4th Amendment Violation – Qualified Immunity

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Billie Thompson v. Lance Cope

Case No.: 17-3060

Officials: FLAUM, MANION, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

Focus: 4th Amendment Violation – Qualified Immunity

We address here two interlocutory appeals in a case stemming from the death of Dusty Heishman. In Indianapolis in October 2014, Heishman was high on amphetamines and running around naked in the street. Police responded and tried to subdue him. A paramedic arrived on the scene and administered a sedative to Heishman so he could be moved to an ambulance to be taken to an arrestee holding room at a hospital. Soon, Heishman’s heart and breathing stopped. Despite efforts to revive him, he died several days later.

Heishman’s estate sued, asserting federal Fourth Amendment claims and state-law tort claims. The district court denied qualified immunity to the paramedic on the excessive force claim. The court also allowed all but one of the state-law claims to proceed against the paramedic and the hospital without requiring the plaintiff estate to comply with the Indiana Medical Malpractice Act, Ind. Code § 34-18-1-1 et seq. The denial of qualified immunity is appealable as to legal issues, and the district court certified for interlocutory appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b) the state-law question whether the estate’s claims are covered by the Indiana Medical Malpractice Act.

We reverse as to both issues. The paramedic is entitled to qualified immunity on the excessive force claim. Case law did not (and does not) clearly establish that a paramedic can violate a patient-arrestee’s Fourth Amendment rights by exercising medical judgment to administer a sedative in a medical emergency. All of the state-law claims are subject to the substantive terms of Indiana’s Medical Malpractice Act, including damage caps and the requirement to submit the claim to a medical review panel before suit is filed. The undisputed facts show that the paramedic was exercising medical judgment in dealing with a patient in a medical emergency.

Reversed and Remanded

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.