Miller v. DuPage County Sheriff et al
Filing
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MEMORANDUM Opinion and Order: The Court grants defendants DuPage County and Zaruba's motion to dismiss plaintiff Ranger Miller's complaint 11 without prejudice. If Miller believes he can cure the deficiencies identified in this opinion, he may file a motion for leave to file an amended complaint on or before August 27, 2018. The motion should attach a redlined comparison between the complaint and the amended complaint, and it should be supported by a brief of no more than five page s describing how the proposed amended complaint cures the deficiencies in the current complaint. Should Miller choose to file such a motion, defendants should not respond unless ordered to do so by the Court. Signed by the Honorable Thomas M. Durkin on 8/8/2018:Mailed notice(srn, )
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
EASTERN DIVISION
RANGER MILLER,
Plaintiff,
v.
DUPAGE COUNTY, ET AL.,
Defendants.
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No. 18 C 2072
Judge Thomas M. Durkin
MEMORANDUM OPINION & ORDER
Plaintiff Ranger Miller sues defendants DuPage County, John Zaruba
(Sheriff of DuPage County), and a number of “officer defendants” (Lieutenant J.
Prosper, Sergeant Brian Stuckey, Sergeant Jodi Ritter, Deputies Sean M. Blase,
Keven Keith, Deborah DeYoung, Paul Dante, Steve Messina, Corporatal Quinna
Odom, and other unknown deputies) for deliberate indifference under 42 U.S.C. §
1983. Miller also sues defendant Rashawondyar Gaines for aggravated battery.
Currently before the Court is DuPage County and Zaruba’s motion to dismiss
Miller’s complaint for failure to state a claim under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) and Fed.
R. Civ. P. 8. R. 11. For the following reasons, the Court grants DuPage County and
Zaruba’s motion and dismisses Miller’s complaint without prejudice.
Background
Miller’s well-pleaded factual allegations are presumed true for purposes of
deciding this motion to dismiss. Mann v. Vogel, 707 F.3d 872, 877 (7th Cir. 2013).
On June 30, 2017, Miller was awaiting trial on charges of burglary of a bicycle in
DuPage County Jail. R. 1 ¶ 5. The officer defendants were serving as correctional
officers that day in the division where Miller was held. Id. ¶¶ 10-12.
After breakfast on June 30, Miller was administered a medication and then
returned to his cell to sleep, requesting that his cell door be closed. Id. ¶ 15. While
he was sleeping, unidentified “Defendants allowed the door to open at which time
[defendant] Gaines”—another inmate being held for armed robbery and firearm
possession—“entered and began violently slashing and cutting” Miller. Id. ¶¶ 17,
19. Miller’s calls for help went unanswered. Id. ¶ 20. He “suffered severe cuts to his
neck, cheeks, head and arms before Gaines left.” Id. As Gaines left, Miller went to
his cell door and screamed for help, but no one responded. Id. ¶ 21.
Miller alleges that unidentified “Defendants” allowed Gaines access to
shaving blades on the morning of June 30, and then failed to account for the return
of the blades. Id. ¶ 18. Miller further alleges that Gaines returned from the gym
under the control of defendant Blase on the morning of June 30. Id. ¶ 16.
Miller sued defendants in a three-count complaint in March 2018. In Count I,
Miller alleges that by failing to account for the return of the shaving blades, failing
to segregate Gaines as a violent threat, and failing to secure Miller after his request
to be locked in his cell to sleep, “the defendants” acted “with deliberate indifference
to, and with a conscious disregard for, the rights, safety and welfare of [Miller] and
thereby constituted a deprivation of the rights of [Miller] guaranteed to him while
in the custody and under the control of the Defendants in violation of the rights and
privileges provided by the Constitution and the laws of the United States.” Id. ¶ 24.
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In Count II, Miller seeks to hold DuPage County liable for indemnification. Id. ¶ 42.
In Count III, Miller seeks to hold Gaines liable for aggravated battery. Id. ¶ 46.
DuPage County and Zaruba returned waivers of service in March 2018. R. 6,
7. None of the officer defendants has been served. In May 2018, DuPage County and
Zaruba moved to dismiss. R. 11.
Standard
A Rule 12(b)(6) motion challenges the sufficiency of the complaint. E.g.,
Hallinan v. Fraternal Order of Police of Chi. Lodge No. 7, 570 F.3d 811, 820 (7th
Cir. 2009). A complaint must provide “a short and plain statement of the claim
showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2). The statement
must give defendant “fair notice” of the claim and the basis for it. Bell Atl. Corp. v.
Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007). This standard “demands more than an
unadorned, the-defendant-unlawfully-harmed-me accusation.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556
U.S. 662, 678 (2009). While “detailed factual allegations” are not required, “labels
and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will
not do.” Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555. The complaint must “contain sufficient factual
matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’”
Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678 (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570). “‘A claim has facial
plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw
the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.’”
Mann, 707 F.3d at 877 (quoting Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678). In applying this standard,
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the Court accepts all well-pleaded facts as true and draws all reasonable inferences
in favor of the non-moving party. Mann, 707 F.3d at 877.
Discussion
DuPage County and Zaruba’s motion to dismiss argues that Count I does not
set forth a plausible claim under Twombly and Iqbal. They rely on Brooks v. Ross,
578 F.3d 574, 581 (7th Cir. 2009), where the Seventh Circuit explained that under
Twombly and Iqbal, a plaintiff must “put defendants on notice of what exactly they
might have done to violate” the plaintiff’s rights and “connect specific defendants to
illegal acts.” Id. at 580, 582. The Court agrees with DuPage and Zaruba that like
the due process claim in Brooks, Count I is “too vague to provide notice to
defendants of the contours of [Miller’s]” claim. See id. at 581-82.
Miller lumps all defendants—including the officer defendants, DuPage
County, and Zaruba—together in Count I. Miller does not identify whether he is
suing Zaruba or the officer defendants in their individual capacities or in their
official capacities. And this distinction matters because official capacity claims
under § 1983 may proceed only under a theory of liability set forth in Monell v. Dep’t
of Soc. Servs., 436 U.S. 658, 594 (1978); see Guzman v. Sheahan, 495 F.3d 852, 857
(7th Cir. 2007) (“[a]n official capacity suit is tantamount to a claim against the
government entity itself” that can proceed only under a Monell theory).
In addition to this threshold vagueness issue, Miller has not stated a claim in
Count I regardless of whether he is suing the individual defendants in their official
or individual capacities. To proceed on an official capacity Monell claim (as his
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motion to dismiss response indicates that he intends to do), Miller must plausibly
allege:
(1) an express policy that, when enforced, causes a constitutional
deprivation, (2) a widespread practice that, although not authorized by
written law or express municipal policy, is so permanent and well
settled as to constitute a custom or usage with the force of law, or (3)
an allegation that the constitutional injury was caused by a person
with final policymaking authority.
Id.
As DuPage County and Zaruba point out, Miller’s complaint makes no
express policy or widespread practice allegations supporting Monell liability. It is
not sufficient for Miller to say, as he does in response to the motion to dismiss, “that
discovery in this matter will help establish these policies.” R. 20 at 3. Nor can the
Court “infer certain policy violation[s]” by defendants based on the facts as pleaded.
Id. at 2-3. In his motion to dismiss response, Miller asks the Court to infer that
defendants are liable in their official capacities not based on municipal policies or
widespread practices, but for “failure[s]” or “violat[ion]” of unidentified “policies”
based on unidentified defendants’ “reopening and leaving open [Miller’s] cell door”
and allowing Gaines to have access to a razor blade. Id. at 2. Official capacity
defendants “cannot be held liable solely on the grounds of respondeat superior.”
Rossi v. City of Chicago, 790 F.3d 729, 737 (7th Cir. 2015). The inferences Miller
asks the Court to draw concern “misbehavior of one or a group of officials” rather
than “policy, customs, or practices of the institution as a whole.” See id.
Miller also has not stated individual capacity claims against defendants in
Count I. Individual-capacity liability under § 1983 requires a defendant’s personal
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involvement in the alleged constitutional violation. Palmer v. Marion County, 327
F.3d 588, 594 (7th Cir. 2003). An officer can be individually liable for deliberate
indifference to the safety and welfare of a pre-trial detainee under the Due Process
Clause only where he or she “was aware of a substantial risk of serious injury to
[the plaintiff] but nevertheless failed to take appropriate steps to protect him from a
known danger.” Guzman, 495 F.3d at 857; see also, e.g., Everett v. Baldwin, 2016
WL 8711476, at *6 (N.D. Ill. Jan. 15, 2016) (“In individual-capacity suits, deliberate
indifference requires more than negligence; an official must know[ ] of and
disregard[ ] an excessive risk to inmate health or safety; the official must both
be aware of facts from which the inference could be drawn that a substantial risk of
serious harm exists, and he must also draw the inference. So a prison official cannot
be individually liable if he was not actually subjectively aware of that risk, even if
he should have been aware of a risk that harm would befall an inmate.”). Here,
Miller does not plead facts supporting personal involvement and subjective
awareness of risk on the part of each individual defendant. He must do so to
proceed against them in their individual capacities in an amended complaint.
In sum, the Court agrees with DuPage County and Zaruba that “[w]ithout
more,” the allegations in Count I “are too vague to provide notice to defendants of
the contours” of Miller’s claim. See Brooks, 578 F.3d at 581-82. Miller must clarify
which defendants he is suing in which capacity, and if he seeks to hold defendants
liable in their official capacities, he must plead a viable Monell claim. If he seeks to
hold defendants liable in their individual capacities, he must plead facts plausibly
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supporting their personal involvement, and he must plead that they were
subjectively aware of a substantial risk of injury to Miller. Because Miller has failed
to do this, the Court dismisses his deliberate indifference claim in Count I without
prejudice.
Without the deliberate indifference claim in Count I, Miller’s claim in Count
II for indemnification by DuPage County necessarily fails. E.g., Carver v. Sheriff of
LaSalle County, 324 F.3d 947, 947-48 (7th Cir. 2003) (County is liable for
indemnification of Sheriff sued in his official capacity and is an indispensable party
so long as the Sheriff remains in the suit). And without any remaining federal
claims, this Court declines to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over Miller’s state
law aggravated battery claim against Gaines in Count III. See 28 U.S.C. § 1367(c)
(“The district courts may decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over a claim
under subsection (a) if . . . (3) the district court has dismissed all claims over which
it has original jurisdiction.”); Winfield v. Mercy Hosp. and Med. Ctr., 591 Fed. App’x
518, 520 (7th Cir. 2015) (“A district court may decline to exercise supplemental
jurisdiction, and the presumption is that the court will do so if all federal claims
have been dismissed before trial.”). The Court therefore dismisses Miller’s
complaint without prejudice based on the deficiencies identified above.
Conclusion
For these reasons, the Court grants DuPage County and Zaruba’s motion to
dismiss Miller’s complaint [11] without prejudice. If Miller believes he can cure the
deficiencies identified in this opinion, he may file a motion for leave to file an
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amended complaint on or before August 27, 2018. The motion should attach a
redlined comparison between the complaint and the amended complaint, and it
should be supported by a brief of no more than five pages describing how the
proposed amended complaint cures the deficiencies in the current complaint. Should
Miller choose to file such a motion, defendants should not respond unless ordered to
do so by the Court.
ENTERED:
Honorable Thomas M. Durkin
United States District Judge
Dated: August 8, 2018
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