Islam v. Jackson
| Decision Date | 23 January 1992 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 91-342-N. |
| Citation | 782 F. Supp. 1111 |
| Parties | Mohammed A.A. ISLAM, Plaintiff, v. Sheriff C.W. JACKSON, Sgt. D.C. Standbridge, Investigator Yeatman, Deputy Wayne France, and Montross Inn, Inc., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Virginia |
Mohammed A.A. Islam, pro se.
David Peter Buehler, John Adrian Gibney, Jr., Shuford, Rubin, Gibney & Dunn, Richmond, Va., for defendants Sheriff C.W. Jackson, Sgt. D.C. Standbridge, Investigator Yeatman and Deputy Wayne France.
Allan Simpson Reynolds, Jr., Reynolds, Smith & Winters, P.C., Norfolk, Va., for defendant Montross Inn, Inc.
Plaintiff, a Virginia inmate, has submitted a pro se complaint, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, to redress alleged violations of his constitutional rights. Specifically, plaintiff alleges that defendants violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment by serving contaminated food to plaintiff and other inmates and by serving food under unsanitary conditions. Plaintiff seeks $10,000 in punitive and compensatory damages from each defendant as an official and $10,000 in punitive and compensatory damages from each defendant as an individual.
On October 24, 1991, the court granted plaintiff's request to proceed in forma pauperis and ordered his complaint filed. Defendant Montross Inn, Inc. (Montross Inn) and defendants Jackson, Standbridge, Yeatman, and France (Prison Officials) then filed motions to dismiss plaintiff's claim under Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure for failure to state a claim. Plaintiff responded to these motions and also moved for summary judgment against defendants. For the reasons stated below, the court DISMISSES plaintiff's complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.1
Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure requires the court to dismiss plaintiff's complaint upon defendant's motion if the complaint "fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted." Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). In order to state a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, plaintiff must allege facts which, if proven, show that the conduct of which he complains was committed by a person acting under color of state law and that the conduct deprived plaintiff of rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution or the laws of the United States. 42 U.S.C. § 1983; see, e.g., West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42, 48, 108 S.Ct. 2250, 2255, 101 L.Ed.2d 40 (1988). Defendants do not contest that they acted under color of state law. They do contest, however, that their conduct violated the Constitution or federal laws.
In deciding a motion to dismiss, the court accepts as true the facts alleged in plaintiff's complaint. Loe v. Armistead, 582 F.2d 1291, 1292 (4th Cir.1978), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 928, 100 S.Ct. 1865, 64 L.Ed.2d 281 (1980); see also Schatz v. Rosenberg, 943 F.2d 485, 489 (4th Cir.1991) (). A complaint, no matter how unartfully pleaded, must survive a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim "unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief." Loe, 582 F.2d at 1295 (quoting Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 102, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957)). A pro se complaint raising civil rights issues is particularly entitled to liberal construction. Id.; see Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 521, 92 S.Ct. 594, 596, 30 L.Ed.2d 652 (1972) (per curiam); Gordon v. Leeke, 574 F.2d 1147, 1151 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 970, 99 S.Ct. 464, 58 L.Ed.2d 431 (1978).
Plaintiff alleges the following facts, which the court assumes are true. On December 20, 1990, defendant Prison Officials served plaintiff a dinner meal of elbow macaroni with meat that was contaminated with maggots. Defendant Montross Inn provided the meal to the jail. The next morning, plaintiff and other inmates refused to eat any other meals from Montross Inn fearing that this food also was contaminated. Upon learning that the inmates refused to eat meals prepared by Montross Inn, defendant "Sheriff Jackson stated that these inmates must be fed, and instructed the jailors to clean up the kitchen and go to the Blue and Gray Supermarket to get balongna sic, etc., for lunch." (Pl.'s Compl. ¶ 4.) Plaintiff developed stomach problems on December 23, 1990, as a result of eating food infested with maggots, and Prison Officials took him to the emergency room for treatment. Plaintiff alleged no further medical problems.
After the one contaminated meal from Montross Inn, defendant Prison Officials obtained food from other vendors. From December 21, 1990, to January 2, 1991, defendant Prison Officials prepared the food temporarily "in the jail's kitchen which had been closed down several years earlier do sic to its failure to meet health standard." (Pl.'s Compl. ¶ 5.) Defendant Prison Officials prepared and served the food without gloves and without medical examinations or certifications to work with food, despite an inmate's recent case of infectious hepatitis. After January 2, 1991, Prison Officials obtained prepared meals for the inmates from outside food vendors, having replaced Montross Inn as the supplier.
The Eighth Amendment applies to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and prohibits "cruel and unusual punishment" of those convicted of crimes. Wilson v. Seiter, ___ U.S. ___, 111 S.Ct. 2321, 2323, 115 L.Ed.2d 271 (1991) (citing Robinson v. California, 370 U.S. 660, 666, 82 S.Ct. 1417, 1420, 8 L.Ed.2d 758 (1962)). This provision protects inmates both from deprivations specifically part of their sentence and from deprivations suffered during confinement. Id. In Wilson, the Supreme Court identified two elements necessary to support an Eighth Amendment claim challenging prison conditions. Such a claim includes both an objective element, i.e., whether the deprivation was sufficiently serious to constitute cruel and unusual punishment, and a subjective element, i.e., whether the officials acted with a sufficiently culpable state of mind. Id. at 2324. The court concludes that the facts pleaded in plaintiff's complaint satisfy neither the objective nor the subjective element of an Eighth Amendment claim, and, therefore, plaintiff's complaint fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.2
The Fourth Circuit recognizes the well-established principle that "inmates must be provided nutritionally adequate food, `prepared and served under conditions which do not present an immediate danger to the health and well being of the inmates who consume it.'" Shrader v. White, 761 F.2d 975, 986 (4th Cir.1985) (citations omitted); see Bolding v. Holshouser, 575 F.2d 461, 465 (4th Cir.) (), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 837, 99 S.Ct. 121, 58 L.Ed.2d 133 (1978). Failure to meet an inmate's basic nutritional needs is cruel and unusual punishment because the inmate relies on prison officials to provide food; if the officials fail to do so, the inmate's basic nutritional needs will not be met. Cf. Rhodes v. Chapman, 452 U.S. 337, 347, 101 S.Ct. 2392, 2399, 69 L.Ed.2d 59 (1981). Under some circumstances, therefore, inadequate, unsanitary food service can be sufficiently serious to satisfy the objective element of an Eighth Amendment claim. Plaintiff's allegations, however, are not serious enough to constitute a violation of constitutional magnitude.3
Plaintiff complains that defendants served him contaminated food on one occasion and that for thirteen days, from December 21, 1990, to January 2, 1991, defendant Prison Officials prepared and served him food from an alternate food source under unsanitary conditions. Missing one meal as an isolated event does not deprive an inmate of basic nutritional needs. Likewise, temporary service of food without gloves by employees not medically examined or certified to handle food does not present an immediate danger to the health and well being of the inmates who consume it.
Moreover, plaintiff has alleged no "serious medical and emotional deterioration attributable to" the challenged conditions, as required by Lopez v. Robinson, 914 F.2d 486, 490 (4th Cir.1990) (quoting Shrader v. White, 761 F.2d 975, 979 (4th Cir.1985)). Although plaintiff became ill after eating the contaminated meal from Montross Inn, Prison Officials provided medical treatment, and plaintiff complains of no remaining medical problems. The challenged conditions, therefore, are not sufficiently serious to constitute cruel and unusual punishment, and plaintiff's action against defendant Prison Officials and defendant Montross Inn can be dismissed on this basis alone. Even if the challenged conditions had caused a constitutionally cognizable harm, however, plaintiff also must plead facts that show deliberate indifference as the cause of his harm. Id. For the reasons stated in the next section, plaintiff has failed to plead sufficient facts to sustain an allegation of deliberate indifference.
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
George v. Angelone
...the plaintiff would not be entitled to relief under any state of facts which could be proven in support of the claim. Islam v. Jackson, 782 F.Supp. 1111, 1113 (E.D.Va.1992). Exhaustion, Procedural Default, and "New Rule" Doctrine Before a Section 2254 petitioner may have his claims reviewed......
-
Burcher v. McCauley
...the plaintiff would not be entitled to relief under any set of facts which could be proven in support of his claim. Islam v. Jackson, 782 F.Supp. 1111, 1113 (E.D.Va.1992). The Court is of the opinion that defendants' motion to dismiss is well taken and that all claims should be Plaintiffs h......
-
Holbrook v. W. Va. Reg'l Jail & Corr. Facility Auth.
...Cir. 1990) ("negligence or good faith error causing such harm will not establish a constitutional claim"); and Islam v. Montross Inn, 782 F. Supp. 1111, 1115-16 (E.D. Va.1992) (allegation of isolated incident of defective food service, but 12(b)(6) motion granted because no allegation of de......
-
Wilson v. Byrd
...tainted food served at Holman on December 26, 2013, does not, alone, amount to a constitutional deprivation. See Islam v. Jackson, 782 F. Supp. 1111, 1114 (E.D. Va. 1992) (holding an isolated two week period of food contamination, including food infested with maggots, not sufficiently serio......
-
Free-World Law Behind Bars.
...stretches quite far to protect prison and jail officials from liability"). (3.) See infra Part I. (4.) See, e.g., Islam v. Jackson, 782 F. Supp. 1111, 1113-15 (E.D. Va. 1992) (concluding that allegations that a prisoner was served food infested with maggots, developed stomach problems, and ......