Trout v. Buie
| Decision Date | 18 July 1995 |
| Docket Number | No. 30A01-9411-CV-361,30A01-9411-CV-361 |
| Citation | 653 N.E.2d 1002 |
| Parties | Andrew TROUT, Appellant-Plaintiff, v. Jason BUIE and Nicholas Gulling, as Sheriff of Hancock County, Appellees-Defendants. |
| Court | Indiana Appellate Court |
Appellant-plaintiff Andrew Trout asserts that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment in favor of appellee-defendant Sheriff Nicholas Gulling 1 on his two claims that the Sheriff violated his constitutional rights pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and on his two claims that the Sheriff was negligent.
After being convicted for driving under the influence, Trout was sentenced to serve time at the Hancock County Jail. On April 16, 1990, Trout was booked into the Hancock County Jail and assigned to an open cellblock which housed several other inmates, including Jason Buie. Buie, who had recently been transferred from the Randolph County Jail, was an eighteen-year old male facing charges of murder, arson and conspiracy to commit murder. On the evening of April 27, 1990, an inmate in the cellblock told Trout that he could have his breakfast tray the following morning. However, the next day when the breakfast trays were passed out, Buie took the other inmate's tray. Trout, upset that Buie had taken the tray that had been promised to him, took the toast from one of Buie's trays. Buie became irritated and threatened Trout that he had better give the toast back. Rather than returning the toast, Trout stomped his foot and told Buie to get away from him. Buie then grabbed Trout by the hair and hit him several times in the face. When the Sheriff's deputies pulled Buie away from Trout, Trout's nose was cut and bleeding. The deputies immediately transported Trout to the emergency room of the Hancock County Memorial Hospital where he was examined by a physician. The physician determined that Trout's nose was not broken, stitched the laceration on his nose and sent him back to the jail. Trout was placed in a different cellblock and was released the next day having completed his sentence. Following his release from jail, Trout consulted a physician because he had continuing pain in his nose and difficulty breathing. The physician informed Trout that his nose was broken and performed surgery to repair it on May 8, 1990.
On January 7, 1991, Trout filed a complaint against Buie, Sheriff Gulling, in his official capacity, and the Board of County Commissioners of Hancock County. 2 Subsequently, Trout filed a five-count amended complaint on May 15, 1992. Count I of the amended complaint was a claim against Buie for battery. In Count II, Trout alleged that the Sheriff was negligent in carrying out his duty to Trout in that he failed to use reasonable care in segregating inmates and failed to provide appropriate medical treatment. Count III of the amended complaint contained an allegation that the Sheriff breached his duty to pay for medical treatment because he failed to pay for the surgery, performed after Trout's release from prison, to repair his broken nose. Finally, in Counts IV and V, Trout alleged deprivations of his Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in that the Sheriff was deliberately indifferent to his physical safety and medical needs.
On May 27, 1992, the Sheriff filed a motion to dismiss Counts IV and V, pursuant to Ind.Trial Rule 12(B)(6), alleging that Trout failed to state a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for which relief could be granted. In response, Trout filed a memorandum in opposition to the Sheriff's motion to dismiss. Along with the memorandum, Trout also filed affidavits, the Sheriff's answers to interrogatories, and other products of discovery for the court's consideration. Because Trout presented matters outside of his pleading, the trial court, pursuant to T.R. 12(B), treated the motion to dismiss as a motion for summary judgment. On September 21, 1992, the court granted partial summary judgment in favor of the Sheriff on Counts IV and V.
Thereafter, the court set the case for trial on May 2, 1994. However, on March 23, 1994, the Sheriff filed a motion for summary judgment as to Counts II and III claiming that Trout was contributorily negligent as a matter of law and that the Sheriff had fulfilled his duty to provide Trout with appropriate medical care. The court entered findings of fact and conclusions of law and granted summary judgment in favor of the Sheriff on Counts II and III. Trout brings this appeal claiming that the court erred in granting summary judgment on Counts II, III, IV and V.
Summary judgment is an appropriate disposition if the moving party designates specific evidence showing that there are no genuine issues of material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Ind.Trial Rule 56(C); Hermann v. Yater (1994), Ind.App., 631 N.E.2d 511, 513. If the moving party meets these two requirements, the burden shifts to the non-movant to designate specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial. T.R. 56(C); Id.
Summary judgment will be affirmed on appeal if it is sustainable on any theory or basis found in the evidentiary matter designated to the trial court. Fawley v. Martin's Supermarkets, Inc. (1993), Ind.App., 618 N.E.2d 10, 12, trans. denied. We observe that in the present case, the trial court entered findings of fact and conclusions of law in support of its judgment on Counts II and III. Special findings are not required in summary judgment proceedings and are not binding on appeal. Watters v. Dinn (1994), Ind.App., 633 N.E.2d 280, 285, trans. denied. However, such findings offer this court valuable insight into the trial court's rationale for its judgment and facilitate appellate review. Id.
Trout claims that the trial court erred in granting partial summary judgment in favor of the Sheriff on Counts IV and V of his amended complaint in which he alleged deprivations of his constitutional rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. 3 Trout brought his § 1983 action against the Sheriff in his official capacity. An official capacity suit under § 1983 is merely an alternative means of pleading an action against the governmental entity, here Hancock County. Kentucky v. Graham, 473 U.S. 159, 165, 105 S.Ct. 3099, 3104-05, 87 L.Ed.2d 114 (1985). It is well settled that governmental entities are answerable only for their own decisions and policies. Baxter by Baxter v. Vigo County School Corp. (7th Cir.1994), 26 F.3d 728, 734. They are not vicariously liable for the constitutional torts of their agents. Id. "[It] is when execution of a government's policy or custom, whether made by its lawmakers or by those whose edicts or acts may fairly be said to represent official policy, inflicts the injury that the government as an entity is responsible under § 1983." Monell v. Dept. of Social Services of the City of New York, 436 U.S. 658, 694, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 2037-38, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978). Again, because Trout sued the Sheriff solely in his official capacity, he was in effect suing the local government of Hancock County. Thus, in order for Trout to have succeeded in defeating the Sheriff's motion for summary judgment, Trout had to raise a material issue of fact regarding whether the Sheriff was acting pursuant to a governmental policy or custom. A local governmental entity may be held liable under § 1983 for violating the civil rights of a person because of its policy in three instances: 1) an express policy that, when enforced, causes a constitutional deprivation, 2) a widespread practice that, although not authorized by written law or express municipal policy, is so permanent and well settled as to constitute a custom or usage with the force of law, or 3) an allegation that the constitutional injury was caused by a person with final policymaking authority. Baxter, 26 F.3d at 735. Thus, we must determine whether Trout raised a genuine issue of material fact regarding whether Hancock County had a policy or custom for which it may be held liable under § 1983.
On appeal, Trout claims that he established, or at the very least raised a genuine issue of material fact, that the Sheriff was acting pursuant to a governmental policy or custom. In his memorandum in response to the Sheriff's motion to dismiss, Trout alleged that the Sheriff was acting pursuant to the following governmental policies and customs which caused a violation of his constitutional rights:
"a policy of inadequate supervision; a policy which authorized or permitted unlimited discretion in deciding when to segregate inmates; a policy permitting those with violent propensities to mingle with the general population; a policy of ignoring a specific danger which would be apparent to a person in the position of the Sheriff; a policy of authorizing or permitting unlimited discretion in deciding what type of medical care was to be provided to inmates; and a policy of inadequate training in making decisions regarding the care of inmates."
Initially, we note that although Trout alleges that Hancock County had an express policy which caused a violation of his constitutional rights, in his memorandum, Trout did not cite to or reference any specific written medical treatment or inmate safety policies of the Hancock County Jail. We observe that along with his memorandum, Trout filed a copy of the Hancock County Sheriff's Department Operations Manual and the Sheriff's answers to interrogatories, in which the Sheriff responded that Policy # 17 in the manual contained a prisoner medical treatment policy. However, Trout did not apprise the court in his memorandum that he was relying on either the manual or a specific policy within it that he claimed was unconstitutional. Ind.Trial Rule 56(C) requires each party to a summary judgment...
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