Noble v. Schmitt

• Decision Date: 14 June 1996
• Docket Number: No. 94-5697,94-5697
• Citation: 87 F.3d 157
• Parties: Sherman L.G. NOBLE, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Janice SCHMITT and Connie Stevens, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 157

87 F.3d 157

Sherman L.G. NOBLE, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Janice SCHMITT and Connie Stevens, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 94-5697.

United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.

Argued July 31, 1995.

Decided June 14, 1996.

Ronald E. Marstin (argued and briefed), Legal Aid Society, Louisville, KY, for plaintiff-appellee.

W. David Shearer, Jr. (argued and briefed), Taustine, Post, Stosky, Berman, Fineman & Kohn, Louisville, KY, for defendants-appellants.

Before: JONES and BOGGS, Circuit Judges, and CHURCHILL, District Judge. ^*

NATHANIEL R. JONES, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff Sherman L.G. Noble, an involuntarily committed mental patient at Central State Hospital ("CSH") in Louisville, Kentucky, brought suit against Defendants Janice Schmitt and Connie Stevens, CSH personnel, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Noble charged Schmitt and Stevens with violations of his free speech and due process rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Defendants moved for summary judgment on grounds of qualified immunity, and the district court denied their Motion. We affirm the district court's decision.

I.

On March 7, 1989, Noble was committed to CSH after being diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. He was then placed in the Grauman Building ("Grauman"), which houses CSH's violent male patients. CSH staffs Grauman with a Treatment Team to care for those patients. The Grauman Treatment Team implemented various administrative policies and procedures for dealing with its patients. The Team was responsible for creating a treatment plan and a behavioral plan for each Grauman patient to regulate patient behavior. The treatment plan analyzed the patient's psychological and physical ailments and prescribed treatment in accordance with the patient's needs. The behavioral plan, on the other hand, outlined strategies for intervention in the event that the patient grew violent. The Team met twice a week to discuss the plans for each patient, and conducted a briefing each morning to "run the list" of patients. In addition to its individualized plans, the Team also established a general regulation scheme for the Grauman patients, outfitting the patients with color-coded wristbands. The wristbands came in four colors that conferred different levels of freedom and privileges. Patients who exhibited good behavior earned higher-ranked wristbands.

Furthermore, the Team instituted a "generic intervention" strategy for those patients who "acted out." The Team applied the generic intervention strategy incrementally. When a patient threatened to act out, the nurse on duty would ask the patient to lower his voice. If the patient refused, the nurse would suggest that the patient take a "time out" in his room. If the patient's unruliness continued, then the nurse would offer him medication or take him to "open seclusion" in an unlocked room. When the patient left open seclusion, or caused a disturbance so as to endanger himself or other patients, the Team would restrain the patient and administer medication to calm him down. Although Team members could only administer restraints with the approval of a physician, they enjoyed general authority to forcibly inject a patient with medication when necessary. Generic interventions were often incorporated into treatment and behavioral plans.

Grauman patients possessed significant rights regarding their medical care. Pursuant to state law, CSH allowed patients to reject parts of their treatment plans; ¹ however, they could not refuse generic interventions. Under CSH rules, a patient may file a written grievance with the Team to protest a form of treatment or intervention. The Team or its representative then issues a response, and if the patient disagrees with the response, then he can appeal to the CSH "human rights" committee. If the patient contests the committee's findings, then he can seek ultimate review from the CSH director.

Immediately after his transfer to Grauman, relations between Noble and Team members were strained. He routinely rejected treatment. He also filed three to four grievances a day. According to Grauman nurse Dorothy Perkins, at least seventy-five percent of Noble's complaints involved the Defendants. Noble further assisted other Grauman patients in filing grievances, many of which resembled his own. See J.A. at 308 (Urton Dep.). James Brown, a Grauman security officer, testified that the patients solicited Noble for assistance. J.A. at 275 (Brown Dep.). For the Team, however, Noble "was like a thorn in everybody's side." Id. at 139 (Perkins Dep.). Dr. John Urton, the Team's psychiatrist, deemed Noble's conduct "disruptive" because he had fostered resentment of the Team among the patients. Id. at 308.

Noble alleges that Stevens and Schmitt took reprisals against him for his iconoclastic behavior. Perkins testified that the Defendants denied Noble access to recreational areas even though he was issued a blue wristband which entitled him to use of such areas. Id. at 151. Perkins claimed that they employed this tactic in order to restrict his access to other Grauman patients. Id. at 153. Noble responded angrily, and he alleges that Stevens and Schmitt attempted to provoke him so that he would act out. Noble states that he never acted out in response to this provocation and instead chose to draft angry grievances. Subsequently, on October 24, 1990, the Team amended Noble's behavioral plan to state that if he helped Grauman patients draft any grievances, he would be demoted for seven days to a green wristband, which conferred minimum privileges. Id. at 419. He was confined "to the unit" for two weeks in November 1990. Noble's Br. at 25. In response to these measures, Noble filed angry grievances on November 11, 1990, December 4, 1990, December 5, 1990, and December 6, 1990. Id.

Noble alleges two specific incidents of improper conduct by the Defendants. The first incident occurred on December 16, 1990. At about 1:00 p.m., Schmitt announced that the recreation room would not be available to patients due to a staff shortage. Noble, who apparently wanted to watch a ballgame on television, angrily protested and vowed to file a grievance. He cursed at Schmitt, and Schmitt asked him to lower his voice. Noble refused and, according to the Defendants, threatened Schmitt. Schmitt demoted Noble to a green wristband and summoned a security officer, Andre Fant, to escort him to open seclusion. After arriving in open seclusion, Noble quietly occupied his time until Schmitt arrived on the scene. They argued, and the argument escalated to the point where Noble threw his shoes in Schmitt's direction and banged his fist on the door. Shortly thereafter, another nurse, Shelby Dreher, gave Noble a choice between injected medication or oral medication. Noble opted to take orally eight milligrams of Trilafon, an antipsychotic drug. He was then restrained by four-point restraints, and remained in open seclusion until 5:12 p.m. Noble contends that he was forcibly medicated and improperly restrained. Defendants, on the other hand, maintain that Noble voluntarily took the medication, and alternatively, that Schmitt was justified in forcibly medicating Noble because he posed a threat to himself and other patients.

The second incident occurred on February 7, 1991, when Stevens allegedly instructed Perkins--who at the time was a new member of the Team--to incite Noble to act out. This would allow the Team to forcibly intervene. Rick Cain, a patient advocate with the Kentucky Department for Protection and Advocacy, received word of the incident and interviewed Perkins a week later. According to Perkins' notes, CSH Director George Nichols was present at the meeting. Cain asked Perkins about the incident, and reported his findings to the Division of Licensing and Regulation for the Kentucky Cabinet of Human Resources. Nichols recommended an investigation. In a letter to Nichols dated February 19, 1991, Cain concluded that Stevens' conduct constituted "a conspiracy to violate Mr. Noble's civil rights." Id. at 405. Subsequently, Perkins met with Stevens and CSH nursing director Dorothy Dowe, who persuaded Perkins to produce a statement in response to Cain's findings. Perkins complied, submitting a statement on February 25, 1991 which praised Stevens. Perkins later testified that she produced the statement in order to save her job. Nichols, however, claimed that Perkins recanted her allegations. J.A. at 381 (Nichols Dep.). On March 14, 1991, the Department of Licensing and Regulation issued a report which concluded that the charges against Stevens were meritless.

On January 8, 1992, Noble filed a § 1983 Complaint in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. On October 7, 1992, he filed an Amended Complaint, alleging that Defendants forcibly medicated him in violation of his substantive and procedural due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. Noble's Complaint further stated that Defendants violated his First Amendment right to free speech by retaliating against him for filing grievances on his behalf and assisting others in doing so. Pursuant to Rule 12(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Defendants moved for dismissal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Defendants argued that Noble provided no facts or evidence to prove that they had violated his clearly established rights. The district court overruled Defendants' Motion, concluding that Noble had asserted violations of clearly established constitutional law and that he had established the existence of genuine issues of material fact that warranted allowing his claim to proceed. J.A. at 113-14. This appeal followed.

II.

Defendants appeal the district court's denial of their Rule 12(c) motion to dismiss the case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction on the pleadings. Where, as here, the district court decides the motion on grounds outside the pleadings, the motion is converted into one of summary...