Wade v. United States

• Decision Date: 17 September 2021
• Docket Number: No. 20-11962,20-11962
• Citation: 13 F.4th 1217
• Parties: Charles WADE, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. UNITED STATES of America, et al., Defendants, Gordon Lewis, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

13 F.4th 1217

Charles WADE, Plaintiff-Appellee,

v.UNITED STATES of America, et al., Defendants,Gordon Lewis, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 20-11962

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

September 17, 2021

Joe P. Reynolds, John P. Jett, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, LLP, Atlanta, GA, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Tiffany Rene Dillingham, Jane Elizabeth McBath, Gabriel Adam Mendel, U.S. Attorney Service - Northern District of Georgia, U.S. Attorney's Office, Atlanta, GA, for Defendant-Appellant.

Before BRANCH, GRANT, and TJOFLAT, Circuit Judges.

BRANCH, Circuit Judge:

While he was incarcerated in a federal prison, Charles Wade punched another inmate and seriously injured him. Either because of the punch, or while opening cans of vegetables moments later, Wade cut his hand, which caused bleeding. After the victim identified Wade as the assailant, a prison officer, Captain Gordon Lewis, escorted Wade to a holding cell for further investigation. During that approximately ten-minute escort, Wade's hand continued to bleed, and he asked Lewis whether he would be taken to the medical unit. Although Captain Lewis declined to answer, he left Wade in the custody of other officers in a cell that was located three feet from the prison's medical examination room. Captain Lewis then departed the scene. Unfortunately for Wade, it was not until several hours later that a prison nurse provided initial medical care for his wound. Eventually, Wade was transferred to a hospital where he received treatment for a broken bone and partially-severed tendon.

Wade sued several prison officials, including Lewis, alleging that the delay in treatment amounted to deliberate indifference to a serious medical need. Captain Lewis asserted a qualified immunity defense, which the district court denied. Relevant here, on summary judgment, the district court denied qualified immunity to Captain Lewis because, in its view, our decision in Aldridge v. Montgomery , 753 F.2d 970 (11th Cir. 1985) (per curiam), clearly established that Captain Lewis's failure to ensure that Wade received prompt medical treatment violated Wade's constitutional rights. Captain Lewis appeals, arguing that his case is materially distinguishable from Aldridge . Thus, he contends that the law was not clearly established, and the district court erred in denying him qualified immunity.

After careful consideration and with the benefit of oral argument, we agree with Captain Lewis and conclude that Aldridge did not place an objectively reasonable officer in Captain Lewis's position on notice that his conduct was unconstitutional. Accordingly, because Captain Lewis was entitled to qualified immunity, we reverse the district court's decision.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

Wade was a federal inmate at the United States Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia ("USP-Atlanta"). On October 15, 2014, Wade was assigned to work in food service and was preparing for the lunchtime meal. At approximately 1:35 p.m., Wade got into an altercation with another inmate and punched that inmate in the face. Wade's punch knocked the other inmate unconscious, the inmate fell to the floor, and Wade walked away to open cans of vegetables. Wade claims to have cut his hand while opening one of the cans.¹ He went to the restroom to wash his hands and believed that he had stopped the bleeding. However, the wound continued to cause him pain.

Six minutes later, at approximately 1:41 p.m., Bureau of Prisons ("BOP") staff observed Wade's victim lying on the floor behind the food service area. A BOP officer triggered a radio body alarm, notifying all USP-Atlanta personnel of an emergency in the food service hall. A second BOP officer arrived and characterized the scene as "dangerous" because there were approximately 250 inmates in a "small space." This second officer also observed that the injured inmate's lip was bleeding profusely and "dripping blood all over the ground." The injured inmate indicated that he was assaulted by Wade.

An officer then approached Wade and saw that his right hand was wounded in a manner consistent with an injury from a recent fight and was bleeding. Gordon Lewis, then serving as Acting Captain, also reported to the food service area in response to the alarm. Captain Lewis handcuffed Wade and escorted him to the Special Housing Unit ("SHU").² As he was being escorted to the SHU, Wade asked Captain Lewis, "you're not going to take me to medical?" and Captain Lewis responded, "don't ask me how to be a captain and [I] won't tell [you] how to be an inmate." Wade then told Captain Lewis, "okay ... you know, I'm bleeding all over this, you know, the place." According to Wade, as he was being escorted to the SHU, he was "leaking blood all over," and there was "a path of blood following us."

The SHU and the main medical unit are in the same building. Medical staff determine how and when to treat inmates and, unless it is a medical emergency, there is no typical amount of time for medical staff to respond to an inmate's injury. Regardless of how an inmate receives an injury, "medical staff needs to be notified."

Wade was taken to the SHU where he could be medically assessed. When Wade arrived there at approximately 1:50 p.m., he was placed in a holding cell that had a wire mesh door. According to Wade, that was "the last time [he] saw [Captain Lewis]." Wade's holding cell was "no more than three feet from the medical exam room where medical staff rendered medical care to SHU inmates."

Once Wade was in the holding cell, a different SHU officer removed Wade's handcuffs.³ Soon after he was placed in the holding cell, Wade asked SHU officers if he was going to go to the medical unit, but the officers told him he needed to wait. Sometime between 2:01 and 2:04 p.m., three photographs were taken of Wade's right hand, two of which showed some blood, but that it was "tapering off."

Wade was "bleeding all that time" from when he was placed in the SHU until he got the attention of a USP-Atlanta medical employee, Nurse Ashley Inniss, several hours later.⁴ According to Nurse Inniss's clinical notes, she took Wade to the medical exam room where she noted a 3.4 cm (or 1.34 inch) laceration on his right hand near the thumb, cleaned the wound with soap, water, and wound cleaner, applied a topical antibiotic, and covered it with steri-strips and gauze. The clinical notes also indicate that Nurse Inniss prescribed Motrin

, instructed Wade about signs of infection, and told him to notify medical staff if any of those signs materialized. Thus, Nurse Inniss's clinical encounter notes document that an "MD [was] notified" and "Staff [were] notified to follow up with inmate."

The next morning, Wade noticed swelling in his hand and put in sick call requests to medical staff, but he did not receive treatment until a day later when he got the attention of an officer walking by. Nurse Stanley Coleman then examined Wade at 3:24 p.m. on October 17, 2014. Nurse Coleman changed the dressing on the "deep laceration

," noted swelling and a decreased range of motion in Wade's right hand, and documented that Wade reported his pain as a ten on the pain scale. Nurse Coleman then immediately ordered that Wade be transported to Atlanta Medical Center ("AMC").

At 6:40 p.m., Wade was transported to AMC's emergency room. There, Wade received an x-ray at 12:41 a.m., which revealed that he "had a broken bone in his hand

" and that the fracture was "intra-articular," i.e. , "inside the metacarpal phalangeal joint between the hand and the finger, the little finger." The 3.4-cm laceration went all the way down to the broken bone, partially cutting the tendon. This wound was consistent with a "fight bite," which occurs when a wound becomes infected based on "difficult-to-control bacteria in the mouth." At 8:53 a.m. the next morning, Dr. Howard McMahan performed an irrigation and debridement of the wound, which involved washing the wound with saline solution, cutting the skin with a scalpel, removing any "devitalized tissue and any pus," scraping out any foreign material from the subcutaneous tissue, irrigating the wound thoroughly, assessing the tendon to make sure it is functional, looking at the bone to make sure it does not need "any kind of fixation," placing a drain, and then closing the wound.

According to Dr. McMahan, the open wound nature of the "fight bite" injury combined with the delay of getting treatment increased the risk of infection to Wade's hand. He added that the infection would have been less likely to occur if Wade avoided the fight, avoided hitting the other inmate in the mouth, or had the wound cleaned shortly after his injury with antibiotics. After his surgery, Wade was returned to USP-Atlanta where he received medication for pain.

B. Procedural History

Wade, proceeding pro se , filed a complaint against Captain Lewis under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics , 403 U.S. 388, 91 S.Ct. 1999, 29 L.Ed.2d 619 (1971).⁵ Wade alleged that Captain Lewis was deliberately indifferent to his serious medical needs, in violation of the Eighth Amendment. The district court appointed counsel on Wade's behalf.

After discovery, Captain Lewis moved for summary judgment. First, Captain Lewis argued that he was not deliberately indifferent to Wade's serious medical needs because there was no evidence that he was aware of Wade's serious medical needs and disregarded the risk of serious harm to Wade. He further argued that he was not the cause of any delay or denial of treatment to Wade. Second, Captain Lewis argued that he was entitled to qualified immunity. He contended that he did not violate Wade's Eighth Amendment rights by taking Wade to the SHU instead of the medical unit. He also maintained that there was no clearly established law that would put him on notice "that placing an inmate in the SHU after a fight with another inmate rather than taking the inmate to the Medical Unit was a constitutional violation."

A magistrate...