SUPERIOR
COURT OF NEW
JERSEY
APPELLATE
DIVISION
A-280-98T2
DAVID A. JIOSI,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
TOWNSHIP OF NUTLEY, TOWNSHIP OF
NUTLEY POLICE DEPARTMENT,
MOUNTAINSIDE HOSPITAL, FRANK JUHASZ,
M.D., RUTH CALLENDER, R.N., ROBIN
RADEDAGEL, R.N., OFFICER FRANK
BEARD, OFFICER ANTHONY
IANNICELLI,
SERGEANT GEORGE QUIGG, and SERGEANT
STRUMULO,
Defendants-Respondents.
________________________________________
Argued May 23, 2000 --
Decided June 20,
2000
Before Judges
Pressler, Kimmelman and
Ciancia.
On appeal from
the Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Essex
County.
Michael Wiseberg
argued the cause for
appellant.
Michael A.
Graham argued the cause for respondents Township of Nutley, Township of Nutley
Police Department, Officer Frank Beard, Officer Anthony Iannicelli, Sergeant
George Quigg and Sergeant Strumulo (Garrity, Graham, Favetta & Flinn,
attorneys; Mr. Graham of counsel; Jane Garrity Glass on the brief).
The opinion of the court was delivered
by
CIANCIA, J.A.D.
Plaintiff David A. Jiosi was arrested and charged
with driving under the influence of a controlled dangerous substance. The police
took him to defendant Mountainside Hospital where blood was drawn for testing
with plaintiff's permission. Plaintiff was then involuntarily catheterized so
that a urine sample could be extracted. Defendant sued the hospital, two of its
nurses and Dr. Frank Juhasz on theories of battery and negligence, among others.
He also sued the Township of Nutley, the Nutley Police Department and four of
its police officers pursuant to 42 U.S.C.A. §1983.
Two summary judgment motions were heard by different
judges. The first motion resulted in summary judgment in favor of defendants
Mountainside Hospital, its nurses and Dr. Juhasz, on the theory that they were
entitled to immunity pursuant to N.J.S.A. 2A:62A-10. That statutes
provides in part:
The second summary judgment motion resulted in
dismissal of plaintiff's claims against the Township of Nutley, the Township
Police Department and the named police officers. The substantive reasons for
that judgment were that plaintiff's constitutional rights had not been violated
and, in any event, the police officers were "likely" entitled to qualified
immunity.
We are satisfied that summary judgment was
improperly granted except as to the Township of Nutley, the Nutley Police
Department and police Sergeants Quigg and Strumulo. On a motion for summary
judgment the initial question is whether there is a genuine issue of material
fact. R. 4:46-2(c). The determination of that question requires the
motion judge to consider, "whether the competent evidential materials presented,
when viewed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party in consideration
of the applicable evidentiary standard, are sufficient to permit a rational fact
finder to resolve the alleged dispute in favor of the non-moving party."
Brill v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of America, 142
N.J. 520, 523 (1995).
Viewing the competent
evidential materials in a light most favorable to Jiosi, a reasonable fact
finder could reach the following conclusions. See footnote 11 On April 23, 1993, plaintiff's
erratic driving caused him to be arrested and charged with operating a vehicle
while under the influence. Because there was no smell of alcohol on his breath
he was suspected of being under the influence of drugs. He was taken to the
police station and read his Miranda See footnote 22 rights. At the direction of
Sergeant Strumulo, Jiosi was taken to Mountainside Hospital for a blood test by
Officers Beard and Iannicelli. The blood was to be tested for drugs at the State
Police lab. They arrived at the hospital shortly after midnight and the police
officers explained the circumstances. As one nurse stated in her deposition,
"[t]hey said this patient was under arrest and they needed to get blood sample."
They did not request a urine test and it was not police policy to obtain a urine
sample under these circumstances. Plaintiff's blood was drawn within a half-hour
of his arrival at the hospital. After the blood was drawn a doctor told Officer
Beard that it was the hospital's policy to take a urine sample in addition to a
blood sample when screening for drugs. The reason for the policy was that the
hospital laboratory only tested blood for a limited number of substances and a
urine test was more extensive. Plaintiff agreed to provide a urine sample but
was unable to do so. He was handcuffed in the bathroom and given five to ten
glasses of water to drink over approximately a half-hour.
While waiting for plaintiff to provide a urine
sample, the police were told by a nurse that a catheter would be used if
plaintiff did not voluntarily produce a sample. The catheterization was ordered
by Dr. Juhasz. Officer Beard called the police station and told Sergeant Quigg
that the hospital wanted to take a urine sample. Beard did not mention
catheterization. Quigg told Beard it was okay to go ahead and have a urine
sample taken. It was "not even a ten-second call." Beard then relayed Quigg's
approval to hospital personnel.
Plaintiff was told
by one of the police officers that if he did not urinate he would be
catheterized. At that point plaintiff asked to call his lawyer but the request
was not granted. A nurse wiggled a catheter tube at plaintiff and told him if he
did not "pee within the next two minutes" that was what he was going to get.
What he got was described by plaintiff in his deposition
testimony:
The
police come through the bathroom door, uncuffed me from the bar, restrained me,
I think they even cuffed me behind my back, with an orderly and doctor there
present and the nurse and they dragged me and half carried me and restrained me
onto the table and then proceeded with the catheterization when I was fighting
and kicking the whole way.
According to hospital records, plaintiff was
catheterized at 1:26 a.m., one hour and sixteen minutes after being brought to
the hospital and about forty-six minutes after plaintiff first was given water
to help him urinate.
The purpose of
N.J.S.A. 2A:62A-10 is to encourage medical personnel to cooperate with
law enforcement officers in obtaining bodily substance specimens. Senate Law,
Public Safety and Defense Committee, Statement to S. 1089 (enacted as
L.1986, c.189). It does not provide immunity under all
circumstances. The sample must be requested by a law enforcement officer or,
alternatively, it must have been obtained for an accepted medical purpose. In
either case a sample must be obtained in a medically accepted manner.
On the proofs here presented, a reasonable fact
finder could conclude that the police did not want, nor request, a urine sample
from plaintiff. The idea was initiated by hospital personnel not in an effort to
comply with a police request, but by virtue of a hospital policy requiring both
blood and urine samples. This policy was established due to the limitations of
the hospital laboratory in evaluating blood samples for drugs, a limitation not
shared by the State Police laboratory where plaintiff's blood was tested. It was
not until after plaintiff's blood was drawn that the police officers were told
that a urine sample was needed. At that point Officer Beard called Sergeant
Quigg and received approval for a urine sample to be taken but without informing
Quigg that plaintiff would be catheterized.
If a
jury accepted this version of the facts it could properly conclude that the
urine sample was taken because of hospital policy not in response to a request
from the police. That the police eventually went along with the forced
catheterization does not alter the primary reason for the procedure. It is
interesting that at the second summary judgment hearing where the focus was on
the municipal defendants, the motion judge found that "[Dr.] Juhasz ordered the
plaintiff to be catheterized and Nurse Seiber performed the procedure. . . .
This was done after the nurse and doctor informed the officers that this was
standard hospital procedure. So technically the police officers were not
instrumental in that process."
Subsection b. of
N.J.S.A. 2A:62A-10 is not implicated in the present case. The urine
sample was not extracted for a medical purpose. There was no intent to treat the
defendant or to diagnose him in anticipation of treatment. The sole purpose was
to determine whether there was evidence that plaintiff had operated a motor
vehicle while under the influence of drugs.
We
believe, however, that an additional fact question was raised as to whether the
urine was obtained in a medically acceptable manner. In our view it is not
enough to demonstrate that the procedure can be accomplished without harm to the
"patient." Under the present circumstances where the sample is being taken, not
for an accepted medical purpose but to further a criminal prosecution,
constitutional rights of privacy are implicated "[b]ecause it is clear that the
collection and testing of urine intrudes upon the expectations of privacy that
society has long recognized as reasonable . . . these intrusions must be deemed
searches under the Fourth
Amendment." Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives' Assoc., 489
U.S. 602, 617, 109
S. Ct. 1402, 1413, 103
L. Ed.2d 639, 660 (1989). In this context the question of whether the
procedure was done in a "medically accepted manner" entails more than the
mechanics of the procedure. It must also encompass the question of whether the
procedure was necessary for its intended purpose. The record before the motion
judge was not fully developed in this regard, but on the proofs provided a jury
could find that the period of time plaintiff was given to voluntarily urinate
was insufficient to justify involuntary catheterization. The time lapse between
plaintiff's last glass of water and the involuntary catheterization may have
been as little as sixteen minutes. Overall, the time between when plaintiff
began taking water and the catheterization was only around forty-six minutes.
What problems might have arisen by allowing plaintiff more time to voluntarily
urinate were not explored at the summary judgment hearing.
For these reasons we believe that material questions
of fact existed which should have precluded summary judgment in favor of
Mountainside Hospital, Dr. Juhasz and the named nurses.
The
summary judgment granted in favor of the Township of Nutley, the Nutley Police
Department and Sergeants Quigg and Strumulo stands on a different footing. Their
liability was premised upon 42 U.S.C.A. §1983.
There was no demonstration during either summary judgment hearing that
catheterization was a custom or policy of the municipal entities. Indeed, the
evidence was that urine samples were not even requested under these
circumstances, much less obtained involuntarily. Moreover, there is no
respondeat superior or vicarious liability under 42 U.S.C.A. §1983.
City of Canton, Ohio v. Harris, 489
U.S. 378, 385, 109
S. Ct. 1197, 1203, 103
L. Ed.2d 412, 424 (1989). The Township and the municipal police department
were therefore properly dismissed. Monell v. Dep't of Soc. Servs. of City of
New York, 436
U.S. 658, 694, 98
S. Ct. 2018, 2037-2038, 56
L. Ed.2d 611, 638 (1978).
Sergeant Strumulo's
only part in all of this was to direct Officers Beard and Iannicelli to take
plaintiff to Mountainside Hospital for a blood sample. Sergeant Quigg, on the
evidence presented, never knew about the proposed catheterization but only
approved the hospital's request for a urine sample, as that request was related
to him over the phone by Officer Beard. Thus there was no showing that these
sergeants in their supervisory capacities failed to supervise or did so with
recklessness or deliberate indifference. Schneider v. Simonini, 163
N.J. 336, 370-374 (2000). Strumulo and Quigg were properly dismissed from
the litigation.
Officers Beard and Iannicelli,
however, were acting under color of state law when one or both apparently agreed
to, and assisted in, the involuntary catheterization of plaintiff. The removal
of urine, as with the removal of blood, is an intrusive process protected by the
Fourth
Amendment. Skinner, supra, 489 U.S. at 617, 109 S.
Ct. at 1413, 103 L. Ed. 2d at 660; Schmerber v. California, 384
U.S. 757, 86
S. Ct. 1826, 16
L. Ed.2d 908 (1966). It is a search for which a warrant is required unless
certain exigent circumstances exist that permit a warrantless search. Under
Schmerber, supra, a warrantless, involuntary seizure of bodily
fluid is justified when there is probable cause to arrest, probable cause to
believe that evidence of a crime will be revealed by the search, articulable and
demonstrable exigent circumstances to justify not seeking a warrant, and the
specimen is taken in a medically reasonable manner. State v. O'Loughlin,
270
N.J. Super. 472 (App. Div. 1994). As the physical intrusion moves from the
simple to the more elaborate, from the less to the more intrusive, we also
consider the nature of the crime, the relevance of the evidence sought, the
degree of risk to the person undergoing the procedure and the magnitude of the
intrusion upon the dignity, privacy and bodily integrity of the individual.
Winston v. Lee, 470
U.S. 753, 105
S. Ct. 1611, 84
L. Ed.2d 662 (1985) (no compelling need shown to remove a bullet from
suspect's chest in light of other available evidence); State v. Lawson,
187
N.J. Super. 25, 28-29 (App. Div. 1982) (judicial support sought for the
surgical removal of a bullet from suspect's thigh).
Whether exigent
circumstances exist is "'highly fact sensitive.'" State v. Alvarez, 238
N.J. Super. 560, 568-569 (App. Div. 1990) (quoting State v. Lewis, 116
N.J. 477, 487 (1989)). In the present case there appears to be no dispute
that probable cause existed to arrest plaintiff and for the police to believe
that a search of his person, i.e., a blood sample, would reveal evidence of
drugs. But the United States Supreme Court in Schmerber, supra,
did not provide a carte blanche exception to the warrant requirement whenever
there is probable cause to believe a suspect is under the influence of alcohol
or drugs: