Henry v. Purnell

• Decision Date: 24 September 2010
• Docket Number: No. 08-7433.,08-7433.
• Citation: 619 F.3d 323
• Parties: Frederick P. HENRY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Robert PURNELL, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

619 F.3d 323

Frederick P. HENRY, Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.Robert PURNELL, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 08-7433.

United States Court of Appeals,Fourth Circuit.

Argued: March 23, 2010.

Decided: Sept. 24, 2010.

Rehearing En Banc Granted Jan. 4, 2011.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED.

ARGUED: Katherine Louise Bushman, Georgetown University Law Center, Appellate Litigation Program, Washington, D.C., for Appellant. John Francis Breads, Jr., Hanover, Maryland, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Steven H. Goldblatt, Director, Charlotte J. Garden, Supervising Attorney, May K. Chiang, Student Counsel, Kate G. Henningsen, Student Counsel, Georgetown University Law Center, Appellate Litigation Program, Washington, D.C., for Appellant.

Before GREGORY and AGEE, Circuit Judges, and EUGENE E. SILER, JR., Senior Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, sitting by designation.

Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded with instructions by published opinion. Judge AGEE wrote the majority opinion, in which Senior Judge SILER joined. Judge GREGORY wrote a dissenting opinion.

OPINION

AGEE, Circuit Judge:

Robert Purnell, a deputy sheriff in Somerset County, Maryland, attempted to execute a warrant for Frederick Henry's arrest. Henry fled on foot and Deputy Purnell gave chase, mistakenly drawing his firearm, instead of his taser, and shooting Henry in the elbow. As a result of this incident, Henry filed a § 1983 suit against Deputy Purnell in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, asserting that Purnell used excessive force in effecting his arrest. The district court ultimately concluded that Deputy Purnell's mistake was reasonable and granted his motion for summary judgment. For the following reasons, we affirm in part and reverse in part the judgment of the district court, and remand with instructions.

I.

We begin by summarizing the factual background, viewed in the light most favorable to Henry, as this is the appropriate standard in reviewing the facts upon an award of summary judgment. See George & Co. LLC v. Imagination Entm't Ltd., 575 F.3d 383, 392 (4th Cir.2009). In 2003, the Circuit Court for Somerset County, Maryland ordered Henry either to pay child support or report to jail on a specified date. When Henry failed to comply with the court's order, the Somerset County state's attorney charged him with second degree escape and obtained a warrant for his arrest. ¹ Deputy Purnell was tasked with executing Henry's arrest warrant.

Purnell went to Henry's last known address and encountered an unidentified male sitting on the steps of a nearby trailer. The unidentified male indicated that he was a friend of the family who was helping to mow the grass and that Henry was not present. The man explained to Deputy Purnell that Henry lived “somewhere on Hampton Avenue in Princess Anne” and that he was working in Ocean City for a company called American Paving. Joint Appendix (“J.A.”) at 220.

Purnell asked the man to tell Henry that there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest and that if Henry would contact him, he “would try to help him out.” Id. at 221. Purnell also wrote his name and telephone number on a piece of paper, which he asked the man to give to Henry. The unidentified male stated that he would give the paper to Henry's wife, who was inside the trailer. The man entered the trailer and then returned, stating that he had given the note to Henry's wife. Although Deputy Purnell suspected the man was Henry, he thanked the man and left.

Deputy Purnell subsequently drove to the local office of American Paving to inquire about Henry's employment. He was informed that Henry no longer worked for American Paving, but that the company's business records contained a personnel photograph. From this photograph, Purnell was able to determine that the unidentified male at the trailer was, in fact, Henry.

Upon returning to Henry's residence, Deputy Purnell knocked on the trailer door and spoke to Henry's wife. Mrs. Henry had not received the note Purnell had left earlier that day, but she allowed him to enter the home to search for Mr. Henry, who was not present. She also informed Deputy Purnell that her husband's employer drove a white truck and lived in Princess Anne, Maryland. The following day Purnell received a phone message from Mrs. Henry indicating that she had given Mr. Henry his message and that Mr. Henry had traveled to Baltimore to raise money for bail.

Several days later, on October 23, 2003, Deputy Purnell was parked in his patrol car when he observed a white truck with three male occupants heading in the direction of Henry's trailer. As the truck passed, the man seated next to the truck's passenger window turned his head away from Deputy Purnell. His suspicions aroused, Purnell drove to Henry's residence and found the white truck parked in the driveway.

Deputy Purnell parked his patrol car behind the truck, exited his vehicle, and determined that all three men were still in the truck. He approached the driver's side of the vehicle and asked each man if he was Frederick Henry. Each man initially said no. When Purnell asked the same question a second time, however, Henry admitted his identity. At this point, Henry exited the truck and moved along with Deputy Purnell to the rear of the truck. Henry then ran in the direction of his residence with Purnell giving chase. While running in pursuit of Henry and keeping his eye on “the target,” i.e., Henry, Deputy Purnell drew what he believed was his taser. Id. at 269. After three to five seconds, Purnell discharged what was, in fact, his firearm, striking Henry in the elbow. ²

Only when Purnell heard the distinctive “pop” of the firearm did he realized his mistake. Id. at 272. Deputy Purnell told Henry that he “was sorry” for the shooting and that he had “pulled the wrong weapon.” Id. at 273. He also contacted the dispatcher to obtain medical assistance for Henry and allowed one of Henry's companions to retrieve ice and a towel from Henry's residence. Once another officer arrived on the scene, Deputy Purnell took a pressure bandage from his vehicle and applied it to Henry's arm. An ambulance subsequently transported Henry for medical treatment.

II.

We now turn to this case's lengthy procedural history. Henry filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland on March 24, 2004, alleging that Purnell violated his Fourth Amendment right to be free from seizures effectuated by excessive force. In response, Deputy Purnell filed a motion requesting that the district court dismiss Henry's complaint or grant summary judgment in his favor. Purnell argued that he had not “seized” Henry and, in the alternative, that he was entitled to qualified immunity. After concluding that disputed issues of material fact did not permit judgment as a matter of law, the district court denied Purnell's motion.

Upon appeal to this Court, Purnell argued the record did not support the district court's conclusion that a factual dispute precluded it from granting judgment as a matter of law and that he was entitled to qualified immunity. Because we lacked jurisdiction to entertain an interlocutory appeal on qualified immunity based on “the district court's factual findings,” we dismissed the appeal. Henry v. Purnell, 119 Fed.Appx. 441, 443 (4th Cir.2005) (unpublished).

Henry subsequently was granted permission from the district court to amend his complaint to add a claim for excessive force predicated on the Maryland Constitution's Declaration of Rights. The parties also engaged in discovery and entered into an evidentiary stipulation that Deputy Purnell “intended to unholster and discharge his Taser M26 which was mounted in a thigh holster below his service weapon, a Glock .40 caliber handgun. Instead, he unholstered and fired his service weapon, believing that it was his Taser M26.” J.A. at 30.

Thereafter, Deputy Purnell filed a second motion for summary judgment in which he argued that Henry had not been “seized” and that the parties' stipulation that the shooting was an unintentional mistake disposed of Henry's Fourth Amendment claim. Henry opposed the motion on three grounds, positing that the shooting did constitute a seizure, that outstanding issues of material fact required resolution by a jury, and that Purnell was not entitled to qualified immunity. ³ Henry also requested the district court compel Purnell to disclose information relating to his taser and firearm training and departmental policy regarding the use of force. Based on its conclusions that (1) Deputy Purnell had “seized” Henry within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment and (2) several outstanding factual issues precluded an award of qualified immunity, the district court denied Purnell's motion for summary judgment and granted Henry's motion to compel. See Henry v. Purnell, 428 F.Supp.2d 393, 395-98 (D.Md.2006).

Purnell appealed the district court's order and contended that the court erred in concluding that he “seized” Henry and in failing to accord him qualified immunity.

We affirmed the district court's determination that Purnell's shooting of Henry resulted in a Fourth Amendment “seizure.” Henry v. Purnell, 501 F.3d 374, 381-82 (4th Cir.2007). But we questioned whether the district court applied the appropriate burden of proof at the dual stages of the qualified immunity analysis. ⁴ See id. at 383-84. Accordingly, we remanded the case for the district court to “reassess the issue of whether a constitutional violation occurred in light of the proper burden of proof and the discovery materials that it ordered Purnell to produce.” Id. at 384. If Henry succeeded in “establishing that the seizure in this case was unreasonable ( i.e., that Purnell's mistake in using the Glock rather than the [t]aser was unreasonable),” we indicated that Purnell would “have the opportunity to demonstrate his entitlement...