Wilkins v. District of Columbia , 879 F. Supp. 2d 35 ( 2012 )


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  •                               UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
    FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
    ANTOINE L. WILKINS,
    Plaintiff,
    v.                            Civil Action 06-384 (RC)
    DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA,
    Defendant.
    MEMORANDUM OPINION
    While being held at the District of Columbia Central Detention Facility (“D.C. Jail”),
    Plaintiff Antoine Wilkins was stabbed by another detainee. He brought this action against the
    District of Columbia, asserting (among other claims) that the stabbing resulted from the
    District’s negligence. On July 26 and 27, 2010 the Honorable Henry H. Kennedy, Jr. presided
    over a trial in this case. The following day, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50(a),
    Judge Kennedy entered judgment as a matter of law in favor of the District. Mr. Wilkins now
    moves for reconsideration of that ruling as to his negligence claim.1
    I. BACKGROUND
    Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to Mr. Wilkins, Judge Kennedy
    summarized the facts of this case as follows:
    [A]t 9:15 a.m. on the morning of June 14th, 2005, George Foreman, an inmate at the
    D.C. Jail held on charges of first-degree murder, received a pass to go to the jail’s
    law library unaccompanied. The pass Foreman received . . . has no signature
    indicating that Foreman arrived at the library. No one from the library called
    Foreman’s housing unit to report that he had not arrived. So no corrections officer[s]
    were alerted [that] they should search for him.
    1
    The case was assigned to this district judge after Judge Kennedy’s retirement.
    According to plaintiff’s expert witness, this failure to monitor inmate movements
    violated national standards for the operation of jails.
    At 11:18 the same morning, the plaintiff received a pass to go to the jail’s mental
    health unit. After exiting his housing unit, he saw Foreman talking to a corrections
    officer. Wilkins kept walking, but by turning he was able to see Foreman enter a
    mop closet. He also thereafter saw Foreman shake hands with another inmate. As
    the two men approached an area at the top of an escalator, Foreman stabbed Wilkins
    nine times with a knife.
    During the presentation of the evidence there was testimony about mop closets like
    the one Foreman entered into prior to stabbing Wilkins. These closets are for storage
    of cleaning supplies. There was testimony that inmates had hidden contraband—that
    is, items that are not permitted at the jail—in the mop closets.
    These closets are supposed to be locked at all times, other than when the jail is being
    cleaned each afternoon. But there was evidence from which the jury could infer that
    all inmates except those who did not have jobs cleaning in the jail had access to
    them.
    According to the plaintiff’s expert witness, keeping mop closets locked at times
    when the general inmate population is permitted to be in the vicinity of the closets
    is in accordance with national standards of care for the operation of detention
    facilities.
    Trial Tr. at 4–5, July 28, 2010.2
    Based on this evidence and pursuant to Rule 50(a), which permits a court to grant
    judgment against a party if “the court finds that a reasonable jury would not have a legally
    sufficient evidentiary basis to find for the party on” the issue in question, FED. R. CIV. P.
    50(a)(1), Judge Kennedy granted judgment to the District. Assessing Mr. Wilkins’s negligence
    claim—the only claim at issue on this motion—Judge Kennedy concluded that Mr. Wilkins had
    2
    Having reviewed the trial transcript, the court concurs with Judge Kennedy’s summary
    of the evidence, except that a reasonable jury could have concluded that access to the mop
    closets at the jail was unrestricted, see Trial Tr. at 58–59, July 26, 2010, and that (as the court
    understands Judge Kennedy to have meant) the jail therefore failed to comply with a national
    standard of care for the operation of detention facilities.
    2
    failed to present sufficient evidence to allow a jury to conclude that the District could have
    foreseen Mr. Foreman’s violent attack. Mr. Wilkins now seeks the court’s reconsideration.
    II. LEGAL STANDARD
    Mr. Wilkins moves under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 59(a) and 59(e). The court
    will consider this motion under the latter rule, because “[r]egardless of the way a party
    characterizes a motion, a post-judgment filing challenging the correctness of the judgment falls
    within the perimeter of Rule 59(e).” Nyman v. FDIC, 
    967 F. Supp. 1562
    , 1569 (D.D.C. 1997).
    Rule 59(e) permits a court to alter or amend a judgment. FED. R. CIV. P. 59(e). “A Rule
    59(e) motion is discretionary and need not be granted unless the district court finds that there is
    an intervening change of controlling law, the availability of new evidence, or the need to correct
    a clear error or prevent manifest injustice.” Firestone v. Firestone, 
    76 F.3d 1205
    , 1208 (D.C.
    Cir. 1996) (per curiam) (internal quotation marks omitted).
    III. ANALYSIS
    A. Heightened Foreseeability and Ordinary Negligence Under D.C. Law
    “‘To establish negligence’ under D.C. law, ‘a plaintiff must prove a duty of care owed by
    the defendant to the plaintiff, a breach of that duty by the defendant, and damage to the interests
    of the plaintiff, proximately caused by the breach.’” Sigmund v. Starwood Urban Retail VI, LLC,
    
    617 F.3d 512
    , 514 (D.C. Cir. 2010) (quoting District of Columbia v. Beretta, U.S.A., Corp., 
    872 A.2d 633
    , 641 (D.C. 2005) (en banc) (quoting Potts v. District of Columbia, 
    697 A.2d 1249
    ,
    1252 (D.C. 1997))). When a plaintiff seeks to hold the defendant liable for injuries caused by
    the intervening criminal act of a third party, District of Columbia courts generally apply a
    “heightened foreseeability standard,” Bd. of Tr. of the Univ. of D.C. v. DiSalvo, 
    974 A.2d 868
    ,
    3
    871 (D.C. 2009); Bruno v. W. Union Fin. Servs., Inc., 
    973 A.2d 713
    , 719 (D.C. 2009) (per
    curiam), asking whether “the criminal act was so foreseeable that a duty arises to guard against
    it.” Sigmund, 
    617 F.3d at 514
     (quoting Beretta, 
    872 A.2d at 641
     (quoting Potts, 
    697 A.2d at 1252
     (D.C. 1997) (emphasis deleted))). Although courts usually consider “foreseeability . . .
    important to issues of proximate causation and conformity to the standard of care, issues that
    arise only after a duty has been found,” the D.C. Court of Appeals has “repeatedly spoken of the
    heightened foreseeability requirement in terms of duty.” Workman v. United Methodist Comm.
    on Relief, 
    320 F.3d 259
    , 265 (D.C. Cir. 2003) (citing Graham v. M. & J. Corp., 
    424 A.2d 103
    ,
    105 (D.C. 1980); Potts, 
    697 A.2d at 1252
    ); see also McKethean v. Wash. Metro. Area Transit
    Auth., 
    588 A.2d 708
    , 717 (D.C. 1991); District of Columbia v. Doe, 
    524 A.2d 30
    , 33 (D.C.
    1987); Lacy v. District of Columbia, 
    424 A.2d 317
    , 323 (D.C. 1980); Cook v. Safeway Stores,
    Inc., 
    354 A.2d 507
    , 509–10 (D.C. 1976). This court will not “attempt to resolve, as surrogate for
    the D.C. Court of Appeals, the analytical framework under which foreseeability is considered,”
    Doe v. Dominion Bank, 
    963 F.2d 1552
    , 1560 (D.C. Cir. 1992), especially when the en banc
    Court of Appeals has said that it sees “no need to reconsider that framework of analysis,”
    Beretta, 
    872 A.2d at
    641 n.4, and subsequently reaffirmed it. See DiSalvo, 
    974 A.2d at
    871–72
    (stating that “heightened foreseeability factors directly into the duty analysis” and that
    “consideration of whether a duty exists to protect another from intervening criminal acts includes
    consideration of heightened foreseeability”); Bruno, 
    973 A.2d at 719
     (noting that, when
    considering cases involving liability for intervening criminal acts, D.C. courts “apply a
    heightened foreseeability standard in determining whether [the defendant] had a duty of care”);
    
    id. at 720
     (discussing several cases involving liability for intervening criminal conduct where
    4
    “liability was rejected as a matter of law because ‘foreseeability (hence duty)’” was not
    established (quoting Beretta, 
    872 A.2d at 642
    )). Rather, when exercising pendent jurisdiction
    over claims brought under D.C. law,
    this court’s task is “to apply the law of the District of Columbia as its own courts would apply
    it.” Workman, 
    320 F.3d at 265
    ; see Dimond v. District of Columbia, 
    792 F.2d 179
    , 188 n.6 (D.C.
    Cir. 1986) (“Although the District of Columbia is not a state, this court has treated it as such for
    purposes of applying the doctrine of pendent jurisdiction.”). Those courts plainly understand the
    heightened foreseeability standard to be an element of the duty analysis in most cases involving
    allegations of liability for negligent failure to prevent the criminal conduct of others.3
    One prisoner’s attack on another is certainly criminal conduct. But in cases alleging
    government liability for jailhouse assaults, the existence of a duty is obvious: “In the District of
    Columbia, and in every other jurisdiction of which we are aware, penal authorities are under a
    duty to protect and safeguard the prisoners entrusted to their custody.” Haith v. District of
    3
    Both the D.C. Court of Appeals and the D.C. Circuit have applied that standard over
    many years and a wide range of factual settings. DiSalvo, 
    974 A.2d at
    870–71 (assault in a
    parking garage); Bruno, 
    973 A.2d at
    715–19 (violent robbery in a gas station); Beretta, 
    872 A.2d at
    639–45 (distribution of guns used in crime); Potts, 
    697 A.2d at
    1250–52 (injury by unknown
    gunshots as attendees exited boxing match); Bailey v. District of Columbia, 
    668 A.2d 817
    ,
    818–19 (D.C. 1995) (injury by gunshot as attendee exited cheerleading competition); Clement v.
    Peoples Drug Store, 
    634 A.2d 425
    , 426–28 (D.C. 1993) (shooting in a drug store); McKethean,
    
    588 A.2d at
    710–11 (collision of car and pedestrians at a bus stop); Doe, 
    524 A.2d at
    31–33
    (abduction from school property and subsequent rape); Lacy, 
    424 A.2d at 323
     (sexual assault by
    school janitor); Graham, 
    424 A.2d at
    104–05 (arson in apartment building); Cook, 
    354 A.2d at
    507–10 (robbery in grocery store); see also Sigmund, 
    617 F.3d at
    513–14 (car bomb in parking
    garage); Novak v. Capital Mgmt. & Dev. Corp., 
    452 F.3d 902
    , 904, 911–14 (D.C. Cir. 2006)
    (assault outside of nightclub); Workman, 
    320 F.3d at
    260–62 (aid worker murdered abroad);
    Dominion Bank, 
    963 F.2d at
    1553–60 (rape on leased property); Kline v. 1500 Mass. Ave.
    Apartment Corp., 
    439 F.2d 477
    , 478–80, 483–84 (D.C. Cir. 1970) (assault in apartment
    building).
    5
    Columbia, 
    526 A.2d 17
    , 19 (D.C. 1987); see also District of Columbia v. Moreno, 
    647 A.2d 396
    ,
    398 (D.C. 1994) (quoting Haith); District of Columbia v. Carmichael, 
    577 A.2d 312
    , 314 (D.C.
    1990) (discussing the District’s “duty to protect [prisoners] from harm”). And so the D.C. Court
    of Appeals does not employ the heightened foreseeability standard when analyzing the
    government’s duty to protect inmates from assault. Instead, that court applies “an ordinary
    negligence standard,”4 under which an assaulted prisoner must establish an applicable standard
    of care, deviation from that standard, and injury proximately caused by the deviation. Hughes v.
    District of Columbia, 
    425 A.2d 1299
    , 1302 (D.C. 1981) (“[T]he fact that an inmate is assaulted
    and sustains injuries, does not, by itself, establish liability. The plaintiff must establish by
    competent evidence a standard of care; that the defendant violated that standard; and that such
    violation proximately caused injury to the plaintiff.” (citation omitted)); see also Moreno, 
    647 A.2d at 398
    ; Carmichael, 
    577 A.2d at 314
    ; Haith, 
    526 A.2d at 19
    . Applying D.C. law, this
    Circuit does the same. Daskalea v. District of Columbia, 
    227 F.3d 433
    , 444–45 (D.C. Cir. 2000)
    (“Under District of Columbia law, prison authorities have ‘a duty to exercise reasonable care
    under the circumstances in the protection and safekeeping of prisoners’ . . . . The District may be
    held liable for damages caused by its negligence in carrying out that duty.” (quoting Toy v.
    4
    Matthews v. District of Columbia, 
    387 A.2d 731
    , 734 (D.C. 1978). In Matthews, the
    Court of Appeals rejected the argument that “the prison environment evokes the need for a
    special standard of care—one referred to as ‘the prior notice rule.’” 
    Id. at 733
    . That rule would
    have limited liability to situations in which “[penal] authorities, alerted by some antecedent
    danger signal, usually stemming from the known violent or dangerous nature of the assailant or
    known threats to the victim, fail to take adequate precautionary measures despite such notice.”
    
    Id.
     Although the court described the prior notice rule in terms of standard of care rather than
    duty, the rejected rule strongly resembles the heightened foreseeability standard. Indeed, the
    Court of Appeals has said that for a jury to find heightened foreseeability, “there must be some
    evidence that the defendant was, or should have been, on prior notice that the intervening
    criminal act was reasonably likely to occur.” DiSalvo, 
    974 A.2d at 872
     (emphasis added).
    6
    District of Columbia, 
    549 A.2d 1
    , 6 (D.C. 1988)); Murphy v. United States, 
    653 F.2d 637
    , 646
    (D.C. Cir. 1981) (assuming that a duty exists and holding that “the jury could have found that
    [the evidence presented was] sufficient . . . to infer that the [prison] staff’s negligence
    proximately caused Murphy’s injury”); but see Ashford v. District of Columbia, 
    2006 WL 2711530
    , at *5 (D.D.C. Sept. 21, 2006) (applying heightened foreseeability standard to a prison
    assault).
    “Prison personnel are not . . . insurers of an inmate’s safety.” Hughes, 
    425 A.2d at 1302
    ;
    accord Matthews, 
    387 A.2d at 734
    . “Thus when a prisoner is assaulted by some of his fellow
    prisoners, the District is not ipso facto liable for his injuries.” Moreno, 
    647 A.2d at 398
     (quoting
    Haith, 
    526 A.2d at 19
    ); accord Hughes, 
    425 A.2d at 1302
    . But such an assault is not as
    extraordinary as criminal conduct in everyday life. The District’s common law acknowledges
    that “many prisoners are dangerous individuals,” Moreno, 
    647 A.2d at 398
    , and therefore
    “impose[s] upon prison authorities and employees, a duty to exercise reasonable care in the
    protection and safekeeping of prisoners,” Hughes, 
    425 A.2d at 1302
    . If an “injured inmate [can]
    show both that the District breached its duty to protect him from harm and that his injuries were
    a proximate result of that breach,” Carmichael, 
    577 A.2d at 314
    , then “it is only proper that the
    responsible entity . . . be held liable,” Matthews, 
    387 A.2d at 734
    , without the inmate having to
    show that the danger was unusually apparent.
    Because this case involves the District of Columbia’s alleged liability for the injuries that
    Mr. Wilkins suffered in a jailhouse assault, it must be evaluated under “an ordinary negligence
    standard” rather than the heightened foreseeability standard that governs most other cases of
    liability for the criminal acts of others. Matthews, 
    387 A.2d at 734
    . In their briefs on the
    7
    District’s summary judgment motion and their oral argument on its Rule 50 motion, neither party
    correctly identified the governing precedent. Nor have they done so on this motion for
    reconsideration. Instead, the District has consistently—and erroneously—argued in support of a
    heightened foreseeability standard, and Mr. Wilkins has failed to rebut that argument. Applying
    the law that both parties accepted, Judge Kennedy found that the evidence presented by Mr.
    Wilkins was insufficient to allow a reasonable jury to conclude that the District had a heightened
    ability to foresee Mr. Foreman’s violent attack. The court now considers whether the evidence
    presented would have allowed the jury to find for Mr. Wilkins under “an ordinary negligence
    standard.” Matthews, 
    387 A.2d at 734
    .
    B. The Legal Sufficiency of Mr. Wilkins’s Evidence
    As discussed above, to prove negligence under D.C. law, a plaintiff must establish the
    defendant’s duty, the standard of care (which gives content to that duty), a deviation from that
    standard—that is, a breach of the duty—and injury proximately caused by the breach. Because
    Mr. Wilkins was in the custody of the D.C. Jail, the District’s duty is clear. See Moreno, 
    647 A.2d at 398
    ; Carmichael, 
    577 A.2d at 314
    ; Haith, 
    526 A.2d at 19
    . “The question of whether
    prison officials acted reasonably to secure the safety of an inmate is not one within the realm of
    the everyday experiences of a lay person,” so Mr. Wilkins was required to present expert
    testimony to establish the standard of care. Carmichael, 
    577 A.2d at 314
     (quoting Hughes, 
    425 A.2d at 1303
    ); accord Moreno, 
    647 A.2d at 399
    . He did so. From the evidence presented at
    trial, a jury could have concluded that national standards of care for inmate access to mop closets
    and the monitoring of inmate movements had been proven, and that the District had failed to
    conform to those standards. Trial Tr. at 4–5, July 28, 2010. The remaining question is whether
    8
    the evidence would have allowed a jury to find that Mr. Wilkins’s injuries were proximately
    caused by the District’s breach.
    “Proximate cause has two elements: a cause-in-fact element and a policy element.”
    Blaize v. United States, 
    21 A.3d 78
    , 82 (D.C. 2011) (quoting Butts v. United States, 
    822 A.2d 407
    , 417 (D.C. 2003)). The Court of Appeals “has adopted the ‘substantial factor’ test set out in
    the Restatement of Torts for determining whether a negligent act or omission is the cause-in-fact
    of a plaintiff’s injury.” District of Columbia v. Carlson, 
    793 A.2d 1285
    , 1288 (D.C. 2002)
    (citing Lacy, 
    424 A.2d at 321
    ; Graham v. Roberts, 
    441 F.2d 995
    , 998 n.3 (D.C. Cir. 1970)).
    “The Restatement says that ‘[t]he actor’s negligent conduct is a legal cause of harm to another if
    . . . his conduct is a substantial factor in bringing about the harm . . . .’” 
    Id.
     (quoting
    RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF TORTS § 431 (1965) (alterations in original)); accord Majeska v.
    District of Columbia, 
    812 A.2d 948
    , 951 (D.C. 2002). “The ‘policy element’ of proximate cause
    includes various factors which relieve a defendant of liability even when his actions were the
    cause-in-fact of the injury.” Majeska, 
    812 A.2d at 951
     (quoting Carlson, 
    793 A.2d at 1290
    ).
    The foreseeability of the injury—considered in its usual and not its heightened form—is
    prominent among those factors, because “a defendant ‘may not be held liable for harm actually
    caused where the chain of events leading to the injury appears highly extraordinary in
    retrospect.’” Carlson, 
    793 A.2d at 1290
     (quoting Morgan v. District of Columbia, 
    468 A.2d 1306
    , 1318 (D.C. 1983) (en banc) (internal quotation marks omitted)); accord Majeska, 
    812 A.2d at 951
    . “Although the intervening act of another makes the causal connection between the
    defendant’s negligence and the plaintiff’s injury more attenuated, such an act does not by itself
    make the injury unforeseeable.” Majeska, 
    812 A.2d at 951
     (quoting Carlson, 
    793 A.2d at 1290
    ).
    9
    Defendants who have breached a duty are therefore held “responsible for the damages which
    result, despite the intervention of another’s act in the chain of causation, if the danger of an
    intervening negligent or criminal act should have been reasonably anticipated and protected
    against.” 
    Id.
     (quoting Carlson, 
    793 A.2d at 1290
     (quoting Lacy, 
    424 A.2d at 323
    )). In sum,
    “[t]o establish proximate cause, the plaintiff must present evidence from which a reasonable
    juror could find that there was a direct and substantial causal relationship between the
    defendant’s breach of the standard of care and the plaintiff’s injuries and that the injuries were
    foreseeable.” District of Columbia v. Zukerberg, 
    880 A.2d 276
    , 281 (D.C. 2005) (quoting
    District of Columbia v. Wilson, 
    721 A.2d 591
    , 600 (D.C. 1998) (quoting District of Columbia v.
    Watkins, 
    684 A.2d 395
    , 402 (D.C. 1996))).
    “[A] plaintiff may meet his burden by offering either direct or circumstantial evidence.”
    Id.; accord Speights v. 800 Water Street, Inc., 
    4 A.3d 471
    , 476 (D.C. 2010) (“In this case . . . the
    circumstantial evidence was sufficient to enable [the plaintiff] to meet his burden of
    production.”); Doe v. Binker, 
    492 A.2d 857
    , 861 (D.C. 1985) (Although “circumstantial
    evidence, by its nature, is probative in varying degrees . . . . circumstantial evidence may be
    sufficient to establish a case for the jury.”). Relying on circumstantial evidence does not require
    a jury to speculate. “‘Speculate,’ as used in negligence cases, is a word of art with a definite and
    limited meaning.” Jimenez v. Hawk, 
    683 A.2d 457
    , 461 (D.C. 1996) (quoting Courtney v. Giant
    Food, Inc., 
    221 A.2d 92
    , 94 (D.C. 1966)). When courts applying D.C. law say that the
    “[s]ufficiency of the evidence to support a claim for relief may not be established by jury
    speculation,” Milone v. Wash. Metro. Area Transit Auth., 
    91 F.3d 229
    , 232 (D.C. Cir. 1996)
    (applying D.C. law), they mean, “in effect, that a jury should never be permitted to guess as to a
    10
    material element of the case such as . . . causation,” Jimenez, 
    683 A.2d at
    461–62 (quoting
    Courtney, 
    221 A.2d at 94
    ). But there is a difference between “mere conjecture” and “legitimate
    deduction.” Marinopoliski v. Irish, 
    445 A.2d 339
    , 341 (D.C. 1982); accord Kincheloe v.
    Safeway Stores, Inc., 
    285 A.2d 699
    , 701 (D.C. 1972). When sufficient circumstantial evidence is
    presented, “a jury is not left in the domain of speculation, but they have circumstances upon
    which, as reasonable minds, they may ground their conclusions.” McCoy v. Quadrangle Dev.
    Corp., 
    470 A.2d 1256
    , 1260 (D.C. 1983) (internal quotation marks omitted).
    The evidence presented by Mr. Wilkins was largely circumstantial. There was no direct
    evidence of how Mr. Foreman acquired the knife that he used to stab Mr. Wilkins, nor of Mr.
    Foreman’s movements in the two hours between the time that he received the library pass and
    the time that Mr. Wilkins saw him talking to a corrections officer. But a reasonable jury could
    have inferred that Mr. Foreman was freely moving throughout the jail during that time, because
    his pass did not bear a signature indicating that he arrived at the library, as one witness testified
    that it normally would. Trial Tr. at 25, July 26, 2012. Having made this inference, a jury could
    have gone on to conclude that the District’s failure to conform to the standard of care for
    monitoring Mr. Foreman’s movements had been a substantial factor in his attack on Mr.
    Wilkins—because Mr. Foreman would not have been in a position to attack Mr. Wilkins if he
    had been properly monitored—and that the danger of such an attack by one inmate on another
    should have been reasonably anticipated and protected against. Indeed, the danger of such an
    attack is one important reason that penal authorities are under a duty of care. “Where evidence
    of the failure to adhere to a reasonable standard of care exists, and the ‘injury which has in fact
    occurred is precisely the sort of thing that proper care on the part of the defendant would be
    11
    intended to prevent,’ not only is the existence of proximate cause a jury question, but ‘the court
    can . . . allow a certain liberality to the jury in drawing its conclusion.’” Murphy, 
    653 F.2d at 650
     (quoting W. PROSSER, LAW OF TORTS 243 (4th ed. 1971)) (applying D.C. law). In sum, the
    circumstantial evidence of Mr. Foreman’s freedom of movement is enough to have allowed a
    jury to conclude that the District’s negligence was a proximate cause of Mr. Wilkins’s
    injury—and the jury need not have engaged in impermissible speculation to reach that
    conclusion.5
    IV. CONCLUSION
    “Questions of proximate cause are usually questions of fact.” Carlson, 
    793 A.2d at 1288
    .
    “It is only in a case where the facts are undisputed and, considering every legitimate inference,
    only one conclusion may be drawn, that the trial court may rule as a matter of law on . . .
    proximate cause.” Wash. Metro. Area Transit Auth. v. Jones, 
    443 A.2d 45
    , 50 (D.C. 1982) (en
    banc). This is not the “exceptional case[]” in which “questions of . . . proximate cause pass from
    5
    The question of whether a reasonable jury could have concluded that Mr. Foreman’s
    access to the mop closet was also a proximate cause of Mr. Wilkins’s injury is a closer one. On
    the evidence presented, it is possible that Mr. Foreman had the knife used in the attack on his
    person when Mr. Wilkins passed him in the hall, or that he retrieved it from the mop closet
    shortly after seeing Mr. Wilkins, or that he somehow acquired it from the inmate whose hand he
    shook after leaving the closet. The jury heard evidence about shakedowns and random searches
    of inmates at the D.C. Jail, from which it could have inferred that neither Mr. Foreman nor the
    inmate he greeted was likely to be carrying the knife on his person as he walked the halls. The
    jury also heard evidence that contraband had been stored in mop closets, and that Mr. Foreman
    went into the closet just after Mr. Wilkins saw him (and, presumably, just after he saw Mr.
    Wilkins). That sequence of events could suggest that Mr. Foreman saw an opportunity to attack
    Mr. Wilkins and knew where to find a weapon with which to do so. If the jury concluded that
    Mr. Foreman retrieved the knife from the mop closet, then it could certainly have determined
    that his access to that closet was a proximate cause of the injury in this case. But the court can
    resolve this motion without determining whether the evidence would have supported a jury’s
    conclusion that the knife was in fact stored in the mop closet, and so leaves that question
    unanswered at this time.
    12
    the realm of fact to one of law.” Majeska, 
    812 A.2d at 950
     (Carlson, 
    793 A.2d at 1288
     (quoting
    Shu v. Basinger, 
    57 A.2d 295
    , 295–96 (D.C. 1948))). Those questions are therefore a jury’s to
    decide.
    For the foregoing reasons, this court will vacate the judgment as to Mr. Wilkins’s
    negligence claim and order a new trial.
    Rudolph Contreras
    United States District Judge
    Date: July 24, 2012
    13
    

Document Info

Docket Number: Civil Action No. 2006-0384

Citation Numbers: 879 F. Supp. 2d 35, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 102111, 2012 WL 3008213

Judges: Judge Rudolph Contreras

Filed Date: 7/24/2012

Precedential Status: Precedential

Modified Date: 11/7/2024

Authorities (41)

Speights v. 800 Water Street, Inc. , 2010 D.C. App. LEXIS 546 ( 2010 )

District of Columbia v. Watkins , 1996 D.C. App. LEXIS 232 ( 1996 )

Myrna O'Dell Firestone v. Leonard K. Firestone , 76 F.3d 1205 ( 1996 )

Workman, Mary Ann v. United Meth Com , 320 F.3d 259 ( 2003 )

Kincheloe v. Safeway Stores, Inc. , 1972 D.C. App. LEXIS 321 ( 1972 )

Blaize v. United States , 21 A.3d 78 ( 2011 )

Gerald B. Murphy, a Minor, by and Through His Parents and ... , 653 F.2d 637 ( 1981 )

District of Columbia v. Wilson , 1998 D.C. App. LEXIS 230 ( 1998 )

Cook v. Safeway Stores, Inc. , 1976 D.C. App. LEXIS 494 ( 1976 )

Bailey v. District of Columbia , 1995 D.C. App. LEXIS 235 ( 1995 )

McKethean v. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority , 1991 D.C. App. LEXIS 70 ( 1991 )

Majeska v. District of Columbia , 2002 D.C. App. LEXIS 739 ( 2002 )

Clement v. Peoples Drug Store, Inc. , 1993 D.C. App. LEXIS 301 ( 1993 )

Potts v. District of Columbia , 1997 D.C. App. LEXIS 188 ( 1997 )

Shu v. Basinger , 1948 D.C. App. LEXIS 132 ( 1948 )

Jane Doe v. Dominion Bank of Washington, N.A , 963 F.2d 1552 ( 1992 )

McCoy v. Quadrangle Development Corp. , 1983 D.C. App. LEXIS 558 ( 1983 )

Patricia Ann Milone v. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit ... , 91 F.3d 229 ( 1996 )

Raymond Graham v. Vernell R. Roberts , 441 F.2d 995 ( 1970 )

District of Columbia v. Carlson , 2002 D.C. App. LEXIS 66 ( 2002 )

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