Harris v. Coweta County

• Decision Date: 23 May 1994
• Docket Number: No. 92-8549,92-8549
• Parties: Willie G. HARRIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. COWETA COUNTY, a Political Subdivision of the State of Georgia, Larry T. Hammett, Sheriff of Coweta Co., Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 388

21 F.3d 388

Willie G. HARRIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. COWETA COUNTY, a Political Subdivision of the State of

Georgia, Larry T. Hammett, Sheriff of Coweta Co.,

Defendants-Appellants.

No. 92-8549.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

May 23, 1994.

H. Lane Young, Kimberly A. Houston, Freeman & Hawkins, Atlanta, GA, for appellants.

James A. Eidson, Eidson & Associates, Hapeville, GA, for appellee.

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

ON PETITION FOR REHEARING

AND SUGGESTION OF REHEARING

EN BANC

Before BLACK and CARNES, Circuit Judges, and RONEY, Senior Circuit Judge.

BLACK, Circuit Judge:

As no member of this panel, nor any other judge in regular active service on this Court, has requested that this Court be polled on rehearing en banc, the suggestion of rehearing en banc is DENIED. Fed.R.App.P. 35; 11th Cir.R. 35-5. The original panel, however, hereby grants rehearing, withdraws the previous panel opinion dated October 27, 1993, published at 5 F.3d 507 (11th Cir.1993), and substitutes therefor the following opinion:

Plaintiff-Appellee Willie G. Harris, a Georgia inmate serving a life sentence for armed robbery, brought this Sec. 1983 action alleging denial of proper medical treatment for a hand injury during his pre-conviction incarceration from September 1990 through January 1991 at the Coweta County jail. Harris sued Coweta County and county Sheriff Larry T. Hammett in his individual and official capacities, asserting an Eighth Amendment claim of deliberate indifference to his medical needs, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment violations of due process, parallel Georgia constitutional claims, and negligence per se. All parties moved for summary judgment, and Sheriff Hammett claimed entitlement to qualified immunity.

The district court's order in relevant part denied the Sheriff's motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity. ¹ The court ruled that the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment was "undoubtedly clearly established"; that "a reasonable county sheriff would have known in 1990 that denial of or interference with a prisoner's or a pre-trial detainee's medical care could, in appropriate circumstances, constitute a [constitutional] violation"; and that there was a genuine issue of material fact whether Sheriff Hammett's actions were egregious enough to amount to deliberate indifference.

The question presented on appeal is whether Sheriff Hammett, in his individual capacity, is entitled to qualified immunity from trial and personal liability for damages. We hold that Sheriff Hammett has lost his entitlement to qualified immunity and affirm the district court's order. A ruling denying qualified immunity does not render the Sheriff liable for deliberate indifference, however; the jury will determine whether the Sheriff was or was not deliberately indifferent to Harris' medical needs.

I.

Harris entered the Coweta County jail on September 6, 1990. He remained there, with the exception of a few days, until his conviction for armed robbery on January 25, 1991, after which he was transferred to the state prison system. While Harris was in the Coweta County jail, three fingers of his left hand became curled up and he was unable to open them. The fingernails grew toward and into his palm. A nerve conduction diagnostic test and possible surgery were recommended by the county jail doctor and consulting physicians. Harris contends that Sheriff Hammett deliberately delayed the prescribed diagnostic test and surgery while he was incarcerated in the county jail in order to transfer him to the state system for the surgery.

A.

Government officials performing discretionary functions are shielded from liability for civil damages "insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2738, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). Qualified immunity protects public officials from broad-ranging discovery disruptive to effective government, id. at 818, 102 S.Ct. at 2738, and operates as a shield against civil damages due to mistaken judgments, Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 343, 106 S.Ct. 1092, 1097, 89 L.Ed.2d 271 (1986); see also Butz v. Economou, 438 U.S. 478, 507, 98 S.Ct. 2894, 2911, 57 L.Ed.2d 895 (1978) ("[Public] officials will not be liable for mere mistakes in judgment, whether the mistake is one of fact or one of law."). The qualified immunity entitlement will fail only "if an official 'knew or reasonably should have known that the action he took within his sphere of official responsibility would violate the constitutional rights of the [plaintiff].' " Harlow, 457 U.S. at 815, 102 S.Ct. at 2737 (quoting Wood v. Strickland, 420 U.S. 308, 322, 95 S.Ct. 992, 1001, 43 L.Ed.2d 214 (1975)) (emphasis removed).

B.

Sheriff Hammett retains his entitlement to qualified immunity if a reasonable sheriff, in light of the information known to Sheriff Hammett and pre-existing law, could have believed his conduct lawful. See Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 641, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 3040, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987). The answer to this question depends on whether the law allegedly violated was clearly established at the time of the complained-about conduct, and, if it was, whether the official's conduct was objectively reasonable in light of the information known to the official at the time. These are objective, albeit fact-specific, inquiries, id. at 641, 107 S.Ct. at 3040, which we undertake as questions of law, Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 526-28 & n. 9, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 2815-16 & n. 9, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985). We review the record through the eyes of an objective, reasonable governmental official. Nicholson v. Georgia Dep't of Human Resources, 918 F.2d 145, 147 (11th Cir.1990). To determine whether Sheriff Hammett's actions were objectively reasonable, we look at the information known to him, viewed in a light most favorable to the plaintiff. Swint v. City of Wadley, 5 F.3d 1435, 1438 (11th Cir.1993), modified on reh'g on other grounds, 11 F.3d 1030 (11th Cir.1994).

We emphasize that the qualified immunity determination is before us on summary judgment and that the facts before us are "the facts" known at this stage of the proceedings. Id. at 1439. Moreover, the qualified immunity determination does not dictate liability on the Sheriff's part. With these caveats in mind, we turn to what the record shows Sheriff Hammett knew during the time Harris was in the Coweta County jail and to the legal norms that existed at that time.

II.

Although Harris alleges that Sheriff Hammett was deliberately indifferent to his medical needs the entire time he was in the Coweta County jail, there is no evidence in the record before us that the Sheriff personally had any knowledge of Harris' situation prior to the end of November. ² On November 29, 1990, Harris was seen by Dr. Arrowsmith, an orthopedic physician. Dr. Arrowsmith's typed report to Sheriff Hammett stated that Harris:

develope[d] severe contractures, and the salvage ability [sic] of this hand is markedly in question. It is very unfortunate that his treatment has been delayed this long, but certainly further delay must be avoided at all cost. I personally called the Sheriff's Office and explained that he needs immediate medical attention. I feel that this will most likely take the form of an EMG [electromyogram] to evaluate the functional status of his ulnar nerve down its length, most likely to be followed by surgical decompression of the nerve and then aggressive and vigorous rehabilitation of his finger contractures. This is apparently going to be done within the State Medical care system.... ³

On the bottom of this report were two notes by the jail's nurse, Ms. Gaddy: "Captain B. Adcock [the jail administrator] stated he would contact the judge for bond and handle things from that end next week. 11-30-90 B. Adcock spoke with R. Henry [the chief deputy] regarding above. This matter turned over to administration."

In early December, the Sheriff took steps to have Harris transferred to the state system. Harris was classified as a violent inmate while he was in the Coweta County jail because he was charged with armed robbery. Captain Adcock contacted the parole board to learn when Harris' parole would be revoked so that he could be transferred to the state system. Georgia requires a bond hearing in order for parole to be revoked for a parolee charged with armed robbery, but the judge had refused to set bond at Harris' first bond hearing. The parole board had agreed to take Harris into the state system if there was a bond, however, so Sheriff Hammett arranged a second bond hearing, informing the judge that there was an inmate who may have a medical problem that would be more appropriately treated in the state system. ⁴ On December 6, Harris' second bond hearing resulted in bond set at $100,000, an amount which Harris could not pay. The record as it stands before this Court is devoid of any further attempts by the Sheriff to have Harris transferred or the nerve conduction study performed during the rest of December.

On January 8, 1991, Harris saw Dr. Gorman, the new doctor under contract to the jail. ⁵ Dr. Gorman found Harris' fingernails gouging into his palm and his hand swollen and malodorous. He referred Harris to Dr. Hassett at the Papp Clinic in Newnan, Georgia, for a nerve conduction study, which was conducted the 16th of January. Dr. Hassett's report recommended improved hygiene, enforced exercise of the fingers, and ulnar transposition. The next day, January 17, Harris again saw Dr. Gorman, who observed that Harris "needs surgery ... as soon as possible.... Recommend soonest possible date...." Nurse Gaddy's notation on the bottom of Dr. Gorman's report stated: "Copy to L. Hammett--state to hold until he could contact state to set surg[ery] up--as...