RUBEN SEBASTIAN, PLAINTIFF -APPELLEE,
v.
JAVIER ORTIZ, DEFENDANT - APPELLANT, JAY GROSSMAN, DANIEL CROCKER, ET AL., DEFENDANTS.
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The Eleventh Circuit held that the district court correctly denied the officer's motion to dismiss based on qualified immunity, as the alleged intentional application of excessively tight handcuffs causing serious and permanent injury to a compliant arrestee stated a claim for excessive force under the Fourth Amendment.
[1] Qualified immunity is not appropriate when an officer intentionally applies unnecessarily tight handcuffs to an arrestee who is neither resisting arrest nor attempting to…
[2] The seriousness and permanence of injuries inflicted by handcuffing can take a claim out of the de minimis force category, potentially supporting an excessive force claim…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceRuben Sebastian was pulled over for a traffic violation and subsequently arrested. During the arrest, officers allegedly applied handcuffs and later p…
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In this interlocutory appeal, Lieutenant Javier Ortiz of the Miami Police Department challenges the district court's denial of his motion to dismiss this civil rights excessive force case arising out of a routine traffic stop. The appellee, Ruben Sebastian, alleges that during the course of the stop and his subsequent arrest, Ortiz restrained him with handcuffs for more *1305 than five hours "in a manner purposely intended to cause pain and injury." On account of the officer's misconduct, Sebastian claims to have suffered nerve damage and the permanent loss of sensation in his hands and wrists. This case presents the question whether a police officer is entitled to qualified immunity when he intentionally applies unnecessarily tight handcuffs to an arrestee who is neither resisting arrest nor attempting to flee, thereby causing serious and permanent injuries. After careful review of the entire record, we agree with the district court that the appellant was not entitled to qualified immunity.
I.
Since we are reviewing the denial of Lieutenant Ortiz's motion to dismiss, we accept the facts in the amended complaint as true and view them in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. On July 7, 2015, Ruben Sebastian was pulled over for a traffic violation while driving on the Rickenbacker Causeway in the city of Miami. Officer Jay Grossman of the City of Miami Police Department made the stop. Grossman approached Sebastian's window, told him he believed Sebastian had exceeded the speed limit, and requested to check the tint on the front windows of the vehicle to determine compliance with Florida law. Sebastian complied but he refused Officer Grossman permission to search the interior of the vehicle. The officer claimed that the tint on the rear windows prevented him from seeing into the back of the car; Sebastian asserted, however, that the entire interior was readily visible because the front windows of the car were rolled down. After Sebastian denied consent to the search, Officer Grossman summoned Lieutenant Javier Ortiz 1 of the Miami Police Department for backup.
When Ortiz arrived at the scene, he too asked for permission to search the interior of the vehicle. Sebastian again refused, and Ortiz allegedly "became enraged," opened the car door, and removed Sebastian from the vehicle. First Am. Compl. ¶ 24. By this time, a third officer ("Officer Doe") had arrived at the scene. Either Ortiz or Doe then restrained Sebastian, pressed his face into the hood of a police car, and placed him in metal handcuffs. Sebastian claims that the handcuffs were engaged "in a manner purposely intended to cause pain and injury, cutting off the circulation in his hands, and cutting into the skin on his wrists." Id. ¶ 25. Sebastian complained, and either Officer Doe or Ortiz responded that "he knew of a way to make them tighter." Id.
While Sebastian was restrained, the officers began to search the vehicle. Sebastian informed the officers that he had a firearm in the car, and with his assistance the officers located the gun in the side pocket of the driver side door, secured in its holster. Upon retrieving the firearm, which Sebastian had a permit to carry, Lieutenant Ortiz or Officer Grossman told Sebastian that he "would not that day, or ever, return to his job" as a security guard employed by Miami-Dade County. Id. ¶ 30.
Lieutenant Ortiz then directed that a fourth officer, Daniel Crocker, place Sebastian in his vehicle for transportation to the police station. Doe or Ortiz replaced the metal handcuffs with plastic flex cuffs, again, allegedly, "intentionally tightening the cuffs in a manner purposely and wantonly intended to cause pain and further injury."
Id.
¶ 32. Doe or Ortiz placed Sebastian in Officer Crocker's vehicle "in a position and manner that increased the
*1306
pain caused by the over tightened flex-cuffs," and Crocker raised the windows and left Sebastian inside.
Id.
As the temperature inside the vehicle began to rise, Sebastian asked to have the windows rolled down; Officer Crocker rolled a rear window down one or two inches. He refused, however, to open the window further or loosen the flex cuffs as Sebastian complained that he was beginning to lose feeling in his hands. Sebastian remained in the car for an unspecified period of time, and after the completion of the search he was transported to a police station where he was detained for more than five hours, still handcuffed behind his back. He was charged in two counts with Resisting or Obstructing an Officer Without Violence under
Sebastian further alleges that he "continues to suffer nerve damage to his hands and wrists, emotional pain and suffering, loss of employment, and reputational damages" as a result of the handcuffing and arrest. First Am. Compl. ¶ 44. His employment with Miami-Dade County was in fact terminated, and he has been unable to find work as a security guard elsewhere. In February 2016, Sebastian commenced this lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida against each of the officers -- Ortiz, Grossman, Doe, and Crocker -- the City of Miami, and Chief of Police Rodolfo Llanes on a number of theories of liability. As relevant here, he asserted claims of excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment and supervisory liability for failure to stop unlawful acts against Lieutenant Ortiz.
Ortiz moved to dismiss the charges on the ground of qualified immunity. The district court first concluded that the officers were entitled to make a custodial arrest because they had probable cause to believe Sebastian was speeding in violation of
To begin the excessive force analysis, the district court rejected Sebastian's argument that any use of force was unlawful because the arrest itself was lawful and law enforcement officers are entitled to use some degree of force in effecting a lawful arrest. Indeed, this Court has recognized that a "typical arrest involves some force and injury."
See, e.g.
,
Rodriguez v. Farrell
,
The district court also determined that Sebastian had sufficiently alleged a supervisory liability claim against Lieutenant Ortiz for failure to stop unlawful acts by his officers. Sebastian was unsure whether Lieutenant Ortiz or Officer Doe actually applied the handcuffs, and his supervisory claim alleges that Ortiz failed to stop Doe's use of excessive force. Because the court found that Sebastian sufficiently alleged the underlying excessive force claim, he had sufficiently alleged this supervisory claim as well.
II.
We review the denial of qualified immunity at the motion to dismiss stage
de
novo
.
Chesser v. Sparks
,
Qualified immunity shields government officials "from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known."
Harlow v. Fitzgerald
,
To deny qualified immunity at the motion to dismiss stage, we must conclude both that the allegations in the complaint, accepted as true, establish a constitutional violation
and
that the constitutional violation was "clearly established."
Keating v. City of Miami
,
Sebastian argues that Lieutenant Ortiz is not entitled to qualified immunity because he violated the clearly established law prohibiting the use of excessive force in making an arrest.
2
More specifically,
*1308
Sebastian points to our body of cases holding "that gratuitous use of force when a criminal suspect is not resisting arrest constitutes excessive force."
Hadley v. Gutierrez
,
To determine whether the force used is excessive, the Supreme Court has directed us to consider many factors "including the severity of the crime at issue, whether the suspect poses an immediate threat to the safety of the officers or others, and whether he is actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight."
Graham v. Connor
,
Lieutenant Ortiz argues that he did not use excessive force because the force was de minimis. "[T]he application of de minimis force, without more, will not support a claim for excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment."
Nolin v. Isbell
,
We have applied the de minimis force principle to handcuffing and granted officers qualified immunity in a series of cases. First, in
Gold v. City of Miami
,
Rodriguez v. Farrell
,
Nothing in these cases, however, addressed serious and substantial injury intentionally and gratuitously inflicted on an individual of ordinary vulnerability. "The nature and extent of physical injuries sustained by a plaintiff" are key factors in determining whether the use of force was reasonable, and here Sebastian has alleged serious, permanent injuries.
Stephens
,
Notably, all of the
Graham
factors -- the severity of the crime, the safety risk posed to the officers and others, and whether the plaintiff was resisting arrest or attempting to flee or evade the officers -- weigh decidedly in Sebastian's favor.
See
Graham
,
Now to the "clearly established" question. A plaintiff can show the violation of a clearly established right in a few ways.
See
Vinyard
,
Our case law establishes that "gratuitous use of force when a criminal suspect is not resisting arrest" may constitute excessive force.
Hadley
,
Again, in
Stephens v. DeGiovanni
,
Still again, in
Lee v. Ferraro
,
*1311
So, our case law is clear that serious and substantial injuries caused during a suspect's arrest when a suspect is neither resisting an officer's commands nor posing a risk of flight may substantiate an excessive force claim. Although we have never addressed a claim factually identical to Sebastian's, Smith established that if an arrestee demonstrates compliance, but the officer nonetheless inflicts gratuitous and substantial injury using ordinary arrest tactics, then the officer may have used excessive force. This was true even though the plaintiff in Smith , unlike Sebastian, was initially recalcitrant and even acted aggressively toward the officer. Lifting an arrestee's arm behind his back in order to handcuff him is a routine arrest technique, but a panel of this Court found that the officer clearly violated the Fourth Amendment because he deployed it with undue severity to an obedient arrestee. Here, the facts as alleged in the complaint lead inescapably to the conclusion that the substantial injuries were inflicted on Sebastian in a similarly gratuitous manner, not as an incidental effect of legitimate law enforcement actions.
Moreover, the Supreme Court has explained that "officials can still be on notice that their conduct violates established law even in novel factual circumstances."
Hope v. Pelzer
,
Even though this Court has not addressed a similar fact pattern where substantial injuries were inflicted on an individual with no preexisting sensitivity by handcuffing alone, our case law bars Lieutenant Ortiz's alleged actions with sufficient clarity to put any reasonable officer on notice that this conduct constituted excessive force. "
Graham
dictates unambiguously that the force used by a police officer in carrying out an arrest must be reasonably
*1312
proportionate to the need for that force,"
Lee
,
The issue of qualified immunity as to the supervisory liability claim can be dealt with quickly. "[I]f a police officer, whether supervisory or not, fails or refuses to intervene when a constitutional violation such as an unprovoked beating takes place in his presence, the officer is directly liable under Section 1983."
Ensley v. Soper
,
This claim is premised on the idea that Sebastian is unsure which officer -- Lieutenant Ortiz or Officer Doe -- actually applied the handcuffs. Sebastian alleges that if it was Doe, Ortiz is liable for failing to intervene in Doe's use of excessive force. As the district court correctly noted, the failure to intervene claim is therefore wholly dependent on the underlying excessive force claim. The parties do not dispute, at the motion to dismiss stage, whether Lieutenant Ortiz was in a position to intervene or whether he failed to do so, assuming that the unidentified officer actually applied the handcuffs. The only dispute is whether a constitutional violation occurred, so this issue necessarily turns on the analysis we have already set forth. Because Sebastian has adequately pleaded a clearly established constitutional violation of his right to be free from excessive force, Lieutenant Ortiz is not entitled to qualified immunity on the failure to intervene claim.
The district court did not err in denying Lieutenant Ortiz qualified immunity on either claim.
AFFIRMED.
Ortiz has recently been promoted to the rank of Captain. We use Ortiz's title at the time of the events for consistency and ease of reference.
Sebastian also renews his argument that the use of force was categorically unlawful because the traffic stop was unlawfully extended and Lieutenant Ortiz was not entitled to make an arrest.
See
Jackson v. Sauls
,
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By (44 total)
-
Corbitt v. Vickers, 929 F.3d 1304 (11th Cir. 2019)…sought $2,000,000 in damages (plus punitive damages), but their claims have been withdrawn or resolved and are not at issue in this appeal. [fn 1]: The summary of the facts is based on the allegations made in the Complaint. See Sebastian v. Ortiz, 918 F.3d 1301, 1307 (11th Cir. 2019) (noting that, at the motion to dismiss stage, “[w]e are required to accept all allegations in the complaint as true and draw all reasonable inferences in the plaintiff's favor”). [fn 2]: To the extent it turns on a question o…
-
Sureshbhai Patel v. City of Madison, 959 F.3d 1330 (11th Cir. 2020)…at 396. We have also considered (4) the need for force to be applied; (5) the amount of force applied in light of the nature of the need; and (6) the severity of the injury. Lee, 284 F.3d at 1197–98 (citations omitted); see also Sebastian v. Ortiz, 918 F.3d 1301, 1308 (11th Cir. 2019). But in a case where an officer uses "gratuitous and excessive force against a suspect who is under control, not resisting, and obeying commands,” Sebastian, 918 F.3d at 1308 (citation and quotation marks omitted), "we have r…1 / 2
-
Quincy A. Williams v. Correctional Officer Radford, 64 F.4th 1185 (11th Cir. 2023)…ce.”). Of course, a failure-to-intervene claim requires an underly- ing constitutional violation.“[A]n officer cannot be held liable for failing to stop or intervene when there was no constitutional viola- tion being committed.” Sebastian v. Ortiz, 918 F.3d 1301, 1312 (11th Cir. 2019). The magistrate judge and the district court granted judgment in favor of Officers Babcock and Short based on their determination that Mr. Williams had not shown any Eighth Amendment violation. See, e.g., D.E. 128 at 14 (“[E]s…
Previewing 3 of 44 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited (27 total)
- Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800 (U.S. 1982)
- Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635 (U.S. 1987)
- Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (U.S. 1989)
- Hope v. Pelzer, 536 U.S. 730 (U.S. 2002)
- LEE v. Ferraro, 284 F.3d 1188 (11th Cir. 2002)
- Vinyard v. Wilson, 311 F.3d 1340 (11th Cir. 2002)
- United States v. Lanier, 520 U.S. 259 (U.S. 1997)
- Priester v. City OF Riviera Beach, 208 F.3d 919 (11th Cir. 2000)
- Post v. City OF Fort Lauderdale, 7 F.3d 1552 (11th Cir. 1993)
- Mercado v. City OF Orlando, 407 F.3d 1152 (11th Cir. 2005)