Goffman v. Gross

• Decision Date: 06 July 1995
• Docket Number: No. 94-1738,94-1738
• Citation: 59 F.3d 668
• Parties: Paul H. GOFFMAN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Boniface GROSS, Danny Jaimet, Lieutenant Maue, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 668

59 F.3d 668

Paul H. GOFFMAN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Boniface GROSS, Danny Jaimet, Lieutenant Maue, et al Defendants-Appellees.

No. 94-1738.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

Argued Feb. 17, 1995.

Decided July 6, 1995.

Susan Marie Settle (argued), Waterloo, IL, for Paul H. Goffman.

Terence J. Corrigan, Asst. Atty. Gen., Crim. Appeals Div., Springfield, IL, for Boniface Gross.

Robert G. Toews, Office of the Atty. Gen., Terence J. Corrigan, Asst. Atty. Gen., Crim. Appeals Div., Mary E. Welsh (argued), Office of the Atty. Gen., Civil Appeals Div., Chicago, IL, for D. Jaimet, Lieutenant Maue, Sergeant Ramsey.

Before POSNER, Chief Judge, MANION, and KANNE, Circuit Judges.

MANION, Circuit Judge.

Paul Goffman, an inmate in the Illinois prison system, brought this action for damages and other relief against state officials under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983, claiming the defendants' refusal to provide him with a non-smoking cellmate constituted deliberate indifference to his immediate medical needs. The matter was referred to a magistrate judge who, following an evidentiary hearing, recommended that judgment be entered against Goffman and in favor of the defendants. The district court, upon a de novo review of the record, accepted the magistrate judge's recommendations and entered judgment for the defendants. We affirm.

I.

Goffman is serving a sentence at Menard Correctional Center, where he has been confined since 1975. The named defendants are various correctional officers at the prison.

In 1988 Goffman was diagnosed with lung cancer. Goffman's attending physician at Menard, Dr. Mugarrab Khan, referred Goffman to Belleville Memorial Hospital for removal of his right lung. The surgery was a resounding success: Goffman shows no evidence of lung cancer in his remaining lung, and is apparently cured--a rare occurrence with lung cancer.

Shortly after his surgery, Goffman requested Dr. Khan issue him a "white card," a medical slip permitting the holder to be housed with a non-smoking cellmate. Dr. Khan testified that he issued such cards to inmates when they requested them, regardless of whether it was medically necessary that the inmate be housed with a non-smoking cellmate. Goffman's request was no exception. Dr. Khan testified that he issued Goffman a white card because Goffman requested one, not because he believed it was medically necessary. Indeed, because Goffman had been cured of his cancer, Dr. Khan was of the opinion that second-hand smoke posed no greater danger to Goffman than to any other inmate.

Despite his receipt of the white card, Goffman was housed with smoking cellmates. In addition, Goffman experienced occasional post-surgery respiratory problems, some of which were severe enough to require hospitalization. Perceiving a link, Goffman filed this Sec. 1983 action against the various defendants for violating his Eighth Amendment rights. He claims that their failure to provide him with a non-smoking cellmate constituted deliberate indifference to the effects smoking by his cellmates was having on his medical condition. The matter was referred to a magistrate, who, following an evidentiary hearing, found that Goffman had failed to present evidence establishing either a serious medical need traceable to cigarette smoke or defendants' indifference to it. The magistrate recommended that judgment be entered in favor of the defendants. Following a de novo review of the record, the district court adopted the magistrate's recommendation and entered judgment in favor of the defendants.

Goffman filed a timely notice of appeal from the district court's judgment. Shortly thereafter, Goffman filed a motion for a new trial. Goffman's motion was based upon a press release of a new study conducted by a Dr. Ritchie suggesting that blacks may be more predisposed to develop lung cancer from smoking than whites. Goffman requested the court vacate its judgment and allow him another go 'round so that he could present this study as evidence in support of his claim. The district court denied the motion, observing that Goffman had failed to establish how this "newly discovered" evidence was material to his claim of deliberate indifference, would be credible, or would affect the outcome of the court. Goffman challenges the district court's denial of his Rule 60(b) motion along with the court's original judgment in favor of the defendants.

II.

The main thrust of Goffman's appeal is directed to the district court's conclusion that the defendants were not deliberately indifferent to his medical needs. In rendering its judgment the district court adopted the magistrate judge's findings and conclusions of law. Before addressing Goffman's claims, we think it would be helpful to set out briefly the various steps of review involved when a matter is referred to a magistrate judge.

Section 636(b)(1)(B) of Title 28 authorizes a district court to refer a claim to a magistrate judge to conduct an evidentiary hearing. Following this hearing, the magistrate judge cannot enter a final judgment, but must submit to the district court proposed findings of fact and recommendations for disposition, to which either party may file written objections within 10 days. 28 U.S.C. Sec. 636(b)(1)(B); Fed.R.Civ.P. 72(b). The district court is required to conduct a de novo determination of those portions of the magistrate judge's report and recommendations to which objections have been filed. But this de novo determination is not the same as a de novo hearing. The district court is not required to conduct another hearing to review the magistrate judge's findings or credibility determinations. United States v. Raddatz, 447 U.S. 667, 675, 100 S.Ct. 2406, 2412, 65 L.Ed.2d 424 (1980); United States v. Severson, 49 F.3d 268, 273 (7th Cir.1995). Rather, the district court has discretion to "accept, reject, modify, in whole or in part, the findings or recommendations made by the magistrate." 28 U.S.C. Sec. 636(b)(1); Fed.R.Civ.P. 72(b). If the district court finds a problem, it may take additional evidence, call witnesses, or remand to the magistrate judge for further development. Raddatz, 447 U.S. at 675, 100 S.Ct. at 2412. But if following a review of the record the district court is satisfied with the magistrate judge's findings and recommendations it may in its discretion treat those findings and recommendations as its own. Raddatz, 447 U.S. at 676, 100 S.Ct. at 2412. That is what happened here.

Thus, we review Goffman's challenges to the magistrate judge's findings as adopted by the district court under the usual lens as set forth in Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a). That rule provides that "[f]indings of fact shall not be set aside unless clearly erroneous." Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a). A finding is not clearly erroneous simply because we would have weighed the evidence differently had we been given the first shot at it. See Anderson v. City of Bessemer City, 470 U.S. 564, 574, 105 S.Ct. 1504, 1511-12, 84 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985). Rather, "a finding is clearly erroneous when although there is evidence to support it, the reviewing court on the entire evidence is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed." Id. at 573, 105 S.Ct. at 1511 (quotations and citations omitted). And our review of the district court's application of a legal standard--in this case, "deliberate indifference"--to a set of facts is also guided by the same clear error standard. See Hirsch v. Burke, 40 F.3d 900, 903 (7th Cir.1994).

A. Deliberate Indifference

Most of Goffman's challenges to this portion of the district court's judgment lack merit. Our discussion will be limited to Goffman's challenge to the magistrate judge's one finding that we believe to be dispositive of this case. In his report, the magistrate judge found that Goffman presented absolutely no evidence establishing a serious medical condition exacerbated by his exposure to his cellmates' cigarettes. This finding was largely based upon the testimony of Dr. Khan, who was of the opinion that because Goffman was cured of lung cancer, the cigarette smoke of which he complained affected him no more than any other prisoner and therefore posed no greater danger to him. Goffman contends that this testimony is simply not...