JONES v. MUSKEGON County
| Decision Date | 04 November 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. 09-2125.,09-2125. |
| Citation | 625 F.3d 935 |
| Parties | Vernard A. JONES, Sr., Personal Representative of the Estate of Vernard A. Jones, Jr., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MUSKEGON COUNTY; David Deitrick; Nancy Mastee; Sherry Malenko; William Yonker; Warner Watson; Greg Zylstra; Eric Anderson; Dan Johnson; Karena Tabak; Steven Farkas; Roger Swan; David Gutowski; Richard Topp; Ivan Morris; George Sains; Thomas Geoghan; Troy Olson; Laura Lewis; Joe Beal; Jerid Herman; Matthew Smith; Greg Stenholm; Joy Port; Sherry Wright; Gilbert Piero, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED.
ARGUED: Steven L. Skahn, Grand Rapids, Michigan, for Appellant. Joseph Nimako, Cummings, McClorey, Davis & Acho, P.L.C., Livonia, Michigan, Dale A. Robinson, Rutledge Manion Rabaut Terry & Thomas P.C., Detroit, Michigan, Steven L. Kreuger, Secrest Wardle, Grand Rapids, Michigan, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Steven L. Skahn, Grand Rapids, Michigan, for Appellant. Joseph Nimako, Cummings, McClorey, Davis & Acho, P.L.C., Livonia, Michigan, Dale A. Robinson, Rutledge Manion Rabaut Terry & Thomas P.C., Detroit, Michigan, Steven L. Kreuger, Secrest Wardle, Grand Rapids, Michigan, for Appellee.
Before: GILMAN and COOK, Circuit Judges; OLIVER, Chief District Judge. *
Plaintiff-Appellant Vernard A. Jones, Sr. (“Plaintiff” or “Jones's father”), personal representative of the Estate of Vernard A. Jones, Jr., appeals the order of the district court granting summary judgment on all claims in favor of Defendants-Appellees Dr. David Deitrick, M.D. (“Dr. Deitrick”); Nancy Mastee, Sherry Malenko, and William Yonker (collectively, “Nurses” or “nursing staff”); Muskegon County (the “County”); and Eric Anderson, Joe Beal, Steven Farkas, Jerid Herman, Dan Johnson, Thomas Geoghan, David Gutowski, Laura Lewis, Ivan Morris, Troy Olson, Gilbert Piero, Joy Port, George Sains, Matthew Smith, Greg Stenholm, Roger Swan, Karena Tabak, Richard Topp, Warner Watson, Sherry Wright, and Greg Zylstra (collectively, “Corrections Officers”). The district court found in favor of Defendants on Plaintiff's 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim against all Defendants and his state-law claims for gross negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress against Defendant Nurses, Corrections Officers, and the County. For the following reasons, we AFFIRM the district court's order granting summary judgment in favor of Defendants-Appellees Corrections Officers, Nurse Malenko, Dr. Deitrick, and the County, but REVERSE the order granting summary judgment in favor of Defendants-Appellees Nurses Mastee and Yonker on Plaintiff's 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and gross negligence claims. We AFFIRM the district court's order granting summary judgment in favor of all Defendants-Appellees on Plaintiff-Appellant's state-law claims for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Finally, we REMAND the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Plaintiff is the father and personal representative of Vernard A. Jones, Jr. (“Jones”), now deceased, a former inmate at Muskegon County Jail. Jones was held at the jail as a pretrial detainee from September 24, 2004, until May 5, 2005. At the start of Jones's incarceration, his self-reported weight was 170 pounds, and his height was 5'11?. On Jones's Inmate Intake Form, he indicated that he had a sexually-transmitted disease, but otherwise reported no health problems. Approximately one month later, Jones completed a health survey form in which he likewise did not report any significant medical issues. Within the next few months, however, Jones began to experience significant weight loss and serious gastro-intestinal problems.
Beginning in November of 2004, Plaintiff maintains that Jones had been complaining of abdominal pain and stopped eating his meals. Around this time, Plaintiff further contends that Jones regularly requested medical assistance by submitting medical request forms (“kites”). These kites, according to Plaintiff, were repeatedly ignored by prison officials and the nursing staff. Plaintiff supports these assertions primarily through the submission of affidavits from five former inmates: Maurice Poole (“Poole”), Zackee Lawson (“Lawson”), Lawrence Dowdell (“Dowdell”), Ronnie Caviness (“Caviness”), and Diana Yager (“Yager”). These inmates assert that Jones's kites were routinely ignored, that the prison officials did not assist Jones when he was visibly ill and not eating meals, and that prison personnel were overheard stating that Jones was “faking” his illness and that “inmates were not supposed to feel good.” The affidavits of Lawson, Yager, and James Ring (“Ring”), another former inmate, also claim inaction on the part of the prison staff in attending to their own serious medical needs.
Defendants, on the other hand, assert that no prison officials were aware that Jones was ill between November 2004 and the end of March 2005, and that when it became known that Jones needed medical care, medical assistance was provided. On March 26, 2005, Jones was taken to the jail medical department for the first time where his condition was assessed by the nursing staff, which consists of two full-time nurses, William Yonker and Sherry Malenko, and one part-time nurse, Nancy Mastee. According to Yonker's note in the medical chart, Jones weighed 124 pounds, having lost forty six pounds over a six-month period. Yonker ordered a blood test and a test for an ulcer, and referred Jones to the prison doctor, Dr. David Deitrick. Dr. Deitrick examined Jones on March 29, suspected that he was suffering from obstipation, and therefore provided him with a laxative.
On April 4, Jones was examined again by the nursing staff, this time by Nurse Malenko. According to Malenko's entry in the medical chart, Jones complained of sharp abdominal pain and weighed 117 pounds, seven pounds less than he weighed just nine days earlier and fifty-three pounds less than he weighed at the start of his detention. Malenko treated Jones with Pepto Bismol and scheduled a meeting with Dr. Deitrick for the following day. On April 5, Dr. Deitrick saw Jones and scheduled a CT scan, liver profile, and kidney profile.
From April 5 through April 8, the jail medical personnel continued to see Jones for complaints of persistent stomach pain. On April 8, Jones's condition became dire, and he was transported to Hackley Hospital. Numerous doctors at the hospital described his condition as “emaciated,” “cachectic,” and “clinically dehydrated.” Exploratory surgery was performed on April 9, and a large cancerous mass was found. The doctors determined that they should not attempt to remove the mass. On April 20, Jones was discharged from Hackley Hospital and returned to the jail with instructions that he be placed on hospice care. During the late evening hours of May 4 and early morning hours of May 5, Jones's colostomy bag broke, and he was found lying on his cell floor, at which time an ambulance was called. Jones was pronounced dead at 5:10 a.m. on May 5, 2005.
On April 17, 2007, Plaintiff, on behalf of Jones, filed suit against Defendants, asserting the following three claims: (1) violation of civil rights pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983; (2) gross negligence; and (3) intentional infliction of emotional distress. The parties stipulated to the dismissal of the state-law claims against Dr. Deitrick. Defendants, thereafter, filed separate Motions for Summary Judgment. On August 5, 2009, the district court granted summary judgment on all counts for each of the Defendants. With regard to the Section 1983 claims, the district court stated that Plaintiff failed to present evidence demonstrating that any Defendant was deliberately indifferent to the serious medical needs of Jones. Specifically, the court found that Plaintiff's claim against Dr. Deitrick failed because it was beyond dispute that the doctor had provided medical assistance to Jones. The court noted that regardless of how ineffective that assistance may have been, his medical care was not so “woefully inadequate” as to amount to deliberate indifference. As to the Nurses and Corrections Officers, Plaintiff's claims were primarily supported by the affidavits of former inmates. The district court found that these affidavits did not create a genuine issue of material fact, stating that:
While the Court does not find the averments in these affidavits so devoid of merit or inadmissible that they should be discounted in their entirety, they are nevertheless lacking in specificity as to time, context and conduct such that they provide no basis for finding that particular officers, or the officers generally, had sufficiently culpable minds in denying Jones medical care.
Jones v. Muskegon County, No. 1:07-cv-388, 2009 WL 2444667, at *6, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68136, at *16 (W.D.Mich. Aug. 5, 2009). According to the court, the affidavits were similarly “insufficient to establish the requisite culpable state of mind” with respect to the nursing staff. Id. at *7, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68136, at *20. Lastly, the court found that the County was not liable because the several affidavits that Plaintiff provided from other inmates about their medical treatment were insufficient to prove a “policy” or “custom” of deliberate indifference. Id. at *10, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68136, at *31-33. Therefore, the court granted summary judgment in favor of all Defendants on Plaintiff's 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim.
The district court similarly concluded that summary judgment was warranted in Defendants' favor on Plaintiff's state-law claims. The court reasoned that because Plaintiff could not show conduct amounting to deliberate indifference in connection with his Section 1983 claim, Plaintiff failed to show any genuine...
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