Waggoner v. Carsey

716 N.E.2d 1225, 129 Ohio App. 3d 79
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 24, 1998
DocketNo. WD-97-121.
StatusPublished

This text of 716 N.E.2d 1225 (Waggoner v. Carsey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Waggoner v. Carsey, 716 N.E.2d 1225, 129 Ohio App. 3d 79 (Ohio Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

Melvin L. Resnick, Judge.

This is an interlocutory appeal, brought pursuant to R.C. 2744.02(C), 1 from a judgment of the Wood County Court of Common Pleas denying in part appellant’s motion for summary judgment. John Kohl, Wood County Sheriff, appeals and assigns the following as error in the proceedings below:

“The trial court erred and abused its discretion in its denial of summary judgment based upon sovereign immunity by concluding that the Wood County Justice Center’s ‘Release Policy’ was wantonly reckless or maliciously implemented.”

The facts relevant to a disposition of this appeal are taken from the pleadings, interrogatories, affidavits, and the deposition of appellee.

*81 Sometime after midnight on November 15, 1996, appellee, Kyer E. Waggoner, left a bar and began walking down Main Street in Bowling Green, Wood County, Ohio. According to Waggoner, a Bowling Green police officer, Alan W. Carsey, parked his patrol vehicle, approached Waggoner, and shoved him to the ground. Waggoner maintained that the officer then stepped on his stomach and handcuffed him before placing him under arrest for disorderly conduct while intoxicated.

Waggoner was transported to the Wood County Justice Center, where he was held on a probation violation. 2 Appellee testified that he first complained of a pain in his side at lunchtime on the day he was arrested. Over the next ten days, the nursing staff treated appellee’s alleged medical condition with Advil and Tylenol. According to Waggoner, his condition worsened after the first five days. He woke up in the middle of the night of the fifth day in extreme pain. Appellee stated that the next five days were “very vague” to him. He was vomiting, had extreme pain in his bowels, and had a fever.

On November 25, 1996, Waggoner was released from custody. The entry filed by the Bowling Green Municipal Court approving Waggoner’s release indicates that he was “suffering from a kidney/urinary ailment.” It is undisputed, however, that, upon release, appellee was not permitted to leave the Justice Center because he had no transportation home. Waggoner described his release as follows:

“A. * * * Well, I got out early but you can’t leave the jail unless you have transportation and I didn’t have any transportation so I had to sit in the waiting area for quite some time and then a deputy took me home that was getting off duty or going on a run somewhere.
ii * $ «
“Q. You got home then late in the afternoon?
“A. Correct.”

On the morning of November 26, 1996, appellee went to a hospital emergency room, where he was diagnosed as having a perforated sigmoid colon and peritonitis. Waggoner underwent emergency surgery, during which a colostomy was performed.

*82 On January 24, 1997, appellee commenced the instant action against Kohl, both individually and in his capacity as Sheriff of Wood County. 3 Waggoner’s claims were based on the alleged assault at the time of his arrest, the poor medical treatment he received while he was incarcerated, and the manner of his release from the Justice Center. In Paragraphs 17, 18, and 19 of his complaint, Waggoner alleged that (1) due to his serious illness, the court had been asked to release him from jail in order to avoid paying expensive medical expenses, (2) instead of sending Waggoner to the hospital, the sheriff released him from jail and would not allow him to leave without transportation, and (3) appellee was unable to obtain transportation home until four hours after his release.

Based on his factual allegations, appellee asserted that he had been injured as a result of Kohl’s negligent and intentional acts, that violations of his rights under the United States Constitution were actionable under Section 1983, Title 42, U.S.Code, that his rights under the Ohio Constitution had been violated, that his liberty interests (right to medical treatment) provided by certain provisions of the Ohio Administrative Code had been denied, and that Kohl had known of and consented to the willful denial of emergency medical treatment of Waggoner in order to avoid incurring medical expenses for the county.

Kohl filed a motion for summary judgment, asserting that he had no contact with appellee either before or during appellee’s incarceration and could not, therefore, be held liable in his individual capacity. With regard to appellee’s claims against Kohl in his official capacity, appellant contended that he was immune from liability under R.C. Chapter 2744, the Political Subdivision Tort Liability Act, and that the Wood County Justice Center was not the medical care provider for its inmates.

As to appellee’s action under Section 1983, Kohl argued that appellant failed to state a claim under the statute. In the alternative, he asserted that he was shielded from liability by the doctrines of governmental immunity and/or absolute or qualified immunity.

The trial court granted Kohl’s motion for summary judgment in part, finding that no question of fact existed on the issues of (1) any suggestion of individual liability on the part of Kohl, (2) Kohl’s immunity from liability pursuant to R.C. Chapter 2744 for any intentional act on the part of Carsey and alleged negligence occurring in Waggoner’s medical treatment, and (3) Waggoner’s failure to state a viable claim against Kohl under Section 1983 as that claim related to appellee’s arrest and lack of medical treatment. The court did, however, find that neither R.C. Chapter 2744 nor qualified immunity was applicable on the question of *83 Kohl’s policy on release of prisoners. The court ruled that appellee’s state and federal claims against the sheriff could proceed to trial on the issue of whether the Wood County Justice Center’s release policy was so egregious as to override appellant’s alleged immunity from liability.

Kohl appeals only that aspect of the trial court’s judgment finding that Kohl is not immune from liability under R.C. Chapter 2744.

We are compelled to note that Kohl provides this court with facts and supplementary materials that were not before the trial court. We, however, are permitted to consider only that evidence that was before the trial court. State v. Ishmail (1978), 54 Ohio St.2d 402, 405, 8 O.O.3d 405, 407, 377 N.E.2d 500, 501-502; Logan & Co., Inc. v. Cities of Am., Inc. (1996), 112 Ohio App.3d 276, 280, 678 N.E.2d 613, 615-616. Therefore, those facts that were not before the trial court but are in appellant’s brief and in Appendices B, C, and D to appellant’s brief will not be considered by this court in the determination of this appeal.

Summary judgment can be granted under Civ.R.

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Related

Logan Co., Inc. v. Cities of Am., Inc.
678 N.E.2d 613 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1996)
Kagy v. Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority
699 N.E.2d 566 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1997)
State v. Ishmail
377 N.E.2d 500 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1978)
Bostic v. Connor
524 N.E.2d 881 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1988)

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Bluebook (online)
716 N.E.2d 1225, 129 Ohio App. 3d 79, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/waggoner-v-carsey-ohioctapp-1998.