Moderwell v. Cuyahoga Cnty.

• Decision Date: 12 May 2021
• Docket Number: No. 20-3879,20-3879
• Citation: 997 F.3d 653
• Parties: Marie MODERWELL, Administrator of the Estate of Larry C. Johnson, deceased, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CUYAHOGA COUNTY, OHIO, et al., Defendants, Armond D. Budish; Clifford Pinkney; George Taylor; Brandy Carney ; Joseph Johnston; Ronald Channell; Anter Miller; Kurt Emerson, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

997 F.3d 653

Marie MODERWELL, Administrator of the Estate of Larry C. Johnson, deceased, Plaintiff-Appellee,

v. CUYAHOGA COUNTY, OHIO, et al., Defendants,Armond D. Budish; Clifford Pinkney; George Taylor; Brandy Carney ; Joseph Johnston; Ronald Channell; Anter Miller; Kurt Emerson, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 20-3879

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Decided and Filed: May 12, 2021

ON BRIEF: Brendan D. Healy, CUYAHOGA COUNTY PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE, Cleveland, Ohio, for Appellants. Meaghan VerGow, Ashley Robertson, O'MELVENY & MYERS LLP, Washington, D.C., Steven J. Olson, O'MELVENY & MYERS LLP, Los Angeles, California, Thomas D. Robenalt, ROBENALT LAW FIRM, Westlake, Ohio, Samuel Weiss, RIGHTS BEHIND BARS, Washington, D.C., for Appellee.

Before: COLE, CLAY, and GRIFFIN, Circuit Judges.

CLAY, Circuit Judge.

On June 29, 2018, Larry Johnson, a pretrial detainee at the Cuyahoga County Correctional Center ("CCCC"), hanged himself. Marie Moderwell, the administrator of Johnson's estate, filed this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 suit against twenty-one defendants. After answering the Amended Complaint, four CCCC correctional officers moved the district court for partial judgment on the pleadings and four Cuyahoga County officials moved for judgment on the pleadings. The district court granted in part and denied in part the motions, and Defendants appealed. For the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM the district court's decision.

BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

In January 2015, Defendant Armond Budish became the Cuyahoga County Executive. To increase revenue for the County, Budish developed a plan for the "regionalization" of the County's jails. (R. 55 at PageID# 294.) In essence, the regionalization plan called for CCCC to house detainees and prisoners from nearby communities in exchange for significant sums of money.

However, CCCC was already severely overcrowded and understaffed. For example, even before the regionalization plan began, the CCCC nursing director, Marcus Harris, complained that inmates were "not being given critical healthcare and that one nurse was doing as many as 100 intake assessments a day." (Id .) When no action was taken in response to his complaints, Harris resigned. Around the same time, the union representing the CCCC correctional officers "complained to the County that there were serious staffing level problems and health and safety problems at" CCCC. (Id. at PageID## 294–95.)

Nonetheless, in March 2018, the first stage of regionalization began with the transfer of City of Cleveland inmates and detainees to CCCC. By May 22, 2018, the Cuyahoga County Council agreed that the issues at CCCC, including the understaffing, were "mission critical." (Id. at PageID# 295.) At the Council meeting, Gary Brack, a former CCCC medical supervisor, informed the Council that CCCC had a "nursing crisis." (Id .) Brack informed the Council that Budish fired him after his many requests for more nurses were denied. After the meeting, Council members sent a letter to Budish stating that the situation at CCCC was "a life-or-death issue." (Id. at PageID# 296.) Budish took no action in response to the letter. Even after a CCCC inmate, Theodore Carter, died on June 10, 2018, from a lack of medical care, the situation at CCCC was not addressed.

On June 20, 2018, Johnson was detained at CCCC while awaiting trial on allegations of petty theft. During his intake assessment, a nurse noted that he was "likely a suicide risk because he had attempted to harm himself in the past." (Id. at PageID# 297.) Allegedly due to a custom or policy of ignoring such medical conditions, no protective action or treatment was taken in response. Three days later, Johnson told a nurse that he was "suicidal." (Id .) Again, no action was taken in response. Defendants Joseph Johnston, Ronald Channell, Anter Miller, and Kurt Emerson, all CCCC correctional officers ("Corrections Defendants"), were aware that Johnson was a suicide risk.

On June 29, 2018, Johnson was caught allegedly trying to steal food from the CCCC commissary. According to Plaintiff, Warden Eric Ivey was "known to deprive food to inmates and that is likely what caused Larry Johnson to try and steal food."¹ (Id . at PageID# 297.) Despite knowing that he was a suicide risk, the Corrections Defendants placed Johnson in solitary confinement. He did not receive an assessment or medical treatment, and no one checked in on him. Late that evening, Johnson was found hanging in the cell. Because CCCC lacked a device with which to cut him down, Johnson was left hanging even after he was discovered. On July 1, 2018, Johnson died from his injuries.

Shortly after Johnson's death, the United States Department of Justice conducted a review of CCCC. See Dep't of Justice, U.S. Marshal, Quality Assurance Review: Cuyahoga County Correctional Center (Oct. 30-Nov. 1, 2018), https://tinyurl.com/y7gcmzc4 ("DOJ Report").² The subsequent report detailed the appalling conditions at CCCC. When it came to ensuring "safe, secure, and humane confinement," CCCC's "overall facility operation received a rating of ‘Unsatisfactory/At-Risk.’ " DOJ Report at 3.

Among many issues at CCCC, the report highlighted the facility's "inadequate medical program." Id. at 4. For example, numerous members of the medical staff lacked proper licenses, comprehensive mental health appraisals were not conducted in a timely manner, and there was no mental health nurse practitioner. See id. at 30–33. Additionally, CCCC correctional officers received only eight hours of annual training, which included no training on medical emergency procedures or on the supervision of detainees. See id. at 28. The report also discussed "[t]he intentional and deliberate use of food as a punitive measure." Id. at 4.

Moreover, CCCC housed 2,420 inmates and detainees even though its capacity was only 1,765, and there were 96 correctional officer vacancies. See id. at 6. The overcrowding was so severe that residents, including two pregnant women, were observed sleeping on mattresses on the floor. See id. at 5. And according to the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, "shortage of staffing in the jail contributes to a lack of identification of people who need medical and psychiatric care upon booking." (R. 55 at PageID# 299.)

The report also documented "CCCC's implementation of a lockdown system known as ‘Red Zone,’ " and its use "as a means to address insufficient staff and staffing shortages." DOJ Report at 4. According to the report, detainees in the Red Zone "are locked down for periods of 27 or more hours in their cells," are denied access to necessities including toilet paper, and CCCC refused to "install shower curtains for detainees/inmates housed in the ‘Red Zone.’ " Id . Detainees in the Red Zone do not receive a daily visit from medical staff. See id. at 41. At the time of Johnson's detention, there was also no schedule for observing detainees in the Red Zone. See id. at 42.

The conditions at CCCC, both before and after regionalization, had severe consequences. Between June and October 2016, a period prior to the implementation of the regionalization plan, six people housed at CCCC died. See id. at 33. One death was confirmed a suicide, but because CCCC failed to conduct mortality reviews, the cause of death for the other five is unknown.³ See id. at 33. In the year prior to the DOJ's review, a period that includes the implementation of the regionalization plan, the report detailed 55 suicide attempts at CCCC, and three completed suicides, including Johnson's. See id. at 25. In the eight months between Johnson's death and the initiation of this action, at least six more CCCC residents died from injuries sustained at CCCC.

B. Procedural Background

On March 19, 2019, Moderwell filed suit in the district court under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Two groups of defendants are relevant to the present appeal: 1) the Corrections Defendants; and (2) Budish; Clifford Pinkney, the Cuyahoga County Sheriff; George Taylor, who was Pinkney's immediate assistant; and Brandy Carney, the Cuyahoga County Chief Safety Protection Officer ("Executive Defendants").

On January 14, 2020, the Corrections Defendants moved the district court for partial judgment on the pleadings in their favor and the Executive Defendants moved the district court for judgment on the pleadings in their favor. The district court granted in part and denied in part both motions. See Moderwell v. Cuyahoga County , No. 19-613, 2020 WL 4726458, at *1 (N.D. Ohio Aug. 14, 2020) ; Moderwell v. Cuyahoga County , No. 19-613, 2020 WL 4726456, at *1 (N.D. Ohio Aug. 14, 2020). As to Plaintiff's claims under both the Eighth Amendment and Monell v. Dep't of Soc. Servs. , 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978), the district court granted judgment to both the Corrections and Executive Defendants. See Moderwell , 2020 WL 4726458, at *2–3 ; Moderwell , 2020 WL 4726456, at *2–3. The district court also dismissed Plaintiff's excessive force claim against the Executive Defendants. See Moderwell , 2020 WL 4726456, at *4.

However, the district court concluded that Plaintiff "sufficiently alleged a § 1983 claim of excessive force as against the Correction[s] Defendants," Moderwell , 2020 WL 4726458, at *4, and "sufficiently alleged a § 1983 claim of deliberate indifference to serious medical needs" and "set forth a plausible Supervisory Liability Claim" against the Executive Defendants, Moderwell , 2020 WL 4726456, at *5–6. Recognizing that this Court has cautioned against dismissing a case on qualified immunity grounds based only on the pleadings, the district court also held that dismissal of these claims based on qualified immunity "is improper at this juncture." Moderwell , 2020 WL 4726458, at *4 ; Moderwell , 2020 WL 4726456, at *6.

This timely appeal followed.⁴

DISCUSSION

Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(c), "[a]fter the pleadings are closed--but early enough not to delay trial--a party may move for...