Miskovitch v. Hostoffer

• Decision Date: 15 June 2010
• Docket Number: Civil No. 06-1410.
• Citation: 721 F.Supp.2d 389
• Parties: Eric M. MISKOVITCH, Plaintiff, v. Lt. HOSTOFFER, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Pennsylvania

721 F.Supp.2d 389

Eric M. MISKOVITCH, Plaintiff,

v.Lt. HOSTOFFER, et al., Defendants.

Civil No. 06-1410.

United States District Court,W.D. Pennsylvania.

June 15, 2010.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED.

Eric M. Miskovitch, Graterford, PA, pro se.

John K. Greiner, Belden, Belden, Persin & Johnston, Greensburg, PA, Stanley A. Winikoff, Dell, Moser, Lane & Loughney, John C. Conti, Dickie, McCamey & Chilcote, Jeffrey J. Wetzel, White and Williams LLP, Mariah Passarelli, Office of the Attorney General, Craig E. Maravich, Pittsburgh, PA, John K. Greiner, Belden, Belden, Persin & Johnston, Greensburg, PA, for Defendants.

ORDER

AMBROSE, District Judge.

The above captioned case was received on October 20, 2006, and was referred to United States Magistrate Judge Lisa Pupo Lenihan for pretrial proceedings in accordance with the Magistrates Act, 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1), and Rules 72.1.3 and 72.1.4 of the Local Rules for Magistrates.

The Magistrate Judge's Report and Recommendation (doc. no. 232), filed on May 28, 2010, recommended that the Motion for Summary Judgment filed by the Commonwealth Defendants (doc. no. 132) be granted, that the Motion for Summary Judgment filed by Defendant Dr. Petras (doc. no. 218) be denied and that Plaintiff's Cross Motion for Summary Judgment (doc. no. 144) be denied. Both Plaintiff and Dr. Petras filed Objections to the Report and Recommendation on June 11, 2010 (doc. nos. 239 & 240). The objections do not undermine the recommendation of the Magistrate Judge. After a de novo review of the pleadings and documents in the case, together with the Report and Recommendation and the Objections thereto, the following order is entered:

AND NOW, this 14th day of June, 2010;

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the Motion for Summary Judgment filed by the Commonwealth Defendants (doc. no. 132) is GRANTED.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the Motion for Summary Judgment filed by Defendant Dr. Petras (doe. no. 218) is DENIED.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Plaintiff's Cross Motion for Summary Judgment (doc. no. 144) is DENIED.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the Report and Recommendation (doc. no. 232) of Magistrate Judge Lenihan, dated May 28, 2010, is adopted as the Opinion of the court.

REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION

LISA PUPO LENIHAN, United States Magistrate Judge.

I. RECOMMENDATION

It is respectfully recommended that the Motion for Summary filed by the Commonwealth Defendants (doc. no. 132) be granted, that the Motion for Summary Judgment filed by Defendant Dr. Petras (doc. no. 218) be denied and that Plaintiff's Cross Motion for Summary Judgment (doc. no. 144) be denied.

II. REPORT

On February 2, 2008, Plaintiff, Eric M. Miskovitch, filed a Second Amended Complaint against 22 Defendants raising allegations concerning incidents that allegedly occurred during his various periods of incarceration at SCI Graterford, the Westmoreland County Prison, Allegheny County Jail, and Mayview State Hospital. Defendants included the following: John R. Walton, Warden; Steve Cmar, Deputy Of Security; Lt. Hostoffer; Lt. Lowther; C.O. Rosado; and C.O. Hutchinson, all of whom were employees of the Westmoreland County Jail (WCJ) during the relevant time period; Tom Balya, Chairman of the WCJ; Thomas C. Ceraso and Phil Light, Commissioners for the WCJ; and the WCJ (hereinafter collectively referred together as the WCJ Defendants); Warden Ramon Rustin, Lt. Luis Leon, Major Donis, Captain Reese, C.O. Worrall, C.O. Mazzocca, all of whom were employees of the Allegheny County Jail (ACJ) during the relevant time period; and the ACJ (hereinafter collectively referred together as the ACJ Defendants); Dr. Rodriguez, a physician who provided medical services to inmates at the ACJ during the relevant time period; Dr. Lazlo Petras, a physician who provided medical services to persons confined at the Mayview State Hospital; Corrections Officer Keith, an employee of Mayview State Hospital (MSH); David Diguglielmo, Superintendent of SCI Graterford, and MSH (collectively referred to as the Commonwealth Defendants).

This Report and Recommendation concerns the Plaintiff's claims against the Commonwealth Defendants and Dr. Petras. In this regard, on December 29, 2009, Dr. Petras filed a Motion for Summary Judgement (doc. no. 218), a Memorandum in Support (doc. no. 219) and a Concise Statement of Material Facts (doc. no. 221). ¹ On December 30, 2009, the Commonwealth Defendants filed a Motion for Summary Judgement (doc. no. 132), a Brief in Support (doc. no. 133) and a Concise Statement of Material Facts (doc. no. 134). On January 19, 2010, Plaintiff filed a Response to the motions for summary judgment filed by the Commonwealth Defendants' and Dr. Petras wherein he dismissed with prejudice his claims against Defendants Mayview Hospital and David Diguglielmo (doc. no. 144, p. 17). Plaintiff filed a supplement to this response on March 8, 2010 (doc. no. 166). The discussion that follows concerns Plaintiff's claims against the remaining Commonwealth Defendant and Dr. Petras.

A. Standard of Review

Pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P 56(c), summary judgment shall be granted when there are no genuine issues of material fact in dispute and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. To support denial of summary judgment, an issue of fact in dispute must be both genuine and material, i.e., one upon which a reasonable fact finder could base a verdict for the non-moving party and one which is essential to establishing the claim. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). When considering a motion for summary judgment, the court is not permitted to weigh the evidence or to make credibility determinations, but is limited to deciding whether there are any disputed issues and, if there are, whether they are both genuine and material. Id. The court's consideration of the facts must be in the light most favorable to the party opposing summary judgment and all reasonable inferences from the facts must be drawn in favor of that party as well. Whiteland Woods, L.P. v. Township of West Whiteland, 193 F.3d 177, 180 (3d Cir.1999), Tigg Corp. v. Dow Corning Corp., 822 F.2d 358, 361 (3d Cir.1987).

B. Plaintiff's Claims

Plaintiff, Eric Miskovitch, a citizen of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, currently is an inmate at the State Correctional Institution at Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. On or about August 1, 2006 while a patient at Mayview State Hospital, Plaintiff claims that he was threatened by C.O. Keith Manker that if he continued to file grievances Manker would give him medication so that Plaintiff “would not remember his name.” On August 1, 2006, Plaintiff filed three grievances, one against Manker because of the threat. Shortly thereafter, Defendant Dr. Petras did prescribe and require that Plaintiff begin receiving the drug Thorazine until he subsequently was transferred from Mayview on August 4, 2006.

C. Liability under 42 U.S.C. § 1983

Plaintiff seeks to assert liability against Defendants pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. To state a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a plaintiff must meet two threshold requirements. He must allege: 1) that the alleged misconduct was committed by a person acting under color of state law; and 2) that as a result, he was deprived of rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States. West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42, 108 S.Ct. 2250, 101 L.Ed.2d 40 (1988); Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527, 535, 101 S.Ct. 1908, 68 L.Ed.2d 420 (1981), overruled in part on other grounds, Daniels v. Williams, 474 U.S. 327, 330-331, 106 S.Ct. 662, 88 L.Ed.2d 662 (1986).

Plaintiff claims Defendant Manker retaliated against him for filing a grievance by conspiring with Dr. Petras to have him involuntarily medicated with Thorazine. He claims that Dr. Petras did this without sufficient justification and in violation of his constitutional rights. His claims are discussed below.

D. First Amendment-Conspiracy

Plaintiff claims that Defendant Manker conspired with Dr. Petras to involuntarily medicate him in retaliation for his filing grievances. In order to demonstrate a conspiracy, “a plaintiff must show that two or more conspirators reached an agreement to deprive him or her of a constitutional right ‘under color of state law.’ ” Parkway Garage, Inc. v. City of Philadelphia, 5 F.3d 685, 700 (3d Cir.1993) (quoting Adickes v. S.H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144, 150, 90 S.Ct. 1598, 26 L.Ed.2d 142 (1970)). Plaintiff has concluded that Defendant Manker conspired with Dr. Petras to violate his rights yet he has failed to evidence any facts showing an agreement or plan formulated and executed by the Defendants to achieve this conspiracy. He simply claims that there must be a conspiracy because he filed his grievances at 12:45, one of which was against Defendant Manker accusing him of threatening Plaintiff that if he filed a grievance, he would be medicated and at 1:30, he was involuntarily injected with Thorazine. Plaintiff cannot rely on this completely unsupported claim of conspiracy. Without a factual showing which gives some substance to the conspiracy claims, Plaintiff's conspiracy claim amounts to nothing more than mere conjecture and bare speculation. The law is clear that bare allegations of wrongdoing by a defendant, without any substantiating proof of an unlawful agreement, are insufficient to sustain a conspiracy claim. Gometz v. Culwell, 850 F.2d 461, 464 (8th Cir.1988) (citations omitted). Also, to survive a motion for summary judgment, the plaintiff must establish that there is a genuine issue of material fact regarding the question of whether the defendants entered into an illegal conspiracy which caused the plaintiff to suffer a cognizable injury. Massachusetts School of Law at Andover v. American Bar Association, 107 F.3d 1026, 1039 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 522 U.S. 907, 118 S.Ct. 264, 139 L.Ed.2d 191 (1997). In other words, to successfully counter Defendants' motions for summary...