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Summary of Opinion — Mary Gordon v. County of Orange (No. 16-56005, 04-30-2018)

Factual and Procedural Background

This case arises from the death of Matthew Gordon within roughly 30 hours of his detention in the Orange County Men's Central Jail. Plaintiff Mary Gordon, successor-in-interest, sued individual defendants (Robert Denny, Brian Tunque, Brianne Garcia, and Debra Finley) and entity defendants (County of Orange and associated entities) under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging violation of Gordon's right to adequate medical care under the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause.

Relevant factual assertions in the record (as described in the opinion) include: at intake a county nurse used an alcohol-withdrawal assessment form (CIWA) rather than the county's opiate-withdrawal form (COWS); a consulting physician ordered an opiate withdrawal protocol but handwritten entries referenced CIWA rather than COWS and placed Gordon in regular housing; Gordon vomited and showed signs of distress while awaiting assignment to general population; deputies conducted welfare checks from an elevated corridor and acknowledged limitations in visually confirming whether an inmate was breathing; inmates ultimately called "man down," deputies and medical staff found Gordon unresponsive, and he was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Procedurally, both the individual and entity defendants moved for summary judgment. The district court granted summary judgment for the individual defendants on the ground that the plaintiff failed to show subjective deliberate indifference, and granted summary judgment for the entity defendants on Monell grounds (failure to show a custom or practice). The plaintiff appealed.

Legal Issues Presented

  1. What is the proper legal standard (subjective deliberate indifference or objective deliberate indifference) for Section 1983 claims by pretrial detainees alleging inadequate medical care under the Fourteenth Amendment?
  2. Whether the district court erred in granting summary judgment to the individual defendants by applying a subjective deliberate indifference standard?
  3. Whether the district court properly granted summary judgment to the entity defendants on the plaintiff's Monell claim for failure to show a custom or practice?
  4. Whether qualified immunity applies to the individual defendants under the objective standard (raised by defendants but not decided by the district court or this panel)?

Arguments of the Parties

Plaintiff-Appellant's Arguments

  • Plaintiff alleged that the Entity Defendants systematically used the wrong intake form (CIWA, for alcohol withdrawal) instead of the county's Clinical Opiate Withdrawal Scale (COWS), causing misclassification and misplacement of detainees, including Gordon.
  • Plaintiff alleged a systematic failure to conduct welfare or safety checks from vantage points that allowed for proper visual observation of inmates' safety and welfare.
  • Plaintiff's expert opined that use of the COWS form would have measured opiate-specific symptoms, likely would have led to housing in the Medical Observation Unit, and would have more probably than not revealed medical distress prior to Gordon's death.

Defendants-Appellees' Arguments

  • Individual Defendants argued the plaintiff lacked evidence of deliberate indifference to Gordon's health or safety and sought summary judgment on that basis.
  • Entity Defendants argued the plaintiff failed to demonstrate a Monell-level custom or practice sufficient to impose municipal liability and sought summary judgment on that basis.
  • Individual Defendants also argued that, even under the objective standard, they are entitled to qualified immunity (an argument the panel declined to decide in the first instance).

Table of Precedents Cited

Precedent Rule or Principle Cited For Application by the Court
Kingsley v. Hendrickson, 135 S.Ct. 2466 (2015) Held that for excessive-force claims by pretrial detainees the relevant standard is objective — a pretrial detainee must show the force purposely or knowingly used was objectively unreasonable. Used as a principal Supreme Court decision prompting reconsideration of whether a subjective standard applies to pretrial detainee claims; the court relied on Kingsley to support adopting an objective standard for certain Fourteenth Amendment claims.
Castro v. County of Los Angeles, 833 F.3d 1060 (9th Cir. en banc 2016) Rejected a universal subjective deliberate indifference standard for all § 1983 claims and applied an objective standard to failure-to-protect claims by pretrial detainees. Relied on Castro as controlling Ninth Circuit authority and extended its reasoning to hold that medical care claims by pretrial detainees likewise must be evaluated under an objective deliberate indifference standard.
Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658 (1978) Municipal liability under § 1983 requires proof of a policy, custom, or practice causing the constitutional violation. Noted as the standard the district court used to grant summary judgment for the entity defendants; the panel held the Monell grant must be reconsidered under the correct substantive standard and left resolution to the district court.
Qwest Commc'ns Inc. v. City of Berkeley, 433 F.3d 1253 (9th Cir. 2006) Statement of the standard of appellate review for summary judgment (de novo review). Cited to state that the court reviews summary judgment de novo.
Fichman v. Media Ctr., 512 F.3d 1157 (9th Cir. 2008) Further statement of summary judgment review principles (viewing evidence in light most favorable to nonmoving party). Cited in explaining the standard of review applied to the district court's grant of summary judgment.
Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97 (1976) Established that deliberate indifference to serious medical needs of prisoners violates the Eighth Amendment's Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause. Used in the jurisprudential background to explain historical Eighth Amendment-based analysis of medical claims.
Carnell v. Grimm, 74 F.3d 977 (9th Cir. 1996) Held that although pretrial detainee claims arise under the Fourteenth Amendment, the Eighth Amendment guarantees provided a minimum standard of care for determining pretrial detainees' rights. Described as an earlier Ninth Circuit decision applying what was then a subjective standard to pretrial detainee medical claims.
Jones v. Johnson, 781 F.2d 769 (9th Cir. 1986) Quoted in Carnell for the proposition that Eighth Amendment guarantees provide a minimum standard of care for pretrial detainees. Used as part of background supporting the historical use of a subjective "deliberate indifference" test for both convicted and pretrial detainees.
Clouthier v. County of Contra Costa, 591 F.3d 1232 (9th Cir. 2010) Found a single "deliberate indifference" test for Eighth- and Fourteenth-Amendment claims and required proof of punitive intent for failure-to-protect claims (incorporating a subjective test). Described as precedent that was cast into doubt by Kingsley and Castro; the court explained how Clouthier had applied a subjective standard prior to Castro.
Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825 (1994) For Eighth Amendment claims, an official is liable only if he knows of and disregards an excessive risk — requiring subjective awareness of risk. Cited as foundational authority for the subjective awareness requirement in Eighth Amendment prisoner claims and as background to contrast with the objective standard for pretrial detainee claims.
Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520 (1979) Holds that inmates who are not yet convicted may bring claims under the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause as alternatives to Eighth Amendment claims. Referenced as part of the doctrinal history relied upon by Clouthier and discussed in the court's background exposition.
Conn v. City of Reno, 591 F.3d 1081 (9th Cir. 2010) Interpreted Farmer to require subjective awareness of risk. Cited in the background explanation showing Ninth Circuit decisions that emphasized subjective awareness under Farmer.
Bd. of County Comm'rs v. Brown, 520 U.S. 397 (1997) Quoted for the proposition that Section 1983 contains no state-of-mind requirement independent of that necessary to state a violation of the underlying federal right. Quoted in Castro and referenced here to support the court's reasoning that the required mental state follows from the underlying constitutional right.
Daniels v. Williams, 474 U.S. 327 (1986) States that mere lack of due care by a state official does not deprive an individual of life, liberty, or property under the Fourteenth Amendment. Quoted to explain that a plaintiff must show more than negligence but less than subjective intent — a showing akin to reckless disregard — for Fourteenth Amendment medical claims by pretrial detainees.
Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989) Provides general guidance that objective reasonableness tests turn on the facts and circumstances of each case. Quoted together with Kingsley to frame the objective unreasonableness inquiry applicable to pretrial detainee claims under the Fourteenth Amendment.
Wilson v. Seiter, 501 U.S. 294 (1991) Observed no significant distinction between inadequate medical care claims and other conditions-of-confinement claims. Used to support the proposition that medical care claims may be treated similarly to other conditions-of-confinement claims when determining the applicable standard.
Simmons v. Navajo County, Ariz., 609 F.3d 1011 (9th Cir. 2010) Illustrates Ninth Circuit practice of analyzing pretrial detainees' medical needs claims under the same rubric as failure-to-protect claims. Cited in support of the court's observation that medical care claims have long been analyzed alongside other conditions-of-confinement claims.
Lolli v. County of Orange, 351 F.3d 410 (9th Cir. 2003) Another Ninth Circuit case treating medical care claims as part of conditions-of-confinement jurisprudence. Cited as part of the line of Ninth Circuit decisions treating medical needs claims similarly to failure-to-protect claims.
Darnell v. City of New York, 849 F.3d 17 (2d Cir. 2017) Second Circuit extended the objective deliberate indifference standard to all conditions-of-confinement claims brought under the Fourteenth Amendment. Cited as corroborative authority from another circuit that the objective standard should apply broadly after Kingsley.
Young v. City of Mount Rainier, 238 F.3d 567 (4th Cir. 2001) Concluded that a failure-to-protect claim is no different in any meaningful respect from an indifferent-to-medical-needs claim. Referenced to show other circuits treat failure-to-protect and medical care claims as similar.
Hare v. City of Corinth, 74 F.3d 633 (5th Cir. 1996) (en banc) Noted the absence of a constitutionally significant distinction between failure-to-protect and medical care claims. Used to illustrate circuit consensus treating these categories of claims alike.
Estate of Ford v. Ramirez-Palmer, 301 F.3d 1043 (9th Cir. 2002) Explained that under the Eighth Amendment a prison official must subjectively have a sufficiently culpable state of mind for liability. Contrasted Eighth Amendment subjective standard with the Fourteenth Amendment objective standard as articulated in Castro and applied here.

Court's Reasoning and Analysis

The court's analysis proceeded in several steps rooted in recent Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit authority and the historical treatment of prisoner and pretrial detainee claims:

  1. The panel began by reviewing the governing standards and precedent, noting that historically the Ninth Circuit (e.g., Clouthier, Carnell) had applied a subjective "deliberate indifference" standard to conditions-of-confinement claims brought by both convicted prisoners and pretrial detainees, relying on decisions such as Farmer and Bell v. Wolfish.
  2. The court then considered the Supreme Court's decision in Kingsley, which held that excessive-force claims by pretrial detainees require an objective inquiry into whether the force used was objectively unreasonable. Kingsley distinguished two state-of-mind inquiries and held the latter (excessiveness) is objective.
  3. The panel explained that its en banc decision in Castro applied Kingsley to failure-to-protect claims, rejecting the notion that a subjective standard applies "globally" to all § 1983 claims by pretrial detainees. Castro concluded the objective standard governs failure-to-protect claims brought under the Fourteenth Amendment.
  4. The court reasoned by analogy and doctrinal consistency that medical care claims by pretrial detainees should be treated the same as other conditions-of-confinement claims (including failure-to-protect and excessive-force claims). The court cited Wilson v. Seiter and various Ninth Circuit and other-circuit decisions treating medical claims and other conditions-of-confinement claims similarly.
  5. Based on this reasoning, the court held that pretrial detainee medical care claims against individual defendants under the Fourteenth Amendment must be evaluated under an objective deliberate indifference standard. The court explicitly set out the elements for such a claim:
    • (i) the defendant made an intentional decision with respect to the plaintiff's conditions of confinement;
    • (ii) those conditions put the plaintiff at substantial risk of serious harm;
    • (iii) the defendant did not take reasonable available measures to abate that risk even though a reasonable official would have appreciated the high degree of risk involved (i.e., the defendant's conduct was objectively unreasonable); and
    • (iv) by not taking such measures, the defendant caused the plaintiff's injuries.
    The court emphasized that the plaintiff must prove more than negligence but less than subjective intent — "something akin to reckless disregard."
  6. The panel concluded that the district court had applied the wrong (subjective) standard in granting summary judgment to the individual defendants, so that grant was erroneous.
  7. Regarding qualified immunity (raised by defendants), the court declined to decide the issue in the first instance because the district court had not addressed it under the objective standard.
  8. With respect to the Monell claim, the panel held that because the substantive standard applied by the district court was incorrect, the district court's Monell-based grant of summary judgment to the entity defendants was also improper and should be reconsidered by the district court under the correct standard.

Holding and Implications

Holding: The court concluded that the proper standard for Section 1983 medical care claims brought by pretrial detainees under the Fourteenth Amendment is an objective deliberate indifference standard, not the subjective deliberate indifference standard. Because the district court applied the subjective standard, the court VACATED the summary judgment as to all defendants and REMANDED the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Implications and direct effects:

  • The district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the individual defendants is vacated because it rested on the incorrect (subjective) standard; the district court must reassess the record under the objective deliberate indifference standard articulated by the panel.
  • The district court's grant of summary judgment on the Monell claim for the entity defendants is vacated and must be reconsidered under the proper standard.
  • The panel declined to resolve the qualified immunity issue and left that matter for the district court to consider in the first instance under the objective standard.
  • The opinion instructs the district court to proceed consistent with the Ninth Circuit's Castro framework (extending the objective standard to medical claims) and the guidance of Kingsley; the panel's decision therefore clarifies the applicable standard for pretrial detainee medical-care claims in the Ninth Circuit as described in this opinion.

The above summary adheres strictly to the information contained in the provided opinion and does not add factual detail or legal conclusions beyond those expressly set forth in the opinion.

Mary GORDON, successor-in-interest for decedent, Matthew Shawn Gordon, indi v. dually, Plaintiff-Appellant,

GONZALEZ ROGERS, District Judge:

David A. Schlesinger (argued), Jacobs & Schlesinger LLP, San Diego, California; Cameron Sehat, The Sehat Law Firm PLC, Irvine, California; for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Pancy Lin (argued) and S. Frank Harrell, Lynberg & Watkins, Orange, California, for Defendants-Appellees.

Before: Kim McLane Wardlaw and Ronald M. Gould, Circuit Judges, and Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, District Judge.

The Honorable Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, United States District Judge for the Northern District of California, sitting by designation.

GONZALEZ ROGERS, District Judge:

This case arises from the death of Matthew Gordon ("Gordon") within 30 hours of being detained in the Orange County Men's Central Jail (the "County Jail"). Plaintiff Mary Gordon, successor-in-interest for decedent, sued defendants Robert Denny, Brian Tunque, Brianne Garcia, and Debra Finley ("the Individual Defendants"); and the County of Orange and associated entities ("the Entity Defendants") under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violating Gordon's right to adequate medical care under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Given developments in Section 1983 jurisprudence, including the Supreme Court's decision in Kingsley v. Hendrickson , ––– U.S. ––––, 135 S.Ct. 2466, 192 L.Ed.2d 416 (2015), and our en banc decision in Castro v. County of Los Angeles , 833 F.3d 1060 (9th Cir. 2016), we conclude that the proper standard of review for such claims is one of objective indifference, not subjective indifference. Accordingly, summary judgment is vacated and the case is remanded to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this decision.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The Individual Defendants sought summary judgment on the ground that the plaintiff lacked evidence of their alleged deliberate indifference to the decedent's health or safety. The Entity Defendants also sought summary judgment based upon the plaintiff's failure to show a custom or practice sufficient under Monell v. Department of Social Services , 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978). In this regard, the plaintiff had proceeded on two theories which she alleged led to Gordon's death. First, the plaintiff alleged the systematic use of the wrong intake form which resulted in the misclassification and misplacement of detainees. In particular, she claimed the Entity Defendants used a form designed to address alcohol withdrawal rather than one designed for opiate withdrawal. Second, she alleged the systematic failure to conduct welfare checks or "safety checks" from a vantage point which allowed for visual observation of the safety and welfare of all inmates.The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the Individual Defendants reasoning that a due process challenge based on inadequate medical care required a showing of subjective deliberate indifference and that there was insufficient evidence to support that showing. The district court also granted summary judgment in favor of the Entity Defendants on the plaintiff's Monell claim on the ground that the plaintiff failed to present sufficient evidence of a custom or practice. The plaintiff timely appealed.

BACKGROUND

The events at issue began on September 8, 2013 at 6:47 p.m. and ended on September 9, 2013 at 11:00 p.m. Within less than 30 hours, Matthew Gordon died while detained in Module C, Tank 11 of the Orange County Jail.

On September 8, 2013, the Placentia Police Department arrested Gordon on heroin-related charges and transported him to the County Jail. Defendant nurse Debra Finley ("Nurse Finley") conducted an intake assessment of Gordon at 6:47 p.m. during which she inquired whether he "use[d] any street drugs." In response Gordon indicated that he used "[h]eroine, by IV, at 3 grams a day." To evaluate Gordon, Nurse Finley used an assessment form designed for alcohol withdrawal, entitled Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment for Alcohol ("CIWA"). She did not use the county's "Clinical Opiate Withdrawal Scale" ("COWS") assessment form.

Thereafter, defendant Nurse Finley consulted with non-party Dr. Thomas Le (a consulting physician) ("Dr. Le") who issued an "Opiate WD [Withdrawal] Order." Therein, Dr. Le both ordered that Gordon be placed in regular housing rather than medical unit housing and prescribed Tylenol for pain, Zofran for nausea, and Atarax for anxiety. Dr. Le apparently crossed out a section under the heading "Nursing Detox Assessments" which stated "COWS and Vital Signs on admission and daily x5" and instead handwrote "CIWA x 4 Days," that is, Gordon was to receive the ordered protocol for four days. Nurse Finley completed the intake assessment and had no further contact with Gordon.

The plaintiff's nursing expert opined that the county's COWS form would have measured symptoms specific to opiate withdrawal and triggered a need to house Gordon in the Medical Observation Unit where Gordon would have been monitored more closely. The plaintiff's expert further opined that had the COWS form been used, it is more probable than not that Gordon would have been found to be in medical distress hours prior to his death. The plaintiff proffered evidence that the Entity Defendants did not use the COWS form systematically, and changed their practice after Gordon's death.

Following his intake assessment, Gordon waited for nearly ten hours to be assigned a space in the County Jail's general population. During this time a fellow detainee observed Gordon vomit continuously for 30–45 minutes and "curl up in a ball." At approximately 8:30 a.m. on September 9, 2013, Gordon was transferred to Module C, Tank 11 in the County Jail along with a "module card" to advise the deputies that Gordon required medical attention. While Gordon was in Module C, defendant nurse Brianne Garcia, on three occasions, administered the medications which Dr. Le prescribed but had no further interaction with the decedent.

Defendant Deputy Denny ("Deputy Denny") conducted a welfare check of Module C at approximately 6:47 p.m. on September 9, 2013. He then conducted a second and third check after lights out at 8:31 p.m. and 9:29 p.m., respectively. The statedpurpose of the checks was to "maintain the safety and health of the inmates and the security of the facilities" with "direct visual observation of each inmate...." Deputy Denny testified that he conducted these three welfare checks from a corridor which was twelve to fifteen feet away from Gordon's bunk and was elevated approximately six feet from the Tank 11 floor. The plaintiff's evidence suggests that the checks were further obscured by a glass corridor. In any event, Deputy Denny acknowledged that from his vantage point he was unable to determine whether an inmate was "breathing," "alive," or had "potential indicators of a physical problem."

At approximately 10:46 p.m., inmates in Module C yelled "man down" to the deputies, the man being Gordon. Deputy Denny arrived within a couple of minutes. He testified that upon his arrival Gordon's "face was blue, he was unresponsive and his skin was cold to the touch." Medical staffers arrived a few minutes later and attempted to administer care. At 11:00 p.m. paramedics transported Gordon to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana where he was pronounced dead. The record reflects that defendant Brian Tunque was the supervising Sergeant on the night of the incident but was apparently not otherwise involved in events described herein.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

We review the district court's decision to grant summary judgment de novo. Qwest Commc'ns Inc. v. City of Berkeley , 433 F.3d 1253, 1256 (9th Cir. 2006). Thus, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, we must determine whether the district court correctly applied the relevant substantive law, and if so, whether genuine issues of material fact exist. Fichman v. Media Ctr ., 512 F.3d 1157, 1159 (9th Cir. 2008) (internal citation omitted).

DISCUSSION A. Section 1983 Claims after Castro

With this Court's en banc decision in Castro , we rejected the notion that a subjective deliberate indifference standard applied globally to all section 1983 claims, whether brought by pretrial detainees or by convicted prisoners. Castro , 833 F.3d at 1069–71. This decision addresses the standard for claims brought by pretrial detainees for inadequate medical care.

We briefly recount the jurisprudential history relevant here. In Estelle v. Gamble , 429 U.S. 97, 104, 97 S.Ct. 285, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976), the Supreme Court held that prison officials' "deliberate indifference to serious medical needs of prisoners" violates the Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause of the Eighth Amendment. In 1986, we concluded in Carnell that "even though pretrial detainees[sic] claims ‘arise under the due process clause [of the Fourteenth Amendment], the [E]ighth [A]mendment guarantees provide a minimum standard of care for determining rights as a pretrial detainee, including rights ... to medical care.’ " Carnell v. Grimm , 74 F.3d 977, 979 (9th Cir. 1996) (quoting Jones v. Johnson , 781 F.2d 769, 771 (9th Cir. 1986) (emphasis in Carnell ) ). Thus, prior to our decision in Castro , all conditions of confinement claims, including claims for inadequate medical care, were analyzed under a subjective deliberate indifference standard whether brought by a convicted prisoner under the Eighth Amendment or pretrial detainee under the Fourteenth Amendment. See Clouthier v. County of Contra Costa , 591 F.3d 1232, 1242–43 (9th Cir. 2010) (finding a single "deliberate indifference" test for plaintiffs who bring a constitutional claim—whether under the Eighth Amendment or the Fourteenth Amendment).

Clouthier concerned a medical care case in which the parents of a pretrial detainee claimed that jail officials violated the due process rights of their son by failing to address his medical needs, in particular there, suicide prevention. Clouthier , 591 F.3d at 1240. The Court interpreted prior precedent "to require proof of punitive intent for failure-to-protect claims, whether those claims arise in a pretrial or a post-conviction context." Castro , 833 F.3d at 1068 (citing Clouthier , 591 F.3d at 1236 ). "We further held that this standard incorporates the subjective test...." Id. (citing Clouthier , 591 F.3d at 1242 ) (emphasis in original). Under this subjective test, the Clouthier Court held that "[a]n official's failure to alleviate a significant risk that he should have perceived but did not, while no cause for commendation," cannot support liability under the Fourteenth Amendment. Clouthier , 591 F.3d at 1242 (quoting Farmer v. Brennan , 511 U.S. 825, 838, 114 S.Ct. 1970, 128 L.Ed.2d 811 (1994) ).
Clouthier relied upon both Farmer , supra , and Bell v. Wolfish , 441 U.S. 520, 535, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979) (finding that inmates who sue prison officials for injuries suffered while in custody may do so under the Eighth Amendment's Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause or, if not yet convicted under the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause). In Farmer , the Supreme Court held that a prison official cannot be liable under the Eighth Amendment's Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause for denying an inmate adequate conditions of confinement "unless the official knows of and disregards 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." 511 U.S. at 837, 114 S.Ct. 1970. We interpreted Farmer to stand for the proposition that "the official must demonstrate a subjective awareness of the risk of harm." Conn v. City of Reno , 591 F.3d 1081, 1096 (9th Cir. 2010), cert. granted and judgment vacated , 563 U.S. 915, 131 S.Ct. 1812, 179 L.Ed.2d 769 (2011), opinion reinstated in relevant part , 658 F.3d 897 (9th Cir. 2011) (emphasis in original).

In Castro we noted that our decision in Clouthier to create a single "deliberate indifference" standard for constitutional claims brought under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments was "cast ... into serious doubt" by the Supreme Court's holding in Kingsley . Castro , 833 F.3d at 1068. In Kingsley , the Supreme Court had considered "whether, to prove an excessive force claim a pretrial detainee must show that the officers were subjectively aware that their use of force was unreasonable, or only that the officers' use of force was objectively unreasonable." Kingsley , 135 S.Ct. at 2470 (emphasis in original). The Supreme Court identified two "separate state-of-mind questions," namely the defendant's state of mind regarding (i) "his physical acts—i.e. , his state of mind with respect to the bringing about of certain physical consequences in the world" and (ii) "whether his use of force was excessive." Id . at 2472. With regard to the first question, defendants did not dispute that the officers' use of force was intentional. With regard to the second question, the Court held that "the relevant standard is objective not subjective." Id . Put differently, the Supreme Court explained that "a pretrial detainee must show only that the force purposely or knowingly used against him was objectively unreasonable." Id . at 2473.

Interpreting Kingsley , our decision in Castro extended the objective standard to failure-to-protect claims, reasoning, in part, that " Section 1983 itself ‘contains no state-of-mind requirement independent of that necessary to state a violation’ of the underlying federal right." Castro , 833 F.3d at 1069 (quoting Bd. of Cty. Comm'rs v. Brown , 520 U.S. 397, 405, 117 S.Ct. 1382, 137 L.Ed.2d 626 (1997) ); see also Daniels v. Williams , 474 U.S. 327, 330, 106 S.Ct. 662, 88 L.Ed.2d 662 (1986). We concluded that as with excessive force claims, failure-to-protect "claims arise under" the same constitutional framework. Castro , 833 F.3d at 1069–70. Thus "it does not matter whether the defendant understood that the force used was excessive, or intended it to be excessive, because the standard is purely objective." Id . at 1068 (citing Kingsley , 135 S.Ct. at 2472–73 ). In short, in Castro , we declared that Kingsley "expressly rejected the interpretation of Bell on which we had relied in Clouthier .... [and] the notion that there exists a single ‘deliberate indifference’ standard applicable to all § 1983 claims, whether brought by pretrial detainees or by convicted prisoners." Id . (Emphasis in original.)

B. Claims for Inadequate Medical Care by Pretrial Detainees

While Kingsley did "not necessarily answer the broader question of whether the objective standard applies to all Section § 1983 claims brought under the Fourteenth Amendment against individual defendants[,]" ( id. ) logic dictates extending the objective deliberative indifference standard articulated in Castro to medical care claims. First, the landscape remains the same. As noted, we remain in a realm where " Section 1983 itself ‘contains no state-of-mind requirement independent of that necessary to state a violation’ of the underlying federal right" ( id . ) and here, the medical care claims brought by pretrial detainees also "arise under the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause, rather than under the Eighth Amendment's Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause" ( id. at 1069–70 ). Notably, the "broad wording of Kingsley .... did not limit its holding to ‘force’ but spoke to ‘the challenged governmental action’ generally." Id . at 1070 (quoting Kingsley , 135 S.Ct. at 2473–74 ).

The Second Circuit also recently extended the objective deliberate indifference standard to all conditions of confinement claims brought under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. See Darnell v. City of New York, 849 F.3d 17, 36 (2d Cir. 2017) (opining on a wide range of conditions of confinement claims brought by twenty pretrial detainees, the court held "[c]onsistency with the Supreme Court's decision in Kingsley now dictates that deliberate indifference be measured objectively in due process cases").

Second, the Supreme Court has treated medical care claims substantially the same as other conditions of confinement violations including failure-to-protect claims. For instance in 1991, in Wilson v. Seiter , the Supreme Court saw "no significant distinction between claims alleging inadequate medical care and those alleging inadequate ‘conditions of confinement.’ Indeed, the medical care a prisoner receives is just as much a ‘condition’ of his confinement as ... the protection he is afforded against other inmates." Wilson v. Seiter , 501 U.S. 294, 303, 111 S.Ct. 2321, 115 L.Ed.2d 271 (1991). Third, we have long analyzed claims that government officials failed to address pretrial detainees' medical needs using the same standard as cases alleging that officials failed to protect pretrial detainees in some other way. Simmons v. Navajo Cty., Ariz. , 609 F.3d 1011, 1017–18 (9th Cir. 2010) ; Clouthier , 591 F.3d at 1241–42 ; Lolli v. County of Orange , 351 F.3d 410, 418–19 (9th Cir. 2003).

Correspondingly, other circuit courts treat failure-to-protect claims as claims alleging failure to provide adequate medical care. See Young v. City of Mount Ranier , 238 F.3d 567, 575 (4th Cir. 2001) (concluding that a failure-to-protect claim was "no different in any meaningful respect from the indifferent-to-medical-needs claim"); Hare v. City of Corinth , 74 F.3d 633, 644 (5th Cir. 1996) (en banc ) (noting "the absence of a constitutionally significant distinction between failure-to-protect and medical care claims").

Accordingly, we hold that claims for violations of the right to adequate medical care "brought by pretrial detainees against individual defendants under the Fourteenth Amendment" must be evaluated under an objective deliberate indifference standard. Castro , 833 F.3d at 1070. Based thereon, the elements of a pretrial detainee's medical care claim against an individual defendant under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment are: (i) the defendant made an intentional decision with respect to the conditions under which the plaintiff was confined; (ii) those conditions put the plaintiff at substantial risk of suffering serious harm; (iii) the defendant did not take reasonable available measures to abate that risk, even though a reasonable official in the circumstances would have appreciated the high degree of risk involved—making the consequences of the defendant's conduct obvious; and (iv) by not taking such measures, the defendant caused the plaintiff's injuries. "With respect to the third element, the defendant's conduct must be objectively unreasonable, a test that will necessarily ‘turn[ ] on the facts and circumstances of each particular case.’ " Id. at 1071 (quoting Kingsley , 135 S.Ct. at 2473 ; Graham v. Connor , 490 U.S. 386, 396, 109 S.Ct. 1865, 104 L.Ed.2d 443 (1989) ). The " ‘mere lack of due care by a state official’ does not deprive an individual of life, liberty, or property under the Fourteenth Amendment." Id . (quoting Daniels , 474 U.S. at 330–31, 106 S.Ct. 662 ). Thus, the plaintiff must "prove more than negligence but less than subjective intent—something akin to reckless disregard." Id .

This differs from the inquiry under the Eighth Amendment which requires that the "prison official must subjectively have a sufficiently culpable state of mind." Id . at 1070–71 (quoting Estate of Ford v. Ramirez-Palmer , 301 F.3d 1043, 1049 (9th Cir. 2002) (emphasis in original) ). "A prison official cannot be found liable under the Eighth Amendment for denying an inmate humane conditions of confinement unless the official knows of and disregards an excessive risk to inmate health or safety." Estate of Ford , 301 F.3d at 1050 (quoting Farmer v. Brennan , 511 U.S. 825, 837, 114 S.Ct. 1970, 128 L.Ed.2d 811 (1994) ). By contrast "a pretrial detainee need not prove those subjective elements about the officer's actual awareness of the level of risk." Castro , 833 F.3d at 1071.
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Because the district court applied a subjective standard to the plaintiff's claim of inadequate medical care, the grant of summary judgment was in error.

C. Qualified Immunity Under an Objective Standard

The Individual Defendants argue that even under an objective deliberate indifference standard they are immune from liability under the doctrine of qualified immunity. The district court did not reach this issue. Accordingly, we decline to address the question of qualified immunity in the first instance.

D. The Monell Claim against the Entity Defendants

The district court also granted summary judgment for the Entity Defendants on the ground that the plaintiff could not establish a custom or practice sufficient under Monell . In light of this opinion, the grant of summary judgment was improper. We also leave this question for the district court to address in the first instance using the proper standard.

Accordingly, summary judgment as to all defendants is VACATED and REMANDED for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

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Gordon v. Cnty. of Orange
(Apr 30, 2018)