Kedra v. Schroeter

• Decision Date: 28 November 2017
• Docket Number: No. 16-1417,16-1417
• Citation: 876 F.3d 424
• Parties: Joan KEDRA, in her own right and as personal representative of the estate of David Kedra, Appellant v. Richard SCHROETER
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

876 F.3d 424

Joan KEDRA, in her own right and as personal representative of the estate of David Kedra, Appellant

v.Richard SCHROETER

No. 16-1417

United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Argued December 5, 2016

Filed: November 28, 2017

Michael J. Quirk, Esq. (Argued), Gerald J. Williams, Esq., Williams Cuker & Berezofsky, 1515 Market Street, Suite 1300, Philadelphia, PA 19102, Counsel for Appellant

Kevin R. Bradford, Esq., Stephen R. Kovatis, Esq., Claudia M. Tesoro, Esq. (Argued), Office of Attorney General of Pennsylvania, 21 South 12th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, Counsel for Appellee

Before: FISHER,^* KRAUSE, and MELLOY,^** Circuit Judges.

OPINION OF THE COURT

KRAUSE, Circuit Judge.

This case arises from the grievous death of State Trooper David Kedra, who was shot and killed by his instructor, then- Corporal Richard Schroeter, during a routine firearms training. Although a long-term veteran of the police force and specifically certified in the safe use of firearms, Schroeter allegedly disregarded each of the steps that he previously acknowledged in writing were required to safely perform a live demonstration of a firearm—skipping over both his own safety check and an independent check by a second person, treating the gun as if it were unloaded instead of loaded, pointing it at a person instead of a safe target, bypassing the required visual and physical inspection before a "trigger pull," and then pulling the trigger with the gun aimed at Kedra's chest. JA 31.

Appellant brought a civil rights complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging that Schroeter's conduct had subjected her deceased son to a state-created danger in violation of his Fourteenth Amendment substantive due process rights. But because the complaint did not allege that Schroeter had actual knowledge that there was a bullet in the gun when he fired it at Kedra, the District Court held that Schroeter was entitled to qualified immunity and dismissed the complaint with prejudice. Its reasoning was that the complaint pleaded only an objective theory of deliberate indifference, i.e., what a reasonable official should have known because the risk was so obvious, which was not then-clearly established, and was insufficient to plead the clearly established subjective theory of deliberate indifference, i.e., that Schroeter was actually aware that his conduct carried a substantial risk of serious harm. We agree with the District Court that the objective theory of deliberate indifference was not clearly established at the time of the shooting. However, because obviousness of risk is relevant to proving actual knowledge and the allegations of the complaint here are more than sufficient to support a reasonable inference that Schroeter had such knowledge, we conclude the complaint adequately pleads a state-created danger claim under a then-clearly established theory of liability. We therefore will reverse the District Court's grant of qualified immunity and remand for further proceedings.

I. Background

As this is an appeal from a grant of a motion to dismiss, the factual allegations are taken from the complaint and are accepted as true.¹ See Bridge v. Phoenix Bond & Indem. Co. , 553 U.S. 639, 642 n.1, 128 S.Ct. 2131, 170 L.Ed.2d 1012 (2008). David Kedra was a twenty-six-year-old Pennsylvania State Trooper stationed in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. In September 2014, Kedra was ordered to attend a routine firearm safety training, which included a demonstration of the features and operation of the new model of a State Police-issued handgun. The training was led by then-Corporal Schroeter, a trained firearms instructor who had been a police officer for about twenty years.

Before the training, Schroeter acknowledged in writing a list of firearms safety rules for instructors, including that he must always perform a safety check of a gun before using it for training; that he must implement a second check on whether it is loaded by, e.g., having a second person check the gun; that he must treat all guns as if they are loaded; that he must never point the muzzle of a gun at another person; that he must keep his finger off the trigger, unless he opens the gun to verify it is unloaded before pointing it at a safe target and pulling the trigger; and that he must open the gun to visually and physically determine that it is unloaded before ever pulling the trigger. At the training itself, however, Schroeter violated each of these rules when, in the course of explaining the "trigger reset" function on an operational handgun, he bypassed all of the safety checks, failed to physically or visually inspect the gun to ensure it was unloaded, raised the gun to chest level, pointed it directly at Kedra, and pulled the trigger. JA 32. The gun, in fact, was loaded, and it fired a bullet into Kedra's abdomen at close range, causing Kedra's death several hours later.

Criminal charges were filed by state authorities, eventually resulting in Schroeter's guilty plea in Pennsylvania state court to five counts of reckless endangerment of another person and his retirement from the State Police. In addition, Kedra's mother, as the representative of her son's estate, filed a one-count civil complaint against Schroeter in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, claiming a violation of Kedra's substantive due process rights to life and liberty under the Fourteenth Amendment, and making the above-referenced factual allegations, including as to Schroeter's training and experience, his written acknowledgement of the risks and attendant safety protocols, and his guilty plea.

Schroeter moved to dismiss the complaint under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), claiming he was entitled to qualified immunity because "[t]he gravamen of [p]laintiff's [c]omplaint is that ... Schroeter should have known that his firearm posed a substantial risk to those attending his class, not that ... Schroeter actually did know that there was such a risk." Memorandum of Law in Support of Defendant's Motion to Dismiss Complaint at 9–10, Kedra v. Schroeter , No. 15-5223 (E.D. Pa. Jan. 6, 2016), ECF No. 5-1. That theory of liability, Schroeter argued, was not then-clearly established and, hence, he was entitled to qualified immunity. Schroeter relied in particular on Sanford v. Stiles , 456 F.3d 298, 310 n.13 (3d Cir. 2006) (per curiam), in which we identified as an open question whether "deliberate indifference"—the mental state required for a state-created danger claim like this one—could be demonstrated using an objective test (i.e., merely by pointing to a substantial risk of serious harm that is so obvious that it should have been known), or whether, instead, a plaintiff must show the defendant had actual, subjective knowledge of the risk.

The District Court accepted both Schroeter's premise and conclusion, ruling, first, that Appellant's complaint did not plead deliberate indifference based on actual knowledge because Appellant conceded she "could not and would not plead that [Schroeter] knew there was a bullet in the gun," Kedra v. Schroeter , 161 F.Supp.3d 359, 363 (E.D. Pa. 2016), and, second, that in view of Sanford , it was not clearly established that deliberate indifference could exist based only on the risk being "so obvious that it should be known," id. at 364–65 (quoting Sanford , 456 F.3d at 309 ). The District Court acknowledged Appellant's argument that, by alleging Schroeter had pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment, Appellant had necessarily pleaded actual knowledge because the mens rea for this offense under Pennsylvania law is "conscious disregard of a known risk of death or great bodily injury to another person." Kedra , 161 F.Supp.3d at 364 n.5 (quoting Commonwealth v. Klein , 795 A.2d 424, 428 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2002) ). However, the District Court deemed Schroeter's guilty plea irrelevant on the ground that it would not satisfy the criteria for non-mutual offensive collateral estoppel. ²

Id. Accordingly, the District Court viewed this case as "present[ing] the scenario anticipated but left unresolved by Sanford : a state actor proceeding despite a patently obvious risk that the actor should have recognized, but without actual knowledge that the risk existed," and, thus, a theory of deliberate indifference that was not clearly established as required to defeat qualified immunity. Id. at 364–66. On that basis, the District Court dismissed the complaint with prejudice,³ Kedra , 161 F.Supp.3d at 365–66, and this timely appeal followed.

II. Jurisdiction and Standard of Review

The District Court had federal question jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1331, and we have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We exercise plenary review over both a District Court's dismissal under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) and its grant of qualified immunity. Morrow v. Balaski , 719 F.3d 160, 165 (3d Cir. 2013) ; McLaughlin v. Watson , 271 F.3d 566, 570 (3d Cir. 2001). In reviewing an order of dismissal under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), we, like the District Court, must "accept as true all factual allegations in the complaint and draw all inferences from the facts alleged in the light most favorable to [the plaintiff]." Phillips v. Cty. of Allegheny , 515 F.3d 224, 228, 230 (3d Cir. 2008).

III. Discussion

The doctrine of qualified immunity shields government officials from civil liability for constitutional violations only if "their actions could reasonably have been thought consistent with the rights they are alleged to have violated." Anderson v.Creighton , 483 U.S. 635, 638, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987). In considering whether qualified immunity attaches, courts perform a two-pronged analysis to determine: (1) "whether the facts that [the] plaintiff has alleged ... make out a violation of a constitutional right," and (2) "whether the right at issue was ‘clearly established’ at the time of [the] defendant's alleged misconduct." Pearson v. Callahan , 555 U.S....