Watkins v. Schriver

52 F.3d 769, 1995 WL 231102
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedApril 20, 1995
DocketNo. 94-2722
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 52 F.3d 769 (Watkins v. Schriver) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Watkins v. Schriver, 52 F.3d 769, 1995 WL 231102 (8th Cir. 1995).

Opinion

WOLLMAN, Circuit Judge.

In June 1992, Benny Watkins filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the city of Springdale, Arkansas, and officers Mike Schriver, Robert Lewis, and Jerry Corken individually, seeking recovery for the injuries he received while in the city drunk tank. Watkins is now permanently paralyzed and faces the remainder of his natural life as a quadriplegic. Before trial the parties agreed to bifurcate the proceedings against the city and the individual defendants, so that in the event there was a verdict in favor of the individual defendants the parties would not have to expend the additional effort attempting to establish the city’s liability. The jury returned a verdict in favor of all three individual defendants. Watkins’ subsequent motion for a new trial and other post-judgment relief was denied. Watkins appeals, asserting several errors on the part of the district court.1 We affirm.

I.

In the early morning hours of June 7, 1991, officer Schriver responded to a 911 call regarding a disturbance involving an intoxicated Watkins, who possibly also had overdosed on drugs. When Schriver arrived he found Watkins, who indeed was intoxicated, being subdued by some friends. Officer Lewis arrived shortly thereafter. Watkins had been ranting and headbutting people in his drunken state and was also abusive towards the officers upon their arrival. Although Watkins was not wearing a neck brace, the officers were informed that he had a broken neck.2 Watkins was eventually arrested due to his abusive, threatening behavior when no one at the residence claimed that they could be responsible for him, and he was taken to the emergency room to be cheeked for drugs.

At the hospital Watkins continued to be violent and abusive to the officers and hospital personnel. An examination revealed that Watkins had not overdosed on any drugs, but was merely intoxicated. There was conflicting testimony as to whether the officers told hospital personnel of Watkins’ neck condition, but in any event hospital records did not note the presence of such a condition, and Watkins’ neck was not examined at this time. Watkins was then taken to the police station where he was placed in the drunk tank by officers Lewis and Corken. The exact course of events at the police station that night was the main point of contention at trial.

Watkins claims that officer Lewis threw him into a wall, causing further trauma to his neck that left him paralyzed. Watkins produced an eyewitness, Mike Daniels, who was also in the drunk tank, to detail this story. Daniels initially gave a statement several days after the incident to the effect that the officers did nothing wrong and that Watkins stumbled and fell during a belligerent, intoxicated tirade when he was brought to the cell. Daniels recanted that story at trial, however, and testified that officer Lewis had grabbed Watkins by the scruff of the neck and waist and rammed him into the cell wall. Daniels also testified that the officers then left Watkins lying on the cell floor for a substantial [771]*771period of time without providing any medical attention.

The officers countered that Watkins was extremely drunk and verbally abusive, although he had calmed down physically. When they escorted Watkins to the drunk tank, he jerked free of officer Lewis and stumbled and fell across the cell, hitting his own head on the wall at a point where it meets a concrete slab that is raised several inches off the floor. The officers also testified that they had no idea about the extent of Watkins’ injury until much later because he continued to curse at them while in his drunken state on the floor. Only when they noticed that Watkins appeared to have a cut over his eye did the officers determine that additional medical attention was necessary and ask Watkins if he wanted to return to the hospital.

II.

As an initial matter, the appellee officers have filed a motion to supplement the record with some correspondence between the parties relating to discovery. Because Watkins has no objection, we grant the motion and will view the additional materials with the submission of this case.

A.

Watkins argues that the district court erred by refusing to allow Dr. Knox to testify that Watkins’ injury was more consistent with being thrown into the wall than a slip and fall. Doctor Knox testified that the injuries sustained by Watkins in the jail cell were the result of a blow to the top or back of the head. The district court allowed this testimony, along with further testimony that such an injury required a substantial amount of force. Watkins then attempted to have Dr. Knox bolster Daniels’ story by testifying that the nature of the blow was such that it was more likely caused by being thrown into the wall than a slip and fall. This opinion was based on Dr. Knox’s review of officer Lewis’ deposition description of the events at the police station. The district court ruled that Dr. Knox could testify as to all of the factors he considered in assessing Watkins’ injury, but did not allow Dr. Knox to testify that Daniels’ version of the events at the jailhouse was more credible than that of the officers because Dr. Knox was in no better position to make that determination than the jury and his testimony would therefore be speculative.

The admissibility of expert testimony is limited by Federal Rule of Evidence 702. Such testimony is properly admissible if it is scientifically based and will assist the trier of fact in determining a fact in issue. See Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., - U.S. -, -, 113 S.Ct. 2786, 2796, 125 L.Ed.2d 469 (1993); Pioneer Hi-Bred, Int’l v. Holden Found. Seeds, Inc., 35 F.3d 1226, 1230 (8th Cir.1994). Such testimony must be sufficiently founded in scientifically valid reasoning to establish its reliability. Daubert, — U.S. at -, -, 113 S.Ct. at 2796, 2799. The district court’s ruling as to the exclusion of such testimony will be reversed only for an abuse of discretion.

Watkins fails to adequately explain how Dr. Knox’s expertise as a neurologist enables him to testify that the injury was more consistent with being thrown into a wall than with a stumble into the corner. Doctor Knox was not certified at trial as an expert in either accident reconstruction or forensic medicine. Further, under cross-examination Doctor Knox admitted that he had warned Watkins that he could be paralyzed from a slip and fall when- he had earlier advised him to undergo surgery to correct his problem. The proffered testimony was therefore merely an attempt to “suppl[y] the fact finder with no information other than what [Dr. Knox] believe[d] the verdict should be.” Williams v. Wal-Mart Stores, 922 F.2d 1357, 1360 (8th Cir.1990). Accordingly, because Dr. Knox was not qualified to testify as to the truth of Watkins’ allegations, the district court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to allow Dr. Knox to speculate and then opine as to the specific manner in which the blow was received. This case essentially boiled down to a swearing contest between the officers on one side and Daniels on the other, and the jury apparently chose to believe the officers’ version of the facts.

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Bluebook (online)
52 F.3d 769, 1995 WL 231102, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/watkins-v-schriver-ca8-1995.