Morales v. Mackalm
| Decision Date | 28 January 2002 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 00-0113. |
| Citation | 278 F.3d 126 |
| Parties | Daniel MORALES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Dr. MACKALM, (sic), Woodbourne Correctional Facility; Dr. Lancellotti, Woodbourne Correctional Facility; T. Miller, Acting Superintendent, Woodbourne Correctional Facility; R. Williams, Mrs., Head Nurse, Woodbourne Correctional Facility; J. Hopkins, C.O.; A. Sicina, C.O.; Sergeant Porter; W. Vera, C.O.; G. Doyle, C.O.; T. Hopkin, C.O.; P. Eggelton, C.O.; T. Chahon, C.O.; Ms. Mentneck, Hospital Clerk, Woodbourne Correctional Facility; Dr. Nison, Marcy Correctional Facility; Dr. Debroize, Marcy Correctional Facility; Dr. Goyal, Marcy Correctional Facility; Ruthie Gilbert, Head Nurse, Marcy Correctional Facility; D. Began, C.O., Marcy Correctional Facility; M. Faroni, C.O., A. Townsend, C.O., Marcy Correctional Facility; Dr. Rudder, Psychiatrist, Sullivan Correctional Facility; W. Sidorowiez, Dr., Sullivan Correctional Facility; C. Cruz, Ms., Nurse and Clerk, Sullivan Correctional Facility; Nurse Sweeny; John Doe # 1; Jane Doe 2; Jane Doe # 4; Jane Doe # 3, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Norman A. Pattis, Williams and Pattis, LLC, New Haven, CT, for Plaintiff-Appellant.
David Lawrence, III, Assistant Solicitor General, State of New York, New York, NY (Michael S. Belohlavek, Deputy Solicitor General; Marion R. Buchbinder, Assistant Solicitor General, Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General of the State of New York, New York, NY, on the brief), for Defendants-Appellants.
Before: CARDAMONE, McLAUGHLIN, and POOLER, Circuit Judges.
Daniel Morales appeals from a judgment entered in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Rakoff, J.) that dismissed his civil rights complaint with prejudice. Morales alleged that various personnel at the three correctional facilities in which he lived in 1996 and 1997 were deliberately indifferent to his serious medical needs, sexually harassed him, discriminated against him on the basis of his race, and retaliated against him because he filed a grievance. We agree with the district court that Morales' complaint does not state a claim for medical indifference but remand to allow him an opportunity to file an amended complaint. We also find that Morales failed to state a claim for sexual harassment or race discrimination and therefore affirm the dismissal of these two claim. The district court dismissed Morales' retaliation claim for failure to exhaust remedies available within the prison system before we held in Lawrence v. Goord, 238 F.3d 182 (2d Cir. 2001) (per curiam), that the exhaustion requirements of the Prison Litigation Reform Act ("PLRA") do not apply to retaliation claims.1 In light of Lawrence and because Morales' retaliation claim, liberally construed, states a claim upon which relief can be granted, we vacate the district court's judgment insofar as it dismissed the retaliation claim and remand for further proceedings. We also clarify that if a district court dismisses a prisoner's complaint for failure to exhaust administrative remedies, it should do so without prejudice.
Because our review focuses primarily on the adequacy of Morales' complaint, we will set out in some detail the complaint's allegations. Since July 1994, Morales has been in the custody of the New York State Department of Correctional Services ("DOCS"). Before Morales began serving his sentence with DOCS, he was in the custody of the New York City Department of Corrections. During that incarceration, medical personnel sent Morales for x-rays to determine whether he had a peptic ulcer. Although Morales never learned what the x-rays showed, he was given Maalox and Zantac for his stomach problems.
From May 1, 1996 until mid-August 1997, Morales complained regularly to the staff of the Woodbourne Correctional Facility ("Woodbourne"), where he was incarcerated, "about his problems of constant body aches, dry throat, constant urination and severe body attacks (which cause his body to twist to [the] left side), dizziness," eye irritation, fogging of his eyes, and stomach problems.
Although Dr. Mackalm and Dr. Lancellotti, who are defendants in this lawsuit, treated Morales while he was at Woodbourne, they "deliberately refused to treat" his "medical condition and left him suffer[]ing physically with the same symptoms." Medical personnel, who are not identified in the complaint, "would not find the cause of [Morales'] illness or a suitable remedy to eliminate the pain he was experiencing." In addition, certain defendants "repeatedly thwarted plaintiff['s] access to medical treatment by delaying his schedule[d] appointments and denying him access to medical doctors on several occasions, out of spite, because he repeatedly sought medical attention." Although Morales complained in writing to Acting Superintendent Miller, Miller did not take any effective steps to remedy the problem. Morales also filed institutional grievances.
On August 2, 1997, defendant Mentneck, together with three Jane Doe defendants, formed a mental health group. Morales claims that during one of the group sessions, Mentneck and the three Jane Does verbally and sexually harassed him because of his race. In particular, Mentneck repeatedly demanded that Morales have sex with her and that he masturbate in front of her and the other women. On August 4, 1997, Morales filed an institutional grievance concerning the incident. After Mentneck was interviewed in connection with the grievance she "yelled out loud that [Morales] was a `stoolie' while other inmates, working near[by] could hear her, [thus] stig[mat]izing plaintiff as a rat in an attempt to have him hurt by other inmates." Other defendants called plaintiff a "`rat bastard' and a `bugged-out mother fucker' in [the presence] of other inmates." Shortly thereafter, certain of the defendants including Mentneck confined Morales to the Mental Health Unit at Woodburne. On August 26, 1997, the same defendants caused Morales' transfer to the Sullivan Correctional Facility Mental Health Unit. On September 4, 1997, he was moved to the Central New York Psychiatric Center. Morales claims that the same defendants were responsible for this transfer and that, in each instance, the defendants acted from a desire to retaliate against him for filing grievances and seeking adequate medical care.
During the two months that Morales was at the Central New York Psychiatric Center, medical personnel failed to provide him with adequate medical care for his previously described symptoms despite the fact that he went to sick-call every day for a month "complaining of severe ab[d]ominal pain, dizziness, constant urination, body attacks, [and] fogged-eyes." Other defendants "repeatedly attempted to and did interfer[e] with plaintiff['s] attempts to ob[ta]in medical care by saying to the doc[t]ors that nothing was wrong with plaintiff, delaying access to doctors and denying him access on some days." On one occasion, defendant Dr. Nisson attempted to tube feed Morales, but, because she lacked the necessary skill, injured him.
On November 12, 1997, Morales returned to the psychiatric facility at Sullivan Correctional Facility. Medical personnel there again "denied [Morales] adequate medical care and tried to convince [him] that nothing was wrong with him."
Morales contends that defendants "deliberately failed to provide him with adequate medical care regarding his serious medical needs relating to blood sugar reactions and treatment therefore, and provided an inadequate medical diet to control the reactions he was experiencing," thus aggravating his medical condition. He also claims that certain of the defendants — including Mentneck — intentionally retaliated against him for seeking adequate medical care and using the inmate grievance system by placing him in psychiatric facilities and calling him a "stoolie" in front of other inmates. Finally he argues that Mentneck and others violated the Eighth Amendment by demanding that Morales perform sexual acts and retaliating against him when he complained.
Defendants moved to dismiss Morales' complaint pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) based on Morales' failure to exhaust his administrative remedies, defendant Miller's lack of personal involvement, the Eleventh Amendment, and Morales' failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. Although Magistrate Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald granted Morales two long extensions to reply to defendants' motion, he failed to do so, and on July 1, 1999, the magistrate judge issued a report-recommendation that recommended that the district court dismiss his complaint for failure to exhaust administrative remedies. Subsequent to her report-recommendation, Judge Buchwald received a reply including documents that the state had not submitted and that indicated Morales might have exhausted his administrative remedies with respect to certain incidents he described in his complaint. On July 30, 1999, because both defendants and plaintiff had submitted documents not contained in the pleadings on the exhaustion issue, Judge Buchwald sent Morales a notice informing him that she would treat the motion to dismiss as a summary judgment motion on the exhaustion issue and that he should submit any additional documents that would indicate other fully exhausted grievances by August 9, 1999. She had received no such documents as of August 31, 1999, when she issued a supplemental report-recommendation in which she recommended that the district court dismiss Morales' medical indifference claim for failure to state a claim and grant summary judgment dismissing his remaining claims because he failed to exhaust administrative remedies. Morales did not file any objections, and, on September 24, 1999, Judge Jed S. Rakoff adopted the report-recommendation and dismissed Morales' complaint with...
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