Morris v. ZEFFERI

• Decision Date: 13 April 2010
• Docket Number: No. 08-3141.,08-3141.
• Citation: 601 F.3d 805
• Parties: Thomas Edward MORRIS, III, Appellee, v. Armand ZEFFERI, Transportation Officer, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

601 F.3d 805

Thomas Edward MORRIS, III, Appellee, v. Armand ZEFFERI, Transportation Officer, Appellant.

No. 08-3141.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: December 16, 2009.

Filed: April 13, 2010.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Renee Jeanette Waters, argued, Mark Zolle, on the brief, St. Louis, MO, for appellant.

Nathan Thomas Kipp, argued, Stephen Sanders and Marc R. Kadish, on the brief, Chicago, IL, for appellee.

Before RILEY,¹ Chief Judge, WOLLMAN and MELLOY, Circuit Judges.

RILEY, Chief Judge.

Thomas Edward Morris, III, filed a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action against Armand Zefferi, a former Crawford County, Missouri, Sheriff's Department bailiff. Morris alleged Zefferi violated Morris's constitutional rights when Zefferi transported Morris, who at the time was a pretrial detainee, in a dog cage in a K-9 vehicle during a ninety-minute drive from the Crawford County Jail to the Pulaski County Courthouse. The dog cage was approximately three and a half feet wide, three feet tall, and three feet deep. Morris claims the cage was littered with animal hair and dried dog urine and feces. Zefferi moved for summary judgment based, in part, upon qualified immunity, which the district court² denied. Zefferi appeals, and we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND³

On February 6, 2007, Zefferi, who at that time was a Crawford County Sheriff's Department bailiff, was assigned the duty of transporting Morris, a pretrial detainee, from the Crawford County Jail to the Pulaski County Courthouse.⁴ Morris was scheduled to make a court appearance in Pulaski County on February 7, 2007. Approximately six years earlier, in January 2001, Morris, while handcuffed, escaped from a moving Crawford County law enforcement vehicle after kicking out a window. Zefferi, aware of Morris's previous escape, believed it was necessary to transport Morris in a cage car. According to Zefferi, no cage cars were available on February 6, 2007, so Zefferi decided to transport Morris in a K-9 vehicle equipped with a dog cage.

Zefferi "shackled Morris with a waist belly chain, ankle restraints, and handcuffs and escorted him to a K-9 transportation vehicle." Zefferi then "directed Morris to climb in and lie down in the cage . . . and Morris was forced to sit and lie in dog feces, dog urine, and dog hair in a restricted position for 1 ½ hours." Morris is 5'9" tall and weighed 150 pounds. Morris estimates the dog cage was three and a half feet wide, three feet tall, and three feet deep. Morris complains his "restricted position in the cage caused him severe neck and hip pain which lasted for several weeks."

Law enforcement officers never transported Morris in a K-9 vehicle before or after this incident. The officers usually used alternative restraint methods when transporting Morris, such as shock belts, leg braces, belly chains, handcuffs and leg shackles to maintain safety and security. Morris reports he was transported in a regular law enforcement vehicle on his return trip from the Pulaski County Courthouse to the Crawford County Jail on about February 9, 2007.

In August 2001, Morris filed a pro se⁵ 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action against Zefferi in the district court.⁶ Zefferi moved for summary judgment, arguing (1) Morris failed to exhaust his administrative remedies, and (2) Zefferi was entitled to qualified immunity. The district court held Morris's failure to follow the grievance procedure did not bar his claim.⁷ The district court also held Zefferi was not entitled to qualified immunity, finding (1) Morris's allegations of degrading and humiliating treatment were a sufficient basis for a constitutional claim; (2) "confining a grown man to a three feet by three feet by three-and-a-half feet cage is a clear constitutional violation, particularly when that cage is littered with animal excrement"; and (3) despite "the absence of a clear factual precedent for this case, . . . Eighth Circuit case law makes clear that the type of humiliation and degrading treatment alleged by Morris qualifies" as a constitutional violation. Zefferi appeals.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Standard of Review

"We review de novo the district court's denial of a motion for summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity." Nelson v. Corr. Med. Servs., 583 F.3d 522, 527 (8th Cir.2009) (en banc) (citation omitted). "In doing so we grant the nonmoving party `the benefit of all relevant inferences.'" Id. (quoting Plemmons v. Roberts, 439 F.3d 818, 822 (8th Cir.2006)). "At this stage we are prohibited from weighing evidence or making credibility determinations." Id. at 528 (citation omitted). "If there is a genuine dispute concerning predicate facts material to the qualified immunity issue, there can be no summary judgment." Id. (quoting Tlamka v. Serrell, 244 F.3d 628, 632 (8th Cir. 2001)).

B. Qualified Immunity

"Qualified immunity protects a government official from liability in a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action unless the official's conduct violated a clearly established constitutional or statutory right of which a reasonable person would have known." Henderson v. Munn, 439 F.3d 497, 501 (8th Cir.2006) (citing Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982)). Our analysis consists of two considerations: (1) "whether the facts that a plaintiff has alleged or shown make out a violation of a constitutional right," and (2) "whether the right at issue was `clearly established' at the time of defendant's alleged misconduct." Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. ___, ___, 129 S.Ct. 808, 816, 172 L.Ed.2d 565 (2009) (internal citations omitted). To defeat Zefferi's qualified immunity claim, Morris must show Zefferi potentially violated Morris's clearly established constitutional right as a pretrial detainee to be free from being transported for ninety minutes in a small, unsanitary dog cage. See Baribeau v. City of Minneapolis, 596 F.3d 465, 473 (8th Cir.2010).

1. Violation of a Constitutional Right

Because Morris was a pretrial detainee at the time of the alleged violation of his constitutional rights, we analyze Morris's claim against Zefferi under the Fourteenth Amendment, rather than the Eighth Amendment. See Owens v. Scott County Jail, 328 F.3d 1026, 1027 (8th Cir. 2003) (citing Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 535, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 n. 16 (1979)). Under the Fourteenth Amendment, a pretrial detainee's constitutional rights are violated if the detainee's conditions of confinement amount to punishment. See Bell, 441 U.S. at 535, 99 S.Ct. 1861 ("Under the Due Process Clause, a detainee may not be punished prior to an adjudication of guilt in accordance with due process of law." (citation omitted)). "Pretrial detainees are entitled to `at least as great' protection under the Fourteenth Amendment as that afforded convicted prisoners under the Eighth Amendment," Owens, 328 F.3d at 1027 (quoting City of Revere v. Mass. Gen. Hosp., 463 U.S. 239, 244, 103 S.Ct. 2979, 77 L.Ed.2d 605 (1983)). "Although this court has yet to establish a clear standard for pretrial detainees, we repeatedly have applied the same `deliberate indifference' standard as is applied to Eighth Amendment claims made by convicted inmates." Vaughn v. Greene County, Ark., 438 F.3d 845, 850 (8th Cir.2006) (internal citation omitted). "We have previously suggested that the burden of showing a constitutional violation is lighter for a pretrial detainee under the Fourteenth Amendment than for a post-conviction prisoner under the Eighth Amendment." Wever v. Lincoln County, Neb., 388 F.3d 601, 606 n. 6 (8th Cir.2004) (citing Smith v. Copeland, 87 F.3d 265, 268 n. 4 (8th Cir.1996)). The Eighth Amendment prohibits penalties "that transgress today's `broad and idealistic concepts of dignity, civilized standards, humanity, and decency.'" Hutto v. Finney, 437 U.S. 678, 685, 98 S.Ct. 2565, 57 L.Ed.2d 522 (1978) (quoting Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 102, 97 S.Ct. 285, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976)). "Punishment that `deprives inmates of the minimal civilized measures of life's necessities' is unconstitutional." Owens, 328 F.3d at 1027 (quoting Rhodes v. Chapman, 452 U.S. 337, 347, 101 S.Ct. 2392, 69 L.Ed.2d 59 (1981)).

Zefferi insists his conduct did not violate Morris's constitutional rights. Zefferi maintains our court's precedent demonstrates: (1) "even if Morris's conditions in the dog cage were unsanitary, the conditions fall within the range of the acceptable impositions this Court has found fail as constitutional claims"; (2) "while Morris may have been uncomfortable, this Court has found even more restrictive limitations on range of movement that result in discomfort do not rise to the level of a constitutional violation"; and (3) "while this Court recognizes that some treatment is so humiliating and degrading that it deprives an inmate of the civilized measure of life's necessities, it has done so only on facts far more egregious than those presented by Morris." But see Nelson, 583 F.3d at 529-31.

Zefferi's piecemeal analysis of the conditions of Morris's confinement misses the point. In considering whether the conditions of pretrial detention are unconstitutionally punitive, we review the totality of the circumstances of a pretrial detainee's confinement. See Owens, 328 F.3d at 1027 (citing Smith, 87 F.3d at 268) ("Any analysis of confinement conditions must be based on the totality of the circumstances." (citation omitted)). When considered separately and in isolation, Morris's allegations of the unsanitary conditions of the cage, the degree of discomfort experienced by Morris, or the humiliation and degradation suffered by Morris may not appear to state a constitutional violation. But Morris did not experience these conditions in isolation. Morris was a presumed innocent pretrial detainee. According to Morris, he was forced to crawl into a small cage littered with dog hair, excrement, and dried urine. He was then required to lie in an uncomfortable position while restrained by a waist belly chain,...