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City of Crossville v. Haynes8/12/2005
ff at the facility made periodic checks on Smith. Shortly after Smith was placed in seclusion, the staff discovered that he had hanged himself.
Although the Court affirmed the summary judgment for the defendants on the basis of State-agent immunity, the Court also stated:
"Even if that defense [of State-agent immunity] was not available, we note that there is no evidence in the record that these defendants either should have or could have foreseen that Derryl Smith would take his own life. ... The trial court correctly concluded, based on all the pleadings and evidence, that, at the time and place it occurred, Derryl Smith's suicide was not reasonably foreseeable by these defendants."
Smith v. King, 615 So. 2d at 73.
In Williams v. Lee County, 78 F.3d 491 (11th Cir. 1996), the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that the evidence presented was legally insufficient to establish that Williams, the decedent, had manifested suicidal proclivities in the presence of the defendants. Williams had admitted himself to East Alabama Medical Center ("EAMC") for detoxification and treatment for drug abuse; however, he left that facility without medical authorization. On March 8, 1989, the Lee County Sheriff's Department took Williams into custody on the order of the probate court; that court had ordered Williams committed to the State Department of Mental Health for treatment. Pending transfer to a State mental-health facility, Williams was being held at the Lee County jail.
The Lee County Sheriff's Department had information from the probate court commitment order that Williams was "mentally ill; ... he poses a real and present threat of substantial harm to himself and to others." Williams, 78 F.3d at 492. The form also indicated that "Mr. Williams left the hospital without authorization and has homicidal intentions." Id.
Based on this information, the sheriff's office kept Williams under constant observation for two days in the booking area of the sheriff's office. At that time he was moved to a cell where he was checked every 15 to 20 minutes. On the afternoon of March 10, between 4:30 and 5:00, an officer checked on Williams in his cell. Williams said to the officer, "'I'm not going to make it. If I don't do it myself, somebody else will.'" Williams, 78 F. 3d at 492. The officer left the area of the cells, thought about the statement for several minutes, and concluded that Williams was presenting a threat to himself. When the officer returned to Williams's cell, he discovered Williams hanging by a sheet from a sprinkler head in the ceiling. Williams was pronounced dead at the scene.
Williams's father brought a wrongful-death action against Lee County and various individual defendants under Alabama law and a federal claim under 42 U.S.C. ยง 1983. The trial court entered a summary judgment for the defendants. In affirming the summary judgment on the state-law claim, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals stated that "there was insufficient evidence offered to permit a jury to find that Williams' suicide was foreseeable, based on any notice to the sheriff's officers or any manifestation of suicidal tendencies in the presence of defendants." Williams, 78 F. 3d at 493-94.
In Tittle v. Giattina, Fisher & Co., Architects, supra, this Court again found that the plaintiff had presented insufficient evidence to establish a duty to prevent the decedent's suicide. In Tittle, the Court noted that the decedent, Tittle, had not been admitted to the Jefferson County jail because of a suicide attempt. He had expressly denied a history of emotional or mental problems. The officers stated that during the booking p
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