Professional Documents
Culture Documents
No. 14-7096
SAMMY USSERY,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
v.
SGT. MANSFIELD; JAMES DUNLOW; TIMOTHY RUFFIN,
Defendants - Appellants,
and
DUSTIN WILKINS; SHELTON
GILLIAM; SHERI WILLIAMS,
HARDISON;
STACY
HOGGARD;
LILLIAN
Defendants.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern
District of North Carolina, at Raleigh.
Terrence W. Boyle,
District Judge. (5:11-ct-03124-BO)
Argued:
April 8, 2015
GREGORY,
Decided:
Circuit
Judges,
and
DAVIS,
Senior
Ussery
brings
maintaining
that
this
a
action
team
pursuant
of
to
42
correctional
U.S.C.
officers
The
I.
The cell extraction at the center of this case occurred on
July 9, 2008.
officers,
Ussery
from
supervised
his
cell,
by
but
most
favorable
to
Sgt.
Mansfield,
they
dispute
forcibly
many
facts
Ussery,
the
non-movant.
See
PBM
Products, LLC v. Mead Johnson & Co., 639 F.3d 111, 119 (4th Cir.
2011).
Ussery
contends
that
he
and
Sgt.
Mansfield
had
an
On
officer
policy.
videotaped
the
extraction,
pursuant
to
prison
a weapon and had threatened to harm anyone who entered his cell.
Ussery maintains
he
made
no
such
threat,
and
apparently,
no
Mansfield
team
ordered
entered
Usserys
and
cell
restrained
unlocked,
Ussery
on
and
the
the
floor.
Eventually
the
extraction
team
cuffed
Usserys
hands
behind his back, shackled his feet together, and carried him out
of
his
position
cell
Ussery
holding
him
characterizes
by
the
as
cuffs
and
hogtied.
shackles
At
least
in
one
took
him.
In
the
holding
cage,
Ussery
was
belligerent
and
account
of
the
incident
in
some
respects.
As
the
district court noted, the viewer of the video can see that there
is a disturbance in Usserys cell during the extraction; that
someone begins to punch Ussery, but it is unclear which guard
is doing so; that [a]t one point, the movement of Mansfields
body suggests that Mansfield may be kicking Ussery; that Ussery
is cuffed or shackled and carried with his body facing toward
the ground . . . by the shackles; that he appears bloody and
[has] facial
injuries
after
the
extraction;
and
that
he
is
the
view
of
the
cell,
during
most
of
the
extraction.
Later in the day of the extraction, officers transported
Ussery to Bertie County Memorial Hospital for emergency medical
treatment.
contusions.
Ussery
maintains
that
[a]s
direct
and
that as a result of his injuries, [he] suffered increased bilateral hearing loss, neck pain, loss of vision in his right
eye, chronic swelling and loss of feeling in his hands and knee,
and recurring migraines, causing him physical and emotional
pain and suffering, and disability.
About five months after the extraction, the North Carolina
Department of Corrections requested that the State Bureau of
Investigation
conduct
an
inquiry
into
the
possible
used,
officers
but
on
noted
the
that
videotape
the
behavior
appears
of
too
the
correctional
aggressive
for
the
video
was
disturbing
and
the
position
of
the
camera
precluded
[the
state]
from
this
has
become
survived
frivolity
review
pursuant
to
28
The
U.S.C.
response
to
Usserys
amended
complaint,
the
officers
admit that they forcibly extracted him from his cell when pepper
spray proved insufficient to compel him to exit; that he was
escorted out of his cell by the extraction team; and that he
received
medical
treatment
following
the
extraction.
The
minimis injuries.
affidavit
of
Division of Prisons.
long
employed
by
the
North
Carolina
medical records, the video, and the report of the state Bureau
of Investigation.
The district court granted the officers motion as to the
failure-to-protect
claim,
but
denied
the
motion
as
to
the
II.
The
Supreme
Court
has
explained
that
the
qualified-
statutory
or
constitutional
rights
of
which
1259
(4th
1994)
(en
banc),
provides
the
legal
In
Norman,
this
court
held
that
absent
the
most
Amendment
minimis.
excessive
Id. at 1263.
force
claim
if
his
injury
is
in
beaten
guards
by
Wilkins
does
de
that
[a]n
not
lose
inmate
his
who
is
ability
The
gratuitously
to
pursue
an
without
serious
injury.
Id.
at
38.
We
have
See
Hill v. Crum, 727 F.3d 312, 321, 322 (4th Cir. 2013).
To prevail, then, an inmate like Ussery, seeking relief for
excessive force deployed before the issuance of Wilkins in 2010,
must establish either that he sustained more than de minimis
injuries or that the defendants use of force was of a sort
repugnant
to
the
conscience
of
mankind
and
thus
expressly
Norman, 25 F.3d at
With
III.
Before
claim,
reaching
we
must
the
first
merits
address
of
Usserys
our
excessive
jurisdiction
force
over
this
interlocutory appeal.
In
Mitchell
v.
Forsyth,
472
U.S.
511,
530
(1985),
the
1291
notwithstanding
the
absence
of
final
judgment.
The Court clarified the scope of interlocutory review of a
denial of qualified immunity in Johnson v. Jones, 515 U.S. 304
(1995).
order
appeal.
does
not
Id. at 313.
provide
the
basis
for
an
interlocutory
immunity
that
can
and
should
be
resolved
at
this
In
resolving
the
officers
contention
that
qualified
The court
concluded
that
[b]ased
on
the
record
The district
before
[it],
district
courts
conclusion
that
the
record
does
not
Thus we
necessarily
standard.
held
that
Ussery
could
satisfy
the
Norman
judgment,
court
the
had
to
reach
11
that
conclusion.
We
undoubtedly
have
jurisdiction
to
review
that
purely
legal
conclusion.
See Smith v. Ray, 781 F.3d 95, 100 (4th Cir. 2015)
Indeed, while
permitted to go to trial.
in original).
IV.
We
thus
turn
jurisdiction:
to
the
whether
sole
the
question
district
over
court
which
properly
we
have
concluded
We disagree.
During the decade when Norman was good law, we never articulated
a precise definition of what constitutes a de minimis injury.
Nevertheless, our opinions from that period clearly illustrate
that
whether
plaintiff
has
satisfied
the
Norman
standard
caused
severe
maintains
lacerations,
hearing
loss,
swelling
and
physical
and
that
extensive
loss
loss
of
of
emotional
the
officers
bruising,
vision
in
his
increased
right
feeling,
recurring
pain
suffering
and
bi-lateral
eye,
chronic
migraines,
--
all
of
and
which
Many of
sensory
capabilities,
emotional
stability,
and
other
daily
need
deprivation
not
or
show
that
serious
or
force
significant
caused
an
extreme
pain
or
injury.
on
numerous
occasions,
applying
the
Norman
448 (4th Cir. 2008) (holding that just two uses of a taser even if only for a few seconds at a time - caused more than
de
minimis
injury
when
the
plaintiff
experience[d]
electric
that
where
law
enforcement
officers
restrained
and
vulnerable,
and
humiliated
when
left
alone
and
extraction.
At
the
very
least,
this
investigation
investigation
resulting
from
if
there
that
were
force
no
was
dispute
not
that
excessive.
the
injury
Stanley
v.
most
favorable
to
Ussery,
15
we
must
conclude
that
the
district
court
did
not
err
in
denying
the
officers
summary
V.
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the district
court is
AFFIRMED.