Brown v. District of Columbia

• Decision Date: 01 February 2008
• Docket Number: No. 05-5320.,05-5320.
• Citation: 514 F.3d 1279
• Parties: Herbert BROWN, Appellant v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, et al., Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

514 F.3d 1279

Herbert BROWN, Appellant v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, et al., Appellees.

No. 05-5320.

United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued October 5, 2007.

Decided February 1, 2008.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (No. 04cv02195).

Richard H. Frankel, appointed by the court, argued the cause for amicus curiae in support of appellant. With him on the briefs were Steven H. Goldblatt, Director, and Michael Hass, Brendon DeMay, Christian D'Avignon-Aubut, and Damon Elder, Student Counsel.

Herbert Brown, pro se, was on the brief for appellant.

Mary L. Wilson, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Office of Attorney General for the District of Columbia, argued the cause for appellees District of Columbia, et al. With her on the brief were Linda Singer, Attorney General, Todd S. Kim, Solicitor General, and Edward E. Schwab, Deputy Solicitor General.

Eileen Dennis Gilbride argued the cause for appellee Corrections Corporation of America. With her on the brief was Daniel P. Struck.

Adele P. Kimmel was on the brief for amici curiae DC Prisoners' Project of the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs in support of appellant. Arthur B. Spitzer and Deborah M. Golden entered appearances.

Before: GARLAND and GRIFFITH, Circuit. Judges, and WILLIAMS, Senior Circuit Judge.

GRIFFITH, Circuit Judge:

Herbert Brown, a prisoner, claims that his custodians' failure to provide adequate medical care amounted to "cruel and unusual punishment" in violation of the Eighth Amendment. He sued the District of Columbia ("District") and the Corrections Corporation of America ("CCA"), along with former Attorney General John Ashcroft,¹ three high-ranking District officials including the mayor, and several District and CCA employees in their individual capacities.

The district court dismissed Brown's complaint against the District, CCA, and the District officials for failure to state a claim. We affirm these dismissals in all respects but two. We reverse the dismissal of Brown's claim against the District for the violation of his rights while in the District's prison in Lorton, Virginia. The district court also dismissed Brown's complaint against the District employees and the CCA employees because Brown failed to serve them. We reverse this dismissal, too. Our reasons follow.

I.

A.

Brown's complaint alleges a spate of harms, which we must take as true when reviewing the dismissal of his claims.² Erickson v. Pardus, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 2197, 2200, 167 L.Ed.2d 1081 (2007). From 1991 through 1997, Brown was incarcerated in the District's Occoquan Correctional Facility in Lorton, Virginia.³ Although Brown entered the prison in good health, over the next five years his health deteriorated. He experienced severe headaches, constipation, loss of appetite, yellowed eyes, and pains in his chest, stomach, lower back, and penis. Several medical personnel at the prison wrongly diagnosed Brown or ignored his requests for treatment. Because of these failures, Brown suffered an inflamed liver, jaundice, and a medley of other maladies.

Finally, a Dr. Rafford diagnosed Brown with gallstones and ordered his immediate transfer to D.C. General Hospital for treatment. For the next sixty days prison officials failed to make the transfer while Brown continued to complain of intense pain. Not until Dr. Rafford saw Brown a second time, made the same diagnosis, and again ordered his immediate transfer did prison officials finally comply. At the hospital, Brown underwent surgery that removed eighteen gallstones blocking his urinary tract. After he returned to the Lorton prison, Brown continued to complain of similar symptoms. Over the next several months, the prison's medical staff again refused to treat him or wrongly diagnosed his condition. In one instance, a medical assistant diagnosed food poisoning and ordered Brown's transfer to a hospital, but prison officials again refused.

In 1997 the District transferred Brown to the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center a private prison owned and operated by CCA in Youngstown, Ohio that houses inmates for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. There, Brown's experience with inadequate medical care continued. In one instance, a Dr. Mazzi prescribed diabetes medication for Brown without ever examining him. After months of suffering from the medication's ill effects, Brown learned that he did not have the disease. At both the Virginia and Ohio facilities, Brown filed numerous grievances informing prison officials and the District of his plight.

B.

In December 2004 Brown filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, which creates a cause of action against state and local officials for violations of federal rights. The statute reads:

Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States ... to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured.

42 U.S.C. § 1983. Brown claimed that the District, CCA, and several individuals denied him adequate medical care in violation of the Eighth Amendment. The individual defendants⁴ he sought to hold personally liable include three District officials (Odie Washington, Director of the D.C. Department of Corrections; Elwood York, Director of External Confinement in the D.C. Department of Corrections; and Anthony Williams, former mayor of the District of Columbia); six doctors at the Lorton prison (Taylor, Marzban, K.R. Sorem, Ferry, Park, and Easted); and nine employees⁵ at CCA's Ohio prison (Mazzi, Willis Gibson, A. Warfield, R. Adams, M. Perryman, A. Sims, J. Bass, B. Goodrich, and J. Cerimele). He served the District and defendants Williams, Washington, and York, but failed to serve the remaining individuals. Although CCA accepted service, it never appeared in district court. The District, along with defendants Williams, Washington, and York, filed a motion to dismiss.

On August 1, 2005 the district court dismissed Brown's action in its entirety. Brown v. District of Columbia, No. 04-2195 (D.D.C. Aug. 2, 2005). The court concluded that Brown failed to state a claim against either the District or CCA because his treatment at the hands of various prison doctors did not violate the Eighth Amendment: "Although there may. have been delays in rendering treatment, displeasure as to the quality of treatment, or disagreement about the course of treatment, the plaintiffs complaint makes clear that indeed he received treatment. Negligence does not rise to the level of deliberate indifference to a prisoner's serious medical needs." Id. at *5. The court also reasoned that even if Brown had stated an Eighth Amendment violation, he failed to make allegations which, if true, would hold the District liable. His claim against the District, at best, was based on a theory of respondeat superior, insufficient under well-established precedent. Id. at *6-7. In addition, the court dismissed the claims against defendants Williams, Washington, and York because Brown failed to allege that these public officials were personally involved in the decisions adversely affecting Brown's rights. id. at *7. Finally, the court dismissed sua sponte the claims against the CCA and District employees because Brown did not serve them. Id. at *4.

Brown appeals the decision in all respects. The district court exercised jurisdiction over this case pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331, and we have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. Our review is de novo. Browning v. Clinton, 292 F.3d 235, 242 (D.C.Cir.2002) (dismissal for failure to state a claim); Second Amendment Found. v. U.S. Conference of Mayors, 274 F.3d 521, 523 (D.C.Cir.2001) (dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction). "[W]hen ruling on a defendant's motion to dismiss, a judge must accept as true all of the factual allegations contained in the complaint." Erickson, 127 S.Ct. at 2200. Moreover, "[a] document filed pro se is to be liberally construed ... and a pro se complaint, however inartfully pleaded, must be held to less stringent standards than formal pleadings drafted by lawyers." Id. (internal quotation marks and citations omitted).

II.

Brown argues that the district court erred in dismissing his claims against the District for alleged failures of medical care. We agree.

A.

A municipality is a "person" subject to suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, although its liability is limited. Monell v. Dep't of Soc. Servs. of City of N.Y., 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978). To determine whether a plaintiff can hold a municipality liable under § 1983, we must answer two questions. "First, the court must determine whether the complaint states a claim for a predicate constitutional violation. Second, if so, then the court must determine whether the complaint states a claim that a custom or policy of the municipality caused the violation." Baker v. District of Columbia, 326 F.3d 1302, 1306 (D.C.Cir.2003) (citing Collins v. City of Harker Heights, 503 U.S. 115, 120, 112 S.Ct. 1061, 117 L.Ed.2d 261 (1992)).

Brown's complaint alleges a violation of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against "cruel and unusual punishments." U.S. CONST. amend. VIII. The Supreme Court has placed within the ambit of this prohibition "punishments ... which involve the unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain." Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 102-03, 97 S.Ct. 285, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976). When a prisoner claims that his custodian has violated the Eighth Amendment by failing to provide adequate medical care, he "must allege acts or omissions sufficiently harmful to evidence deliberate indifference to serious medical needs." Id. at 106, 97 S.Ct. 285. One example of such "deliberate indifference" is a prison doctor...