Phillips v. Jasper County Jail

• Decision Date: 14 February 2006
• Docket Number: No. 04-2524.,04-2524.
• Citation: 437 F.3d 791
• Parties: James Edward PHILLIPS, Appellant, v. JASPER COUNTY JAIL; Cabalero; Eby; Garza; Kelly; Forsythe; Riley; Moback; Sanchez; Sewell; Lietz; Lyman; Carr; John Freitas; Marney, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

437 F.3d 791

James Edward PHILLIPS, Appellant, v. JASPER COUNTY JAIL; Cabalero; Eby; Garza; Kelly; Forsythe; Riley; Moback; Sanchez; Sewell; Lietz; Lyman; Carr; John Freitas; Marney, Appellees.

No. 04-2524.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: November 17, 2005.

Filed: February 14, 2006.

John C. Holstein, argued, Springfield, MO, for appellant.

Jason Coatney, argued, Springfield, MO, for appellee Frietas.

Peter A. Lee, argued, Springfield, MO, for appellee.

Before MORRIS SHEPPARD ARNOLD, BEAM, and RILEY, Circuit Judges.

MORRIS SHEPPARD ARNOLD, Circuit Judge.

After James Phillips fell from the top bunk in his cell at the Jasper County, Missouri, jail, he filed a lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, accusing various jail employees and the jail's doctor of violating his constitutional rights. The district court denied Mr. Phillips's requests for appointed counsel. Later in the proceeding, the court granted the defendants' motions for summary judgment, determining that Mr. Phillips had failed to present sufficient evidence to create a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the defendants were deliberately indifferent to a medical condition that caused him to have seizures.

Mr. Phillips contends that the district court erred by denying him appointed counsel, by granting summary judgment to Dr. John Freitas, and by granting summary judgment to the jail employees. Although we find no merit in the first two arguments, we agree with Mr. Phillips that a genuine issue of material fact exists with respect to his claims against the jail employees.

I.

Mr. Phillips has intermittently taken anti-seizure medication following a head injury that he sustained some time ago. When he was first booked into the Jasper County Jail four years ago, he was prescribed 1000 milligrams per day of the drug Tegretol to control his seizures. That dosage remained the same when Mr. Phillips was moved to the Missouri State Penitentiary. Before the state prison discharged him, however, Mr. Phillips stopped taking the medication. Several days after his release from the state penitentiary, Mr. Phillips was again booked into the Jasper County Jail. Dr. Freitas, who was under contract to provide medical services to the inmates at the jail, reviewed Mr. Phillips's case and prescribed twice-daily 250-milligram doses of Depakote, another anti-seizure medication. Mr. Phillips also requested that he be assigned to a bottom bunk because of his seizures.

A few months after being re-admitted to the jail, Mr. Phillips was sleeping on the top bunk in his cell. During the night, he fell from the bunk and suffered injuries to his head, neck, and spine. Mr. Phillips then filed this lawsuit, alleging that the doctor and the named jail employees were deliberately indifferent to his medical condition, in violation of the eighth and fourteenth amendments.

As the case progressed, Mr. Phillips filed a motion requesting that the district court appoint an attorney to represent him. The district court denied the motion without prejudice, because the record had not been developed sufficiently to determine whether appointment of counsel was justified. Five days later, Mr. Phillips filed a second motion for counsel, which the district court denied for the same reason. Mr. Phillips's court filings continued to contain statements in which he questioned his ability to litigate the matter himself, although he did not make any other specific motions for counsel to be appointed. Dr. Freitas and the employees then moved for summary judgment asserting that Mr. Phillips's claims failed as a matter of law.

The district court granted the summary judgment motions. With respect to Dr. Freitas, the court determined that Mr. Phillips's allegations, at most, made out a claim for malpractice, not a constitutional claim, which requires a showing of deliberate indifference. As for the jail employees, the district court determined that the record established that they did not ignore Mr. Phillips's medical condition and that they had, in fact, assigned him to a bottom bunk at the time that he fell and injured himself.

II.

We first address Mr. Phillips's contention that the district court erred when it denied his motions for appointed counsel. There is no constitutional or statutory right to appointed counsel in civil cases. Edgington v. Missouri Dep't of Corr., 52 F.3d 777, 780 (8th Cir.1995), abrogated on other grounds, Doe v. Cassel, 403 F.3d 986, 989 (8th Cir.2005). Rather, when an indigent prisoner has pleaded a nonfrivolous cause of action, a court "may" appoint counsel. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e) (emphasis added); Edgington, 52 F.3d at 780. We will reverse a court's denial of appointed counsel only if it constitutes an abuse of discretion. Williams v. Carter, 10 F.3d 563, 566 (8th Cir.1993).

The relevant criteria for determining whether counsel should be appointed include the factual complexity of the issues, the ability of the indigent person to investigate the facts, the existence of conflicting testimony, the ability of the indigent person to present the claims, and the complexity of the legal arguments. Edgington, 52 F.3d at 780. The district court denied Mr. Phillips's motions because it believed that the record was insufficient to determine, one way or the other, whether it would be appropriate to appoint counsel.

Upon review of the record, we find no error in the court's denial of Mr. Phillips's motions. Discovery had just begun at the time that he requested counsel, so there was no conflicting testimony. Nor was there any indication in the record that Mr. Phillips was unable to investigate or present his case. To the contrary, he correctly identified the applicable legal standard governing his claims and successfully amended his complaint to include essential information. Finally, Mr. Phillips's claims involved information that was readily available to him. The success of his claims depended upon the information that Mr. Phillips gave Dr. Freitas and the prison staff about his condition, the consistency with which the prison made Mr. Phillips's anti-seizure medication available to him, Mr. Phillips's bunk assignment, and the events that transpired the night that Mr. Phillips fell from his bunk.

Mr. Phillips contends that even if the court properly denied his motions when they were filed, the court should have appointed counsel later in the case, when Mr. Phillips's difficulties in obtaining discovery from the defendants became clear. Mr. Phillips draws our attention to our statement in Williams, 10 F.3d at 567, that "[w]hen a court has denied a motion for appointment of counsel, it should continue to be alert to the possibility that, because of procedural complexities or other reasons, later developments in the case may show either that counsel should be appointed, or that strict procedural requirements should, in fairness, be relaxed to some degree." In Williams, the district court prevented an indigent plaintiff from calling witnesses with relevant information at trial because the plaintiff's witness list was not filed in compliance with the court's pre-trial procedures. Id. at 566-67. Under those circumstances, we determined that the case should be remanded for further consideration by the district court as to whether counsel should have been appointed. Id. at 567.

This case, however, does not involve the application of strict procedural requirements that prejudiced Mr. Phillips's case. The record reveals that the court was patient with Mr. Phillips and gave him considerable leeway in accepting and interpreting his pleadings. We note that Mr. Phillips was able to avoid procedural default and that his complaint was sufficient to survive the first motion for summary judgment filed by the prison employees. And although Mr. Phillips routinely complained about his access to legal materials and paper, he was able to file more than thirty documents with the court, which strongly suggests that he was able to overcome any obstacles that he may have encountered. Because Mr. Phillips had a fair opportunity to present his claims and did so, we find no abuse of discretion in the court's failure to appoint counsel.

III.

Mr. Phillips also contends that the district court erred when it granted Dr. Freitas's motion for summary judgment. He contends that Dr. Freitas violated his constitutional rights by failing to prescribe the proper medication and failing to monitor his prescription prior to his seizure. The failure to provide proper medical treatment to a prisoner violates the eighth amendment when the medical provider is deliberately indifferent to the prisoner's serious medical needs. Jolly v. Knudsen, 205 F.3d 1094, 1096 (8th Cir. 2000). Deliberate indifference...