Outlaw v. Newkirk

Decision Date03 August 2001
Docket NumberNo. 98-4252,98-4252
Citation259 F.3d 833
Parties(7th Cir. 2001) Ricky Outlaw, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Herb Newkirk and Cameron Mable, in his individual capacity, Defendants-Appellees
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Before Bauer, Coffey, and Manion, Circuit Judges.

Bauer, Circuit Judge.

Ricky Outlaw, an aptly named prison inmate, appeals the district court's grant of summary judgment against him on his pro se claim of excessive force which he had brought under 42 U.S.C. sec. 1983. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

Outlaw is currently an inmate at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Indiana. However, the incidents giving rise to this suit occurred on January 29, 1997, when Outlaw was incarcerated at the Maximum Control Facility at Westville, Indiana. On that date, correctional officer Cameron Mable entered the section of the prison where Outlaw was housed in order to deliver to each prisoner a pair of gray gym shorts. These shorts were routinely distributed to prisoners through the cuffport door, which is a small hatch within the cell door. After Mable gave the shorts to Outlaw through the cuffport, Outlaw placed his hand in the cuffport while holding some garbage, and Mable closed the cuffport door on Outlaw's hand. Outlaw filed suit under 42 U.S.C. sec. 1983, claiming that Mable violated his Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment (as well as the Indiana law of battery) by "slam[ming] [his] hand in the cuff- port hatch, causing severe pain, swelling and bruising." The complaint also stated that Outlaw and Mable had had prior conflicts and that Mable had previously harassed Outlaw, and it attempted to state a sec. 1983 claim against Herb Newkirk, the prison superintendent, for taking no action despite being informed of the previous incidents between them.

Because Outlaw moved to proceed in forma pauperis, the district court screened the complaint pursuant to 28 U.S.C. sec. 1915A. The court found that the complaint stated a nonfrivolous claim against Mable, but did not state a claim with respect to any incidents prior to January 29, 1997. The district court also found that the complaint stated a claim for battery under Indiana law, and that both Mable and Newkirk were proper defendants as to that claim.

The defendants then moved for summary judgment. In support of their motion, they submitted the affidavits of Mable and of Anita Miller, a fellow correctional officer who claimed to have been present during the incident. In his affidavit, Mable stated that he delivered the shorts to Outlaw through the cuffport door and that "[a]s the cuffport door was being closed, Offender Outlaw attempted to throw trash through the opening." He stated that he heard Outlaw say, "Take this garbage, you bitch," and that Outlaw's hand was caught in the cuffport door as he attempted to throw his trash through it. Mable's affidavit also asserted that he closed the cuffport door because it is "necessary for the security and integrity of the prison" that the cuffport doors be closed, and that he did not know that Outlaw intended to put his hand through the opening when he closed the door. Mable contended that the incident was an accident and that he did not intend to harm Outlaw. Alternatively, he maintained that even if the incident had not been purely accidental, it would have been justified. In support of this, Mable averred the following in his affidavit:

In a maximum security prison such as the Maximum Control Facility, offenders often throw garbage, feces, urine and other injurious matter through the cuffport openings at the correctional officers. Offenders have even on occasion tried to attack or grab an officer through the cuffport opening. These are considered acts of rebellion and aggression, and employees and inmates can be injured as a result. Based on the routine and custom of the Maximum Control Facility, it is my understanding that closing the cuffport door is considered a reasonable response to this threat. Therefore, even if it were not purely accidental, I believe it would have been a reasonable response to close the cuffport door to prevent Offender Outlaw from injuring myself or anyone else.

Officer Miller's affidavit related an account of the incident which echoed Mable's in several respects. Miller stated that she heard Outlaw say, "Take this garbage, you bitch" as the cuffport door was being closed, that inmates at the facility frequently attempt to throw harmful matter and occasionally try to grab the correctional officers through the cuffport, and that "based upon the routine and custom of the Maximum Control Facility, closing the cuffport door is considered a reasonable response to this threat." Miller also stated: "based on my personal observations and the information given to me at the time, I have no reason to believe that [Mable's] decision to close the cuffport door stemmed from anything other than a good faith effort to maintain the security of the prison." However, she did not explicitly claim to have personally observed Outlaw attempting to throw trash through the cuffport, stating merely that "it is my understanding that as the cuffport door was being closed, Offender Outlaw attempted to throw trash through the opening," and that his hand was caught in the cuffport door as he attempted to throw trash through it. (Emphasis added).

In opposition to defendants' motion, Outlaw filed a memorandum to which he attached various supporting materials as exhibits. Between the memorandum and the exhibits, Outlaw included a notarized document with the heading "Affidavit," which reads: "I, Ricky Outlaw, hereby state and affirm under the penalties for perjury that the following exhibits attached herewith, are true and correct in their stated and represented form."1 In his memorandum, Outlaw claimed that prior to the cuffport incident, he and Mable had a disagreement over the exchanging of linens, and as support for this claim he included as an exhibit the grievance that he had filed with the prison authorities recounting this incident. He also produced his grievance with respect to the January 29, 1997 incident, which stated that while Mable was delivering linens, he (Outlaw) had "attempt[ed] to place 2-[S]tyrofoam drinking cups and an ice-cream cup on the food hatch to be thrown away from the last meal," and that "[w]hile placing the item[s] on the hatch Mable slam[m]ed the hatch on my hand. . . ." Among other exhibits, Outlaw also produced Mable's response to one of Outlaw's prior grievances in which Mable confirmed that relations between he and Outlaw were strained.

Moreover, Outlaw denied that he was attempting to throw trash through the cuffport when Mable shut the door on his hand. In support of this assertion, Outlaw submitted as an exhibit Mable's incident report, which had been prepared immediately after the event, noting that the report did not state that Outlaw had attempted to throw trash. The report stated that: "As I was closing the cuffport, Offender Outlaw shoved his hand through the cuffport (with some garbage in his hand) stopping me from the contin ued closing of the cuffport and said, 'Take this garbage you Bitch.'" In his memorandum, Outlaw contended that no facts would support the claim that he attempted to throw trash through the cuffport, and he further stated that he had never thrown anything through the cuffport and that Mable's alleged fear of an imminent attack was unwarranted.

In granting the defendants' summary judgment motion, the court noted that because the defendants had supported their motion with sworn affidavits, and because the motion concerned as issue on which Outlaw would bear the burden of proof at trial, in order to survive summary judgment Outlaw was obligated to go beyond the pleadings and allege specific facts demonstrating a genuine issue for trial through his own affidavits, depositions, answers to interrogatories, or admissions on file. The court found that neither of the "affidavits" submitted by Outlaw accomplished this. It noted that one affidavit merely addressed a procedural legal issue (by swearing that Outlaw submitted a Notice of Tort claim "to counselo[r] Wilson . . . for mailing to the Indiana Attorney General Office"), while the other affidavit (in which Outlaw "affirms under the penalties for perjury that the following exhibits attached herewith are true and correct in their stated and represented form"), merely certified the exhibits rather than swearing to the truth of their content. The court also ruled that none of Outlaw's supporting materials "cast any light on whether Mr. Outlaw threw trash at Officer Mable or handed it to him, or whether Officer Mable was justified in slamming the cuffport door on Mr. Outlaw's hand." The court reviewed Outlaw's exhibits and found that the only one which addressed these central issues of the case was Mable's response to Outlaw's grievance regarding the January 29, 1997 incident. However, while it noted in passing that Mable's response to Outlaw's grievance was "not necessarily consistent" with his affidavit (since it did not state that Outlaw had attempted to "throw" trash through the cuffport), the court found that this "apparent inconsistency" did not constitute probative evidence that Mable intentionally slammed the cuffport door on Outlaw's hand without justification, and therefore was not sufficient to forestall summary judgment. Having dismissed Outlaw's only federal claim, the court refused to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over his remaining state law claim. Outlaw appealed.

DISCUSSION

We review a district court's grant of summary judgment de novo, viewing the record and all reasonable inferences that may be drawn from it in the light most favorable to the...

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