Addington v. Wells

Case: 22-30220 Document: 00516703373 Page: 1 Date Filed: 04/06/2023

United States Court of Appeals

for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals

Fifth Circuit

FILED

April 6, 2023

No. 22-30220 Lyle W. Cayce

Clerk

Mallory Addington; Landon Addington,

Plaintiffs—Appellees,

versus

Damion Wells, Sergeant,

Defendant—Appellant,

______________________________

Cody Lane Addington,

Plaintiff—Appellee,

versus

Damion Wells, Sergeant,

Defendant—Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Western District of Louisiana

USDC Nos. 5:18-CV-1116 and 5:19-CV-411

Before Richman, Chief Judge, and King and Higginson, Circuit

Judges.

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Per Curiam:*

Joshua Addington, a diabetic, died in custody. His children brought

constitutional and tort claims against various prison officials, including

Defendant-Appellant Damion Wells. Wells appeals the district court’s denial

of his qualified immunity defense as to the constitutional claims and the

denial of his Louisiana state discretionary immunity defense as to the

negligence claim. We REVERSE.

I.

On April 1, 2018, Joshua Addington 1 died while incarcerated in the

Bayou Dorcheat Correctional Center (“BDCC”). His children brought this

suit against Defendant-Appellant Sergeant Damion Wells, BDCC, and other

prison and state officials.

Addington had Type II diabetes, a condition affecting his ability to

regulate blood sugar levels. He had been diabetic for about ten years at the

time of his death, during which he had been frequently diagnosed with

conditions arising from extreme blood sugar levels. Like many diabetics,

Addington used insulin and food to manage his blood sugar.

Diabetics are vulnerable to both hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) and

hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). Manage Blood Sugar, CDC,

https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/managing/manage-blood-sugar.html

[hereinafter “Manage Blood Sugar”] (last visited Feb. 27, 2023). Diabetics

often manage blood sugar levels by injecting insulin to lower blood sugar and

eating to raise blood sugar. See id. Blood sugar levels outside of a normal range

can cause severe consequences. A lack of insulin can cause hyperglycemia

and make diabetics tired, thirsty, or nauseous; in extreme cases, low insulin

*

This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5.

1

Unless otherwise differentiated, we use “Addington” to refer to both the

deceased, Joshua Addington, and the Plaintiffs-Appellees, his children.

2

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can cause a diabetic ketoacidosis (“DKA”)-induced coma or death. See

Diabetic Ketoacidosis, Mayo Clinic,

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/diabetic-

ketoacidosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20371551 (last visited Feb. 27, 2023);

Manage Blood Sugar. Analogously, hypoglycemia can be triggered by too

much insulin or missing a meal. See Manage Blood Sugar.

On March 17, 2018, Addington arrived at BDCC. As relevant, three

events coincided with this arrival. First, on his intake health screening,

Addington reported that he had Type II diabetes and that he had no history

of alcohol abuse, drug abuse, or hospitalizations of which BDCC staff needed

to be aware. Second, BDCC received a medical transfer form noting that

Addington was prescribed insulin shots to be administered twice per day.

Third, Addington signed a form indicating he had read the explanation of

how to request medical attention. Generally, while Addington was

incarcerated, a diabetic inmate had to proactively seek blood sugar readings

and insulin shots. If a shot was needed based on the reading, an officer would

observe the inmate self-administering the shot and report and record both the

reading and, if applicable, the shot.

On March 21, Addington suffered a mild hypoglycemic event. His

blood sugar level was 58, and he subsequently used a medical evaluation form

to request a diabetic snack.

On March 30, Addington suffered a significant hypoglycemic event.

He received treatment at Minden Medical Center (“Minden”) for

hypoglycemia. Minden discharged Addington with instructions to follow up

as needed with a private physician; discharge papers also listed critical

glucose levels as being below 50 or above 400 mg/dL (milligrams per

deciliter: a unit of measure showing concentration of glucose). These

discharge papers were later given to Sergeant Wells. When Addington

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returned to BDCC, he was placed in a separate holding cell for continuous

medical observation. This cell contained live-feed cameras and a buzzer that

an inmate can use to alert officers of any medical needs. Addington’s blood

sugar reading was 175 on the afternoon of March 30; approximately two hours

later, his temperature was 101.2 degrees Fahrenheit.

On March 31, Addington received medication for nausea. Multiple

people took Addington’s blood sugar levels that day, and Wells prepared an

Unusual Occurrence Report (the “UOR”) listing Addington’s blood sugar

levels and “letting everybody to understand [sic] that this is where

[Addington] was during these particular times throughout the day”; these

levels were higher than on the previous day, ranging from 274 to 364 mg/dL.

Wells also stated that he believed the normal blood sugar level for a diabetic

“shouldn’t be over 100” and that he would have notified medical staff with

a “crazy” reading of “500 or something.” Warden John Lewis said that it

was “common sense” to him that the blood sugar levels recorded in the UOR

were abnormal.

Addington’s condition deteriorated rapidly on April 1. At 6:15 a.m.,

he was responsive, moving, and talking when Deputy Wendell Wright came

into the holding cell to check Addington’s blood sugar levels. Addington

asked Wright for some water, which Wright provided. At 9:30 a.m., Deputy

Nolan Slack brought Addington a food tray, which Addington refused. At

1:21 p.m., Deputy David Edwards went to the holding cell to check on

Addington’s blood sugar levels. Addington was unresponsive and not

moving; Edwards and another deputy moved Addington upright and saw that

he had soiled himself. The deputies alerted Wells at 1:33 p.m., an ambulance

was called at 1:38 p.m., and Addington was pronounced dead at 1:55 p.m. An

autopsy found no evidence of trauma and listed the cause of death as acute

renal failure due to DKA complicating hypertensive cardiovascular disease.

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On August 29, 2018, Plaintiffs-Appellees Mallory and Landon

Addington—Joshua Addington’s children—filed a complaint against, inter

alia, various state and prison officials in their individual and official

capacities. 2 Following discovery responses and a motion by certain

Defendants for summary judgment, the magistrate judge granted

Addington’s motion to amend his complaint to join Wells, Debbie Claunch

(a BDCC nurse), and Dr. Frederick Heard (a BDCC doctor) as additional

parties.

On July 8, 2020, Addington filed the operative amended complaint

incorporating the allegations of the previous complaint. In the amended

complaint, as relevant to this appeal, Addington additionally alleged that

various doctors, nurses, and prison officials (including Wells) violated the

Eighth Amendment by acting with deliberate indifference in failing to ensure

that Addington received proper medical care. In their answer, Defendants

Wells, Claunch, Warden John Lewis, and Sheriff Gary Sexton raised a

qualified immunity defense.

These Defendants then filed a motion for summary judgment. There,

they argued, inter alia, that they were entitled to qualified immunity as to the

individual-capacity claims. On the Louisiana state law claims, they raised a

state discretionary immunity defense and argued that they acted reasonably

and did not cause Addington’s death.

On March 31, 2022, the district court ruled on Defendants’ motion

for summary judgment. As relevant to this appeal, the court first denied this

motion as to the Eighth Amendment individual-capacity claim that Wells was

2

In June, the magistrate judge consolidated a substantively identical case brought

by Cody Addington, another of Joshua Addington’s children.

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deliberately indifferent in handling Addington’s medical complaints after the

March 30 Minden discharge.

Considering the first prong of the qualified immunity analysis (i.e.,

whether there was a violation of a constitutional right) the district court ruled

that there was a genuine dispute of material fact precluding summary

judgment as to whether Wells had the necessary culpable state of mind to

constitute deliberate indifference when he disregarded and did not mitigate

the risk of harm caused by Addington’s elevated blood sugar levels.

Specifically, the district court noted that Wells had created the UOR

documenting elevated blood sugar levels without conveying his concerns to

Nurse Claunch or Dr. Heard and without giving any insulin to Addington.

Wells additionally did not take any action when Addington complained of

nausea and thirst, both of which are symptoms of DKA. Given these facts,

the district court held that “a jury could reasonably conclude that Sergeant

Wells chose not to take any action to alleviate the risk, such as contacting

medical personnel or ensuring that Addington’s insulin was administered,”

which would constitute deliberate indifference to Addington’s medical

needs.

On the second prong of the qualified immunity analysis (i.e., whether

the right in question was clearly established), the court denied Wells qualified

immunity by “conclud[ing] that an inmate’s right to adequate medical care

was clearly established at the time of this incident and that prison officials

were on notice that they cannot show a wanton disregard to an inmate in

obvious medical need.”

Finally, on the state law negligence claim, the district court denied

summary judgment as to Wells for the same reasons stated in its analysis of

the Eighth Amendment claims. Wells timely appealed.

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II.

We have limited jurisdiction over an interlocutory appeal of a denial

of summary judgment based upon qualified immunity. Cole v. Carson, 935

F.3d 444, 452 (5th Cir. 2019) (en banc). Our jurisdiction is limited “to the

extent that [the denial of summary judgment] turns on an issue of law.”

Hogan v. Cunningham, 722 F.3d 725, 730 (5th Cir. 2013) (alteration in

original) (quoting Juarez v. Aguilar, 666 F.3d 325, 331 (5th Cir. 2011)). Thus,

our jurisdiction does not extend to the review of the lower court’s factual

findings. Lemoine v. New Horizons Ranch & Ctr., Inc., 174 F.3d 629, 633 (5th

Cir. 1999). “Once we have narrowed the interlocutory appeal solely to issues

of law, we review the district court’s resolution of these issues de novo.”

Lytle v. Bexar Cnty., 560 F.3d 404, 409 (5th Cir. 2009).

In qualified immunity cases, “[t]he plaintiff must show that there is a

genuine dispute of material fact and that a jury could return a verdict entitling

the plaintiff to relief.” Joseph ex rel. Estate of Joseph v. Bartlett, 981 F.3d 319,

330 (5th Cir. 2020). “But, to overcome qualified immunity, the plaintiff’s

version of those disputed facts must also constitute a violation of clearly

established law.” Id. Accordingly, a court reviews a motion for summary

judgment based on qualified immunity in two steps. “First: ‘Taken in the

light most favorable to the party asserting the injury, do the facts show the

officer’s conduct violated a constitutional right.’” Romero v. City of

Grapevine, 888 F.3d 170, 176 (5th Cir. 2018) (quoting Saucier v. Katz, 533

U.S. 194, 201 (2001)). “Second, we ask ‘whether the right in question was

“clearly established” at the time of the violation.’” Id. (quoting Tolan v.

Cotton, 572 U.S. 650, 656 (2014) (per curiam)). We can review these steps in

any order. Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223, 236 (2009).

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III.

Our discussion of Wells’s qualified immunity defense begins and ends

with the second step. We consider whether Addington has identified an

analogous case showing that Wells’s conduct in not administering medical

attention in this case is conduct that violates clearly established law. See Dyer

v. Hous., 964 F.3d 374, 384 (5th Cir. 2020) (explaining the level of detail at

which plaintiff must define clearly established law); see also Joseph, 981 F.3d

at 338 (explaining that identified cases must prohibit the “challenged

conduct” of a defendant acting under similar circumstances). “A

Government official’s conduct violates clearly established law when, at the

time of the challenged conduct, ‘[t]he contours of [a] right [are] sufficiently

clear’ that every ‘reasonable official would [have understood] that what he is

doing violates that right.’” Ashcroft v. al-Kidd, 563 U.S. 731, 741 (2011)

(quoting Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 640 (1987)). We hold that

Addington has not. Accordingly, we need not consider whether Wells’s

actions rise to the level of a constitutional violation.

Addington cites four cases as possible sources of clearly established

law: Thompson v. Upshur County, 245 F.3d 447 (5th Cir. 2001); Dyer, 964 F.3d

374; Fielder v. Bosshard, 590 F.2d 105 (5th Cir. 1979); and Estelle v. Gamble,

429 U.S. 97 (1976). But these cases involve facts that are materially

distinguishable from the present circumstances. Thompson involved a jail

sergeant who was aware that Thompson, an inmate, had elevated blood

alcohol content, was “hallucinating,” and “was injuring himself in his cell.”

245 F.3d at 452, 463. The sergeant specifically knew Thompson had

“beg[u]n to collide with objects in his cell, sometimes falling and striking his

head against the window, floor or concrete bench of his cell.” Id. at 454. Dyer

involved officers who watched Dyer repeatedly bang his head approximately

46 times against the inside of a patrol car en route to the prison but did not

alert any prison staff to Dyer’s behavior. 964 F.3d at 378–79. And Fielder

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involved an inmate who had requested medication and was hallucinating and

physically shaking. 590 F.2d at 108. Concerning Estelle, 429 U.S. 97, we held

on remand that the actions of the prison officials overseeing the inmate’s

treatment did not constitute deliberate indifference; accordingly, it cannot

serve as a source of clearly established law. Gamble v. Estelle, 554 F.2d 653,

654 (5th Cir. 1977) (per curiam).

These cases are inapposite here because their facts all involve some

combination of a specific request for medical attention that was ignored by

jail staff (Fielder) or circumstances involving obvious and externally visible

injuries (Thompson, Dyer, and Fielder). The present facts are materially

different. Addington did not explicitly request medical attention, and Wells

thus did not ignore his requests. And while elevated blood sugar levels are

exceptionally dangerous for diabetics, they are not as obvious and externally

visible as the injuries in Thompson, Dyer, and Fielder.

A more factually analogous case is Cleveland v. Bell, 938 F.3d 672 (5th

Cir. 2019). Cleveland involved a plaintiff who had various health problems

logged at his initial prison health assessment. Id. at 674. Over the two months

he spent at the prison, “Cleveland received medication for his conditions and

had numerous visits with medical staff regarding a variety of health issues.”

Id. A nurse, Bell, “told [Cleveland] to get a cup of water so he could take his

pills” and, upon Cleveland saying he was too weak to get the cup, told him

“to stop playing and come get your medication . . . there is nothing wrong

with you.” Id. Bell said she would return; upon returning, she asked an officer

how Cleveland was doing. Id. at 674–75. The officer told Bell that Cleveland

was seemingly sleeping but that he “had been turning around in his bed and

occasionally hit the wall with his fist.” Id. at 675. Bell did not return to

Cleveland to give him his medication. Id. Later, officers found that Cleveland

had defecated on himself and called Bell explaining that Cleveland was lying

on the floor claiming he could not get up from exhaustion. Id. Bell said she

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thought Cleveland was faking and trying to get transferred back to the

infirmary. Id. Cleveland was found dead a few hours later. Id.

The Cleveland court, considering the second prong of Bell’s qualified

immunity defense, distinguished its case from Fielder. Id. at 677. In Fielder,

the namesake plaintiff was arrested and taken to jail. 590 F.2d at 107. In jail,

Fielder was sick and began to hallucinate, physically shake, and climb the

bars. Id. at 108. Prison officials nonetheless denied Fielder’s request for

medical attention. Id. The sheriff was notified of Fielder’s behavior and only

asked a deputy to check on Fielder. Id. The next morning, Fielder was found

dead. Id. The jury found that the named prison officials had been deliberately

indifferent to Fielder’s medical needs; on appeal, this court affirmed the

judgment. Id. at 107–09.

While jail staff never brought Fielder to a medical professional, the

Cleveland court noted that, by contrast, “Cleveland received emergency

medical attention two days before he died” and that “[t]he decision not to

hospitalize him after he fainted on November 10th was based on a different

nurse’s medical judgment after she examined Cleveland” before Bell became

involved in Cleveland’s care. 938 F.3d at 677. Bell’s behavior, the Cleveland

court held, was thus “very different” from the staff in Fielder who ignored an

inmate’s requests. Id. As a result, the “‘record of extensive medical

treatment spanning the final two and one half months’ of an inmate’s

incarceration—combined with ‘the lack of evidence to establish the

necessary culpable intent’—was sufficient for qualified immunity.” Id.

(quoting Gobert v. Caldwell, 463 F.3d 339, 351–52 (5th Cir. 2006)).

The facts in Cleveland are analogous to the present events;

accordingly, our analysis in that case guides our decision here. Like

Cleveland, Addington received medical treatment in the days before his

death. And, like in Cleveland and unlike in Fielder, Addington never made an

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explicit request for medical treatment that was ignored by the prison staff. In

sum, Addington’s proffered sources of clearly established law involve

materially different facts, and our holding in Cleveland shows that an officer

acting under similar circumstances does not violate clearly established law.

Accordingly, we cannot say that Addington has met his burden of placing

“beyond debate” the question of whether an officer acting under similar

circumstances would have been on notice that he was violating clearly

established law. al-Kidd, 563 U.S. at 741. We thus reverse the judgment of

the district court on this prong of the qualified immunity analysis without

reaching the question of whether Wells’s actions constituted a constitutional

violation. 3

IV.

We now turn to the Louisiana state immunity claim, which we have

jurisdiction to review de novo. See Morin v. Caire, 77 F.3d 116, 119–20 (5th Cir.

1996) (noting our jurisdiction over state law claims related to a qualified

immunity appeal); cf. Vann v. City of Southaven, 884 F.3d 307, 309 (5th Cir.

2018) (per curiam) (identifying the standard of review for legal issues on a

motion for summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity). The

relevant Louisiana immunity statute immunizes public entities and their

officers and employees from tort claims based on “policymaking or

discretionary acts when such acts are within the course and scope

of . . . lawful powers and duties.” Gregor v. Argenot Great Cent. Ins. Co., 851

So. 2d 959, 967 (La. 2003) (quoting La. Stat. Ann. § 9:2798.1(B)).

3

For clarity, our holding here should not be imputed to an analysis of the first

prong; in other words, we are not holding that deliberate indifference arising to a

constitutional violation must always require an explicit request for medical attention or

involve obvious and externally visible injuries. We are concerned only with the narrow

question of whether the cases discussed by Addington and the district court show that

Wells’s conduct under these specific facts violated clearly established law.

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Louisiana courts have interpreted this immunity in line with the discretionary

function immunity provided by the Federal Tort Claims Act. Com. and Indus.

Ins. Co. v. Grinnell Corp., 280 F.3d 566, 571 (5th Cir. 2002). Louisiana courts

apply the two-step test outlined in Berkovitz v. United States, 486 U.S. 531

(1988), to determine if this state immunity applies:

First, if a statute, regulation, or policy prescribes a particular

course of action, there is no choice or discretion involved, and

the immunity does not apply. However, when discretion is

involved, the court must then determine whether that

discretion is the kind that is shielded by the statutory

immunity, that is, discretion grounded in social, economic or

political policy.

Aucoin v. Larpenter, 324 So. 3d 626, 637–38 (La. Ct. App. 2021); Com. and

Indus. Ins. Co., 280 F.3d at 571.

We first consider whether a policy prescribed a particular action for

Wells. BDCC’s general policy regarding inmates’ medical care provides

guidelines for corrections officers; these guidelines state that doctors’

instructions dictate treatment and that officers should report medical

problems to the medical officer. There are no further details beyond these

general requirements in the absence of a request for medical care by the

inmate. Accordingly, we read the policy as allowing officers to, for example,

determine what is and is not a medical problem requiring a report. This

involves discretion. See Roberts v. City of Shreveport, 397 F.3d 287, 296 (5th

Cir. 2005) (stating that an action is policy-based if it “involves selection

among alternatives”); see also Rombach v. Culpepper, 2021 WL 2944809, at *9

(5th Cir. July 13, 2021) (per curiam) (holding that “the officers’ decisions to

provide (or not to provide) certain care to [plaintiff] were ultimately the

result of their discretion”); Aucoin, 324 So. 3d at 638 (holding that a state

regulation requiring a licensed physician to be “responsible for the health

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care program” at a parish jail involved discretion concerning “the manner in

which that care was administered and provided”). Accordingly, we proceed

to the second step.

We next consider whether this discretionary conduct at issue falls

within the general protections of the statute or is excluded by an exception.

This “is purely a question of law[] and is within the province of the trial court

to determine at the summary judgment stage.” Simmons v. Hughes, 316 So.

3d 488, 497 (La. Ct. App. 2020); see also Rombach, 2021 WL 2944809, at *9

(applying this framework). Here, the relevant question is whether Wells’s

conduct falls within the intentional misconduct exception to this state

immunity statue. See La. Stat. Ann. § 9:2798.1(C)(2). In considering this

question, we ask whether Addington “put forth evidence showing that the

conduct of the defendants rose to the level of misconduct required by” the

exception to the immunity statute; in other words, “whether the defendants’

actions constituted ‘criminal, fraudulent, malicious, intentional, willful,

outrageous, reckless, or flagrant misconduct.’” Simmons, 316 So. 3d at 497,

500 (quoting La. Stat. Ann. § 9:2798.1(C)(2)).

Addington argues that Wells was deliberately indifferent for purposes

of the qualified immunity analysis and that Wells’s conduct thus rises to the

requisite level of intentionality required to obviate the Louisiana state

immunity’s protections. 4 Addington argues the following events evince

Wells’s “requisite knowledge and perception” that Addington “faced a

substantial risk to his health”: (1) Addington’s March 30 transfer to a medical

observation cell after his discharge from Minden; (2) Addington’s fever on

4

We consider these arguments here only in the context of evaluating the Louisiana

state immunity claim. As noted previously, we do not reach the issue of whether Wells’s

conduct meets the “deliberate indifference” standard for qualified immunity purposes,

and our analysis here thus has no bearing on this issue. See supra note 3.

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March 30; (3) Addington’s March 31 complaint of nausea; (4) Wells’s March

31 completion of the UOR showing elevated blood sugar levels; and (5)

Wells’s alleged failure to give Addington insulin on March 31 and April 1. In

light of these events, Addington argues that Wells’s failure to seek medical

attention for Addington indicates he was acting with the requisite level of

intentionality.

We disagree and hold that Wells’s conduct does not constitute the

requisite level of intentional misconduct that would take him outside the

protections of section 9:2798.1’s immunity provisions. Louisiana courts

presume that “when government employees exercise discretion given to

them by a statute or regulation, they are doing so based on the same policy

concerns that animate the controlling statute or regulation itself.” Dominique

v. Parish, 313 So. 3d 307, 316 (La. Ct. App. 2020) (citing Louisiana v. Pub.

Invs., Inc., 35 F.3d 216, 221 (5th Cir. 1994)). Addington has not successfully

rebutted this presumption. As an initial matter, most of the events Addington

cites are not sufficient to establish intentional misconduct on Wells’s part. 5

Concerning Wells’s alleged failure to give Addington insulin, the record

indicates that Addington knew how to request medical attention. No record

evidence suggests that Addington requested (but did not receive) insulin on

the day of his death, much less that Wells knew of but failed to complete such

a request. Without more, this is not enough to establish the requisite degree

of intentional misconduct on the part of Wells.

5

Concerning Addington’s transfer to a medical observation cell, this transfer

suggests only that further observation was appropriate, not that the immediate notification

of medical personnel was necessary. Regarding Addington’s fever, as noted by the district

court, “there is no evidence that the fever was such a concern to require immediate medical

care other than further observation.” And with respect to Addington’s nausea, Addington

received medication for this ailment, after which there would presumably have been a

reduced need for additional medical concern. .

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Wells’s filling out the UOR requires a more sustained discussion. In

making this argument, Addington essentially asks us to hold that a medically

untrained official filling out a UOR constitutes evidence of intentional or

reckless conduct. We decline to do so under these facts. In his deposition,

Wells indicated that he believed the normal blood sugar level for a diabetic

“shouldn’t be over 100” and that he would have notified medical staff with

a “crazy” reading of “500 or something.” His testimony thus suggests that

Wells thought of blood sugar levels over 100 mg/dL as unusual and levels

over 500 mg/dL as requiring medical attention. This latter range is mostly

consistent with Addington’s discharge papers from Minden, which flagged

below 50 or above 400 mg/dL as extreme blood sugar levels.

But notably, the blood sugar levels recorded by Wells in the UOR

ranged from 274 to 364 mg/dL; these levels were not within the extreme

ranges identified in the Minden discharge papers or the “crazy” ranges

understood by Wells as requiring medical attention. Accordingly, Wells’s

filling out the UOR suggests that he thought these blood sugar readings were

unusual but not so concerning as to require immediate medical attention.

Addington’s argument essentially asks us to eliminate this distinction by

holding that filling out a UOR without requesting immediate medical

attention evinces intentional misconduct. We will not do so here, where a

medically untrained official was merely noting unusual events while abiding

by Minden’s discharge instructions. Wells’s decision to not seek medical

attention for Addington after this UOR is better characterized as a kind of

“policy-based discretion,” Roberts, 397 F.3d at 296, where Wells, looking to

the discharge medical instructions, determined that the recorded blood sugar

levels did not rise to the level that would require his calling for immediate

medical assistance.

The evidence in the record thus does not indicate that Wells was

malicious, willful, or reckless in declining to pursue further medical care for

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Addington. Accordingly, we cannot say that Wells’s actions (or lack thereof)

rose to the level of intention, malice, willfulness, or recklessness that would

place him under the intentional misconduct exception to section 9:2798.1’s

immunity provisions. Section 9:2798.1 instead operates to shield Wells from

state tort liability for negligence, and the district court erred in holding

otherwise.

V.

For the foregoing reasons, we REVERSE the judgment of the district

court.

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