Hemmings v. Gorczyk
| Decision Date | 16 January 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. 226,D,226 |
| Citation | 134 F.3d 104 |
| Parties | Allan Bruce HEMMINGS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John F. GORCZYK, Commissioner, Vermont Department of Corrections; Keith Tallon, Southwest Regional Correctional Facility; Keith Griffin, Supervisor; Thomas Terencini, Supervisor; Dorothy Day, Correction Officer; Officer Cripps, Correction Officer; Officer Ball, Correction Officer; Thomas Griffin, Education Center Director; Dr. Stickney, Medical Officer; Donna Young, Medical Department Nurse; Robert J. Wallett, Supervisor; Scott Baker, Asst. Supt.; Nurse Marsha, Medical Department; Mid-Vermont Orthopaedics, Inc.; Joseph Vargas, M.D.; Rutland Regional Medical Center, 160 Allen Street, Rutland, Vermont, Defendants-Appellees. ocket 96-3703. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Allan Bruce Hemmings, Middletown, CT, Plaintiff-Appellant pro se.
Donal F. Hartman, Jr., Assistant Attorney General, Department of Corrections, Waterbury, VT (William H. Sorrell, Attorney General of the State of Vermont, of counsel), for Defendants-Appellees Gorczyk, Tallon, Keith Griffin, Terencini, Day, Cripps, Ball, Thomas Griffin, Young, Wallett, Baker, and Marsha Doe.
David L. Cleary, Rutland, VT, for Defendants-Appellees Mid-Vermont Orthopaedics, Inc. and Joseph Vargas, M.D.
Allan R. Keyes, Ryan Smith & Carbine, Ltd., Rutland, VT, for Defendant-Appellee Rutland Regional Medical Center.
Before: KEARSE, MINER, and CABRANES, Circuit Judges.
Plaintiff-appellant Allan Bruce Hemmings, pro se, appeals from a judgment of the United States District Court for the District of Vermont (J. Garvan Murtha, Chief Judge ), dismissing his in forma pauperis civil rights complaint as frivolous under 28 U.S.C. § 1915. Hemmings claims, among other things, that the defendants violated his constitutional rights through their deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs. Apart from this claim of deliberate indifference, his complaint and his subsequent voluminous filings are replete with allegations of conspiracies to harm and harass him and his family, involving, among many others, the Central Intelligence Agency (where Hemmings was previously employed) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Despite these other claims, which we find to lack foundation and which are fanciful at best, Hemmings has alleged facts sufficient to support a colorable Eighth Amendment claim of deliberate indifference that is deserving of further factual development. Although we affirm so much of the judgment of the district court as dismissed the bulk of Hemmings' claims, we vacate the district court's dismissal of Hemmings' complaint on the issue of deliberate indifference and remand the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion and limited to that issue.
On May 28, 1993, Hemmings was arrested in Vermont on a Connecticut arrest warrant charging him with violation of a court restraining order and with the crime of stalking. Following the exhaustion of his state court appeals, on June 7, 1994, he was extradited to Connecticut. In the interim, he filed this cause of action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in the district court in Vermont, alleging civil rights violations during his period of confinement in the Southwest Regional Correctional Facility in Rutland, Vermont ("Southwest"). 1 We limit our discussion to what we believe to be Hemmings' one colorable constitutional claim--namely, that the defendants deliberately ignored his serious medical needs in violation of the Eighth Amendment.
Hemmings' complaint alleges the following pertinent facts with respect to his medical treatment, which for purposes of this appeal only we consider in the light most favorable to Hemmings. See McEvoy v. Spencer, 124 F.3d 92, 95 (2d Cir.1997). On July 11, 1993, during a game of basketball, another inmate jumped up and landed on Hemmings' ankle, rupturing his Achilles tendon. Prison medical staff diagnosed the injury as a "bad sprain" that would go away, allegedly ignoring the severity of the condition. From mid-July until mid-September 1993, Hemmings' ankle remained swollen and painful, but despite Hemmings' repeated requests he was denied a referral to a specialist. Hemmings' ankle was x-rayed twice, revealing no fractures, but Hemmings allegedly was ignored--and no further diagnostic measures were pursued--when he told prison medical staff that he was sure he had a ruptured Achilles tendon and tissue damage. In August 1993, a prison nurse who is one of the defendants in this action, Donna Young, is alleged to have maliciously taken away one of Hemmings' crutches, causing him to have to place more weight on his injured ankle and allegedly resulting in additional pain and swelling.
After receiving a letter from Hemmings' brother regarding Hemmings' condition, the medical staff finally sent Hemmings to see an orthopedic specialist, Dr. Joseph Vargas, at Mid-Vermont Orthopaedics Center ("MVO"). Dr. Vargas diagnosed Hemmings as having a ruptured Achilles tendon with associated tendon and muscle damage. He allegedly called Hemmings' symptoms (which included, according to Hemmings, a three-inch indentation in the affected area) "classic," and expressed shock at the prison's failure to diagnose and treat Hemmings. Hemmings underwent surgery, performed by Dr. Vargas, at Rutland Regional Medical Center ("RRMC") in October 1993. At an October 25, 1993 check-up, Dr. Vargas noticed that Hemmings' leg was infected, and ordered Hemmings to be rehospitalized.
Hemmings' complaint names the following defendants: John Gorczyk, Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Corrections; Keith Tallon, Superintendent of Southwest; Scott Baker, Assistant Superintendent of Southwest; Keith Griffin, Thomas Terencini, and Robert Wallett, supervisors at Southwest; correctional officers Day, Cripps, and Ball; Thomas Griffin, director of Southwest's Education Center; and Dr. Stickney and nurses Donna Young and Marsha Doe of Southwest's medical staff (collectively, the " "). An amendment to Hemmings' complaint also named Dr. Vargas, MVO, and RRMC.
In January 1994, RRMC moved to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. Subsequently, in June 1994, Vargas and MVO moved for summary judgment. On August 4, 1994, the United States Magistrate Judge to whom the case had been referred filed a report recommending that both motions be granted, inasmuch as Hemmings had alleged mere negligence on the part of these defendants, and not the deliberate indifference necessary to state a constitutional violation. United States District Judge Franklin S. Billings, Jr., who then bore responsibility for this matter, adopted the recommendations and remanded the case to the Magistrate Judge for disposition of any remaining claims. 2
The State Defendants then moved to dismiss the complaint, arguing that to the extent that Hemmings' claims were brought against them in their personal capacities, they should be dismissed because service had not been effected upon them in their personal capacities; that they were immune under the Eleventh Amendment from any claims for damages brought against them in their official capacities; and that Hemmings' request for injunctive relief was moot because he had been extradited to Connecticut.
By an order dated August 28, 1996, Chief Judge Murtha, to whom the case had been reassigned, dismissed the case against the State Defendants. He observed that the State Defendants "ha[d] not relied upon Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) as a basis for their motion to dismiss," but that the court had the power, under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(d) (1994), 3 to dismiss an in forma pauperis complaint that is "frivolous or malicious." The court found that Hemmings had not sufficiently alleged deliberate indifference to his medical needs to establish a constitutional violation, and discredited Hemmings' "disturbing allegations" of far-flung and far-fetched conspiracies to violate his constitutional rights. The court therefore dismissed the complaint pursuant to § 1915(d). Plaintiff now appeals.
We affirm the district court's dismissal of Hemmings' suit against RRMC, Vargas, and MVO. RRMC and MVO are improper defendants, inasmuch as the only conceivable responsibility that could be attributed to them for any arguable constitutional injury suffered by Hemmings would be under a theory of respondeat superior in connection with actions taken by Dr. Vargas. However, respondeat superior cannot form the basis for a § 1983 claim. See Collins v. City of Harker Heights, 503 U.S. 115, 122-23, 112 S.Ct. 1061, 1067, 117 L.Ed.2d 261 (1992); Hendricks v. Coughlin, 114 F.3d 390, 394 (2d Cir.1997). Moreover, Hemmings' claims of inadequate treatment at RRMC and MVO, and by Dr. Vargas, are at most claims of negligence, which fall short of the "deliberate indifference" to serious medical needs required to establish an Eighth Amendment violation. See Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 105-06, 97 S.Ct. 285, 292, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976); Hathaway v. Coughlin, 99 F.3d 550, 553 (2d Cir.1996).
With respect to the State Defendants, we affirm the district court's dismissal of Hemmings' in forma pauperis complaint under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(d) insofar as Hemmings attempts to implicate these defendants in wide-ranging conspiracies, clearly without foundation, to violate his constitutional rights. The federal in forma pauperis statute, presently codified at 28 U.S.C. § 1915, is designed to provide indigent litigants meaningful access to the federal courts. Mindful of the fact that litigants who can file lawsuits free of cost will not have the same incentive as paying litigants to...
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