Oladokun v. Corr. Treatment Facility

• Decision Date: 22 November 2013
• Docket Number: Civil Action No.: 13–00358(RC)
• Citation: 5 F.Supp.3d 7
• Parties: Oladayo Adeleke Oladokun, Plaintiff, v. Correctional Treatment Facility, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

5 F.Supp.3d 7

Oladayo Adeleke Oladokun, Plaintiff,

v.Correctional Treatment Facility, et al., Defendants.

Civil Action No.: 13–00358(RC)

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

November 22, 2013

Oladayo Adeleke Oladokun, Lanham, MD, pro se.

Anne Marie Orcutt, Daniel P. Struck, Struck, Wieneke & Love, PLC, Chandler, AZ, Mariana Del Valle Bravo, Matthew D. Berkowitz, Carr Maloney PC, Shermineh C. Jones, Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, General Litigation Section IV, Michelle Jean Seo, U.S. Attorney's Office, Washington, DC, for Defendants.

Re Document Nos.: 7, 14, 17

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Granting Plaintiff's Motion to Amend and Denying as Moot all Other Pending Motions

RUDOLPH CONTRERAS,United States District Judge

I. INTRODUCTION

This matter is before the Court on plaintiff's “The Amend Motion Regarding Original Complaint Before the Court,” which the Court interprets as a motion to amend the complaint. See ECF No. 17.¹ Defendant, Corrections Corporation of America, has opposed the motion. See ECF No. 21. ² For the reasons discussed below, plaintiff's motion to amend will be granted.

II. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Plaintiff, who is proceeding pro se in this action, was a federal pretrial detainee that was held, by virtue of a contract between the USMS and the District of Columbia Department of Corrections (“DOC”), at the Correctional Treatment Facility (“CTF”), which is operated for DOC by the Corrections Corporation of America (“CCA”). Plaintiff's original complaint filed in Superior Court, in its entirety, alleged the following: The defendants failed to give plaintiff proper care while in their custody. See ECF No. 6, Attach. 1 at 7. On August 11, 2010, Chief Magistrate Judge William Connelly in the District of Maryland, ordered the USMS, or its contracting agencies, because of plaintiff's then-recent surgery on his right hand, to have plaintiff promptly receive an evaluation by an appropriate health care provider and receive care and treatment consistent with the standard of care for the condition revealed by the evaluation.³ Plaintiff alleged that his custodians, USMS, CCA, CTF, and DOC were negligent ⁴ for failure to provide him proper medical care for his surgically repaired broken hand. See ECF No. 1, Ex. 2. The USMS removed the case to this Court, see ECF No. 1, and subsequently moved to dismiss the claims against it. See ECF No. 14. DC, DOC, and CTF/CCA, have also moved to dismiss the claims against them. See ECF No. 7.

On April 8, 2013, the plaintiff filed a “Motion to Amend the Original Complaint Before this Court.” ECF No. 8. DC, DOC, and CTF/CCA, opposed the motion. ECF No. 9. The Court, treating the pleading as a motion because of its caption, granted the motion and ordered plaintiff to file his amended complaint by May 17, 2013. No such amended complaint was filed by that date. As such, on August 19, 2013, the Court ordered plaintiff to respond to the pending motions to dismiss, amend his complaint, or move for an extension, by September 19, 2013. ECF No. 16. In retrospect, the Court believes that pro se plaintiff intended the “motion” to be his amended complaint. On September 10, 2013, the pro se plaintiff filed another pleading captioned “The Amend Motion Regarding Original Complaint Before This Court.” ECF No. 17. The Court will deem this pleading as plaintiff's proposed amended complaint (“Compl.”).

In what the Court deems as plaintiff's proposed amended complaint, plaintiff alleges the following: Plaintiff received reconstructive surgery on his broken right hand at Howard University in 2009. Compl. at 2. Because the hand did not heal properly, a second surgery was performed on August 4, 2010. Id. The surgeon ordered an aggressive regimen of physical therapy. Id. Unfortunately for plaintiff, he was arrested shortly thereafter and was detained pending trial. Id. Although plaintiff was ordered into the custody of the USMS, (due to a contractual arrangement between the USMS and the DOC), he was processed at the D.C. Jail and transferred to the CTF (which is operated by CCA as part of a contractual arrangement with DOC). Id. The Magistrate Judge who ordered plaintiff's detention issued a “Medical Red Alert” due to the large cast and bandage on plaintiff's right hand. Id.

While held at the CTF, plaintiff claims he was not given proper care for an entire year. Compl. at 3. For example, he claims that he was not given pain medicine for the hand and that his stitches were not taken out on time. Id. Because the cast and bandages were kept on for too long, plaintiff claims the bandages reeked of a foul odor. Id. After a delay, plaintiff was finally able to see an orthopedic doctor, who turned out to be the same surgeon who performed his previous two procedures, Dr. Antwang. Id. Dr. Antwang again, ordered extensive physical therapy, four to five times a week, in order for plaintiff's hand to properly function. Id. During a follow-up visit with Dr. Antwang three or four weeks later, the doctor inquired why plaintiff had not received the physical therapy he had ordered. Id. The CTF staff assured Dr. Antwang that plaintiff would be scheduled for physical therapy. Id.

Although plaintiff was, apparently, taken to a room in the CTF to receive physical therapy, he claims that on most occasions, he simply waited for hours, or sometimes for a whole day, without seeing a therapist. Id. Although on some occasions plaintiff did see a therapist, on many scheduled days he would not be removed from his housing unit while the therapist unsuccessfully waited for plaintiff in the medical unit.⁵Id.

In his amended complaint, plaintiff characterizes the defendants' alleged failure to provide him proper medical care as violation of his constitutional right embodied in the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Compl. at 5–7. Plaintiff claims that defendants were deliberately indifferent to his serious medical needs. Id.⁶ Plaintiff alleges that, while initially incarcerated, he explained to every staff member that he came in contact with that his cast had to come off within that same week and that he required extensive physical therapy. Compl. at 2. He further alleges that after his follow-up visit with Dr. Antwang, Dr. Antwang inquired of CTF staff why plaintiff had not received the physical therapy he had ordered and was assured that plaintiff would be scheduled for such therapy. Id. at 3. And plaintiff also alleges that, while in custody at CTF, he filed several grievance complaints regarding the failure to provide proper medical care, but such grievances were ignored. Id. at 3–4. In fact, plaintiff attached one such grievance to the materials filed in Superior Court in which he complained about the failure to receive physical therapy. ECF No. 6, Attach. 1 at 85–86.

Defendant CCA has opposed plaintiff's motion to amend. See Defendant CCA's Response to Plaintiff's Amend Motion Regarding Original Complaint (“Opposition” or “Opp.”), ECF No. 21. Defendants make three arguments in opposition. First, defendant CCA suggests that it cannot be held liable for failure to provide appropriate medical care because it does not provide medical care—Unity Healthcare does. Opp. at 2. Next, CCA argues that, as a private entity, no constitutional claim may be asserted against it. Id. Finally, defendant CCA argues that amendment would be futile because plaintiff fails to state a claim for deliberate indifference. Id. at 3. Each of these arguments is addressed below. Moreover, because plaintiff's proposed amended complaint does not resolve all of the issues set out in defendants' original motion to dismiss, those arguments are addressed first.

III. ANALYSIS

A. Legal Standard for a Motion to Amend Under Rule 15

Pursuant to Rule 15, “[a] party may amend its pleading once as a matter of course within 21 days after serving it....” Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a)(1)(A). “In all other cases, a party may amend its pleading only with the opposing party's written consent or the court's leave.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a)(2). Rule 15 allows courts to freely grant leave to amend a complaint “when justice so requires.” See id. District courts, however, have discretion to deny leave to amend a complaint for reasons such as undue delay, bad faith, dilatory motive, repeated failure to cure deficiencies, undue prejudice on the opposing party, or futility of amendment. SeeAtchinson v. District of Columbia, 73 F.3d 418, 425 (D.C.Cir.1996) (citing Foman v. Davis, 371 U.S. 178, 182, 83 S.Ct. 227, 9 L.Ed.2d 222 (1962)).

With respect to an amendment being futile, “a district court may properly deny a motion to amend if the amended pleading would not survive a motion to dismiss.” In re Interbank Funding Corp. Sec. Litig., 629 F.3d 213, 218 (D.C.Cir.2010); see alsoJames Madison Ltd. v. Ludwig, 82 F.3d 1085, 1099 (D.C.Cir.1996) (“Courts may deny a motion to amend a complaint as futile ... if the proposed claim would not survive a motion to dismiss.”). Therefore, in assessing an argument that an amendment would be futile, the court must assess the proposed amendments under the same standard as would be applied to a motion to dismiss.

All that the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure require of a complaint is that it contain a “short and plain statement of the claim” in order to give the defendant fair notice of the claim and the grounds upon which it rests. Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2); see alsoErickson v. Pardus, 551 U.S. 89, 93, 127 S.Ct. 2197, 167 L.Ed.2d 1081 (2007). A motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) does not test a plaintiff's ultimate likelihood of success on the merits; rather, it tests whether a plaintiff has properly stated a claim. See Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. 232, 236, 94 S.Ct. 1683, 40 L.Ed.2d 90 (1974), abrogated on other grounds byHarlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). A court considering such a motion presumes the factual allegations of the complaint to be true and construes them liberally in ...