Opinion
Civil Action 5:19-cv-00161-TES-TQL
07-15-2024
JOHN STEPHEN RAVAN, Plaintiff. v. SHERIFF CULLEN TALTON, et al., Defendants.
ORDER
TILMAN E. SELF, III, JUDGE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
The United States Magistrate Judge recently issued a Report and Recommendation ("R&R") [Doc. 280] recommending that this Court deny Defendants' two pending motions to dismiss. See [Doc. 263]; [Doc. 268]. In the intervening weeks before either party filed an objection to the R&R, however, the Eleventh Circuit issued an opinion clarifying that the correct legal standard for deliberate indifference cases is neither "more than mere negligence" nor "more than gross negligence," but rather the "subjective recklessness" standard found in our criminal law. Wade v. McDade, No. 21-14275, at *21 (11th Cir. July 10, 2024).
Because the parties filed their motions and respective responses and the magistrate judge analyzed Plaintiff's operative pleading under the old standard, Defendants filed an Objection, asking the Court to review the R&R under the new standard and grant their motions to dismiss. [Doc. 281, pp. 5-6, 10]. However, should the Court do so for the first time at the objection stage of the R&R process, Plaintiffs would have no opportunity to weigh in or respond in a meaningful way to this new standard.
Considering this significant change in law, the Court thinks it best to provide both parties the opportunity to re-tailor and focus their arguments under the now-precedential Wade standard and to provide the magistrate judge the full benefit of their briefs and arguments. Accordingly, the Court TERMINATES the pending motions to dismiss ([Doc. 263]; [Doc. 268]), as well as the magistrate judge's accompanying R&R [Doc. 280], so that Defendants can make renewed motions to dismiss to be properly reevaluated under Wade.
SO ORDERED