Hamilton v. Westchester Cnty.

3 F.4th 86

Davonte HAMILTON, Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.WESTCHESTER COUNTY, Raul Ulloa, Medical Director, Joseph K. Spano, Westchester County Department of Corrections Commissioner, Francis Delgrosso, Assistant Warden, Karl Vollmer, Assistant Warden, Leandro Diaz, Acting Deputy Commissioner, Correct Care Solutions, LLC, Defendants-Appellees.

Docket No. 20-1058-pr

August Term 2020

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued: January 8, 2021

Decided: June 30, 2021

Tamara Livshiz, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, New York, New York (Samuel Weiss and Kelly Jo Popkin, Rights Behind Bars, Washington, D.C., and Brooklyn, New York, on the brief), for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Justin R. Adin, Deputy County Attorney, for John M. Nonna, Westchester County Attorney, White Plains, New York, for Defendants-Appellees Westchester County, Joseph K. Spano, Francis Delgrosso, Karl Vollmer, and Leandro Diaz.

Paul A. Sanders, Barclay Damon LLP, Rochester, New York, for Defendants-Appellees Correct Care Solutions, LLC, Raul Ulloa, and Westchester County.

Before: Calabresi, Raggi, and Chin, Circuit Judges.

Chin, Circuit Judge:

In 2018, while incarcerated at the Westchester County Jail (the "Jail"), plaintiff-appellant Davonte Hamilton dislocated his knee and tore his meniscus when he stepped on crumbled concrete in the recreational yard. Proceeding pro se , Hamilton filed suit in the Southern District of New York, bringing claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (the "ADA"), 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq. , against defendants-appellants Westchester County (the "County") as well as certain County officials, Joseph K. Spano, Francis Delgrosso, Karl Vollmer, and Leandro Diaz (together with the County, the "County defendants"), and Correct Care Solutions, LLC ("CCS") and Dr. Raul Ulloa (together with CCS, the "medical defendants"), alleging deliberate indifference and failure to accommodate his disabilities.

Both sets of defendants filed motions to dismiss Hamilton's claims pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The district court (Román, J. ) granted the motions. As relevant here, in dismissing Hamilton's ADA claim against the County, the district court held that Hamilton had only alleged the existence of temporary injuries and thus had not plausibly alleged a "qualifying disability under the ADA." J. App'x at 29. The district court did not reach any of the other elements of Hamilton's ADA claim.

As discussed more fully below, we conclude that the district court erred in categorically excluding short-term injuries from qualifying as a "disability" under the ADA. Accordingly, we VACATE the district court's opinion and order to the extent it dismisses Hamilton's ADA claim against the County, we REMAND for further proceedings as to that claim only, and we AFFIRM the dismissal of all other claims.¹

BACKGROUND

The following facts are drawn from Hamilton's complaint, and are assumed to be true. See Ricci v. Teamsters Union Local 456 , 781 F.3d 25, 26 (2d Cir. 2015).

On August 21, 2018, while playing basketball in the recreational yard at the Jail, Hamilton stepped onto a crumbled piece of concrete, dislocating his knee and tearing his meniscus. On August 27, 2018, Hamilton received medical attention at the Westchester Medical Center (the "Medical Center"), which provided him with a "knee stabilizer" and recommended that he receive an "immediate MRI." J. App'x at 49. Ulloa, the medical director of CCS, the contractor responsible for treating Hamilton at the Jail, disregarded the recommendation, causing Hamilton's injury to "settle." Id. Ulloa and CCS replaced his knee stabilizer with an elastic ace bandage, which failed to keep Hamilton's knee in alignment, resulting in "severe pain." Id.

On or about August 28, 2018, Hamilton filed a grievance about the dilapidated condition of the courtyard with "Sergeant Hollis." Id. at 54. Sergeant Hollis accepted Hamilton's grievance regarding the courtyard but did not timely respond, prompting Hamilton to file an appeal with the Jail's "grievance coordinator, which was never answered or responded to." Id . While the Jail closed the courtyard where Hamilton's injury occurred, it did not repair the courtyard floor, which had been in disrepair "for an extended duration (30 years)." Id. at 45.

After his injury, Hamilton had to use crutches, and felt both numbness and throbbing pain as he navigated the Jail with his "wobbling" knee. Id. at 50. Because standing caused "excruciating pain" even with crutches, Hamilton had difficulty moving around his housing unit and his own cell, which, like the courtyard, had cracked and damaged concrete flooring. Id. Because his housing unit lacked accessibility ramps and was accessible only through stairs, he could not go outside for recreational activities after his injury.

Inside the housing unit, inmates also needed to climb over a two-and-a-half-foot step to get into the shower stalls. This caused Hamilton "excruciating pain" when getting in and out of the shower. Id. at 46. Once inside the stalls, it was "physically impractical" for Hamilton to clean himself, as he had to stand with his crutches in the shower, which lacked mats to provide traction on the slippery floors or benches or rails to assist disabled individuals. Id. The showers also emitted heat and steam, which lingered in the housing unit due to inadequate ventilation. The trapped humidity made it difficult for Hamilton to breathe and covered the ceilings, including Hamilton's cell ceiling, in condensation that caused rusty water to fall on inmates' bodies, beds, and personal items.

"[T]hrough [Hamilton's] grievances, and other grievances filed for similar/identical claims or concerns," the County was on notice of: (1) the damaged flooring in the courtyard, (2) the poor conditions of the housing unit "1-East" (poor ventilation, damaged flooring, lack of benches or shower rails to assist disabled inmates), and (3) the two-and-a-half-foot step into the slippery shower stalls. Id. at 49.

On or about September 4, 2018, Hamilton attempted to file a grievance with "Sergeant Kitt" about the heat, ventilation, and condensation in the housing unit, but Sergeant Kitt refused to accept Hamilton's grievance and instead stated, "I'm sick of you f---ing crybabies this is jail handle it." Id. at 48.

Hamilton was also subjected to strip searches after two family visits, including a September 5, 2018 visit. Because the strip-search area did not have a bench or rails for an inmate to use while undressing and dressing, Hamilton had to stand on his injured knee, causing him "severe" and "excruciating pain." Id. at 46-47.

On September 9, 2018, Hamilton, proceeding pro se , filed the instant suit. On February 24, 2020, the district court granted the state defendants' and medical defendants' motions to dismiss Hamilton's claims. The district court's sole basis for dismissing Hamilton's ADA claim against the County was that Hamilton had "not plausibly alleged a qualifying disability under the ADA," because temporary disabilities -- such as Hamilton's injuries -- "do not trigger the protections of the ADA." J. App'x at 29. The district court dismissed Hamilton's complaint without prejudice, giving him until March 27, 2020 to file an amended complaint, failing which the claims would be "deemed dismissed with prejudice." J. App'x at 30. Hamilton did not file an amended complaint. This appeal followed.²

On December 11, 2018, Hamilton was relocated to the Queens Private Detention Center in Jamaica, New York.

DISCUSSION

I. Standard of Review

"We review a district court's grant of a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) de novo ." Dane v. UnitedHealthcare Ins. Co. , 974 F.3d 183, 188 (2d Cir. 2020). "To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face." Id. (quoting Ashcroft v. Iqbal , 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) ). "We accept as true all factual allegations and draw from them all reasonable inferences; but we are not required to credit conclusory allegations or legal conclusions couched as factual allegations." Id. (citation and alterations omitted).

II. Applicable Law

In 1990, Congress enacted the ADA "to provide a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities" and "to provide clear, strong, consistent, enforceable standards addressing discrimination against individuals with disabilities." 42 U.S.C. § 12101(b)(1)-(2). "The Act's first three titles prohibit discrimination against individuals with disabilities ‘in three major areas of public life’: employment and hiring (Title I); public services, programs, and activities (Title II); and public accommodations (Title III)." Tardif v. City of New York , 991 F.3d 394, 403 (2d Cir. 2021) (quoting Tennessee v. Lane , 541 U.S. 509, 516-17, 124 S.Ct. 1978, 158 L.Ed.2d 820 (2004) ).

Title II, at issue here, provides that "no qualified individual with a disability shall, by reason of such disability, be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of the services, programs, or activities of a public entity, or be subjected to discrimination by any such entity." 42 U.S.C. § 12132. "To establish a claim under Title II, a plaintiff must demonstrate ‘(1) that she is a qualified individual with a disability; (2) that she was excluded from participation in a public entity's services, programs or activities or was otherwise discriminated against by a public entity; and (3) that such exclusion or discrimination was due to her disability.’ " Tardif , 991 F.3d at 404 (quoting Davis v. Shah , 821 F.3d 231, 259 (2d Cir. 2016) ). A plaintiff may base a Title II claim "on any of three theories of liability: disparate treatment (intentional discrimination), disparate impact, or failure to make a reasonable accommodation." Id. ; see Dean v....