to reconsider."); Sanchez v. Triple-S Mgmt, Corp., 492 F.3d 1, 12 n. 12 (1st Cir.2007) ("[A]bsent a particularly egregious abuse of discretion, district courts are free to reconsider their interlocutory orders.") (internal quotation omitted).

We find that the district court did not abuse its discretion in rescinding its order converting Defendants' motion to dismiss to a summary judgment motion. The court made clear when it did so that discovery was stayed, and that it did not consider any evidence outside the pleadings when ruling on the motion as a motion to dismiss. Further, the parties are not precluded from filing a summary judgment motion in the future.

Defendants argue that it was not enough for the court to have declined to consider the outside documents in ruling on the motion to dismiss—rather, it should have excluded them pursuant to Rule 12(d).⁸ This argument has no merit. A judge need not convert a motion to dismiss into a motion for summary judgment as long as he or she does not consider matters outside the pleadings. According to case law, "not considering" such matters is the functional equivalent of "excluding" them— there is no more formal step required. See, e.g., Jones v. Auto. Ins. Co. of Hartford, Conn., 917 F.2d 1528, 1532 (11th Cir.1990) ("[I]f the judge does consider ... outside matters, i.e., if the judge does not exclude them, Rule 12(b) requires the judge to comply with the requirements of Rule 56.") (emphases added); see also, e.g., Austin v. Modern Woodman of Am., 275 Fed.Appx. 925, 926 (11th Cir.2008) ("[W]e discern no reversible error [in the district court's refusal to construe the defendants' motions to dismiss as motions for summary judgment]. Although the parties' motions had affidavits, the record demonstrates that the district court did not consider matters outside the pleadings."); Ware v. Assoc. Milk Producers, Inc., 614 F.2d 413, 414 (5th Cir.1980) ("Although Rule 12(b) provides that a 12(b)(6) motion shall be treated as one for summary judgment when matters outside the record are presented to the court and not excluded, in the instant case the express wording of the Order of Dismissal affirmatively indicates that the district court did not consider the extra-pleading matters.").⁹

In sum, we find that the district court properly exercised its discretion to reconsider and rescind its order converting Defendants' motion to dismiss into a summary judgment motion.

B. Denial of Qualified Immunity

The court analyzed Plaintiff's section 1983 claims for deliberate indifference to serious medical needs and determined that they were not subject to dismissal under Rule 12(b)(6) based on qualified immunity. With one exception, we agree.¹⁰ Rule 8(a)(2) requires only "a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief." The Supreme Court has clarified that to satisfy Rule 8, "[f]actual allegations must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level." Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007). The plaintiff must allege "enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face," to "nudge[] [the] claims across the line from conceivable to plausible." Id. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955.

However, this Circuit has tightened the application of Rule 8 in section 1983 cases where qualified immunity is at issue, like this one. In such cases, the "heightened pleading standard" applies and "[s]ome factual detail in the pleadings is necessary." GJR Invs., Inc. v. County of Escambia, Fla., 132 F.3d 1359, 1367 (11th Cir.1998); see also Danley v. Allen, 540 F.3d 1298, 1314 (11th...