Madden v. City of Meriden

• Decision Date: 08 February 1985
• Docket Number: Civ. No. N-84-41.
• Citation: 602 F. Supp. 1160
• Parties: Sharon MADDEN, Administratrix of the Estate of Brian Madden v. CITY OF MERIDEN, et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Connecticut

602 F. Supp. 1160

Sharon MADDEN, Administratrix of the Estate of Brian Madden v. CITY OF MERIDEN, et al.

Civ. No. N-84-41.

United States District Court, D. Connecticut.

February 8, 1985.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Theodore E. Skowronski, Skowronski & Skowronski, Derby, Conn., for plaintiff.

Marjorie Howes-Drake, Corp. Counsel, City of Meriden, Meriden, Conn., Arnold J. Bai, Karen L. Karpie, Thomas M. Germain, Bai, Pollock & Dunnigan, Bridgeport, Conn., for defendants.

RULING ON OBJECTION TO MAGISTRATE'S DENIAL OF DEFENDANTS' MOTION TO DISMISS

ELLEN B. BURNS, District Judge.

Plaintiff Sharon Madden, as administratrix of her son Brian's estate, brought this action against the City of Meriden and two of its police officers. She alleges that the City of Meriden (City) and the two officers, Elliot Michelson and Greg Kosienski, deprived Brian of his constitutional rights by brutally beating him after his arrest, and, by their deliberate indifference to his serious physical injuries and impaired mental health, failed to prevent him from hanging himself while in custody at the Meriden police station.

The complaint is in four counts. The first count purports to state a Section 1983 claim against all defendants, the City and the individual police officers, for their deliberate indifference to Brian Madden's physical and psychological condition while confined at the police department, indifference which assertedly resulted in Brian's suicide. The plaintiff alleges that the City is liable for Brian's death because it (1) failed to properly train defendants Michelson and Kosienski to recognize the risk of self-injury presented by individuals like Brian, and (2) failed to promulgate regulations and procedures to assure the safety of pretrial detainees known to be mentally ill and presenting a risk of self-injury. The second count alleges a Section 1983 claim against the individual officers who allegedly beat and seriously injured Brian. The third count seeks to hold the City liable for the beating, asserting that the assault was part of a "pattern or course of conduct" which the City knew about and condoned. The fourth count alleges a Section 1985 conspiracy among all the defendants to deprive Brian Madden of his constitutional rights.

The defendants moved to dismiss all but the second count of the complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. This motion was referred to a magistrate pursuant to Rule 3 of Local Rules for United States Magistrates. The magistrate ruled that the defendants' motion should be granted in part and denied in part. He dismissed the third count against the City as being drawn too generally, and failing to satisfy the pleading requirements of Monell v. Department of Social Services of New York, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978). The fourth count was also dismissed because it is vague, superfluous and omits an essential element of § 1985. See e.g., Ostrer v. Aronwald, 567 F.2d 551, 553 (2d Cir.1977). The magistrate denied defendants' motion to dismiss the first count against the individual or city defendants.

Defendants filed a timely objection to the magistrate's ruling and this court has conducted a de novo review. Rule 2 of Local Rules for United States Magistrates. Finding that the magistrate correctly denied the defendants' motion to dismiss the suicide count against both the City and the individual police officers, the magistrate's ruling is approved and adopted for the reasons stated therein and for the additional reasons discussed below.

I. Facts

For the purposes of deciding this motion to dismiss the facts will be accepted as set out in the complaint. Hughes v. Rowe, 449 U.S. 5, 10, 101 S.Ct. 173, 176, 66 L.Ed.2d 163 (1980) (per curiam). Absent sufficient reason to impose stricter pleading requirements, no count should be dismissed unless "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 & Spaulding, ___ U.S. ___, 104 S.Ct. 2229, 2233, 81 L.Ed.2d 59 (1984).

The complaint alleges the following facts. Brian Madden, age 18, was receiving inpatient psychiatric treatment at Saint Mary's Hospital in Waterbury, Connecticut, when he was taken into custody by the defendants Michelson and Kosienski. The officers knew that Brian was suffering serious psychological and emotional impairments. They also knew that Brian had previously attempted self-injury. Nevertheless, they took him from the hospital and brought him to the police station. Although they had knowledge of Brian Madden's severely diminished mental condition, the complaint claims that defendants Michelson and Kosienski brutally beat Brian while he was in the custody of the Meriden Police Department. As a result of this beating, Brian suffered a severely fractured skull, a massive and disabling concussion, hematomas and substantial bruising of the brain, severe emotional shock, great distress, trauma, pain and suffering. Rather than obtaining the necessary medical and psychiatric treatment for him, the defendants placed Brian Madden, alone, in a locked jail cell. No one could observe him because the television monitoring system was not operating. Nor was there an audio monitoring system. Although the defendants knew that Brian had previously attempted suicide, they failed to remove from him objects with which he could injure himself. They also failed to remove from the cell objects which could be used to inflict self-injury. The cell design and conditions themselves were such as to facilitate death by hanging. Tragically, Brian Madden, who had just received traumatic injuries to his brain, and who was already in a severely depressed mental condition, hanged himself. The defendants failed to observe or discover that Brian had attempted to hang himself. They also failed to take appropriate steps to prevent his death after he was discovered hanging in his cell.

II. The Constitutional Deprivation

In Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 97 S.Ct. 285, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976), the Supreme Court held that only "deliberate indifference to serious medical needs of prisoners constitutes the unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain ... proscribed by the Eighth Amendment." Id. at 104, 97 S.Ct. at 291 (citation omitted).

The plaintiff asserts that the defendants' actions constituted deliberate indifference to Brian Madden's needs and constitutional rights, depriving him of the right to be free of cruel and unusual punishment secured by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.

The defendants assert that plaintiff's claim must be dismissed because she has failed to show any violation of an interest protected by the Constitution. The defendants correctly assert that the Eighth Amendment does not apply to Brian Madden because he was a pretrial detainee. The Eighth Amendment's protection against "cruel and unusual punishment" applies only to prisoners incarcerated as a result of a criminal conviction. Ingraham v. Wright, 430 U.S. 651, 668-671, 97 S.Ct. 1401, 1410-1412, 51 L.Ed.2d 711 (1977). Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 535 n. 16, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 1872 n. 16, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979). However Brian Madden had an equivalent substantive right under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment which protects pretrial detainees from "punishment" prior to an adjudication of guilt. Bell, supra, at 535 n. 16, 99 S.Ct. at 1872 n. 16. The due process rights of a pretrial detainee under the Fourteenth Amendment are at least as great as the Eighth Amendment protections available to a convicted prisoner. Revere v. Massachusetts General Hospital, 463 U.S. 239, ___, 103 S.Ct. 2979, 2981, 77 L.Ed.2d 605 (1983). The Second Circuit, in accordance with the directive of the Supreme Court, has held that "a detainee is entitled to protection from cruel and unusual punishment as a matter of due process ..." Rhem v. Malcolm, 507 F.2d 333, 337 (2d Cir.1974). Therefore, Eighth Amendment standards can be used by analogy to determine the minimum substantive rights of a pretrial detainee under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. See Norris v. Frame, 585 F.2d 1183, 1186-87 (3d Cir. 1978); see also Patzig v. O'Neil, 577 F.2d 841, 847 (3d Cir.1978).

The magistrate ruled that the first count alleged facts sufficient to state a claimed violation of the Eighth Amendment. The court agrees that that count, viewed as a whole, does indeed allege sufficient facts to establish such a claim. Brian, taken from a hospital where he was receiving psychiatric treatment, was brutually beaten and severely injured. Rather than receiving medical treatment for these injuries, Brian was confined in a jail cell without adequate surveillance, and without the removal of implements enabling him to take his own life. All of this was done with knowledge of Brian's past tendency toward suicide. These facts are sufficient to establish an Eighth Amendment violation. Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 97 S.Ct. 285, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976); Guglielmoni v. Alexander, 583 F.Supp. 821 (D.Conn.1984) (summary judgment denied in § 1983 case where record permitted inference that prison officials had notice of prisoner's suicidal tendencies and did not take reasonable steps to provide treatment or prevent suicide). Such conduct, which would be a deprivation of Brian's Eighth Amendment rights had he been confined after an adjudication of guilt, Estelle v. Gamble, supra, was certainly a deprivation of his Fourteenth Amendment right to liberty when confined as a pre-trial detainee. See Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979).

III. The Due Process Violation

A. Parratt v. Taylor

The defendants concede that the alleged actions of the defendants may have deprived Brian Madden of a life, liberty, or property interest. They argue, however, that the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment does not protect against every deprivation of a life,...