Moskos v. Hardee

• Decision Date: 20 January 2022
• Docket Number: No. 19-7611,19-7611
• Citation: 24 F.4th 289
• Parties: James Gary MOSKOS, Plaintiff – Appellant, v. James HARDEE ; Katherine Butler ; James Horne; Laron Locklear; James McRae; Rose Locklear, Defendants - Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

24 F.4th 289

James Gary MOSKOS, Plaintiff – Appellant,

v.James HARDEE ; Katherine Butler ; James Horne; Laron Locklear; James McRae; Rose Locklear, Defendants - Appellees.

No. 19-7611

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued: December 7, 2021

Decided: January 20, 2022

ARGUED: Jason Michael Burton, BURTON LAW FIRM, PLLC, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellant. Sripriya Narasimhan, NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Michael A. Kaeding, Ryan Ethridge, ALSTON & BIRD LLP, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellant. Joshua H. Stein, Attorney General, Orlando L. Rodriguez, Assistant Attorney General, NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellees.

Before WILKINSON, NIEMEYER, and AGEE, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge Wilkinson wrote the opinion, in which Judge Niemeyer and Judge Agee joined.

WILKINSON, Circuit Judge

James Gary Moskos, a state prisoner in North Carolina, sued several prison officials under § 1983, alleging that they had used excessive force against him, had acted with deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs and to unconstitutional conditions of his confinement, and had violated his due process rights. Moskos also brought a state-law assault and battery claim. At trial, the district court granted judgment as a matter of law to the defendants on the deliberate indifference and due process claims, while a jury found for the defendants on the remaining claims. Moskos now appeals, contesting the district court's grant of judgment as a matter of law, as well as an evidentiary decision made by the district court at trial. For the following reasons, we affirm.

I.

A.

At about 9:15 pm on the evening of August 2, 2013, Moskos, an inmate at the Lumberton Correctional Institute in North Carolina, approached Officer James Hardee and asked whether he could cross to a different wing of the prison to get cold water from a water fountain there. Hardee denied this request because, he later testified, it would have violated protocol for an inmate to move across the prison yard once the dormitories had been secured for the evening. Shortly thereafter, Moskos came across Officer Katherine Butler, who allowed him to fill a nearby cooler with water. The cooler was located in an area adjacent to Moskos's wing, and therefore did not require him to cross the prison yard. See J.A. 805.

As Moskos returned with the cooler full of cold water, he encountered Hardee again. The details of what happened next are hotly disputed. According to Butler and Hardee, Moskos began cursing at Hardee, and Hardee asked Moskos for his ID card, which he was required to carry with him at all times. Moskos did not have his card with him and walked away as if to retrieve it from his locker, but then abruptly turned around, repeatedly punched Hardee in the face, and jumped on top of him. Butler radioed for assistance and Officer James Horne testified that he ran to the scene, ordered Moskos to stop the assault, and used pepper spray twice when Moskos refused. Moskos continued to assault both officers until Horne was able to subdue him.

Moskos testified to a very different series of events. According to Moskos, he had threatened to file a grievance against Hardee during their earlier conversation, which had angered Hardee. When Moskos stated that he did not have his ID card with him, Hardee became enraged. Moskos testified that when he set off to retrieve the card, Hardee struck him without warning in the back of the head, and then pretended to fall to the ground, while punching and grabbing at Moskos's legs. Moskos stepped away from Hardee, retrieved his ID card from his locker, and returned. At this point Horne, upon seeing Hardee on the ground, allegedly sprayed Moskos in the face with a can of pepper spray, hit him in the head with the can, and put him in a choke hold. Moskos also alleges that an unknown third officer joined in the assault and injured Moskos's shoulder while handcuffing him.

Following the altercation, the officers brought Moskos to the prison's segregation unit, where he was assessed by Nurse Charletta Scott. Moskos complained that his eyes were burning, and according to Rose Locklear, a captain at the prison, he was given a shower shortly thereafter, within about 30 to 45 minutes of the incident. Scott testified that Moskos was then subject to a full medical assessment, following which he was transferred to the Southeastern Regional Medical Center. Moskos disputes the timing of this: in his account, Scott ordered that he be decontaminated of the pepper spray immediately but the officers instead returned Moskos to his cell. As a result, Moskos claims that he was only decontaminated after the full medical examination, approximately 90 to 120 minutes after the pepper spray had been used against him.

When Moskos returned from the hospital, he was placed in a segregation unit. Moskos alleges that the unit was very cold and dark, that it lacked toilet paper, running water, and soap, that he was not provided with a mattress or any bedding, and that he was not allowed to shower or shave for the approximately 20 days during which he was placed in the unit.

The prison conducted an investigation into the August 2nd incident. Shortly thereafter, Moskos was charged with, and found guilty of, three prison disciplinary infractions: assault on an officer, profane language, and disobeying an order. He lost 15 earned good-credit days, was sentenced to 60 days in disciplinary segregation, and was transferred to a maximum-level security facility, Maury Correctional Institute.

Shortly thereafter, Moskos submitted a grievance with the prison, contending that Horne had struck him over the head with a can of pepper spray and that he had been "punished wrongfully" because the officers had "lie[d] in their reports." The grievance was dismissed on a recommendation by Assistant Superintendent James McRae, who concluded that Moskos had not been hit with the can.

B.

Moskos filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against several correctional officers, including Hardee, Butler, and Horne, alleging Eighth Amendment, due process, and ADA claims. The district court granted summary judgment to the defendants on Moskos's ADA claims but denied the motion as to the remaining claims, which proceeded to a jury trial. Moskos's claims before the jury included allegations of excessive force in the initial altercation, as well as assault and battery; deliberate indifference as to the alleged delay in decontaminating him; wrongful confinement of him in the segregation unit; and due process violations relating to his disciplinary investigation.

On the second day of trial, Moskos called McRae as a witness and asked him to confirm that a particular exhibit contained documents related to the grievance that Moskos had filed. The district court asked Moskos's counsel to explain the purpose behind this line of questioning, and then stated that it was "completely irrelevant." J.A. 931. Without referencing the exhibit specifically, counsel asked McRae some further questions about his review of the grievance, and then concluded the examination.

At the close of Moskos's case at trial, the defendants moved for judgment as a matter of law under Rule 50(a). The court granted this motion as to the due process and deliberate indifference claims and the jury returned a verdict for the defendants on the remaining excessive force and assault and battery claims.

The court set forth its Rule 50(a) ruling in a written order. With respect to Moskos's due process claim, the court concluded that there was no evidence indicating that Moskos had been denied written notice or the opportunity to call witnesses. See J.A. 994–95. As to Moskos's claim of deliberate indifference stemming from the alleged failure to decontaminate him following the use of pepper spray, the court concluded that this claim was not supported by the record, as there was "no evidence that any defendant intentionally delayed [Moskos's] access to decontamination." J.A. 993–94. Finally, the court held that Moskos's claim of deliberate indifference to unconstitutional prison conditions failed since the alleged conditions did not constitute an "extreme deprivation" that could qualify as an Eighth Amendment violation and since Moskos had not produced evidence indicating that the defendants were aware of the alleged conditions anyway. See J.A. 991–93 (quoting De'lonta v. Johnson , 708 F.3d 520, 525 (4th Cir. 2013) ).

On appeal, Moskos contends primarily that the district court erred in granting judgment as a matter of law on his due process and deliberate indifference claims. In addition, he also argues that the district court erred by preventing counsel from examining McRae on the subject of Moskos's grievance.

A court may grant judgment as a matter of law where "a party has been fully heard on an issue during a jury trial and the court finds that a reasonable jury would not have a legally sufficient evidentiary basis to find for the party on that issue." Fed. R. Civ. P. 50(a)(1). We review such judgments de novo. Chaudhry v. Gallerizzo , 174 F.3d 394, 404–05 (4th Cir. 1999).

II.

We begin with Moskos's due process claim. This claim boils down to an argument that prison officials fabricated evidence so that Moskos would be wrongfully convicted of prison disciplinary infractions, causing him to lose good-time credits. But controlling precedent from the Supreme Court clearly precludes prisoners from bringing this sort of a challenge under § 1983 unless the disciplinary conviction has been invalidated, which is not the case here. It follows that there was no "legally sufficient evidentiary basis" to find for Moskos on this issue, and that judgment as a matter of law was proper. Fed. R. Civ. Pro. 50(a)(1). In addition, since Moskos's due process claim fails as a matter of law, we reject his evidentiary challenge, as the testimony that Moskos...