Monday v. Oullette

• Decision Date: 02 July 1997
• Docket Number: No. 95-2363,95-2363
• Citation: 118 F.3d 1099
• Parties: Daryl MONDAY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Officer John OULLETTE and the City of Monroe, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 1099

118 F.3d 1099

Daryl MONDAY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Officer John OULLETTE and the City of Monroe, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 95-2363.

United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.

Argued June 9, 1997.

Decided July 2, 1997.

Victoria Eva Abdella (argued and briefed), Franklin, MI, Rodney Watts, Detroit, MI, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Matthew A. Seward (argued), Rosalind Rochkind (briefed), Robert J. Squiers, Garan, Lucow, Miller, Seward, Cooper & Becker, Detroit, MI, for Defendants-Appellees.

Before: KEITH, KENNEDY, and MOORE, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

KENNEDY, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff appeals the grant of judgment as a matter of law by the District Court in favor of defendants in this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action. Plaintiff sued defendants City of Monroe police officer John Oullette and the City of Monroe alleging that his Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated when he was taken into protective custody without probable cause to believe that he was attempting to commit suicide, and that the use of pepper spray was per se excessive force when used in lieu of physical force. Plaintiff further asserts that the actions of Oullette violated state law. For the following reasons, we AFFIRM.

I.

In February, 1994, plaintiff, a resident of Monroe, Michigan, was separated from his now ex-wife and in the process of getting a divorce. Plaintiff has a long history of drug and alcohol abuse, and suffers from depression. Plaintiff is approximately six feet tall and, in February of 1994, weighed about three hundred pounds. Plaintiff was taking the prescription drug Xanax for his depression.

On February 2, 1994, after having drunk six beers, plaintiff tried to reach Jack Andrews, his counselor, at a number given to him by Andrews. Plaintiff instead reached Robert Martin, a psychologist with Monroe Community Mental Health, for which the number served as a hotline. During a brief conversation, plaintiff informed Martin that he was drinking, and Martin asked plaintiff whether he was taking his medication. When plaintiff responded that he was, Martin stated, "don't you know that can hurt you, or kill you," or words to that effect. After telling Martin either that "he could have cared less," or that he "could give a f___," plaintiff hung up. Although plaintiff had responded to an interrogatory during discovery by stating that he also told Martin that, "If I wanted to, I would take all of [my pills]," plaintiff could not remember at trial whether he had made that statement.

Martin, concerned that plaintiff might have overdosed, called the police and asked them to investigate. Martin then called plaintiff back and warned him about mixing drugs and alcohol. When Martin informed him that the police were coming to his house, plaintiff responded that they already had arrived and hung up.

Police Sergeant John Michrana had received the call from Martin, and understood Martin to have stated that plaintiff had overdosed on pills and needed to go to the hospital. Based on the conversation between Michrana and Martin, a radio dispatch issued; the dispatch announced that plaintiff had telephoned a mental health worker and stated that he was upset over a divorce and had ingested some pills and was drinking alcohol in a suicide attempt.

Defendant police officer Oullette responded to the dispatch. As plaintiff began to open his door, Oullette walked in. Shortly thereafter, police officer Thomas Mohrbach also arrived and entered the house. Plaintiff appeared coherent but intoxicated and depressed. Oullette told plaintiff that a person from Mental Health had told the police that they should come to this address because someone was committing suicide. The officers asked plaintiff whether he had any pills. Plaintiff, who had renewed his prescription on the previous day, withdrew a vial of Xanax from his shirt pocket. After the officers counted the pills and found that at least twenty were missing, they insisted to plaintiff that he go to the hospital. Plaintiff refused to go, denied having overdosed, sat down on the couch, and began to drink a bottled beer. Plaintiff told the officers to call his ex-wife because she could tell them that she was keeping the missing pills with her. Although the officers did not call the ex-wife, Oullette did call Sergeant Michrana, requesting advice. Based on the above information, Michrana told Oullette to take plaintiff to the hospital. Plaintiff, however, refused to go and asked the officers to leave.

Seven or eight people now were present in the living room of plaintiff, including several firemen and ambulance attendants with a stretcher. Having been in the house of plaintiff for about twenty minutes, Oullette finally told plaintiff that if he did not agree to go the hospital, he would be sprayed with pepper spray. Plaintiff responded by stating, "Well, I guess you're going to have to spray me." Oullette then sprayed plaintiff in the face with a single blast of pepper spray. Oullette testified that the spraying lasted one-to-two seconds. Plaintiff testified that he believed it was six to eight seconds. He was helped to a stretcher and taken to the hospital. Plaintiff had a severe reaction to the pepper spray and spent about five days in the hospital as a consequence.

The case was tried before a jury on October 23, 24, and 25, 1995. At the close of plaintiff's proofs, the District Court granted defendants' motion for judgment as a matter of law under FED.R.CIV.P. 50(a). Plaintiff appeals that ruling.

II.

We review a decision to grant a Rule 50(a) motion de novo. See, e.g., Aparicio v. Norfolk & W. Ry. Co., 84 F.3d 803, 806 (6th Cir.1996). Without weighing the evidence or assessing the credibility of the witnesses, and after drawing all reasonable inferences in favor of plaintiff, we must determine whether the record contains evidence sufficient to have allowed reasonable jurors to find in favor of plaintiff. See id. at 806-07.

A. Claims against Oullette

The District Court granted judgment as a matter of law in favor of Oullette, finding that qualified immunity shielded him from any liability for both the seizure and the use of pepper spray. The doctrine of qualified immunity provides that "government officials performing discretionary functions, generally are shielded from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2738, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). When determining whether qualified immunity protects an official, we first must determine whether the plaintiff has presented facts which, if proven, demonstrate that the defendant violated a constitutional right. See, e.g., Dickerson v. McClellan, 101 F.3d 1151, 1157 (6th Cir.1996); Black v. Parke, 4 F.3d 442, 446-49 (6th Cir.1993). If so, we then decide whether the defendant violated "clearly established constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Dickerson, 101 F.3d at 1158 (quoting Christophel v. Kukulinsky, 61 F.3d 479, 484 (6th Cir.1995)). The existence of qualified immunity is a legal question for the court, see id. at 1157, unless there is a genuine issue of material fact regarding whether the defendant actually committed acts which would violate a clearly established right. See Black, 4 F.3d at 445.

The Fourth Amendment requires an official seizing and detaining a person for a psychiatric evaluation to have probable cause to believe that the person is dangerous to himself or others. See Glass v. Mayas, 984 F.2d 55, 58 (2nd Cir.1993); Sherman v. Four County Counseling Ctr., 987 F.2d 397, 401 (7th Cir.1993); Gooden v. Howard County, Md., 954 F.2d 960, 967-68 (4th Cir.1992)(en banc); Villanova v. Abrams, 972 F.2d 792, 795 (7th Cir.1992); cf. Rex v. Teeples, 753 F.2d 840, 842-43 (10th Cir.1985)(holding that detainment for psychological evaluation must rest upon probable cause, but characterizing right as due process claim). If a dangerous mental condition is analogized to the role of criminal activity in traditional Fourth Amendment analysis, a showing of probable cause in the mental health seizure context requires only a "probability or substantial chance" of dangerous behavior, not an actual showing of such behavior. See Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 245 n. 13, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2335 n. 13, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983). Just as actual innocence will not render an arrest invalid if it is based on then-existing probable cause that criminal activity is occurring, see Criss v. City of Kent, 867 F.2d 259, 262 (6th Cir.1988), a mental health seizure can rest upon probable cause even when the person seized does not actually suffer from a dangerous mental condition. Because "probable cause is a fluid concept--turning on the assessment of probabilities in particular factual contexts," Gates, 462 U.S. at 232, 103 S.Ct. at 2329, courts evaluate the existence of probable cause from the perspective of a reasonable and objective person in the position of the seizing official. See Criss, 867 F.2d at 262-63.

In this case, we agree with the District Court that Oullette had probable cause to believe that plaintiff was attempting to commit suicide, or at least might injure himself if not taken to a hospital. Oullette was responding to a radio dispatch that plaintiff had telephoned a mental health worker and stated that he was upset over a divorce and had ingested some pills and was drinking alcohol in an effort to commit suicide. When Oullette entered the home, plaintiff in fact was drinking alcohol and appeared intoxicated and depressed. A count of his Xanax pills by the officers revealed that at least twenty were missing.

While plaintiff appeared coherent and denied that he was attempting to commit suicide, Officer Mohrbach testified that, based upon his experience in responding to suicide attempts, people who have overdosed exhibit no typical...