Ruiz-Bueno v. Scott

639 F. App'x 354
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 2, 2016
DocketNos. 14-4149, 14-4151
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 639 F. App'x 354 (Ruiz-Bueno v. Scott) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ruiz-Bueno v. Scott, 639 F. App'x 354 (6th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

BOGGS, Circuit Judge.

This case involves the death of Edward Peterson, a pretrial detainee at the Franklin County Corrections Center II in Ohio. Peterson was arrested for misdemeanor aggravated menacing and detained at the Franklin County Corrections Center II while awaiting trial. After spending nearly a month in jail, Peterson died from a preexisting heart condition. The administrator of Peterson’s estate and Peterson’s son sued fifty-three jail officials for Eighth Amendment violations, as well as for negligent provision of medical care, wrongful death, and-loss of consortium, under Ohio law. The district, court granted summary judgment on all claims to all defendants, except Deputies Nibert and Hoar. Those deputies appeal the court’s denial of summary judgment, while the plaintiffs appeal the court’s grant of summary judgment to the other defendants. After reviewing the record and applicable law, we reverse the court’s denial of summary judgment to Deputies Nibert and Hoar, and affirm the court’s grant of summary judgment to the other defendants.

I

On August 5, 2011, Edward Peterson was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of aggravated menacing. Upon arriving at the Franklin County Corrections Center [356]*356II, Peterson underwent medical screening, but did not sign a form authorizing the release of his medical information to the jail’s medical staff. While Peterson informed the medical staff that he had mental-health problems, Peterson did not inform prison officials that he had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure in 200.6.

Peterson had previously been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder. When Douglas Hahn, a social worker who serves as the jail’s mental-health liaison, observed Peterson, he appeared to be bipolar and psychotic. On Hahn’s recommendation, Peterson was transferred to an isolation cell, and a prison psychiatrist subsequently prescribed Risperdal for Peterson’s psychiatric disorders. Pursuant to a judge’s order, a psychologist evaluated whether Peterson was competent to stand trial. The psychologist concluded that Peterson was “acutely psychotic” and “incapable of working collaboratively with an attorney or otherwise assisting] in his defense.”

Peterson remained in the isolation cell for one month, until he died on September 4, 2011, from congestive heart failure. According to the plaintiffs’ expert, Dr. Lester Suna, Peterson’s heart condition had caused him to gain “30 plus pounds of ‘edema’ fluid weight” while he was in jail. His legs and feet became swollen and blistered, and the fluids accumulated in his lungs until he eventually drowned in his own fluids. In Dr. Suna’s opinion, these symptoms should have been obvious to medical professionals and laypersons alike.

Two neighboring inmates, Charles Watson and Etonate Butler, recorded their observations on the morning of September 4 in handwritten statements. Watson said that at 3:30 AM, Peterson was “breathing really hard over in his cell” “as if he could not get enough air into his lungs,” and he “started to moan and groan like he was in great pain.” Watson heard Peterson moaning and groaning “for about an hour” and “did not hear anything else from him after that.” Butler provided a similar account of the events, stating that Peterson “was makin’ moaning noises all night since a lil before 3rd shift an[d] everybody kept askin’ him is he okay and he kept sayin’ NO!” According to Butler, Peterson had been asking for medical attention from members of the jail staff “everyday.” In a subsequent affidavit, dated July 14, 2014, Butler stated that Peterson “frequently asked deputies and nurses for medical treatment.” Butler last heard from Peterson at around 4:30 AM.

Deputy Seth Nibert, a floor deputy responsible for conducting rounds that morning, testified that he served Peterson breakfast at around 5:10 AM. Deputy Ni-bert had a brief verbal exchange with Peterson about whether Peterson wanted breakfast, and delivered the food to Peterson through a “food trap,” without entering the cell. Deputy Nibert recalled that he “detected no unusual odor” and “saw no feces or food waste” in Peterson’s cell. According to Deputy Nibert, Peterson “made no complaints of any kind and, in no way, seemed to require medical attention when I provided him breakfast on the morning of September 4,2011.”.

Deputy Hoar saw Peterson when he performed a head count between 7:35 AM and 7:45 AM. While Deputy Hoar did not complete the head count because he was distracted by another officer who spoke to him, he did recall seeing Peterson during the head count. Peterson appeared to be sitting on a bunk, leaning against the wall, sleeping, according to Deputy Hoar.

Two days before Peterson’s death, Douglas Hahn visited Peterson and noticed that he looked physically ill. Hahn “talked to the floor nurse and every nurse [357]*357that was sitting in Booking or in the — at the nurses’ desk [and] asked them to check on [Peterson].” Hahn did not follow up to determine whether anything was-done-in response to his request.

Then-Sergeant D’Errico of the Franklin County Sheriffs Office conducted an internal-affairs investigation and prepared a lengthy report documenting his findings. The report contained photographs taken on September 4 showing that Peterson’s cell was, to quote the report, “in a state of disarray,” with “excessive trash, food and feces scattered throughout.” The report noted that a number of deputies claimed to have cleaned Peterson’s cell, but those cleanings were not logged. The report recommended disciplining more than forty deputies for, among other things, failing to replace Peterson’s mattress, ignoring the conditions of Peterson’s cell, failing to observe Peterson properly, and failing to log certain events.

The administrator of Peterson’s estate and Peterson’s son sued fifty-three jail officials for Eighth Amendment violations under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, as well as negligent provision of medical care, wrongful death, and loss of consortium under Ohio law. The district court granted summary judgment on all claims to all defendants except Deputies Nibert and Hoar. For those two deputies, the court granted summary judgment with respect to the plaintiffs’ claims for negligent provision of medical care, because Ohio does not recognize such a claim against nonmedical personnel. But on the § 1983 claims and the state-law claims for wrongful death and loss of consortium, the district court denied summary judgment.

II

Deputies Nibert and Hoar appeal the district court’s denial of qualified immunity and state statutory immunity. We have jurisdiction to consider their appeal. See 28 U.S.C. § 1291; Ohio Rev.Code § 2744.02(C) (“An order that denies ... the benefit of an alleged immunity from liability as provided in this chapter or any other provision of the law is a final order.”); Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 530, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985) (“[A] district court’s denial of a claim of qualified immunity, to the extent that it turns on an issue of law, is an appealable ‘final decision’ within the meaning of 28 U.S.C. § 1291.”).

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Bluebook (online)
639 F. App'x 354, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ruiz-bueno-v-scott-ca6-2016.