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8th Amendment Violation – Deliberate Indifference

By: Derek Hawkins//November 12, 2019//

8th Amendment Violation – Deliberate Indifference

By: Derek Hawkins//November 12, 2019//

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7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Victor Brown v. Sue Peters, et al.,

Case No.: 19-1420

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and SCUDDER and ST. EVE, Circuit Judges.

Focus: 8th Amendment Violation – Deliberate Indifference

In Coleman v. Labor & Industry Review Commission, 860 F.3d 461 (7th Cir. 2017), we held that a magistrate judge does not have the authority to enter a final judgment in a case when only one party—in that case, the plaintiff—has consented to the magistrate judge’s jurisdiction. See 28 U.S.C. § 636(c). That rule holds, we said, even if the magistrate judge is engaged in nothing more than the screening process required for a case brought by a prisoner who wishes to proceed in forma pauperis. See 28 U.S.C. §§ 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii), 1915A. If the magistrate judge concludes that the case must be dismissed for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, FED. R. CIV. P. 12(b)(6), that is a disposition on the merits, and therefore, in the absence of valid consents, the judge is empowered to do no more than submit a report and recommendation to an Article III judge for final resolution. Coleman, 860 F.3d at 475.

The present appeal presents a new wrinkle for cases at the screening stage: is it possible for the state defendant to consent in advance to the magistrate judge’s jurisdiction to conduct the initial case screening and, if the plaintiff has also filed his consent, to enter a final judgment dismissing the case with prejudice? That is exactly what the Wisconsin Department of Justice and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin have attempted to accomplish through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that became effective in 2018, apparently in response to Coleman.

We hold that the “Limited Consent to Magistrate Judge Jurisdiction To Conduct Initial Case Screening” adopted by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Department of Justice satisfies the requirement in 28 U.S.C. § 636(c) that both parties consent to magistrate judge authority to resolve a case with a final judgment. That includes the authority to decide that a prisoner’s complaint fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. In the present case, that is exactly what Magistrate Judge Duffin concluded. Only two named defendants were before him, and he had this to say about them: [T]he court notes that [Brown] names Sue Peters and Jean Lutsey as defendants but does not allege any facts supporting a claim that either of them violated his constitutional rights. Under section 1983, an individual can be liable only if that individual is personally responsible for a constitutional deprivation. … There is no supervisory liability, collective liability or vicarious liability under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. In other words, there is no liability unless the defendant is personally involved in the violation of plaintiff’s rights. … Therefore, Brown may not proceed against Sue Peters or Jean Lutsey. (Citations omitted.) With respect to the Doe defendants, the court added that it saw nothing in Brown’s allegations that would amount to deliberate indifference.

We agree with this assessment of Brown’s case. To state a claim, Brown needed to allege that the nurses were deliberately indifferent to his medical needs after he engaged in selfharm. See Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 104–05 (1976); Palmer v. Franz, 928 F.3d 560, 563 (7th Cir. 2019). But no trier of fact could so find in light of Brown’s allegations. After he cut himself, a nurse saw him, checked his vital signs appropriately and found nothing amiss, verified how much blood was in the cell, and placed him on observation. The next morning, he was again examined by a nurse who checked his vitals, which were normal. When he later developed chest pain, he was sent to the emergency room. By Brown’s own account, the nurses used their medical judgment and thus did not act with deliberate indifference. See Jackson v. Kotter, 541 F.3d 688, 697 (7th Cir. 2008); Gutierrez v. Peters, 111 F.3d 1364, 1374 (7th Cir. 1997) (holding plaintiff pleaded himself out of court when complaint showed he has no claim for deliberate indifference). At most (and even this is a stretch), Brown alleged facts that show negligence, which is not enough to support an Eighth Amendment claim. See Estelle, 429 U.S. at 106; Guzman v. Sheahan, 495 F.3d 852, 857 (7th Cir. 2007). We AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.

Affirmed

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Derek A Hawkins is trademark corporate counsel for Harley-Davidson. Hawkins oversees the prosecution and maintenance of the Harley-Davidson’s international trademark portfolio in emerging markets.

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