Lanman v. Hinson

• Citation: 529 F.3d 673
• Decision Date: 17 June 2008
• Docket Number: No. 06-2263.,06-2263.
• Parties: Patricia LANMAN, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Robert HINSON, James Siegfried, Mike Morey, Linda Shaffer-Price, George White, Julie Stiver, R.N., Edwina Koehn-Koldenhof, R.N., Jean Prandine, Steven Bronsink, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit)

529 F.3d 673

Patricia LANMAN, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Robert HINSON, James Siegfried, Mike Morey, Linda Shaffer-Price, George White, Julie Stiver, R.N., Edwina Koehn-Koldenhof, R.N., Jean Prandine, Steven Bronsink, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 06-2263.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: November 29, 2007.

Decided and Filed: June 17, 2008.

ARGUED: Mark E. Donnelly, Office of the Attorney General, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellants. Heather A. Jefferson, Fieger, Fieger, Kenney, Johnson & Giroux, Southfield, Michigan, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Mark E. Donnelly, Office of the Attorney General, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellants. Heather A. Jefferson, Fieger, Fieger, Kenney, Johnson & Giroux, Southfield, Michigan, for Appellee.

Before: KENNEDY, MARTIN, and CLAY, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

BOYCE F. MARTIN, JR., Circuit Judge.

On January 5, 2002, Eugene Lanman was admitted to Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital. The next day, while suffering psychiatric delusions, he attacked a staff member. Lanman was immediately restrained by staff and administered medication to calm him down. During the attempt to restrain Lanman, he stopped breathing and never regained consciousness. He died seventeen days later after being taken off life support. His personal representative brought this action against the staff of the hospital, alleging violation of Lanman's constitutional rights in transgression of 42 U.S.C. § 1983, abuse or neglect in violation of Michigan law, and assault and battery. The district court denied defendants' motion for summary judgment claiming qualified immunity on all of plaintiff's claims, and defendants brought this interlocutory appeal challenging that ruling.

I.

The decedent-plaintiff, Eugene Lanman, was a veteran with a history of mental illness. On January 5, 2002, he was found wandering the countryside by the Kalkaska County Sheriff's Department. He was taken to the Antrim/Kalkaska County Community Mental Health Department for a mental health assessment. Beverly Robinson conducted Lanman's assessment and determined that he needed in-patient psychiatric care on an emergency basis. She arranged for Lanman to be transported to the Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital.

Lanman arrived at the psychiatric hospital at 9:30 p.m. that same night suffering from auditory and visual hallucinations, suicidal ideations, and his legs were shaking uncontrollably. Dr. S.B. Kondapaneni examined Lanman and determined he needed to be admitted to the hospital for immediate psychiatric treatment. Dr. Kondapaneni determined that Lanman was a danger to himself and was in need of intensive in-patient psychiatric care. Lanman was then admitted on a voluntary basis when he filled out the Adult Formal Voluntary Admission Application.

Kondapaneni prescribed Celebrex for Lanman's back pain and Vasotec for his blood pressure. Kondapaneni did not prescribe any psychotropic drugs. Kondapaneni attempted to determine whether Lanman was suffering from the side effects of having previously received psychotropic drugs, but was unable to perform the requisite test at that late hour. After his admission to the hospital, Lanman was directed to stay in a "quiet room," a room which allowed hospital staff to closely monitor Lanman. He was not given a room assignment, any psychiatric treatment, or any psychotropic medications.

The next morning, after spending all night in a "quiet room" and still not having received any treatment, Lanman was becoming increasingly agitated. He was pacing in circles in the hallway, talking to himself, and trying to open the doors to other patients' rooms. By 9:10 a.m., eleven hours after admission, Lanman was extremely upset. He was banging his head and hands on the walls and doors, and not complying with staff requests to calm down and return to the "quiet room." Finally, staff requested he be medicated to calm him down. Dr. Van Putten ordered 2 mg of Ativan be administered to Lanman. Defendant Nurse Edwina Koehn-Koldenhof went to the medication room to draw the Ativan.

While Nurse Koldenhof was drawing the medicine, Lanman attacked resident care aide Mike Morey, and attempted to choke him. Another aide, James Siegfried, attempted to grab Lanman from behind, but Siegfried tripped and both Lanman and Siegfried fell to the ground. Siegfried asked Lanman to calm down, but Lanman continued to struggle, flailing his arms and legs. When Siegfried and Lanman fell to the floor, aides Linda Price and Morey immediately tried to restrain Lanman's legs. A "code easy" alarm had been sounded when Lanman attacked Morey, alerting other hospital staff that help was needed. Aides Jean Prandine, George White, Tom Bissiden, Bob Hinson, and Steve Bronsink all responded to the "code easy." White relieved Morey and Price who were attempting to control Lanman's legs, but were being kicked violently by Lanman. Hinson grabbed Lanman's left arm and extended it up and away from Lanman's body.

Nurse Koldenhof arrived with the Ativan and administered it. Nurse Julie Ann Stiver, who had arrived in response to the "code easy," ordered that Lanman be placed in restraints. While Hinson was attempting to place a restraint on Lanman's left wrist, someone stated there was a problem and that Lanman wasn't breathing. Lanman was turned on his back and Hinson immediately started chest compressions. CPR was administered and paramedics were called. Lanman began breathing again and was taken by ambulance to Bronson Hospital. He never regained consciousness and died after being taken off life support.

Plaintiff relies primarily on the deposition testimony of Richard P. Hunter, a fellow patient at the hospital who witnessed the altercation. Hunter testified that he was sitting on a bench approximately five feet from where Lanman was restrained. He stated that at least six individuals held Lanman face down on the floor, and one of those individuals placed his knee in Lanman's back in attempt to hold him down. Hunter also testified that staff members had Lanman's legs crossed and were bending his legs back toward his head while Lanman was on his stomach. According to Hunter, Lanman was having obvious difficulty breathing and was crying out for help because he could not breathe. Two or three minutes later, Lanman was noticeably more calm, and a few minutes after that looked as if he had passed out. Hunter stated that the staff ignored Lanman until one of the nurses noticed he was passed out. Hunter gave a similar account to the Kalamazoo police department when they interviewed him shortly after they arrived on the scene.

The personal representative of Lanman's estate, Patricia Lanman, filed suit against defendants Hinson, Siegfried, Morey, Price, White, Stiver, Koldenhof, Prandine, and Bronsink, alleging violations of 42 U.S.C. § 1983; statutory abuse or neglect under Michigan law; and assault and battery. Defendants moved for summary judgment asserting qualified immunity with regard to Lanman's § 1983 claim. The district court denied the defendant's motion, and this interlocutory appeal followed.

II.

This court reviews an order denying summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds de novo. See v. City of Elyria, 502 F.3d 484, 490 (6th Cir.2007). Summary judgment is proper "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." FED. R.CIV.P. 56(c). When deciding a motion for summary judgment, this court views the evidence and draws all reasonable inferences in favor of the non-moving party. Hardesty v. Hamburg Twp., 461 F.3d 646, 650 (6th Cir.2006) (citing Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986)). Any direct evidence offered by the plaintiff in response to a summary judgment motion must be accepted as true. Id. Nevertheless, the "mere existence of some alleged factual dispute between the parties will not defeat an otherwise properly supported motion for summary judgment; the requirement is that there be no genuine issue of material fact." Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 247-48, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).

A. Jurisdiction

This Court's review of interlocutory appeals challenging a district court's denial of qualified immunity "is confined to the question of whether all of the conduct which the district court deemed sufficiently supported for purposes of summary judgment met the Harlow standard of objective legal reasonableness." Farm Labor Org. Comm. v. Ohio State Highway Patrol, 308 F.3d 523, 537 (6th Cir.2002) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). "If the defendant does not dispute the facts alleged by the plaintiff for purposes of the appeal, `our jurisdiction is clear.'" Berryman v. Rieger, 150 F.3d 561, 563 (6th Cir.1998) (quoting Dickerson v. McClellan, 101 F.3d 1151, 1157 (6th Cir. 1996)). "If, instead, the defendant disputes the plaintiff's version of the story, the defendant must nonetheless be willing to concede the most favorable view of the facts to the plaintiff for purposes of the appeal." Id. "Only if the undisputed facts or the evidence viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff fail to establish a prima facie violation of clear constitutional law may we decide that the defendant is entitled to qualified immunity on an interlocutory appeal." Id. (citing Turner v. Scott, 119 F.3d 425, 428 (6th Cir.1997)).

In defendants' reply brief, they concede the most favorable view of the facts to the plaintiff, and state that their appeal involves only the following purely legal issues: (1) the appropriate standard under which to analyze plaintiff's claims; (2) whether the law related to positional asphyxiation of a patient who was physically struggling during an emergency situation in a mental health institution was clearly...