Elliott v. County of Monroe

115 F. App'x 497
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedNovember 18, 2004
DocketNo. 04-0746-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 115 F. App'x 497 (Elliott v. County of Monroe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Elliott v. County of Monroe, 115 F. App'x 497 (2d Cir. 2004).

Opinion

SUMMARY ORDER

Plaintiff appeals from the judgment of the United States District Court for the Western District of New York (Telesca, J.) [498]*498which granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment on plaintiffs claims of excessive use of force and deliberate indifference to serious medical needs in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. We assume familiarity with the proceedings below, the factual record, and the arguments on appeal. For the reasons that follow, we remand the decision on both the excessive use of force claim and the deliberate indifference to serious medical needs claim.

A party is entitled to summary judgment as a matter of law only where there is no genuine issue as to any material fact. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c). “It is well [ ] settled that in ruling on a motion for summary judgment, a judge must ask himself not whether he thinks the evidence unmistakably favors one side or the other but whether a fair-minded jury could return a verdict for the [non-movant] on the evidence presented.” Readco, Inc. v. Marine Midland Bank, 81 F.3d 295, 298 (2d. Cir.1996) (second alteration in original).

Use of excessive force during an arrest is judged from a reasonableness standard. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 19-20, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). “The ‘reasonableness’ of a particular use of force must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight.” Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 396, 109 S.Ct. 1865, 104 L.Ed.2d 443 (1989). This inquiry must consider all the facts of the case, including the severity of the crime, whether the arrestee posed an immediate threat to the safety of others, and whether she actively resisted the arrest. Id. In a case of excessive force, this Court has held that it is impermissible to adopt the moving party’s version of events simply because it is more credible. Mickle v. Morin, 297 F.3d 114, 123 (2d Cir.2002).

In this case, there are sharp factual disputes between the parties about whether, and to what extent, plaintiff was intoxicated and belligerent at the time of the events at issue. About one fact, however, there can be no dispute. Elliott pleaded guilty to harassing Officer Dano by poking him in the chest. Such conduct clearly gave the officers probable cause to arrest Elliott for harassment and, given that the harassment involved some physicality, any reasonable officer would have employed a degree of force in effectuating the arrest. Nevertheless, a number of questions cannot be resolved as a matter of law in favor of defendants on the present record. First, did the officers in fact use the degree of force asserted by plaintiff, i.e., did an officer twist plaintiffs arm behind her back, push his knee into her kneecap to bring her to the ground, and then subdue her by laying on top of her prone body? Second, to the extent such force was used, was it deliberate or was some conduct (particularly the officer falling on top of plaintiff) accidental? Finally, to the extent such force was deliberate, was that degree of force reasonably necessary to effect plaintiffs arrest under the circumstances then confronting the officers? See generally Robison v. Via, 821 F.2d 913, 923 (2d Cir.1987) (“Whether the constitutional line has been crossed depends on ‘such factor as the need for the application of force, the relationship between the need and the amount of force that was used, [and] the extent of the injury inflicted ...’” (quoting Johnson v. Glick, 481 F.2d 1028 (2d Cir.1973)). We remand so these matters can be explored and resolved at a plenary trial.

As to the deliberate indifference to serious medical needs claim, plaintiff must demonstrate that there is a genuine issue of material fact as to (a) an objective component — that the plaintiff sustained a “sufficiently serious” injury, and (b) a subjective component — that the defendant [499]*499possessed a “sufficiently culpable state of mind.” See Hathaway v. Coughlin, 37 F.3d 63, 66 (2d Cir.1994). The parties agree that Elliott sustained a sufficiently serious injury to meet the objective component of deliberate indifference to serious medical needs. Plaintiff contends, however, that the officers also had a sufficiently culpable state of mind. Her claim appears to be in two parts. First, she asserts that the officers were deliberately indifferent to her need for prompt medical care, delaying procurement of an ambulance until she submitted to a breathalizer test and provided them with the name of her companion. Second, she asserts that the officers were deliberately indifferent to the seriousness of her knee injury, in fact, aggravating the damage sustained by making her walk on her injured knee despite her own protestations and the obvious deformity in her joint.

Even if we accept plaintiffs account of what are, again, sharply disputed facts, we agree with the district court that no reasonable jury could find in her favor on the delay prong of her claim because undisputed records indicate that an ambulance arrived at the scene within fifteen minutes of plaintiffs injury. But the question of defendants’ deliberate indifference to the aggravating effect on plaintiffs injury of making her walk on her injured leg cannot be resolved as a matter of law. A jury must decide the extent and obviousness of plaintiffs injury, and whether she was, in fact, compelled to walk after her injury (as she asserts)1 or carried to the ambulance on a stretcher (as defendants insist).

Under the subjective component, an officer acts with deliberate indifference when that officer “knows of and disregards an excessive risk to [an individual’s health or safety]; the [officer] must both be aware of facts from which the inference could be drawn that a substantial risk of serious harm exists, and he must also draw the inference.” Douglas v. Stanwick, 93 F.Supp.2d 320, 324 (W.D.N.Y.2000) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Plaintiff made sufficient allegations to withstand a motion for summary judgment with regard to the subjective component of the deliberate indifference to serious medical needs claim. She presented facts in support of her allegations that the defendants were aware of her injury and disregarded the fact that a serious risk of harm would exist if she walked from the Inn to the patrol car on her injured knee.

First, there is evidence suggesting that the defendants were “aware of facts from which the inference could be drawn that a substantial risk of harm exist[ed].” Douglas, 93 F.Supp.2d at 324. Elliott alleges that after her fall her knee was “visibly disfigured.” In addition, Deputy Sofia testified in his deposition that “I looked down at the leg and I could see that it was disfigured,” suggesting that he may have been aware of the severity of her injury.

[500]

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Bluebook (online)
115 F. App'x 497, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/elliott-v-county-of-monroe-ca2-2004.