Sellers v. Henman

• Decision Date: 18 November 1994
• Docket Number: No. 93-1485,93-1485
• Citation: 41 F.3d 1100
• Parties: W. Foster SELLERS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Gary L. HENMAN, L. Knowles, D. Featherston, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 1100

41 F.3d 1100

W. Foster SELLERS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Gary L. HENMAN, L. Knowles, D. Featherston, et al.,

Defendants-Appellees.

No. 93-1485.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Submitted Oct. 18, 1994.

Decided Nov. 18, 1994.

Willie Foster Sellers, Wynne Farm Unit, Huntsville, TX, for Willie Foster Sellers.

Gerard B. Schneller, Office of the U.S. Atty., Crim. Div., Fairview Heights, IL, for Gary L. Henman.

Richard H. Lloyd, Asst. U.S. Atty., Crim. Div., Fairview Heights, IL, for L. Knowles, D. Featherston, M.D., W. Scott, Harvey Brooks, Don B. Valles, L.E. Madigan, Jenny S. Nelson.

Before POSNER, Chief Judge, and CUMMINGS and MANION, Circuit Judges.

POSNER, Chief Judge.

Sellers, an inmate in a Texas state prison, brought this suit seven years ago against officials of the federal prison at Marion, Illinois, where he was then imprisoned, claiming they had violated his constitutional rights. Bivens v. Six Unknown, Named Agents, 403 U.S. 388, 91 S.Ct. 1999, 29 L.Ed.2d 619 (1971). The district court granted summary judgment for the defendants and dismissed the suit. Sellers's appeal claims that he was not given a reasonable opportunity to submit affidavits in response to those the defendants had filed in support of their motion for summary judgment. Sellers makes two arguments, one of which has merit. The unmeritorious argument is that he did not have to file his counteraffidavits until the district court ruled on his motion to strike the defendants' affidavits on the ground that they did not comply with Fed.R.Civ.P. 56. No rule entitles a litigant to proceed in that way. Manetas v. International Petroleum Carriers, Inc., 541 F.2d 408, 413 (3d Cir.1976). Rule 12(a)(4)(A) allows a party that files a motion to strike a pleading to delay filing his responsive pleading until ten days after the motion is denied, but an affidavit is not a pleading, or a counteraffidavit a responsive pleading, so the rule is not applicable. Sellers could have asked the district court for an extension of time within which to file his counteraffidavits, but he could not arrogate the decision on timing to himself on the basis of his personal views of optimal procedure. Which is not to say that his motion to strike had no merit. One of the defendants' key affidavits was unsigned and hence unsworn, and therefore did not comply with Rule 56(e); cf. DeBruyne v. Equitable Life Assurance Society, 920 F.2d 457, 471 (7th Cir.1990), so we do not understand the district court's refusal to strike it.

Sellers's second argument is better; it is that he did not receive the notice, required by Lewis v. Faulkner, 689 F.2d 100 (7th Cir.1982), in all cases involving unrepresented prisoner plaintiffs, that failure to file counter-affidavits might result in the dismissal of the suit--that he could not rest on his complaint once the defendants moved for summary judgment and supported the motion with affidavits or other evidence. But we do not reverse for failure to adhere to Lewis v. Faulkner unless there is reason to believe that the plaintiff was prejudiced by the failure, that is, that he could have established that there was a genuine issue of material fact, precluding the grant of summary judgment, if he had had a reasonable opportunity to submit affidavits. Timms v. Frank, 953 F.2d 281, 286 (7th Cir.1992). So let us turn to that question.

Sellers claims that the conditions of his confinement at Marion constituted the infliction on him of cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the Eighth Amendment. Several of the specific complaints--that his cell was too small for him to exercise in, that an hour a day of exercise outside the cell was too little, that he should have been given an extra mattress, and that the prison doctors used poor medical judgment in taking him off a drug for reducing his cholesterol and in the way they administered his insulin (he is an insulin-dependent diabetic)--plainly have no merit in light of the realities of prison administration and previous decisions. E.g., Whitley v. Albers, 475 U.S. 312, 321-22, 106 S.Ct. 1078, 1085-86, 89 L.Ed.2d 251 (1986); Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 106, 97 S.Ct. 285, 292, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976); Caldwell v. Miller, 790 F.2d 589, 601 (7th Cir.1986). So we shall not discuss them. More substantial are his complaints that he was taken off his special diabetics' diet in retaliation for his complaints and that the diet he was put on has too few calories and too much saturated fat to be healthful for him. Diabetics are prone to coronary artery disease, and Sellers has already had a heart attack and a bypass operation; hence his concern with the fat in his diet. Diabetics are also prone to dangerous weight losses, so they need a diet with "sufficient calories." 3A Attorneys' Textbook of Medicine p 74.71(2a), p. 74-36 (Roscoe N. Gray and Louise J. Gordy eds., 3d ed. 1994). Sellers claims he needs 2400 calories a day, which seems a little high, see id., p 74.21(2a), at p. 74-37 (Tab. I), but that is hardly a matter that can be resolved on this record. The defendants' affidavit attesting the adequacy of Sellers's diet is the unsigned affidavit; it has no evidentiary significance, and anyway Sellers is entitled to an opportunity to present counteraffidavits.

Of course merely to establish that he has been denied appropriate medical treatment and diet would not prove that Sellers had been subjected to cruel and unusual punishment. Negligence is not actionable under the Eighth Amendment. Duckworth v. Franzen, 780 F.2d 645, 652-53 (7th Cir.1985). Ordinary medical malpractice, therefore--malpractice that consists of negligent treatment--is not cruel and unusual punishment. Estelle v. Gamble, supra, 429 U.S. at 106, 97 S.Ct. at 292. Neglect of a prisoner's health becomes a violation of the Eighth Amendment only if the prison official named as defendant is deliberately indifferent to the prisoner's health--that is, only if he "knows of and disregards an excessive risk to inmate health or safety." Farmer v. Brennan, --- U.S. ----, ----, 114 S.Ct. 1970, 1979, 128 L.Ed.2d 811 (1994).

It is vital to keep negligence and deliberate indifference apart. It may be, as quite a large number of cases state, such as French v. Owens, 777 F.2d 1250, 1254 (7th Cir.1985); Wellman v. Faulkner, 715 F.2d 269, 272 (7th Cir.1983); Kelley v. McGinnis, 899 F.2d 612, 616-17 (7th Cir.1990), and ...