Aldridge v. Montgomery
| Decision Date | 21 February 1985 |
| Docket Number | No. 83-8302,83-8302 |
| Citation | 753 F.2d 970 |
| Parties | Aubrey H. ALDRIDGE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Charles MONTGOMERY, et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
Timothy W. Floyd, Athens, Ga., for plaintiff-appellant.
Victoria H. Soto, Atlanta, Ga., Terry A. Dillard, Waycross, Ga., for Montgomery, Austin, McQuaig Hilliard & Stankovic.
Daniell S. Landers, Waycross, Ga., for Pafford, Grant, McDuffie & Rouse.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia.
Before KRAVITCH and JOHNSON, Circuit Judges, and TUTTLE, Senior Circuit Judge.
I. BACKGROUND
Appellant, an inmate at Georgia State Prison, brought this action under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 against two wardens at the Georgia State Prison, four officers of the Ware County Sheriff's Department, two officers of the Georgia State Patrol, and a physician at Georgia State Prison. The district court granted motions for directed verdict in favor of all defendants except one officer of the Sheriff's Department and one Georgia State Patrol officer, allegedly involved in beating the appellant during his arrest. A jury verdict was rendered in favor of those two defendants.
The two key issues which we feel warrant consideration concern appellant's claims of unconstitutional denial of necessary medical assistance at the Ware County Jail before his trial and at the Georgia State Prison after his conviction. Because the district court granted a directed verdict as to both of these issues, we summarize the facts relevant to these issues in the light most favorable to the appellant. Significantly, in addition to this standard, the state appellees expressly admitted the correctness of the appellant's statement of the facts relating to occurrences at the state prison.
(1) As to the Ware County Jail
On February 10, 1980, appellant was arrested by several officers of the Ware County Sheriff's Department and two officers of the Georgia State Patrol. During the arrest, there was a scuffle in which appellant received a one and a half inch cut above his right eye. After the arrest, appellant was taken to the Ware County Jail and placed in a holding cell for over two hours. 1 The cut continued to bleed, forming a pool of blood on the floor approximately the size of two hands. Appellant was then taken to the hospital where his cut required six stitches. The doctor on duty in the emergency room directed defendant Grant to give appellant icepacks and aspirin for his wound. Neither of these was given to the appellant.
(2) As to the State Prison
After conviction, appellant was confined at Georgia State Prison at Reidsville. In July of 1980, he asked to see a doctor about severe headaches and dizziness that he felt were caused by the injury he received during his arrest. Defendant Dr. Stankovic responded to appellant's request to be examined. Dr. Stankovic appeared outside of appellant's cell and upon hearing appellant's complaint told him "... that she would go back and doctor [his] records." Dr. Stankovic had possession of appellant's medical history, which included many serious head injuries. He had been injured in an automobile accident, had broken his neck in a swimming accident, had suffered a brain concussion, and had received other blows to his head too numerous for appellant to specify at trial.
Appellant filed a grievance with the warden following Dr. Stankovic's refusal to examine him. The warden referred the grievance to Dr. Stankovic who reported that appellant had been examined, given medication and referred to the hospital for his complaint. However, Dr. Stankovic based this report on an examination made by another doctor in 1979, six months before appellant received the injury which may have caused the headaches and dizziness of which he was complaining. Moreover, Dr. Stankovic testified at trial that she was aware that the records in her possession were based on an examination prior to appellant's February 1980 injury.
II. ISSUES
The two key issues for consideration by this Court are as follows:
1. Whether the trial court erred in directing a verdict for defendants as to appellant's allegations of constitutionally inadequate medical care at Ware County Jail.
2. Whether the trial court erred in directing a verdict for defendants as to appellant's allegations of constitutionally inadequate medical care at Georgia State Prison.
III. DISCUSSION
The standard of review for this Court in reviewing the granting of a motion for directed verdict is whether, considering all of the evidence in the light most favorable to the opponent, the facts and inferences point so strongly and overwhelmingly in favor of one party that reasonable persons could not reach a different conclusion. Kaye v. Pawnee Construction Co., Inc., 680 F.2d 1360 (11th Cir.1982).
We recognize that problems relating to inadequate medical care may require different standards of care between pretrial detainees (the Ware County case) and convicted prisoners (the state prison case).
To state a claim under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 for inadequate medical care while in prison, an inmate must show deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs. Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 97 S.Ct. 285, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976). The holding of Estelle relates to a convicted prisoner's Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment, whereas a pre-trial detainee has a Fourteenth Amendment due process right to be free from punishment altogether, Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979). The Supreme Court, in a recent case holding that a city is not obligated to pay for medical services for inmates so long as such services are in fact provided, reiterated that the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment City of Revere v. Massachusetts General Hospital, 463 U.S. 239, 103 S.Ct. 2979, 2983, 77 L.Ed.2d 605, 611 (1983). The Court did not decide the precise limits of a governmental agency's duty to provide medical care to pre-trial detainees beyond the Estelle v. Gamble test, indicating only that "[w]hatever the standard may be, Revere fulfilled its constitutional obligation by seeing that [the pre-trial detainee] was taken promptly to a hospital that provided the treatment necessary for his injury." Id.
Appellant argues that the officers at the Ware County Jail violated his rights as a pre-trial detainee by ignoring the bleeding cut for two and a half hours. The appellant stresses the facts that the cut was at least one and a half inches long, that it required six stitches, that there was blood on the floor and on his coat and shirt. The appellant notes that the arresting officers apparently held appellant for so long without treatment because they were waiting for a detective to tell them what to do.
Appellant also argues that the...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Villalobos v. W. Reg'l Jail, Civil Action No. 3:18-01385
...failed to identify a serious medical need where he alleged only a broken nose and chipped teeth); ); but see Aldridge v. Montogomery, 753 F.2d 970, 972-73 (11th Cir. 1985)(finding that a cut over an inmate's eye that was bleeding profusely for two and a half hours was a serious medical need......
-
Keele v. Glynn Cnty.
...facts—taken collectively—would undoubtedly alert a lay person to the necessity of medical attention. See, e.g., Aldridge v. Montgomery, 753 F.2d 970, 972 (11th Cir.1985) (finding serious need where one-and-a-half-inch cut over detainee's eye was allowed to bleed for two and one-half hours b......
-
Hill v. Dekalb Regional Youth Detention Center
...problem. Thus, the mandated treatment for his diagnosed ailment undisputedly was received by Hill. Cf. Aldridge v. Montgomery, 753 F.2d 970, 972-73 (11th Cir.1985) (per curiam) (holding that a state prisoner demonstrated a triable issue of fact when he presented evidence that a deputy faile......
-
Adams v. Franklin
...law establishes, for example, that a two-and-a-half hour delay in treatment for a bleeding cut under the eye was actionable, see Aldridge, 753 F.2d at 972, as well as a six-hour delay in rendering medical treatment for an inmate with a broken foot. See Brown, 894 F.2d at 1538. The court, ho......