Waller ex rel. Estate of Hunt v. Danville, Va

• Decision Date: 12 February 2009
• Docket Number: No. 07-2099.,07-2099.
• Citation: 556 F.3d 171
• Parties: Olivia WALLER, Administrator of the ESTATE OF Rennie Edward HUNT, Jr., deceased, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CITY OF DANVILLE, VIRGINIA, A municipal corporation, Defendant-Appellee, and T. Neal Morris, Chief of Police of the City of Danville, Virginia, in both his individual and official capacities; Hugh Wyatt, in his individual and official capacity as City of Danville Police Officer; Gerald Ford, in his individual and official capacity as City of Danville Police Officer; Dennis Haley, in his individual and official capacity as City of Danville Police Officer; Jason Presley, in his individual and official capacity as City of Danville Police Officer; Officer Graham, in his individual and official capacity as City of Danville Police Officer; John Does, Police officers of the City of Danville Police Department, the identity and number of whom is presently unknown; Richard Roes, Supervisory police officers of the City of Danville, the identity and number of whom is presently unknown, in both their individual and official capacities; Todd Brown, in his individual and official capacity as City of Danville Police Officer; Kenneth Fitzgerald; William Chaney; B.C. Elliott, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

556 F.3d 171

Olivia WALLER, Administrator of the ESTATE OF Rennie Edward HUNT, Jr., deceased, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CITY OF DANVILLE, VIRGINIA, A municipal corporation, Defendant-Appellee, and T. Neal Morris, Chief of Police of the City of Danville, Virginia, in both his individual and official capacities; Hugh Wyatt, in his individual and official capacity as City of Danville Police Officer; Gerald Ford, in his individual and official capacity as City of Danville Police Officer; Dennis Haley, in his individual and official capacity as City of Danville Police Officer; Jason Presley, in his individual and official capacity as City of Danville Police Officer; Officer Graham, in his individual and official capacity as City of Danville Police Officer; John Does, Police officers of the City of Danville Police Department, the identity and number of whom is presently unknown; Richard Roes, Supervisory police officers of the City of Danville, the identity and number of whom is presently unknown, in both their individual and official capacities; Todd Brown, in his individual and official capacity as City of Danville Police Officer; Kenneth Fitzgerald; William Chaney; B.C. Elliott, Defendants.

No. 07-2099.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued: December 4, 2008.

Decided: February 12, 2009.

ARGUED: Charles Edelman Borden, O'Melveny & Myers, L.L.P., Washington, D.C., for Appellant. Martha White Medley, Daniel, Medley & Kirby, P.C., Danville, Virginia, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Lani R. Miller, Amber Taylor, O'Melveny & Myers, L.L.P., Washington, D.C., for Appellant. James A.L. Daniel, M. Brent Saunders, H. Clay Gravely, IV, Daniel, Medley & Kirby, P.C., Danville, Virginia, for Appellee.

Before WILKINSON, MOTZ, and TRAXLER, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge WILKINSON wrote the opinion, in which Judge MOTZ and Judge TRAXLER joined.

OPINION

WILKINSON, Circuit Judge:

Olivia Waller appeals the district court's grant of summary judgment to defendants on her claim under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"). Appellant argues that the Danville Police Department failed to reasonably accommodate Rennie Hunt's mental illness while Hunt held a woman hostage in his apartment, leading to a violent confrontation with police that left Hunt dead. We hold that any duty of reasonable accommodation that existed under the ADA was satisfied in these circumstances. We therefore affirm the judgment.

I.

A.

We briefly review the facts in this case, which are set out in our earlier opinion, Waller v. City of Danville, 212 Fed.Appx. 162 (4th Cir.2006).

At 9:23 p.m. on May 10, 2002, the Danville Police Department ("DPD") received a 911 call from Teressa Jennings. Jennings was concerned about her friend, Virginia Evans, and said she had not been able to reach Evans for two days despite calling and knocking on her door. Jennings reported that Evans had a live-in boyfriend, Rennie Hunt, whom Jennings described as a "mental patient" who had been "in and out of the hospital."

In response to the 911 call, three DPD officers met Jennings at Hunt's apartment, where Hunt refused to let them in. Evans called from inside the house that she was "okay" but that Hunt would not let her come to the door. When officers called out to Hunt, he told them "not to be concerned with" Evans and to "leave [him] alone." Officers thought Hunt sounded mentally disturbed. After failing to confirm Evans's safety, they contacted their supervisor, Captain David Stowe, who came to the scene. Hunt refused to let Stowe check on Evans and said, "If you come in here, I've got something for you," leading Stowe to think he had a weapon.

Stowe then returned to police headquarters and conferred with the shift commander. He also ran Hunt's criminal history and found that Hunt had prior arrests for public drunkenness, disorderly conduct, and assault on Evans. Stowe further conferred with his direct superior, Major B.C. Elliott, telling Elliott that Hunt had been in and out of mental institutions. In response, Elliott instructed Stowe to call Lieutenant Hugh C. Wyatt, a DPD hostage negotiator. In the meantime, Evans's sister had arrived at the apartment and told officers she had not heard from Evans in several days and that Hunt had several times been admitted to mental institutions.

When Wyatt arrived at the apartment, almost two hours had elapsed since the original 911 call. When Wyatt spoke to Hunt through the back door, Hunt yelled, "I'm going to blow your goddamned head off." This threat led Wyatt to cease negotiations, and officers decided to seek an arrest warrant against Hunt for assault. DPD then deployed its Emergency Response Team ("ERT"), which eventually forced its way into the apartment through the back door. After Hunt came toward the officers twice, swinging what appeared to be a scythe and brandishing what looked like a knife, three officers shot and killed him.

B.

In April 2003, Hunt's sister, Olivia Waller ("plaintiff-appellant"), personally and as administrator of Hunt's estate, brought an action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the City of Danville, DPD, and individual officers ("defendants"). The complaint alleged inter alia that defendants had violated the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act. Specifically, Count IV of the complaint alleged that the City of Danville had discriminated against Hunt on the basis of his disability by unlawfully arresting him, using excessive force, and failing to properly train officers in dealing with the disabled.

The district court granted officers qualified immunity on plaintiff's Fourth Amendment claims. In December 2005, the district court granted summary judgment to defendants on all of plaintiff's claims and dismissed as moot plaintiff's request for further discovery. Plaintiff appealed the grant of summary judgment to this court.

This court affirmed the district court's ruling on plaintiff's Fourth Amendment claim, holding that "the use of deadly force by [officers] was objectively reasonable ... in light of the facts and circumstances presented to [them] at the time." Waller, 212 Fed.Appx. at 171. We noted that Hunt and Evans had been secluded for several days, that police had recently arrested Hunt for domestic assault on Evans, and that Hunt had implied to officers "that he had a weapon and was prepared to use it." Id. at 170.

We reversed and remanded the grant of summary judgment, however, on appellant's claims of disability and race discrimination.¹ We concluded that "it certainly appears that the officers sought to seize Hunt not because of his mental illness but because of his `objectively verifiable misconduct' towards the officers and Evans." Id. at 173. But we found that the "precise nature of the discrimination claim" was unclear, that the parties had not fully briefed the merits of the claim, and that appellant had not been able to conduct discovery on the claim. Id. We therefore remanded "for further delineation of the discrimination claims by the plaintiff, inquiry by the district court and, if necessary, discovery into the claims as articulated by plaintiff." Id. at 173-74.

On remand, the parties conducted extensive discovery on the ADA claim. The district court then granted summary judgment to defendants, holding that exigent circumstances present throughout the investigation absolved DPD of any duty to reasonably accommodate Hunt's mental illness. Waller v. City of Danville, 515 F.Supp.2d 659, 664 (W.D.Va.2007). The court noted that Evans had been missing for days, that Hunt would not let the officers see her, and that Hunt used threatening language toward the officers. Id. The court concluded that requiring officers to concern themselves with ADA compliance in such circumstances would unnecessarily endanger innocent lives. Id. (citing Hainze v. Richards, 207 F.3d 795, 801 (5th Cir.2000)). Regarding the failure to train claim, the court concluded that the ADA's plain language does not support a claim for failure to train. Id. at 665. Plaintiff now appeals. We review a grant of summary judgment de novo, viewing the facts in the light most favorable to plaintiff, the non-prevailing party.

II.

A.

Plaintiff's chief claim in the instant appeal is that DPD violated the ADA by failing to reasonably accommodate Hunt in the two hour standoff prior to Hunt's threat against Wyatt. Title II of the ADA provides that "no qualified individual with a disability shall, by reason of such disability, be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of the services, programs, or activities of a public entity, or be subjected to discrimination by any such entity." 42 U.S.C. § 12132. "Discrimination" under the statute includes "not making reasonable accommodations to the known physical or mental limitations of an otherwise qualified individual with a disability. ..." Id. § 12112(b)(5)(A). The district court held that no duty of reasonable accommodation arose under these circumstances and plaintiff contends vigorously not only that such a duty existed but that it was breached in this case.

In the context of arrests, courts have recognized two types of Title II claims: (1) wrongful arrest, where police arrest a suspect based on his disability, not for any criminal activity; and (2) reasonable accommodation, where police properly arrest a suspect but fail to reasonably accommodate his disability during the investigation or arrest, causing him to suffer greater injury or indignity than other arrestees. See Gohier v. Enright, 186 F.3d 1216, 1220-21 (10th Cir.1999); see also Gorman v. Bartch, 152 F.3d 907, 912-13 (8th Cir. 1998) (holding that a paraplegic arrestee could make out a reasonable accommodation claim under the ADA after being injured in a police van not equipped with wheelchair restraints).

Some courts, however, including the district court here, have...