Moore v. Prison Health Serv. ( 1999 )

F I L E D
United States Court of Appeals
Tenth Circuit
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
DEC 1 1999
FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT
PATRICK FISHER
Clerk
LARRY JEROME MOORE,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v. No. 98-3310
(D.C. No. 95-CV-1289-DES)
PRISON HEALTH SERVICES, INC., (D. Kan.)
a Delaware Corporation; SHARON L. (24 F. Supp. 2d 1164)
BAUCOM; MARVIN METTSCHER;
LOUISA OSBORNE; RAYMOND
ROBERTS; NADINE BELK;
ROBERT HANNIGAN; STEVE
DECHANT; DALE STURGEON;
ROBERT DALE; ELIZABETH
LONG, in their official and individual
capacities,
Defendants-Appellees.
ORDER AND JUDGMENT *
Before BALDOCK , BARRETT , and McKAY, Circuit Judges.
*
This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the
doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. The court
generally disfavors the citation of orders and judgments; nevertheless, an order
and judgment may be cited under the terms and conditions of 10th Cir. R. 36.3.
After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined
unanimously that oral argument would not materially assist the determination of
this appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2); 10th Cir. R. 34.1(G). The case is
therefore ordered submitted without oral argument.
Plaintiff, a state prisoner with an above-the-knee amputation of his left leg,
brought this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, 42 U.S.C. § 12132 (Americans with
Disabilities Act, or ADA), 29 U.S.C. § 794 (Rehabilitation Act), and state tort
law, to redress allegations of mistreatment in connection with his disability. The
district court entered summary judgment in favor of defendants on the federal
claims and dismissed the state claims without prejudice. See Moore v. Prison
Health Servs., Inc. , 24 F. Supp. 2d 1164 (D. Kan. 1998). Plaintiff now appeals,
challenging the grant of summary judgment. On de novo review, see Smith v.
Midland Brake, Inc. , 180 F.3d 1154, 1159 (10th Cir. 1999), we affirm the district
court for substantially the reasons stated in its memorandum and order.
The pertinent facts are set out in the district court’s decision and need not
be recited in detail. Plaintiff asserts that defendants violated his rights when a
wheelchair provided for his use fell over or collapsed three days after it was
issued to him. With respect to the statutory disability claims, the district court
held plaintiff’s complaints of inadequate treatment did not fall within the scope of
the anti-discrimination provisions of the ADA and Rehabilitation Act. We agree.
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These statutes afford disabled persons legal rights regarding access to programs
and activities enjoyed by all, not a general federal cause of action for challenging
the medical treatment of their underlying disabilities. See Bryant v. Madigan , 84
F.3d 246, 249 (7th Cir. 1996) (ADA); Grzan v. Charter Hosp. of N.W. Ind. , 104
F.3d 116, 122-23 (7th Cir. 1997) (Rehabilitation Act); United States v. University
Hosp. , 729 F.2d 144, 156-60 (2d Cir. 1984) (same); cf. McNally v. Prison Health
Servs. , 46 F. Supp. 2d 49, 58 (D. Me. 1999) (applying distinction “between
[non-actionable] claims that the medical treatment received for a disability was
inadequate from [actionable] claims that a prisoner has been denied access to
services or programs because he is disabled,” and upholding, as example of latter,
HIV patient’s claim of discriminatory denial of prescription services provided to
general population).
Plaintiff’s broad reliance on Gorman v. Bartch , 152 F.3d 907 (8th Cir.
1998), which concluded that the ADA and Rehabilitation Act applied to a
wheelchair-bound arrestee injured in an ill-equipped police van, is misplaced. The
court was able to reach that conclusion only by first holding that “[a]rrestee
transportation is a program or service” within the meaning of the disability
statutes. Id. at 913. Whether or not we agree in principle with that holding,
plaintiff has not identified any comparable program or service from which he was
barred at the prison to satisfy the same statutory condition here.
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Turning to plaintiff’s constitutional claim, the district court properly
invoked the “deliberate indifference” standard of Estelle v. Gamble , 429 U.S. 97,
104 (1976), which “has two components: an objective component requiring that
the pain or deprivation be sufficiently serious; and a subjective component
requiring that the offending officials act with a sufficiently culpable state of
mind.” Mitchell v. Maynard , 80 F.3d 1433, 1444 (10th Cir. 1996) (quotation
omitted). The objective component requires an “extreme deprivation” denying a
“minimal civilized measure of life’s necessities are sufficiently grave to form the
basis of an Eighth Amendment violation.” Hudson v. McMillian , 503 U.S. 1, 9
(1992) (quotations omitted). The test for the subjective component is whether
“the official knows of and disregards an excessive risk to inmate health or
safety.” Farmer v. Brennan , 511 U.S. 825, 837 (1994).
Viewed in a light most favorable to plaintiff, the record shows in pertinent
part: on June 17, 1993, plaintiff was given a used wheelchair which, despite a
bent left wheel, he acknowledged to be in good working condition; over the next
three days, the defect in the wheel became more pronounced, making the chair
harder to roll, a complaint plaintiff voiced to a few inmates and prison officers
but not to any medical personnel; on June 20, the wheelchair collapsed or fell
over, bruising plaintiff’s hand and arm; he was promptly treated and issued a
newer wheelchair, which had been kept in reserve for emergency medical
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response. These facts do not support a triable claim under the constitutional
standards set out above. It is doubtful that plaintiff’s isolated fall and minor
resultant injury constituted the extreme deprivation required by Hudson , but, in
any event, there is no evidence that prison officials knew of and disregarded an
excessive risk that such an accident would occur, as required by Farmer . Some
inmates and officers were told the wheelchair was becoming more difficult to roll,
but the record contains no mention of a risk of collapse or fall in this regard. As
for the rolling difficulty itself, the relatively short period of inconvenience or
discomfiture involved clearly does not raise a claim of constitutional deprivation
under Hudson . See also Whitnack v. Douglas County , 16 F.3d 954, 958 (8th Cir.
1994) (collecting cases from this and other circuits reflecting significance of
duration in Eighth Amendment analysis).
The judgment of the United States District Court for the District of Kansas
is AFFIRMED.
Entered for the Court
James E. Barrett
Senior Circuit Judge
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