Torts — FTCA

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U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

Civil

Torts — FTCA

Where a federal prisoner alleges that prison officials negligently failed to contain a staph infection at the prison, the district court erroneously limited the scope of his claim.

“The government argues that the district court’s pretrial ruling limiting Buechel’s negligence claim did not limit Buechel’s claims but expanded them. It also argues that Buechel could have amended his complaint after counsel was appointed, but he failed to so. We reject both of these quasi-waiver arguments. First, the court’s ruling was not an expansion of Buechel’s claims, and it was not a ‘grant’ of Buechel’s request. Buechel asked the district court to recognize that the negligence claim presented in his pro se administrative claim and complaint encompassed the theory ‘that the United States was negligent because FCI-Greenville employees failed to adequately segregate MRSA-positive inmates, including but not limited to inmate James Joseph Hansen, from the general inmate population, and that this caused Plaintiff’s MRSA infection and seriously injured him.’ Buechel did not ‘request’ that his claims be limited to contact and conditions within and relating to the prison laundry. The government’s insistence that Buechel ‘prevailed’ is groundless.”

Vacated and Remanded.

13-2278 Buechel v. U.S.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, Gilbert, J., Hamilton, J.