Woodruff v. Nat'l R.R. Passenger Corp.

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• concluding that qualified immunity was inappropriate in part because the plaintiff may not have heard or understood the warning based of his intoxication and mental state
• holding that summary judgment on an excessive force claim was precluded when officers shot beanbag rounds at a man standing several feet in front of them and holding a knife pointed at himself
• holding that the use of a beanbag shotgun is “permissible onlywhen a strong governmental interest compels the employment of such force” in “light of this weapon’s dangerous capabilities ” (citation omitted) (emphasis added)
• holding that an officer’s use of a beanbag round without an appropriate prior warning weighed against reasonableness, even though officers had earlier warned the suspect that they would use lethal force and the shooting officer did yell “beanbag, beanbag” before firing
• identifying that the “character of the offense” is “an important consideration” especially when no crime has been identified
• holding that use of less-lethal beanbags against plaintiff was unreasonable even though 15 the plaintiff had a weapon, because plaintiff made no threatening gestures and did not pose 16 imminent threat of harm to anyone

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).