Gibson v. Weber

• Decision Date: 15 December 2005
• Docket Number: No. 04-3932.,04-3932.
• Citation: 431 F.3d 339
• Parties: Allen G. GIBSON; David Hall, Plaintiffs-Appellants, Richard St. Cloud, Sr., Plaintiff, Michael Langley, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Doug WEBER; Darrell Slykhuis; Jeff Bloomberg; Kay Paa; John Degreef: Eugene Regier; Herbert Saloum; James H. Shaeffer; Mike Rost; Healthcare Medical Technology; Doneen Hollingsworth, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

431 F.3d 339

Allen G. GIBSON; David Hall, Plaintiffs-Appellants Richard St. Cloud, Sr., Plaintiff Michael Langley, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Doug WEBER; Darrell Slykhuis; Jeff Bloomberg; Kay Paa; John Degreef: Eugene Regier; Herbert Saloum; James H. Shaeffer; Mike Rost; Healthcare Medical Technology; Doneen Hollingsworth, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 04-3932.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: November 18, 2005.

Filed: December 15, 2005.

Stephanie Pochop and George Johnson, Gregory, SD, for appellants.

Mark Marshall, Kathryn J. Hoskins, Julia M. Dvorak, and James E. Moore, Sioux Falls, SD, for appellees.

Before MURPHY, BOWMAN, and GRUENDER, Circuit Judges.

MURPHY, Circuit Judge.

Allen Gibson, David Hall, and Michael Langley¹ were all diabetic inmates in custody of the South Dakota Department of Corrections ("DOC") when they brought these claims against state correctional officials and outside medical personnel, alleging deliberate indifference to their medical needs and inadequate medical facilities in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments and state law. The district court² granted summary judgment in favor of all of the defendants and declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the state law claims for medical malpractice. Gibson, Hall, and Langley appeal, arguing that they have presented sufficient evidence to present their claims to a jury and that the court erred by dismissing the state law claims. We affirm.

Appellants developed infections related to their diabetes which physicians determined made it necessary to perform amputations to portions of their lower extremities. They amputated portions of the feet of Gibson and Langley, as well as the bottom of Hall's left leg and a portion of his right foot. Appellants admit they received copies of the Inmate Living Guide (Guide) when they were incarcerated.

The Guide contains an administrative remedy provision which states as follows:

If you are unable to resolve a complaint through informal contacts with staff members, you may seek formal review of your complaint through the use of the Administrative Remedy for Inmates System.... Forms for filing complaints and appeals, and details on how the procedure is to be followed can be obtained from unit staff.

You may use the Administrative Remedy for Inmates system while housed at any DOC facility, contractual agency or while at a community house assignment.

Appellants concede that before bringing this action they did not complain about their medical care through the Guide's administrative remedy provision. Gibson and Langley stated in affidavits that this was because "it was always made clear... by healthcare and DOC personnel that any healthcare complaints were to be made informally to the Sioux Valley doctors, nurses, and P.A.'s and not to the prison administration under its grievance procedures." Hall stated in his affidavit that "throughout the years of [his] contact with health care people [he] followed the Inmates Living Guide and made [his] complaints informally to the health care staff. No one ever told [him] to do it differently until this case was filed."

In their complaint appellants sued eleven separate defendants. They alleged that the defendant medical personnel and state officials were deliberately indifferent to their medical needs and had denied them their due process rights by failing to provide adequate medical facilities and care. They also alleged a medical malpractice claim based on state law. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants, finding that the Inmate Living Guide provided an administrative grievance procedure for inmate complaints relating to the adequacy of medical care and that the appellants failed to exhaust administrative procedures available to them. It also granted summary judgment in favor of Gibson's parole officer, John DeGreef, finding that there were not facts sufficient to support a claim for deliberate indifference to Gibson's medical needs and that DeGreef was entitled to qualified immunity. Having no remaining federal grounds for retaining jurisdiction, the court dismissed their state law claims.

Gibson, Hall, and Langley appeal, arguing that there is a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the Guide's administrative grievance procedure was available to them and that the court erred by dismissing the state law claims even if it properly dismissed the federal claims. The defendants respond that the appellants had no excuse for failing to follow the Guide's procedures and that the decision to dismiss the state law claims is vested solely in the district court's discretion. We review the district court's grant of summary judgment de novo. Lund v. Hennepin Cty., 427 F.3d 1123, 1125 (8th Cir. 2005). Summary judgment is proper if there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Id.

The Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1996 ("PLRA"), codified in 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a), requires immediate dismissal of all claims brought by inmates with respect to prison conditions by inmates under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 or any other federal law until "such administrative remedies as are available are exhausted." 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a). Appellants do not now argue that the Guide's grievance procedures were not applicable to medical claims. They argue instead that the...