Guthrie v. Guthrie
Guthrie v. Guthrie
Opinion of the Court
MEMORANDUM
When responding to a citizen’s call for emergency medical help, a police officer must not violate a citizen’s Fourth Amendment rights to be free from unlawful seizure or subject to excessive force. When the citizen later sues the officer for unlawful seizure and excessive force in responding to the 9-1-1 call, we evaluate the adduced facts in deciding whether to apply a community caretaking doctrine exception to permit the officer’s warrantless seizure of the distressed citizen. We must separately evaluate whether the officer is entitled to qualified immunity. When, as here, we have two or three widely divergent versions of an officer’s brief interaction in
I. Background
Brenda Guthrie awoke early morning on January 27, 2015, to find her husband Plaintiff Ronald Guthrie making gurgling noises and having difficulty breathing.
Mrs. Guthrie’s version
When Officers Guthrie and Winans arrived at her home, Mrs. Guthrie did not give them permission to enter, telling them she needed an ambulance and not police.
Paramedics arrived and transported Mr. Guthrie to a local hospital where a CT scan revealed left posterior brain bleeding.
Officer Guthrie’s version.
Officers entered the Guthrie home and went into the bedroom in response to the medical emergency.
Mrs. Guthrie asked Officer Guthrie to assist her husband so he would not fall as he began to stumble while walking toward the officers.
II. Analysis
Officer Guthrie seeks summary judgment on Mr. Guthrie’s Fourth Amendment unlawful seizure and excessive force claims. Officer Guthrie does not dispute the restraint and handcuffing of Mr. Guthrie constitutes a seizure. He argues the seizure is not unlawful under the “community caretaking doctrine.” Alternatively, Officer Guthrie argues he is entitled to qualified immunity on the unlawful seizure claim. On the excessive force claim, Officer Guthrie argues he is entitled to qualified immunity, asserting the force necessary to effect the restraint is reasonable under the circumstances and Mr. Guthrie cannot show his fractured hip resulted from the use of force.
We find Officer Guthrie is entitled to qualified immunity on the unlawful seizure claim but genuine issues of material fact preclude qualified immunity on the excessive force claim.
A. Officer Guthrie is entitled to qualified immunity on the Fourth Amendment unlawful seizure claim.
We first address Officer Guthrie’s argument the admitted seizure of Mr. Guthrie is lawful under the “community caretaking doctrine.” Officer Guthrie contends he arrived at the Guthrie home as a first responder to a medical emergency, found Mr. Guthrie delusional and unresponsive to basic commands and instructions, responded to Mrs. Guthrie’s request for assistance to protect Mr. Guthrie from falling, and, in the course of this interaction, felt Mr. Guthrie come in contact with Officer Guthrie’s service weapon. To protect Mr. Guthrie, Mrs. Guthrie, his partner, and himself, Officer Guthrie restrained Mr. Guthrie with handcuffs. Officer Guthrie argues his restraint falls within community caretaking doctrine exception to the prohibition on warrantless seizures.
In Cady v. Dombrowski
In Vargas, decided only six days before the Guthrie incident, our Court of Appeals “considered the limits of the community caretaking doctrine,” examining its earlier decisions and those from other circuit courts.
Officer Guthrie asks we apply the community caretaking doctrine and enter judgment in his favor on Mr. Guthrie’s Fourth Amendment seizure claim. Officer Guthrie concedes it is “not clear” whether Vargas “approved of [the community case doctrine] inside a person’s home,” but asserts because “there is no evidence contradicting [his] belief that [Mr. Guthrie] was attempting to get his service revolver, one must inevitably conclude that [Mr. Guthrie’s] seizure was justified under the community caretaking doctrine.”
We need not reach the issue of whether Officer Guthrie’s seizure of Mr. Guthrie is unlawful because qualified immunity attaches to the seizure claim. “Qualified immunity protects government officials from liability from civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.”
In considering whether to apply qualified immunity, we engage in a two-pronged inquiry.
Last summer, the Supreme Court again directed our analysis on whether a right is “clearly established” must be very narrow:
We have repeatedly told courts ... not to define clearly established law at a high level of generality. The dispositive question is whether the violative nature of particular conduct is clearly established. This inquiry must be undertaken in light of the specific context of the case, not as a broad general proposition. Such specificity is especially important in the Fourth Amendment context, where the Court has recognized that it is sometimes difficult for an officer to determine how the relevant legal doctrine, ... will apply to the factual situation the officer confronts.50
As most recently counseled by our Court of Appeals, we look for “some degree of specificity in the law.. .before a right is said to be ‘clearly established.’ ”
Applying this standard, and viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to Mr. Guthrie as the non-moving party, Officer Guthrie’s restraint of Mr. Guthrie in his bedroom did not violate a clearly established right. The Supreme Court has not defined the scope of the citizen’s right to be free from seizure when an officer is assisting a citizen suffering a seizure and potentially reaching for the officer’s gun.
Our Court of Appeals’ decisions in Ray and Vargas do not address a clearly established right in this context. In Ray, our Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s finding of qualified immunity for officers who entered Mr. Ray’s home after a call from Mrs. Ray and based on a known history of domestic disturbances when Mrs. Ray could not see her daughter in the estranged father’s home during her visit.
We must “attend to context” and “need to ‘consider the state of the existing law at the time of the alleged violation and the circumstances confronting [Officer Guthrie] to determine whether a reasonable state actor could have believed his conduct was lawful.’ ”
Officer Guthrie is entitled to qualified immunity from the Fourth Amendment seizure claim.
B. Issues of fact preclude qualified immunity on the excessive force claim.
Officer Guthrie argues qualified immunity requires we dismiss Mr. Guthrie’s excessive force claim. We disagree. There is a significant difference between no clearly established right relating to restraining a citizen suffering a grand mal seizure and possibly actions alleged to be excessive force in the course of this restraint.
Qualified immunity in excessive force cases protects actions in the “hazy border between excessive and acceptable force.”
We face several questions of material fact, including some from Officer Winan’s testimony, affecting the reasonableness of Officer Guthrie’s conduct as alleged by Mrs. Guthrie. For example, Mrs. Guthrie claims the Officer threw Mr. Guthrie on the bed and bent him over the foot of the bed until the paramedics arrived.
III. Conclusion
We are not aware of a clearly established right for a citizen not to be restrained while suffering a grand mal seizure. We apply qualified immunity to Mr. Guthrie’s Fourth Amendment seizure claim. The right to be free from excessive force is a clearly established right. There
. Defendant’s Concise Statement of Facts at ¶1 (ECF Doc. No. 31) ("Defendant SMF”).
. Id. at ¶ 2.
. Officer Guthrie is not related to Plaintiff Ronald Guthrie.
. Defendant SMF at ¶ 4. Officer Winans is not a party in this action.
. Id. atfl3.
. In response to Defendant’s SMF, Plaintiff submitted a Responsive Concise Statement of Fact and "Counterstatement of Facts” (ECF Doc. No. 34). Plaintiff’s response to the Defendant’s SMF is referred to as “Plaintiff SMF.” Plaintiff’s Counterstatement of Facts is referred to as “Plaintiff’s Counterstatement.” Mr. Guthrie testified as having no recollection of the events which occurred between him and the officers. Defendant SMF at ¶ 17.
. Plaintiff SMF at ¶ 4; Plaintiff Counterstatement at ¶ 1.
. Plaintiff SMF at ¶ 5; Plaintiff Counterstatement at ¶ 3,
. Defendant SMF at ¶ 5.
. Plaintiff Counterstatement at ¶ 7,
. Id.; Plaintiff SMF at ¶¶ 6-8.
. Id. at ¶ 9.
. Id. at ¶¶ 10, 15. At the time of restraint, Mr. Guthrie cried out: "help me”; "I can’t
. Id. at ¶¶ 11-14; Plaintiff SMF at ¶¶ 8-10, 12, 19, 24.
. Id. atK16.
. Id.
. Id. at ¶18.
. Id. atH 19.
. Id. at ¶¶ 20-21.
. Id. a^23.
. Defendant SMF at ¶ 2.
. Id. at ¶ 5.
. Id. at ¶ 6.
. Id. a^7,
. Id. at ¶ 8.
. Id. at ¶¶ 8-9.
. Id. at ¶ 10.
. Id . atllll.
. Id. at ¶ 12.
. Id. at ¶ 13.
. Id.
. Id. at ¶ 16.
. 413 U.S. 433, 93 S.Ct. 2523, 37 L.Ed.2d 706 (1973).
. Id. at 441, 93 S.Ct. 2523.
. Vargas v. City of Phila., 783 F.3d 962, 970-71 (3d Cir. 2015) (quoting Cady, 413 U.S. at 447, 93 S.Ct. 2523).
. Id. at 971.
. Id. at 972 (3d Cir. 2015) (emphasis added).
. 626 F.3d 170 (3d Cir. 2010).
. In Ray, the plaintiffs estranged wife went to plaintiff's home to pick up their daughter for court-ordered visitation. The wife saw someone moving around the house but received no answer after ringing the bell. Worried for her daughter's safety, she called the police. The officers arrived and entered the home without a warrant. Ray, 626 F.3d at 177.
. ECF Doc. No. 30 at pp. 4-5.
. Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223, 232, 129 S.Ct. 808, 172 L.Ed.2d 565 (2009).
. Stanton v. Sims, — U.S. -, 134 S.Ct. 3, 5, 187 L.Ed.2d 341 (2013).
. Spady v. Bethlehem Area Sch. Dist., 800 F.3d 633, 637 (3d Cir. 2015) (quoting Ashcroft v. al-Kidd, 563 U.S. 731, 743, 131 S.Ct. 2074, 179 L.Ed.2d 1149 (2011)).
. Id. at 637.
. Id. at 637 (quoting Pearson, 555 U.S. at 232, 129 S.Ct. 808).
. Id. (citation omitted).
. Id.
. Zaloga v. Borough of Moosic, No. 15-2723, 841 F.3d 170, 174, 2016 WL 6156003 at *3, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 19079 at *9 (3d Cir. July 12, 2016) (citing Pearson, 555 U.S. at 241, 129 S.Ct. 808).
. Id. at 174, 2016 WL 6156003 at *2, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 19079 at *8 (quoting Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 202, 121 S.Ct. 2151, 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001)).
. Mullenix v. Luna, — U.S. -, 136 S.Ct. 305, 308, 193 L.Ed.2d 255 (2015) (internal citations and quotations omitted).
. Zaloga, 841 F.3d at 174-75, 2016 WL 6156003, at *3, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 19079, at *10.
. Id. at 174-75, 2016 WL 6156003, at *3, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 19079, at *11.
. Ray, 626 F.3d at 172-73.
. Id. at 178.
. Zaloga, 841 F.3d at 175, 2016 WL 6156003, at *3, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 19079, at *11-12 (quoting Kelly v. Borough of Carlisle, 622 F.3d 248, 253 (3d Cir. 2010)).
. Mullenix v. Luna, — U.S. -, 136 S.Ct, 305, 312, 193 L.Ed.2d 255 (2015).
. Kopec v. Tate, 361 F.3d 772, 778 (3d Cir. 2004).
. See, e.g., Noble v. City of Camden, 112 F.Supp.3d 208, 228 (D.N. J. 2015) (denying qualified immunity on excessive force claim in a factually disputed case where, under plaintiff's version of the facts, the officer beat the restrained, unarmed plaintiff, including after he fell on the ground); Geist v. Ammary, 40 F.Supp.3d 467, 485-86 (E.D. Pa. 2014) (denying qualified immunity on excessive force claim because of unresolved factual disputes as to the reasonableness of the officer’s use of a taser); Jackson v. City of Pittsburgh, 688 F.Supp.2d 379, 401 (W.D. Pa. 2010) (denying qualified immunity on excessive force claim in a factually disputed case where, under plaintiffs version of the facts, officers used force against the unarmed plaintiff who did not exert any threats toward the officers); Seals v. City of Lancaster, 553 F.Supp.2d 427, 432 (E.D. Pa. 2008) (denying qualified immunity on excessive force claim in a factually disputed case where, under plaintiff's version of the facts, the officer pushed a compliant prisoner to the ground without provocation from her, and knowing the others present posed no threat).
. ECF Doc. No. 34, ¶ 16, Declaration of Brenda Guthrie.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Ronald GUTHRIE v. Officer Ken GUTHRIE
- Cited By
- 6 cases
- Status
- Published