Harris v. District of Columbia

• Decision Date: 10 May 1991
• Docket Number: No. 90-5281,90-5281
• Citation: 932 F.2d 10
• Parties: Carolyn B. HARRIS, Personal Representative of the Estate of Derrick D. Harris v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, et al., Dennis J. Beemer, Sgt., 4th District, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, Christopher Viamonte, Richard A. Gaskins, and Alan E. Lucas, Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

Page 10

932 F.2d 10

289 U.S.App.D.C. 357

Carolyn B. HARRIS, Personal Representative of the Estate of Derrick D. Harris v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, et al., Dennis J. Beemer, Sgt., 4th District, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department Christopher Viamonte, Richard A Gaskins, and Alan E. Lucas, Appellants.

No. 90-5281.

United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued March 5, 1991.

Decided May 10, 1991.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Edward E. Schwab, Asst. Corp. Counsel, Office of the Corp. Counsel, with whom Herbert O. Reid, Sr., Corp. Counsel, and Charles L. Reischel, Deputy Corp. Counsel, Office of the Corp. Counsel, were on the brief, for appellants. Donna M. Murasky, Washington, D.C., Atty., Office of the Corp. Counsel, also entered an appearance for appellants.

W. Scott Funger, of the Bar of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, pro hac vice, by special leave of the court, for appellee.

Before SILBERMAN, BUCKLEY and HENDERSON, Circuit Judges.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge SILBERMAN.

Concurring opinion filed by Circuit Judge HENDERSON.

SILBERMAN, Circuit Judge:

Dennis Beemer, Christopher Viamonte, Richard Gaskins, and Alan Lucas, members of the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department, appeal the district court's denial of their motion for summary judgment in a case brought by the estate of Derrick Harris, who died of a drug overdose while in appellants' custody. Harris claims that appellants violated his constitutional rights by denying him necessary medical care; he seeks recovery for wrongful death. We hold that the officers are shielded from liability by qualified immunity and therefore reverse the district court's decision.

I.

The facts (construed most favorably to Harris) are as follows. Sometime after 10:00 p.m. on February 22, 1987, Harris arrived at a Washington, D.C. nightclub. He began sweating profusely, rolling on the floor, and screaming that he did not want to die. An employee of the club flagged down Officer Viamonte and informed him that Harris was inside, was "freaking out" on PCP (a drug--also known as "angel dust"--that typically produces violent reactions), and that an ambulance had been called. Viamonte attempted to talk to Harris but Harris did not respond, instead continuing to flail around violently and to rant and rave. Viamonte, concluding that Harris was on PCP, called his dispatcher for a police wagon at 10:21 p.m. His experience with people intoxicated with PCP led him to believe that the sooner they are put in restraints in a wagon, the safer it is for everyone involved.

Officer Gaskins and Sergeant Beemer arrived with a police wagon. Harris was still flailing uncontrollably and required several people to hold him down. The officers therefore shackled his ankles, handcuffed him, and locked him in the van. Harris was crying that he could not breathe and continued to scream that he did not want to die. Beemer concluded that Harris should be taken to the Emergency Psychiatric Response Division (EPRD) of D.C. General Hospital for mental observation. But Viamonte requested that they first bring Harris back to the police station so that he could fill out the forms necessary to send Harris to the EPRD, and so that an officer on the next shift could take Harris there because his shift was ending. Beemer and Gaskins agreed; this detour caused a short delay (the officers were at the station only 7 minutes).

Viamonte filled out the necessary form and gave it to Gaskins at 10:45 p.m. Gaskins reviewed the form and ordered Officer Lucas to take Harris to the EPRD. Lucas, driving through a foot of snow, arrived at the EPRD at 11:25 p.m.; Harris was still kicking and screaming in the back of the van. Nevertheless, the physician at the EPRD refused to admit, treat, or even to look at Harris because Viamonte had not filled out the form completely. ¹

Lucas stated in his deposition that he went back to the van to radio the station for further instructions and opened the rear door to check on Harris. Harris apparently attempted to escape and attacked Lucas. The two fought; Harris went limp and started breathing very deeply. Shortly thereafter, however, Harris assaulted Lucas again; they struggled, and Harris bumped his head audibly on the top of the wagon. Lucas continued to try to get Harris back into the wagon so he could close the door. During this struggle, Harris slid face down into the back of the wagon and began moaning and breathing heavily. Lucas attempted to move Harris into a different position so he could breathe more easily and then banged on the door of the EPRD. When no one answered, he ran back to the wagon, where Harris did not seem to be breathing. Lucas felt for a pulse, did not find one, and thought Harris was dead. He attempted to radio the station again.

At 11:46 p.m., moments later, another sergeant arrived and instructed Lucas to take Harris to the emergency room a short distance away. At this point, Harris breathed again and began shaking. They arrived at the emergency room at 11:50 p.m. Harris was pronounced dead from an overdose of PCP at 12:20 p.m.

Harris' estate then filed this action for damages alleging that appellants had violated Harris' rights under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and appending several D.C. law tort claims. Appellants moved for summary judgment on the grounds that under the facts alleged by Harris they had committed no constitutional tort and that they in any event were immune from suit (qualified immunity).

The district court denied the motion. The court first held that, because appellants took Harris into custody and restrained his movements, they were obligated as a matter of due process not to be "deliberately indifferent" to his medical needs. See Memorandum Opinion, Harris v. District of Columbia, No. 88-0555, at 8-12, 1990 WL 235706 (June 15, 1990) ("Mem. Op."). This obligation, according to the court, was clearly established and appellants were therefore not entitled to qualified immunity. See id. at 17-19. The court then concluded that there was enough evidence from which a reasonable jury could find that all appellants were deliberately indifferent to Harris' condition. The district judge pointed to the officers' determination to wait for the next shift to take Harris to the hospital, their decision to bring him to the EPRD instead of to the emergency room, Officer Viamonte's neglect in not filling out the form completely, and Officer Lucas' failure to take Harris immediately to the emergency room after Harris bumped his head in the van. See id. at 14-17, 18-19. Even though none of the appellants were responsible for all four of these decisions, the district court made no attempt to sort out their individual culpability. As this is an interlocutory appeal, appellants may now challenge only the holding with respect to qualified immunity. See Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 524-30, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 2814-18, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985) (qualified immunity determinations turning upon questions of law are immediately appealable). ²

II.

Qualified immunity shields government officials performing discretionary functions from damages actions stemming from certain allegedly unconstitutional conduct in order that they not be unduly inhibited in or diverted from the exercise of their duties by fears of personal monetary liability and harassing litigation. The doctrine is designed to avoid such disruption (and the social cost it entails) by "provid[ing] government officials with the ability 'reasonably to anticipate when their conduct may give rise to liability for damages,' " Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 646, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 3042, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987) (citation omitted), and by " 'permit[ting] the resolution of many insubstantial claims on summary judgment.' " Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 341, 106 S.Ct. 1092, 1096, 89 L.Ed.2d 271 (1986) (quoting Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2738, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982)).

Officials are liable for committing constitutional torts, accordingly, only if they knew, or were unreasonable in not knowing, that their behavior violated the Constitution. See, e.g., Anderson, 483 U.S. at 639, 107 S.Ct. at 3038 ("[W]hether an official protected by qualified immunity may be held personally liable ... generally turns on the 'objective legal reasonableness' of [his] action") (quoting Harlow, 457 U.S. at 819, 102 S.Ct. at 2738); see also Martin v. Malhoyt, 830 F.2d 237, 253-54 (D.C.Cir.1987) (summary judgment must be granted unless "the unlawfulness of defendant's action was so 'apparent,' that no reasonable officer could have believed in the lawfulness of his actions") (citation omitted). This focus on objective factors--reasonable knowledge of the law--affords a guidepost to officials and allows the immunity determination to be made without need for a potentially disruptive factual inquiry into an official's subjective good faith.

Reasonable knowledge of the law means, of course, knowledge of present constitutional law. Because "an official [cannot] reasonably be expected to anticipate subsequent legal developments, nor [can] he fairly be said to 'know' that the law forb[ids] conduct not previously identified as unlawful," reasonable knowledge of the law involves knowledge only of legal rules that were "clearly established" at the time of the conduct at issue. Harlow, 457 U.S. at 818, 102 S.Ct. at 2738. An official is, thus, entitled to summary judgment unless "[t]he contours of the right [were] sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would [have] underst[ood] that what he [was] doing violate[d] that right." Anderson, 483 U.S. at 640, 107 S.Ct. at 3039. We believe that the district court misapplied this principle in denying appellants' motion for summary judgment.

Harris asserts, and the district court perceived, a clear obligation on the officers to provide...