Havard v. Puntuer

• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Michigan
• Writing for the Court: Stephen J. Murphy, Iii
• Citation: Havard v. Puntuer, 600 F.Supp.2d 845 (E.D. Mich. 2009)
• Decision Date: 22 January 2009
• Docket Number: Case No. 2:06-cv-10449.
• Parties: Lorraine HAVARD as Guardian of Chelsie Barker, a minor, Plaintiff, v. Deputy PUNTUER, Deputy Griffin, C. Frazier, R.N., jointly and severally, Defendants.

600 F.Supp.2d 845

Lorraine HAVARD as Guardian of Chelsie Barker, a minor, Plaintiff, v. Deputy PUNTUER, Deputy Griffin, C. Frazier, R.N., jointly and severally, Defendants.

Case No. 2:06-cv-10449.

United States District Court, E.D. Michigan, Southern Division.

January 22, 2009.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Geoffrey N. Fieger, Rebecca S. Walsh, Michael R. Dezsi, Fieger, Fieger, Southfield, MI, for Plaintiff.

Karie H. Boylan, Detroit, MI, Rhonda Y. Reid Williams, Grier & Copeland, Detroit, MI, for Defendants.

ORDER DENYING DEFENDANTS' MOTION FOR JUDGMENT ON THE PLEADINGS

(docket no. 17)

STEPHEN J. MURPHY, III, District Judge.

This is a civil rights case, brought by the guardian of a minor child who was born in the Wayne County jail while her mother was incarcerated there, for injuries sustained during and immediately after the birthing process. The plaintiff alleges that three employees of the jail were indifferent to the minor child's serious medical needs during the labor and birth, resulting in severe mental retardation and cerebral palsy. This matter comes before the Court on the defendants' motion, which they have styled one for judgment on the pleadings.¹ The precise nature of the motion will be discussed shortly.

PROCEDURAL POSTURE

The plaintiff first initiated this suit on January 31, 2006. The plaintiff's complaint originally asserted claims against Wayne County and the Wayne County Jail, as well as some claims against various John/Jane Doe defendants. The additional Doe defendants, however, have been dismissed and are no longer part of the case. Additionally, the plaintiff originally asserted state law claims of gross negligence and wilful and wanton misconduct against all defendants, but those claims were dismissed by order of Judge Paul V. Gadola dated February 8, 2006, 2006 WL 305723. Accordingly, only the plaintiff's federal law claim remains.

On March 27, 2006, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss the complaint pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure for failure to state a claim upon which relief has been granted. The matter was referred for a Report and Recommendation to Magistrate Judge Mona K. Majzoub. The magistrate judge issued a Report and Recommendation, recommending that the motion to dismiss be granted in part and denied in part. The parties then filed objections to the Report and Recommendation. On March 2, 2007, Judge Gadola conducted a hearing on the objections. As a result of the hearing, Judge Gadola denied the motion to dismiss without prejudice and permitted the parties to file an amended complaint. On March 12, 2007, the plaintiff filed an amended complaint. The defendants renewed their motion to dismiss on March 15, 2007. The case was reassigned to the undersigned pursuant to an administrative order on September 4, 2008. The Court then vacated all orders of reference to the magistrate judge. Accordingly, the only motion now before the Court is the defendants' renewed motion to dismiss the amended complaint filed on March 15, 2007.

Defendants have styled their instant motion one for "judgment on the pleadings" or "summary judgment on the pleadings." Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(c) does permit a motion for judgment on the pleadings, but only after the pleadings are closed. As the defendants have yet to file an answer in this case, a 12(c) motion would be premature at this point. The defendants apparently recognize this, and instead bring the instant motion under Rule 12(b)(6), which permits a defendant to move that a complaint be dismissed for failure to state a claim on which relief can be granted. Since a 12(b)(6) motion is proper at this stage of the proceedings, and motions under Rules 12(b)(6) and 12(c) are analyzed under the same legal standard, Sensations, Inc. v. City of Grand Rapids, 526 F.3d 291, 295 (6th Cir.2008), the Court will treat the instant motion as one to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6).

In this renewed motion, the defendants argue that the amended complaint should be dismissed because (1) the infant Chelsie Barker was a fetus when the claims allegedly accrued and the unborn are neither "citizens" nor "other persons" within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution; (2) the plaintiff's claims are barred by the statute of limitations; and (3) the defendants are protected by the doctrine of qualified immunity. For the reasons that follow, the Court finds the defendants' arguments to be without merit and denies the renewed motion to dismiss in its entirety.

FACTS

When considering a motion to dismiss, the complaint is construed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Accordingly the following factual allegations are taken from the plaintiff's amended complaint.

At all times relevant to the defendants' motion, Chantrienes Barker was a pregnant inmate at the Wayne County Jail facility in December 1998. Defendants Deputy Puntuer, Deputy Griffin and C. Frazier, R.N. were employed by the Wayne County Jail, and are alleged to have been the only deputies and/or nurses to interact with Chantrienes Barker.

The plaintiff alleges that on December 2, 1998, at approximately 3:00 a.m., Barker went into labor. Barker was left in her cell until approximately 9:28 p.m. that same day, at which time she was brought by the Wayne County Jail's staff to Hutzel Hospital and evaluated by a physician. While at Hutzel Hospital, Barker was electronically monitored, given pain medication, and noted to be dilated to two centimeters.

At approximately 11:28 p.m., the physician at Hutzel Hospital ordered that Barker be returned to Wayne County Jail. The plaintiff alleges that once Barker was returned to the Wayne County Jail, she was locked up and not checked on by the defendants despite the fact that she was in labor.

While she was confined to her cell, Barker's labor pains intensified. She notified Deputy Puntuer that she was experiencing contractions and needed medical attention as soon as possible. For over two hours, allegedly none of the defendants checked on Barker or obtained medical care for her. After two hours had passed, Deputy Puntuer brought Barker from her jail cell to the nurses station, but Nurse Frazier did not provide medical care to Barker. Barker was again returned to her cell.

Back in her cell, Barker asked her cell mate to alert the defendants that she required immediate medical attention, but the cell mate was unable to get the attention of the defendants. The complaint alleges that at this point all of the inmates on Barker's cell block started screaming and banging on toilets and cell bars in an effort to alert the defendants, but that the defendants failed to respond.

Eventually, the defendants responded to the noise and asked Barker what was going on. Barker told the defendants that the baby was coming out and that Barker needed immediate medical attention. The defendants ordered Barker to stand up and get dressed, but Barker said that she could not move because the baby was coming out. The defendants placed Barker in a wheelchair and brought her to the nurses station at approximately 1:30 a.m. on September 3, 1998. At the nurses station, Nurse Frazier contacted EMS, but allegedly did not perform a nursing assessment, make a diagnosis, or render any care to Barker.

EMS arrived at approximately 1:57 a.m. When EMS arrived, they realized that Barker's baby was "crowning" or had already crowned. Within minutes, the baby Chelsie Barker, plaintiff in this action, was delivered at the Wayne County Jail. Chelsie Barker was not breathing, and EMS did not have the equipment to properly resuscitate the baby, so EMS transported both Chantrienes and Chelsie Barker to Hutzel Hospital.

Upon the arrival in the Hutzel Hospital Emergency Room, the baby was found to be cyanotic, with no respirations or heart rate. She was immediately intubated and CPR was initiated.

The plaintiff alleges that as a result of the distress suffered and lack of medical care provided during the labor and delivery process, the baby Chelsie Barker received numerous injuries, including severe mental retardation and severe cerebral palsy.

The plaintiff, Lorraine Havard, as guardian of the minor Chelsie Barker, filed the present action. The amended complaint asserts claims based on 42 U.S.C. § 1983, arguing that the defendants Puntuer, Griffin and Frazier were deliberately indifferent to Chantrienes Barker and Chelsie Barker's serious medical needs in violation of the rights and privileges under the United States Constitution and various other federal statutes.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

In reviewing a motion to dismiss the complaint under Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the Court must "construe the complaint in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, accept all of the complaint's factual allegations as true, and determine whether the plaintiff undoubtedly can prove no set of facts in support of his claim that would entitle him to relief." Ziegler v. IBP Hog Mkt., Inc., 249 F.3d 509, 512 (6th Cir.2001). The motion will be granted "only if it is clear that no relief could be granted under any set of facts that could be proved consistent with the allegations." Hishon v. King & Spalding, 467 U.S. 69, 73, 104 S.Ct. 2229, 81 L.Ed.2d 59 (1984).

ANALYSIS

The plaintiff asserts a claim pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Section 1983 does not create substantive rights, but serves as the procedural device for enforcing rights given by the United States Constitution and other federal statutes. To state a claim under Section 1983, a plaintiff must allege, first, that a right secured by the Constitution or a federal statute has been violated, and second, that the violation was committed by a person acting under color of state law. West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42, 48, 108 S.Ct. 2250, 101 L.Ed.2d 40 (1988).

Here, the plaintiff asserts that the actions of the defendants in failing to provide medical attention to Chantrienes...