Rogers v. Evans
| Decision Date | 30 June 1986 |
| Docket Number | No. 85-8279,85-8279 |
| Citation | 792 F.2d 1052 |
| Parties | Mr. and Mrs. J.L. ROGERS, etc., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. David C. EVANS, Defendant, Leland Q. Linahan, et al., Defendants-Appellees. Mr. and Mrs. J.L. ROGERS, etc., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Vendya LEWIS, et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
Don C. Keenan, David S. Bills, Atlanta, Ga., for plaintiffs-appellants.
W. Warren Plowden, Jr., Macon, Ga., for defendants-appellees.
Susan S. Cole, Mitchell P. House, Jr., Macon, Ga., for Smith.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia.
Before RONEY and HATCHETT, Circuit Judges, and NICHOLS *, Senior Circuit Judge.
CORRECTED
In this case, the appellees are prison officials, prison medical personnel, and prison guards and matrons sued on several theories following the death of the appellants' daughter in a Georgia prison. The district court dismissed from the action several appellees and granted summary judgment for the others. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings.
Linda Rogers was an inmate of the Georgia Women's Correctional Institute (GWCI) in Hardwick, Georgia. She died in a segregation cell nine days before her scheduled release. The coroner of Baldwin County, Georgia, ruled that she died by suicide. 1 The manner of death is alleged to be inconsistent with suicide because Rogers's neck had ligature marks that could have been caused by a person who was trying either to restrain her or to harm her.
Rogers was transferred to GWCI from the DeKalb County Jail after the State Court of DeKalb County revoked her probation. She entered GWCI on September 5, 1978. From the time of her admission to GWCI, Rogers was identified as having psychological problems. First, the misdemeanors for which she was originally adjudicated were using abusive language, calling in false fire alarms, and sending ambulances to people's homes. Second, she was diagnosed in her admission session as expressing suicidal thoughts and was classified as a suicide risk.
As a result of emotional turmoil manifested soon after admission and in response to the request by the judge who revoked her probation, a correctional institute official referred Rogers for a psychiatric interview.
She took one machine-scored psychological test. The test indicated a tendency toward suicide and generated a programmed recommendation for referral to a suicide counseling program. No such program existed at GWCI.
After about a month of confinement, Rogers began receiving prescriptions from GWCI for medication. The first drugs prescribed were tranquilizers, such as Vistaril. She began reporting nausea and was treated with Percogesic until one of the doctors (Dr. Perez) prescribed a small dose of Thorazine for forty-eight hours for nausea and anxiety. This prescription was given during a consultation three days after Rogers was found in a bathroom with a blade she had removed from a disposable razor. This episode was classified as a suicide gesture.
On a later consultation, another doctor (Dr. Smith) prescribed Prolixin Decoanate. Dr. Smith based this prescription on the assumption that Dr. Perez had prescribed Thorazine for psychosis and on Dr. Smith's opinion that Rogers was psychotic. The day after receiving the drug, Rogers began to report dizziness, protrusion of her tongue from her mouth, inability to get her tongue into her mouth, twitching of muscles around the mouth, and swallowing of the tongue.
Two days after Rogers received Prolixin Decoanate, her mother wrote her that it was a dangerous drug and that she should not take it. In addition, a lawyer retained by Rogers's parents wrote the warden of the prison protesting subjection of Linda Rogers to "injections of Thorazine and possibly other toxic drugs." The letter invoked Rogers's right not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, "regardless of whether it is disguised in the form of 'medical treatment.' "
After Dr. Smith learned of the letters, Rogers received no drugs except Vistaril and Cogentin. The Cogentin was prescribed to deal with continuing symptoms that could be interpreted as extrapyramidal side effects. Dr. Smith viewed the symptoms as evidence of a deepening psychosis. Among the symptoms were reports by Rogers that she could not use her hands, dizziness, lying in bed with her leg in the air, aching and twitching of her mouth, and protrusion of her tongue from her mouth. The primary treatment for these symptoms became placebos, consisting of injections of sterile water. On one occasion, Dr. Smith told the warden that placebos were preferable to Cogentin because Cogentin might cause Rogers to have "a more florid psychosis."
After learning of the letters from Rogers's mother and the lawyer, Dr. Smith began taking a witness with her on visits with Rogers. On the day she learned of the letters, Dr. Smith examined Rogers and wrote orders discontinuing medication and therapy. She noted in the medical records that medical treatment was being discontinued against medical advice and that the prognosis would be guarded.
During the last two weeks of Rogers's life, Rogers spent several days in the prison clinic. The possibility of placing Rogers Following the injection of Prolixin, Rogers during some periods appeared normal to observers. One matron observing while Rogers was in segregation reported that she appeared lifeless, standing at her door and moving only in slow motion. Many times Rogers screamed and cried for help while in segregation.
in Central State Hospital was discussed by the medical staff. Rogers opposed her transfer to the hospital on some occasions and was receptive on others. During her last five days, because of a disturbance she had created, she was confined to a segregation cell. Prison matrons and staff nurses observed her and she was seen once by a physician. She was not transferred to Central State Hospital.
On February 13, at 8:25 A.M. and 9 A.M., Rogers told the matron that she could not get up from the floor. The matron believed she was faking. At 9:20 A.M., when the matron looked into the cell, Rogers was still on the floor. When the matron checked again at 9:35 A.M. to take Rogers to her shower, Rogers was dead.
The parents of Linda Rogers filed suit against a number of Georgia officials and hospital employees alleging constitutional torts and medical malpractice. In a complaint filed on April 3, 1980, Mr. and Mrs. Rogers named nine defendants. 2 On January 20, 1981, Mr. and Mrs. Rogers filed a second complaint adding an additional twelve defendants. 3
Until a judgment filed on March 21, 1985, dismissing all counts against every defendant except Lois Plummer, who did not move for summary judgment, the district court rendered individual rulings on several of the defendants. On March 2, 1982, the district court granted summary judgments for Dr. Regalado, Dr. Alcocer-Cetina, Mr. Spradlin, and Dr. Perez. On July 13, 1981, without objection from appellants, the district court dismissed the Georgia Department of Offender Rehabilitation from the action on the basis of lack of jurisdiction.
On July 16, 1981, the district court in an oral order dismissed all pendent claims of malpractice. In a later written order, however, the district judge rescinded the action because the statute of limitations had run on these claims. The district court deferred ruling on the pendent claims until ruling on motions for summary judgment.
The appellants offered affidavits by a psychiatrist to support the case against the various members of the medical staff. In an order on March 2, 1982, the district court granted Dr. Perez's motion to strike the affidavit as to him for failure to meet the requirements of rule 56(e). The affidavit did not specifically identify the records examined nor attach any copies. The order dismissing the counts against the four medical persons followed. On January 17, 1983, the district court responded to a motion by the appellants requesting that the court indicate whether it considered the psychiatrist's affidavit in dismissing the counts against Dr. Alcocer-Cetina. The district court acknowledged that only Dr. Perez had moved to strike the affidavit, but commented in the order that the affidavit's insufficiency existed regardless of which In a March 21, 1985, pretrial conference, the district court on its own motion converted all motions for directed verdict into motions for summary judgment; it then granted the appellees' motions for summary judgment.
named appellee made the motion. The court denied the motion to strike the affidavit as untimely, but also stated that even considering the affidavit, the award of summary judgment in favor of Dr. Alcocer-Cetina was proper. The district court rejected the claims against the medical persons, finding that the argument at best stated a claim of negligence and not a claim of deliberate indifference.
In their answers, all appellees raised a procedural objection to the qualification of Mr. and Mrs. Rogers as administrators of Linda Rogers's estate. Because the appellees did not cross appeal, this issue is not before us. See Campbell v. Wainwright, 726 F.2d 702 (11th Cir.1984) ().
The Rogerses sued prison officials, medical staff, and line staff such as guards and auditors on a variety of theories. They sued the Commissioner of Corrections, David C. Evans, on the theory that he failed in his duties of supervision, care, and treatment of all inmates. The complaint alleged that GWCI did not have adequate facilities or competent staff to properly treat Rogers and did not maintain adequate medical records. The complaint alleged that Evans owed a duty to Rogers...
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