By: Derek Hawkins//August 17, 2020//
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Case Name: John H. Balsewicz aka Melissa Balsewicz v. Jonathan S. Pawlyk, et al.,
Case No.: 19-3062
Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and MANION and KANNE, Circuit Judges.
Focus: Qualified Immunity
When a prison official knows that an inmate faces a substantial risk of serious harm, the Eighth Amendment requires that official to take reasonable measures to abate the risk. Inmate John “Melissa” Balsewicz reported to a prison guard that while she was in the shower house, another inmate threatened to beat her up.1 The guard, Sergeant Jonathan Pawlyk, took no action in response to Balsewicz’s report; and two days later, the inmate who had threatened Balsewicz punched her in the head repeatedly, causing her to fall unconscious.
Balsewicz filed a claim against Sergeant Pawlyk and other prison officials under the Civil Rights Act of 1871, Rev. Stat. § 1979, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 1983. She alleged that Sergeant Pawlyk failed to take reasonable measures to abate a known, substantial risk of serious harm to her, and thus violated one of her Eighth Amendment rights. Granting summary judgment to Sergeant Pawlyk, the district court reasoned that the threat Balsewicz reported to the guard could only be understood as expiring once the inmates left the shower house, so no factfinder could conclude that Sergeant Pawlyk knew Balsewicz faced an ongoing risk of serious harm.
Because a reasonable juror could conclude otherwise based on the submitted evidence, and because Sergeant Pawlyk is not entitled to qualified immunity, we reverse.
Reversed and remanded