Williams-El v. Johnson

• Decision Date: 01 May 1989
• Docket Number: No. 88-1607,A,WILLIAMS-E,88-1607
• Citation: 872 F.2d 224
• Parties: Vincentppellant, v. Darrell JOHNSON, Sam Smith, Claude Woodson, Mrs. Harris, George Kinsey, Rosemary Terranova, and City of St. Louis, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 224

872 F.2d 224

Vincent WILLIAMS-EL, Appellant, v. Darrell JOHNSON, Sam Smith, Claude Woodson, Mrs. Harris George Kinsey, Rosemary Terranova, and City of St Louis, Appellees.

No. 88-1607.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Dec. 15, 1988.

Decided April 5, 1989.

Rehearing Denied May 1, 1989.

Kevin P. Schnurbusch, St. Louis, Mo., for appellant.

Julian L. Bush, St. Louis, Mo., for appellees.

Before ARNOLD and JOHN R. GIBSON, Circuit Judges, and BRIGHT, Senior Circuit Judge.

ARNOLD, Circuit Judge.

This appeal arises out of Vincent Williams-El's allegation that a correctional officer beat him while he was a pretrial detainee at the St. Louis Municipal Jail. Claiming his constitutional rights had been violated by the beating and subsequent denial of medical care, Williams-El sued the jailer, Darrell Johnson, his supervisor, Sam Smith, the superintendent of the St. Louis Medium Security Institution, Claude Woodson, a jail nurse, Mrs. Harris, the St. Louis Director of Correctional Services, George Kinsey, the Director of the St. Louis Department of Welfare, Rosemary Terranova, and the City of St. Louis. At the close of the plaintiff's case, the District Court directed a verdict in favor of defendants Woodson, Harris, Kinsey, Terranova, and the City. At the close of all evidence, the Court directed a verdict in favor of the remaining defendants. On appeal, Williams-El contests all these rulings, save the one in favor of Woodson, ¹ arguing that he made a submissible case against each of these six defendants. He also challenges various evidentiary rulings of the trial court. We reverse and remand with respect to defendant Johnson, and affirm with respect to the other defendants.

I.

On June 27, 1985, Vincent Williams-El was a resident of the St. Louis Municipal Jail, awaiting sentencing on a murder charge. According to Williams-El, he was waiting for his GED class to start, watching a TV set through a partition at the rear of the classroom, when, without provocation, Darrell Johnson, a jailer, grabbed him by the collar and pulled him to the floor. Williams-El lay there for about 15 seconds, while Johnson cursed him. When Williams-El tried to get up, Johnson punched him in the face four times. Williams-El fell backwards against a radiator and then slid to the floor. Johnson continued to attack Williams-El until he was stopped by other correctional officers. One of the other jailers, an Officer Love, shoved Williams-El into an elevator to separate the two men. Williams-El tripped on a mattress lying in the elevator and again landed on his back.

After the altercation, Williams-El was returned to his cell and placed in lock-down. Williams-El claims that at this time he asked Captain Smith, a supervisor at the jail, to get him medical treatment for his bruised back and split lip. Later, while still in lock-down, Williams-El complained to Nurse Harris of severe back pain and requested treatment. Williams-El claims that jail personnel were aware that he had a bullet lodged near his spine and heart from a shooting accident that occurred when he was a teenager. Yet, despite their knowledge of his preexisting condition and his requests for aid, jail officials never furnished Williams-El with any kind of medical treatment.

This account of the facts is the foundation of Williams-El's Sec. 1983 action, in which he alleges his constitutional rights were violated when Johnson punched him and when he failed to receive medical attention for his injuries. Williams-El contends that this occurred because Johnson, a recently hired correctional officer, was not qualified for the position and had received inadequate training in the correct use of force. ² The City requires that its correctional officers possess high school diplomas or the equivalent. Johnson had not finished high school, nor did he have a strong employment record since dropping out of school. Guards were supposed to undergo a two-week training course in which they were taught the proper use of force and how to handle stressful situations. However, Johnson, a less than exemplary employee, ³ had not attended the course, though he had worked as a jailer for three months. Such a long period of employment without receiving academy training was unusual. Tr. II at 35. Despite Johnson's lack of qualifications and training, however, he was the only guard responsible for a GED class of about twenty prisoners and a ward for mentally retarded inmates. Williams-El contends that these facts and circumstances give rise to liability on the part of Johnson, the City, and various supervisory personnel at the jail.

The defendants contest Williams-El's account of events in the GED room. Johnson filed an incident report which stated that at "[a]pproximately 4:50 p.m., [I] observed resident Vincent Williams in an unauthorized area while he was supposed to be in GED class. After instructing Resident Williams to move from the door[ ] he refused and opened the door[;] standing next to him[,] I reached around and closed the door. Resident Williams then straight arm pushed me ... in the chest ... clenching his opposite hand in a fist. I then struck him about the face[,] knocking him down. Resident Williams fell to the floor ..." Plaintiff's Ex. 2. A use-of-force report, a part of the incident report, was filed by Lt. Galloway and stated that "resident was instructed three times to take his seat and to stop disrupting class." Plaintiff's Ex. 4. When "the resident rushed with both hands closed and swinging wildly," then Johnson responded with "closed right hand." Id. In short, the defendants contend that Williams-El provoked and threatened Johnson, who had to punch Williams-El in the face to subdue him. Captain Smith testified that punching a prisoner in the face numerous times could be an acceptable use of force "if that's what it took." Tr. I at 74.

The defendants also offered a different version of the facts with respect to Williams-El's medical treatment. They claimed that Williams-El did not complain that his back had been injured, did not have a split lip, and did not request medical treatment. Indeed, when asked if he wanted medical attention, Williams-El declined it.

The defendants elaborate on Johnson's resume and training as well. They point out that Johnson was working toward his GED while a jailer, and intended to acquire it during his probationary period. The defendants note that Johnson had taken a job as a security guard before coming to work at the jail. The defendants admit Johnson had not attended the academy for training, but explain that the two-week class was taught only when there were enough new guards to make holding the session worth while. In any case, Johnson was not without training and guidance: he had received on-the-job training, with an experienced officer accompanying him every time he worked a new floor. The defendants also contend that Johnson had received some instruction on the correct use of force, through either on-the-job training or the training manual.

These were the versions of events presented to the jury. At the close of plaintiff's case, the District Court granted a directed verdict in favor of defendants Woodson, Harris, Kinsey, Terranova, and the City. The Court explained that Williams-El had not shown that Woodson, Kinsey, Terranova, or the City were responsible for the hiring of unqualified guards. Tr. II at 92-93, 96. Nor had Williams-El proved that he had suffered a serious injury to which Nurse Harris was indifferent. Id. at 96. At the close of the defendants' case, the Court granted a directed verdict for Johnson and Smith, explaining that it simply did not believe Williams-El's account of events. Id. at 136-40. This appeal followed.

II.

Williams-El contends that the District Court erred in directing a verdict in favor of Johnson, arguing that under a correct application of directed-verdict law, he made a submissible case under Sec. 1983. We agree.

A trial court must direct a verdict if, under the governing law, there can be but one reasonable conclusion as to the verdict. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, 477 U.S. 242, 250, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2511, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). However, "[i]f reasonable minds could differ as to the importance of the evidence, ... a verdict should not be directed." Id. at 250-51, 106 S.Ct. at 2511. When faced with a motion for a directed verdict, the trial court should view the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, and give the nonmoving party the benefit of all favorable inferences reasonably to be drawn from the evidence. Lang v. Cone, 542 F.2d 751, 754 (8th Cir.1976). Unless the evidence is such that without weighing the credibility of the witnesses there can be but one reasonable conclusion, the motion for directed verdict should be denied. Decker-Ruhl Ford Sales v. Ford Motor Credit, 523 F.2d 833, 836 (8th Cir.1975).

After reciting the Anderson v. Liberty Lobby standard for granting a directed verdict, the District Court held that "no reasonable jury would return a verdict in favor of this plaintiff." Tr. II at 136. The Court went on to explain in detail why it believed Williams-El's account of events was incredible. By making this explicit credibility judgment, the Court misapplied the standard for directing a verdict and invaded the province of the jury. Substantially different versions of the facts were presented in this case. The only fact agreed upon was that Johnson punched Williams-El in the face. How many punches were thrown under what provocation, and whether the punching was an excessive use of force were all hotly disputed. These questions should have gone to the jury and been answered by the jury.

Apparently recognizing that the Court's decision cannot be upheld under its stated rationale, the defendants seek to preserve the ruling by offering an alternative reason for the result. The defendants contend that because Williams-El could bring a...