Cassandra Cox v. Callaway County Sheriff's Department

CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 7, 2023
DocketWD85350
StatusPublished

This text of Cassandra Cox v. Callaway County Sheriff's Department (Cassandra Cox v. Callaway County Sheriff's Department) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cassandra Cox v. Callaway County Sheriff's Department, (Mo. Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

In the Missouri Court of Appeals Western District CASSANDRA COX, ) ) Appellant, ) WD85350 ) v. ) OPINION FILED: ) February 7, 2023 CALLAWAY COUNTY SHERIFF'S ) DEPARTMENT, ET AL., ) ) Respondents. )

Appeal from the Circuit Court of Callaway County, Missouri The Honorable J. HasBrouck Jacobs, Judge

Before Special Division: Gary D. Witt, Chief Judge, Presiding, Cynthia L. Martin, Judge, and Timothy J. Flook, Special Judge

Cassandra Cox ("Cox") appeals from the trial court's entry of summary judgment in

favor of Callaway County, Missouri ("Callaway County") and fourteen correctional

officers employed by Callaway County at the Callaway County Jail ("Individual

Defendants") (collectively "Defendants"). Cox argues that genuine issues of material fact

precluded the trial court's entry of summary judgment to: (1) Individual Defendants on the basis of official immunity; (2) Defendants on the grounds that they were not the proximate

cause of Cox's injuries; and (3) Callaway County on the basis of sovereign immunity.

Finding no error, we affirm.

Factual and Procedural History1

Cox's lawsuit arises out of a "cardiac event" Cox experienced while detained at the

Callaway County Jail on the morning of February 28, 2016. On or prior to February 26,

2016, Cox used methamphetamine. At 4:37 a.m. on February 26, 2016, Officer Sean

Wisswell ("Officer Wisswell"), a non-defendant police officer with the Fulton Police

Department, responded to a private property accident report in Fulton, Missouri, where a

vehicle ran over a curb and struck a pole. Cox was asleep in the driver's seat and the vehicle

was still in "drive." Cox performed several field sobriety tests for Wisswell, which

indicated she was impaired, and Wisswell placed Cox under arrest. A search of Cox's car

revealed marijuana, suspected methamphetamine, and drug paraphernalia. A drug

recognition expert determined that Cox was under the influence of central nervous system

stimulants, as well as cannabis. Between 5:45 a.m. and 6:07 a.m., Cox's pulse was taken

three times and it measured between 82 and 84 beats per minute each time. At

approximately 7:30 a.m., Wisswell transported Cox to the Callaway County Jail.

At some point after booking at the Callaway County Jail, Cox indicated that she

"wanted to die," and she was placed in an observation cell, in isolation, wearing a suicide

1 "When reviewing the entry of summary judgment, we view the record in the light most favorable to the party against whom the judgment was entered and accord the non-movant all reasonable inferences from the record." Show-Me Inst. v. Off. of Admin., 645 S.W.3d 602, 604 n.2 (Mo. App. W.D. 2022) (citing Green v. Fotoohighiam, 606 S.W.3d 113, 116 (Mo. banc 2020)). We have compiled the factual background from the properly supported uncontroverted facts contained within the summary judgment pleadings. Id.

2 prevention suit. Meal refusal forms indicate that Cox refused her lunch and dinner on

February 26 and her breakfast on February 28. Callaway County Jail records reflect that

during Cox's approximate forty-eight-hour-stay in the Callaway County Jail, correctional

officers recorded that they checked on Cox on seventy-one separate instances.

A 7:24 a.m. on February 28, an Individual Defendant observed that Cox was having

a medical emergency. Two of the Individual Defendants called for an ambulance and

administered aid to Cox. When emergency responders arrived, Cox had a weak and slow

pulse. The emergency responders resuscitated Cox and transported her to the hospital.

Cox survived.

On June 19, 2020, Cox filed a lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Callaway County

against Defendants, asserting fourteen claims of negligence against Individual Defendants

in their official and individual capacities and a claim of respondent superior against

Callaway County. On October 6, 2021, Defendants filed a motion for summary judgment

which argued that the undisputed facts failed to support Cox's claims because: (1) official

immunity shields Individual Defendants from liability in their individual capacities in that

the duties outlined in the Callaway County Sheriff's Office Jail Policy and Procedural

Manual ("Policy Manual") which they allegedly violated are discretionary rather than

ministerial in nature; (2) sovereign immunity protects Callaway County and Individual

Defendants from liability in their official capacities because Callaway County's purchase

of liability coverage did not constitute a waiver of sovereign immunity; and (3) even if Cox

could overcome Defendants' immunity, Cox failed to establish that any conduct by

Defendants caused her injury. Cox filed a response to Defendants' motion for summary

3 judgment, as well as a "Statement of Additional Material Facts in Opposition to

Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment" which set forth seventy-one additional facts.

On April 4, 2022, the trial court entered summary judgment in favor of Defendants

("Judgment"), finding that no material factual dispute exists and Defendants are entitled to

judgment as a matter of law. The Judgment found that Callaway County's purchase of

liability coverage did not constitute a waiver of sovereign immunity by Callaway County

or Individual Defendants in their official capacities, and that "[n]one of the policies [Cox]

alleges [Individual Defendants] violated [in their individual capacities] impose a

ministerial duty. . . . As such, [Cox] has not identified any ministerial duties that any of the

Individual Defendants violated with respect to their care of [Cox]." The Judgment also

found that the uncontroverted material facts do not support a finding that Defendants were

the proximate cause of Cox's cardiac event in that Cox's expert opined that the cardiac

event was "precipitated by tachycardia" Cox experienced at the Callaway County Jail;

however, Cox "admits that the objective evidence reveals that she was not tachycardic at

any time while she was at [the] Callaway County Jail."

Cox appeals.

4 Standard of Review

We review the grant of summary judgment de novo. Show-Me Inst. v. Off. of

Admin., 645 S.W.3d 602, 607 (Mo. App. W.D. 2022). Summary judgment is appropriate

where "there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and [] the moving party is entitled

to judgment as a matter of law." Rule 74.04(c)(6).2 "In determining whether the entry of

summary judgment was appropriate, we 'review[] the record in the light most favorable to

the party against whom judgment was entered, and give[] the non-movant the benefit of all

reasonable inferences from the record.'" Show-Me Inst., 645 S.W.3d at 607 (quoting Estes

as Next Friend for Doe v. Bd. of Trs. of Mo. Pub. Entity Risk Mgmt. Fund, 623 S.W.3d

678, 686 (Mo. App. W.D. 2021)).

Defending parties, such as Defendants, are entitled to summary judgment if they

demonstrate one of the following:

(1) facts negating any one of the claimant's elements necessary for judgment; (2) that the claimant, after an adequate period of discovery, has not been able to—and will not be able to—produce evidence sufficient to allow the trier of fact to find the existence of one of the claimant's elements; or (3) facts necessary to support [their] properly pleaded affirmative defense.

Sansone v. Governor of Mo., 648 S.W.3d 13, 20 (Mo. App. WD. 2022) (quoting Roberts

v.

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Bluebook (online)
Cassandra Cox v. Callaway County Sheriff's Department, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cassandra-cox-v-callaway-county-sheriffs-department-moctapp-2023.