Ringuette v. City of Fall River, 96-1107

• Decision Date: 08 April 1998
• Docket Number: No. 96-1107,96-1107
• Citation: 146 F.3d 1
• Parties: Roger RINGUETTE, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. CITY OF FALL RIVER, et al., Defendants, Appellees. . Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 1

146 F.3d 1

Roger RINGUETTE, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. CITY OF FALL RIVER, et al., Defendants, Appellees.

No. 96-1107.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard April 8, 1998.

Decided June 4, 1998.

Brian R. Cunha with whom Brian Cunha & Associates was on brief for appellant.

Mary O'Neil, First Assistant Corporation Counsel, Law Department, for appellees City of Fall River and Richard Levesque.

Andrew B. Peppard and Borders, Littman & Peppard on brief for appellee Richard Levesque.

William G. Camara with whom William G. Camara, P.C. was on brief for appellee Raymond Paradis.

Before SELYA, BOUDIN and LYNCH, Circuit Judges.

BOUDIN, Circuit Judge.

Roger Ringuette brought this action in the district court against the City of Fall River and several police officers for medical injuries that he suffered, through inattention by the police, while he was in police custody. He recovered a judgment against the city for negligence, but the district court dismissed on qualified immunity grounds a "Fourth Amendment" claim against two police officers.

Save in one significant respect, the background facts pertinent to the appeal are undisputed. On July 27, 1992, at about 7 p.m., police in Fall River, Massachusetts, responded to a report of a disabled person and found Ringuette slumped over a car in a stupor. According to the officers, Ringuette was unsteady on his feet, had bloodshot eyes, and smelled of alcohol. Believing him to be drunk, the police asked if he wanted a ride home. He replied, "to my brother's" but gave no address. Asked if he wanted to go to "detox," he gave the same answer.

Later evidence indicates that Ringuette was suffering from an overdose of prescription pills, although the police did not know this at any relevant time. Not knowing how to contact Ringuette's brother, the police took Ringuette into protective custody pursuant to the Massachusetts Alcoholism Treatment and Rehabilitation Act, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 111B, § 8. The police handcuffed him, put him in the police car and drove him to the station.

Under section 8 of the Act, a person incapacitated by alcohol is to be taken with or without his consent to his own residence, to a treatment facility, or to a police station. If taken to a police station, the officer in charge is to transfer him to the nearest treatment facility, if available. The statute continues:

No person assisted to a police station pursuant to this section shall be held in protective custody against his will; provided, however, that if suitable treatment at a [treatment] facility is not available, an incapacitated person may be held in protective custody at a police station until he is no longer incapacitated or for a period not longer than twelve hours, whichever is shorter.

In fact, Ringuette remained at the facility for more than twelve hours--whether he was "held" after twelve hours is a different question--and during this period he suffered serious injury. Ringuette was booked into the police station at 7:19 p.m. and assisted to a cell which was neither monitored by video camera nor directly observable by the booking officer. ¹ No call was made to the local treatment center; but according to later evidence, no bed was then available, and the center had not admitted anyone from the police station on short notice in the previous seven years.

During the night of July 27-28, Ringuette was monitored by an officer at 15-minute intervals, as required by department regulations. According to the officer, at around 5 a.m., the officer found Ringuette standing in his cell and asked if he was ready to be released; in reply, Ringuette swore at him. The officer further testified that at the officer's last check, at 6:20 a.m., Ringuette said he was not ready to leave and was told that he would nevertheless be released when the officer of the next shift came on in about 15 minutes.

Officer Paradis, one of the three individuals named as a defendant in this case, took over as booking officer at 6:50 a.m. on July 28 and was told of the prior conversation with Ringuette. Paradis knew Ringuette from prior periods of protective custody. According to Paradis, shortly after he came on duty, he asked Ringuette if he wanted to leave, and Ringuette replied in "slurred" speech: "I've got nowhere to go and I'm still half in the bag." Told of these events, Sergeant Levesque, who was then the supervising sergeant, authorized Paradis to fill out a second protective custody form, although the statute makes no reference to a second form and provides for protective custody "for a period of not longer than twelve hours."

It appears that Paradis then checked on Ringuette only a couple of times in the succeeding eight hours between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m., when Paradis was relieved by another officer. Throughout his time at the police station, Ringuette was given neither food nor water, despite the department handbook's policy requiring the feeding of persons kept in protective custody for more than five hours. At around 3 p.m., a new officer took over and found Ringuette sitting and then lying on the floor. At this point, Ringuette refused food and mumbled incoherently.

Finally, at around 6 p.m. on the evening of July 28, after Ringuette had been in the cell for almost 24 hours, the police officer on duty realized that Ringuette was moaning and making gurgling noises. Levesque called a medical technician who arrived almost immediately and found that Ringuette was in a state of shock, lying motionless in a pool of vomit, with eyes dilated and his pulse racing. At the hospital, doctors found him to be in severe shock--that is, having no measurable blood pressure--severely dehydrated with several vital bodily functions impaired, and suffering from a drug overdose of prescription pills and from first and second degree burns (which are unexplained).

Ringuette now suffers from seriously impaired use of his left arm and left leg, caused by "compartmental syndrome." This is a muscle-tissue condition associated with tissue compression, in this case due to lying in the same position for a long period and compounded by the drug overdose. Expert testimony at trial indicated that the condition likely occurred within three to six hours prior to the technician's arrival. In the aftermath, Police Chief McDonald filed charges against Paradis and Levesque and after a hearing, both were found liable of derelictions.

On June 2, 1993, Ringuette filed a 17-count complaint in the district court, asserting various state law claims and federal claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The defendants named in the complaint were the city, Chief McDonald, officer Paradis and Sergeant Levesque. On summary judgment, defendants obtained a dismissal of a number of claims, Ringuette v. City of Fall River, 888 F.Supp. 258 (D.Mass.1995), but several claims were reserved for trial, and the issue of qualified immunity was not resolved. This summary judgment decision is not directly challenged on this appeal, and we confine ourselves solely to the remaining claims that were not then dismissed on summary judgment.

After the summary judgment decision, the claim against the city for negligence was left standing (state law barred such a claim against the police officers). McDonald had been dismissed from the case on summary judgment, but two constitutional claims remained against Paradis and Levesque: a so-called "Fourth Amendment" claim based on unlawful seizure, and a claim under the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause for deliberate indifference to Ringuette's medical needs while in police custody. ² As to these claims, the district court said that it could not resolve qualified immunity issues without factfinding and sent the claims to trial. 888 F.Supp. at 266, 270.

The case was tried over a number of days in October and November, 1995. After the evidence was presented but before submitting the case to the jury, the court withdrew the Fourth Amendment claim on qualified immunity grounds, granting the officers' motions for judgment as a matter of law; the court's reasoning is set forth in a published memorandum. 906 F.Supp. 55 (D.Mass.1995). The court then submitted to the jury, together with a special verdict form, the Fourteenth Amendment claims against the officers and the negligence claim against the city.

By special verdict, the jury denied recovery against the officers, finding that Ringuette had failed to prove that either officer acted with "such recklessness as to constitute deliberate indifference to Ringuette's serious medical needs." As to the city, the jury found that it was liable for negligence and eventually set damages at $1,780,360. Based on a statutory cap, the court later reduced damages to $100,000. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 258, § 2. Ringuette now appeals, urging that the district court erred in dismissing the Fourth Amendment claim against the officers on grounds of qualified immunity.

The central issue on appeal is whether the district judge properly sustained the defense of qualified immunity on the Fourth Amendment claim, but we first face a threshold issue: Ringuette says that while Levesque pleaded the defense in his answer to the complaint, Paradis failed to do so and therefore waived it. Qualified immunity is an affirmative defense, Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(c), and an affirmative offense is generally lost unless it is raised in the pleadings. 5 Charles Alan Wright & Arthur R. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 1278 (2d ed.1990).

However, Ringuette waived his own procedural objection by failing to assert it in the district court when the officers moved for judgment as a matter of law on grounds...