Sanville v. McCaughtry
| Decision Date | 21 September 2001 |
| Docket Number | PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT,No. 00-2933,DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES,00-2933 |
| Citation | 266 F.3d 724 |
| Parties | (7th Cir. 2001) MARTHA SANVILLE, INDIVIDUALLY AND AS TRUSTEE FOR THE HEIRS AND NEXT OF KIN OF MATTHEW A. SANVILLE, DECEASED,, v. GARY MCCAUGHTRY; JANE GAMBLE; CURTIS BENDER; IVY SCABURDINE (F/K/A IVY PODISH); ERIC SCHROEDER; GLENN GILGENBACH; JODINE DEPPISCH; NARINDER SAINI, PH.D.; GARY ANKARLO, PH.D.; STEPHEN J. FLECK, PH.D.; YOGESH PAREEK, PH.D.; CARL L. CIHLAR, PH.D.; JOHN DOES NOS. 1-5, ALL IN THEIR INDIVIDUAL AND OFFICIAL CAPACITIES, |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Division. No. 99 C 715--Rudolph T. Randa, Judge. [Copyrighted Material Omitted]
[Copyrighted Material Omitted]
[Copyrighted Material Omitted]
Before Manion, Kanne, and Evans, Circuit Judges.
Matt Sanville, a mentally ill inmate incarcerated at the Waupun Correctional Institution in Wisconsin, committed suicide when he was left unsupervised for approximately five hours. His mother, Martha Sanville, filed this lawsuit in federal district court, alleging that a number of prison officials violated Matt's Eighth Amendment rights through their deliberate indifference to Matt's1 serious medical needs. While we affirm the district court's dismissal of plaintiff's claims against the prison wardens and the medical professionals who treated Matt, we find that Mrs. Sanville has pleaded sufficient facts to survive a motion to dismiss her complaint against several prison guards. We thus affirm in part and reverse in part, and remand the remaining claims for further proceedings.
Matt Sanville suffered, as do a significant number of prison inmates, from a serious mental health problem. At various times in his life, doctors diagnosed Matt with major depressive disorder, aggressive conduct disorder, bipolar disorder, dysthymic disorder, adjustment disorder, mixed personality disorder, and manic depression. While they might have disagreed as to Matt's precise medical condition, the doctors unanimously agreed that Matt needed to be medicated to control his illness. His adult life was characterized by a history of suicide attempts, hospitalizations, and drug treatments directed towards managing his multiple mental disorders.
Matt did not agree that he needed to be medicated and, during an unmedicated period in July 1997, he was arrested for assaulting his mother. When prosecutors charged Matt with assault, his court-appointed attorney moved for a competency evaluation, which the state judge ordered. The medical professional who examined Matt, Harlan R. Heinz, Ph.D., concluded that he was "significantly depressed and acutely psychotic, rendering him incompetent to stand trial." He also found that Matt 1) "showed significant lack of insight by reporting his thinking was fine," 2) "was not able to make his needs known," and 3) was "not competent to refuse medication or treatment for his mental condition." Matt's attorney agreed with this assessment and prepared an incompetency defense.
Matt, however, would not admit his incompetency, and his first attorney withdrew as a result. Matt's second attorney acceded to Matt's assessment of his own competency and Matt was allowed to plead no contest to the battery charge. His presentence investigation report noted that Matt had received thirty conduct reports during his confinement--for such infractions as covering his cell light, plugging toilets, and throwing feces and urine on staff--all of which occurred while he was not medicated. At sentencing on January 5, 1998, Matt's mother pleaded with the court not to send Matt to prison, asserting that he was not a danger as long as he was medicated. The prosecutor concurred, stating that he disagreed with the PSI's recommendation that Matt should go to prison--he even went so far as to note that "I do not believe that sending a person to the Wisconsin State Prison system is the best place to deal with a person's mental illness." Although the Judge noted that Matt was probably mentally ill, he sentenced him to the maximum term in prison. Matt began serving his sentence at the Dodge Correctional Institute (hereinafter "Dodge") on January 7, 1998.
Mrs. Sanville wrote a letter to the evaluator at Dodge explaining that Matt's conduct was the result of mental illness and relaying the opinions conveyed about Matt's mental health during the court proceedings. On Matt's second day at Dodge, Dr. Carl L. Cihlar, the first of the doctor-defendants, performed an intake screening of Matt and incorrectly reported that Matt did not have a mental illness. While noting Matt's history of suicide attempts, the report also stated that Matt had never taken any medication to help with "anxiety, depression, mood swings, thinking problems, hearing voices or seeing things, or controlling [his] behavior." Plaintiff alleges that Dr. Cihlar was aware of Matt's troubled history, including the conclusions of Dr. Heinz's pretrial competency evaluation. Towards the end of the month, Matt was again evaluated, this time by a classification specialist at Dodge, and she determined that Matt was presently medicated with psychotropic drugs. Her report also noted Matt's numerous behavioral problems during his unmedicated stay in the county jail.
Matt arrived at Waupun Correctional Institution (WCI) on February 26, 1998. A week after his admission, Matt was seen for a psychiatric follow-up by Dr. Yogesh Pareek, the second of the doctor-defendants. Because Matt was having problems with nausea and vomiting, Dr. Pareek advised him to go off his psychotropic medication until the problems subsided. As it turned out, Matt had an inflamed appendix, which required an emergency appendectomy on March 6, 1998.
While in the hospital, Matt remained off his medication. On March 10, his mother contacted the hospital to express concern that Matt had been taken off his medication. After the prison was contacted, the staff physician assured her that Matt's anti-psychotic medication had been reordered.
On March 26, 1998, about a week after his release from the hospital, Matt saw Dr. Pareek for the second time. Dr. Pareek noted that Matt had a "history of psychotic disorder, but he [was] refusing to take medication" and that Matt denied "ever hearing voices or ever seeing things [or] ever being paranoid." The doctor decided to discontinue psychotropic medication "at the patient's request." His notes indicated that he would A week later, however, Matt and Dr. Pareek had another session. Matt had not taken any medication since the date of the appendicitis incident, March 5, and indicated that he no longer wanted medication or psychiatric services. Dr. Pareek's treatment plan stated "I will not schedule him as he is not taking any medication and he does not want to."
While he was unmedicated, Matt's behavior became increasingly bizarre. In April, he defied an order to return to his cell, for which he was sent to solitary confinement. In early May, he scrawled venomous, nonsensical threats on his bed sheets ("kill the rapest [sic] and snitches" and "go to hell"). On June 9, he flushed his socks and underwear down the toilet. Yet he also displayed some evidence of competence (perhaps consistent with his diagnosis that he exhibited "very paranoid behavior with sense of reality"). The day prior to the sock flushing incident he requested that he be placed in an anger management class (he was placed on a waiting list). He also filed a lawsuit based upon the failure of one correctional officer to respond to his requests for medical attention during the appendicitis incident.
In late June, Matt asked to see a psychiatrist. When Dr. Pareek arrived, Matt reported no mental health concerns and persisted in his decision to remain off his medication. Dr. Pareek provided neither treatment nor medication to Matt. At this point, Matt had lost seventeen pounds since his admission to WCI.
On July 11, 1998, Matt assaulted another inmate and was placed in segregation. Just prior to being placed there, Matt drafted a document that he entitled his last will and testament. This document--collected by correctional staff at an undetermined time--was addressed to Matt's mother and contemplated Matt's imminent death.
While in segregation, Matt's bizarre behavior continued. After receiving conduct reports for refusing to return his meal tray and bag lunch, Matt was served "nutri-loaf"--a meal ground up into a loaf that could be eaten without utensils. He did not eat these loaves and thus began to lose weight rapidly. His subsequent autopsy confirmed that he lost about forty-five pounds during his five months at WCI, nearly twenty-five of which were in the final month of his life (after his placement in segregation). Matt wrote to his mother and complained about the nutri-loaf;2 upon receipt of the letter, she called the manager of the Health Services Unit at WCI and relayed her concern that Matt was paranoid, suicidal, and in serious trouble.
On July 24, 1998, Dr. Stephen Fleck, the third doctor-defendant, visited Matt in his cell in response to Mrs. Sanville's phone call. Dr. Fleck was, however, satisfied with Matt's insistence that he had no plans to harm himself. Matt again refused clinical and psychiatric services. Dr. Fleck's report did not make any reference to Matt's weight.
Matt repeatedly asked the guards to bring him a regular meal but his requests were ignored. He reported to many prison employees that he was unable to eat the nutri-loaf. His failure to eat and his corresponding weight loss was allegedly known to, at a minimum, the prison guards who fed him (including defendant Ivy Scaburdine).
Matt mailed a letter to his mother on July 27, 1998, which prison officials read. The letter...
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