Edward Montgomery v. Aparatis Dist Co , 607 F. App'x 184 ( 2015 )

PS4-093 NOT PRECEDENTIAL
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
___________
No. 14-3257
___________
EDWARD JEFFREY MONTGOMERY,
Appellant
v.
APARATIS DIST. COMPANY; JOHN DOE; DIRECTOR AL ORTIZ; DIRECTOR
FAUNCE; WARDEN HENRICKS; CAPTAIN CHRISTOPHERSON; SGT. LYNN;
CRAWFORD; LT. JOHN DOES; DR. ANNICETTE
____________________________________
On Appeal from the United States District Court
for the District of New Jersey
(D.C. Civil Action No. 2-13-cv-05382)
District Judge: Honorable Susan D. Wigenton
____________________________________
Submitted Pursuant to Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a)
April 9, 2015
Before: FISHER, KRAUSE and VAN ANTWERPEN, Circuit Judges
(Opinion filed: April 10, 2015)
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OPINION*
___________
PER CURIAM
*
This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7 does not
Appellant Edward Montgomery, proceeding pro se and in forma pauperis, appeals
from the District Court’s dismissal of his complaint for failure to state a claim upon
which relief may be granted pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii). For the
following reasons, we will affirm.
Montgomery alleged that, while a pretrial detainee housed in the medical unit at
Essex County Correctional Facility (“ECCF”) from March 2013 until April 2014, he
slipped and fell in water pooling near water dispensers. Montgomery sustained a pinched
nerve injury that caused continuing leg and back pain. When painkillers prescribed by
ECCF medical personnel failed to eliminate his pain, Montgomery was referred to at least
two orthopedic specialists. According to Montgomery, they recommended that he
receive an MRI, which the ECCF medical director, Appellee Dr. Lionel Anicette, refused
for a time to authorize due to its cost.
After filing internal administrative grievances without success, Montgomery
brought suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and state tort law in District Court against various
ECCF correctional officers, Dr. Anicette, and the manufacturer of the water dispensers,
Aparatis Distribution Company. He alleged that by exposing him to unsafe prison
conditions as a pretrial detainee and then delaying or denying adequate medical care—
i.e., the MRI—they violated his Fourteenth Amendment due process rights and were
liable for negligence. On September 18, 2013, Montgomery fell while suffering
numbness in legs—which he attributes to his pinched nerve—and injured his wrist. By
constitute binding precedent. 2
November 7, 2013, he had requested an injunction ordering ECCF to provide the MRI.
Before the court could rule on this motion, Dr. Anicette approved the MRI on December
18, 2013, and Montgomery underwent the procedure on April 3, 2014. The MRI
indicated that Montgomery’s pain was due to levoscoliosis and mild lumbar spondylosis.
On April 3, 2014, the District Court dismissed with prejudice Montgomery’s
§ 1983 claims against the correctional officers and Aparatis for failure to state a claim
under §§ 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii).1 The court also dismissed his negligence claims against each
Defendant for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. However, the court permitted his claim
against Dr. Anicette to proceed and ordered Dr. Anicette to show cause why the
injunction should not be granted. After Dr. Anicette filed a response brief and supporting
documents, the District Court on June 17, 2014, denied the request for injunctive relief
and dismissed Montgomery’s complaint against Dr. Anicette under §§ 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii).
Montgomery timely appealed.
We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and exercise plenary review over the
District Court’s dismissal of Montgomery’s claims under § 1915(e). See Allah v.
Seiverling, 229 F.3d 220, 223 (3d Cir. 2000). The standard for failing to state a claim
under § 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii) is the same as that under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). See id. To
survive a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, “a complaint must contain sufficient material, accepted
1
The District Court dismissed all claims against Aparatis and the correctional officers
prior to service. They are not participating in this appeal.
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as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556
U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570 (2008)).
The District Court properly dismissed the § 1983 claim against Aparatis. A
private party is subject to liability under § 1983 only when it acts under color of state law.
Mark v. Borough of Hatboro, 51 F.3d 1137, 1141 (3d Cir. 1995) (citing Flagg Bros., Inc.
v. Brooks, 436 U.S. 149, 156 (1978)). Montgomery alleged only that Aparatis provided
defective water dispensers to ECCF. There is no suggestion that Aparatis exercised any
power or authority attributable to state law. See Abbott v. Latshaw, 164 F.3d 141, 146
(3d Cir. 1998) (citing West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42, 49 (1988)).
The District Court dismissed the § 1983 claim against the correctional officers on
the grounds that Montgomery’s allegations—that they knew of the flooding near the
water dispensers but did not replace them until after he was injured—suggested at most
negligence, which does not amount to a constitutional violation. See Cnty. of
Sacramento v. Lewis, 523 U.S. 833, 849 (1998). As a pretrial detainee, the Fourteenth
Amendment protected Montgomery from any and all punishment. See Hubbard v.
Taylor, 399 F.3d 150, 166 (3d Cir. 2005) (citing Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 535–36
(1979)). A condition constitutes punishment “when there is a showing of express intent
to punish on the part of detention facility officials, when the restriction or condition is not
rationally related to a legitimate non-punitive government purpose, or when the
restriction is excessive in light of that purpose.” Stevenson v. Carroll, 495 F.3d 62, 68
(3d Cir. 2007). Montgomery’s allegations do not plausibly suggest either that ECCF
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officers permitted the water to pool intentionally to punish the detainees or that the
officers’ alleged tardiness in responding to the hazard was so excessive in light of their
legitimate purpose for providing the dispensers as to amount to punishment. See id.Nor did the District Court err in dismissing under §§ 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii)
Montgomery’s claim about the medical care he received. As noted, Montgomery was a
pretrial detainee at the time, and therefore the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process
Clause protected him from conditions of confinement, including his health care or lack
thereof, that amounted to punishment. See Hubbard, 399 F.3d at 166. We have also
analyzed pretrial detainees’ claims of inadequate medical care using, as a guide, the
Eighth Amendment standard governing such claims by convicted prisoners. See Natale
v. Camden Cnty. Corr. Facility, 318 F.3d 575, 581 (3d Cir. 2003). Delay or denial of
medical care violates the Eighth Amendment where defendants are deliberately
indifferent to a prisoner’s serious medical need. See Rouse v. Plantier, 182 F.3d 192, 197
(3d Cir. 1999). Under any standard applicable here, governmental actors’ intent must be
greater than mere negligence for their alleged misconduct to support a constitutional
claim. See Daniels v. Williams, 474 U.S. 327, 333 (1986).
Montgomery alleged that orthopedic specialists recommended an MRI to ascertain
the cause of his recurring pain as early as the summer of 2013, but Dr. Anicette did not
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approve it until December 2013 and he did not receive it until April 2014.2 He further
alleged that at least one of his physicians said the cost of an MRI was a source of delay.
None of Montgomery’s allegations, however, plausibly suggests that his
physicians prescribed an MRI as immediately necessary to treat his pain. At most,
Montgomery’s complaint and the documents he attached to it, see Pension Benefit Guar.
Corp. v. White Consol. Indus., Inc., 998 F.2d 1192, 1196 (3d Cir. 1993) (noting that Rule
12(b)(6) analysis typically considers only the complaint, attached exhibits, and matters of
public record), suggest the MRI was being considered to study the genesis of a
nonemergency condition causing him pain, pain that ECCF was directly treating through
various courses of medication. See Rouse, 182 F.3d at 197 (observing that constitutional
violation occurs where official “delays necessary medical treatment based on a non-
medical reason”) (emphasis added). The Constitution does not prevent a prison from
factoring cost considerations into its medical care decisions if, as here, it does not result
in denial of necessary treatment. See City of Revere v. Mass. Gen. Hosp., 463 U.S. 239,
2
We recognize that these facts are disputed. In the Rule 12(b)(6) analysis undertaken in
§ 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii) screening, see Allah, 229 F.3d at 223, however, a court must assume
that a plaintiff’s well-pleaded factual allegations are true. See Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 679. In
conducting its analysis, the District Court improperly looked to evidence beyond the
pleadings without providing the parties with prior notice that it would, in effect, be
rendering summary judgment. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(d); DL Res., Inc. v. FirstEnergy
Solutions Corp., 506 F.3d 209, 223 (3d Cir. 2007). However, such an error is harmless
where, as here, the complaint does not state a viable claim for relief. See Rose v. Bartle,
871 F.2d 331, 342–43 (3d Cir. 1989).
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245 (1983); Tillman v. Lebanon Cnty. Corr. Facility, 221 F.3d 410, 418–19 (3d Cir.
2000).
As Montgomery’s complaint and its attached documents indicate, ECCF provided
him with medical care for his conditions—indeed, sending him to two orthopedic
specialists—even if a particular procedure was not provided as quickly as he preferred.
That he disagreed with Dr. Anicette as to the proper course of his treatment does not
indicate that it was unconstitutionally delayed. See Monmouth Cnty. Corr. Institutional
Inmates v. Lanzaro, 834 F.2d 326, 346 (3d Cir. 1987). At most, delaying the MRI while
other treatment options were pursued suggests mere medical negligence, which is
insufficient to support a constitutional violation. See Daniels, 474 U.S. at 333; Estelle v.
Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 106 (1976).
Given the unlikelihood that amended pleadings by Montgomery could overcome
the identified deficiencies, the District Court did not abuse its discretion in denying leave
to amend the § 1983 claims against Aparatis, the correctional officers, and Dr. Anicette.
See Grayson v. Mayview State Hosp., 293 F.3d 103, 108 (3d Cir. 2002).
Finally, as we have noted, the District Court dismissed the negligence claim
against each Defendant for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. We understand the District
Court to have been declining to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over these claims. See
28 U.S.C. § 1367(a); United Mine Workers v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 725 (1966). As we
conclude that the District Court properly dismissed all claims falling within its original
jurisdiction, we perceive no abuse of discretion in the District Court’s refusal to exercise
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supplemental jurisdiction.3 See 28 U.S.C. § 1367(c)(3); Figueroa v. Buccaneer Hotel,
Inc., 188 F.3d 172, 181 (3d Cir. 1999).
For the foregoing reasons, we will affirm the District Court’s orders dismissing
Montgomery’s complaint. Montgomery’s request for appointment of counsel, stated
within his informal brief and another document he filed in support of his appeal, is
denied. Dr. Anicette’s motion to supplement the record is granted.
3
Because these negligence claims were dismissed without prejudice, Montgomery has
the option of pursuing them in state court. However, as it appears that the applicable
two-year statute of limitations, see N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2A:14-2(a); McGrogan v. Till, 744
A.2d 255, 260 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. 2000), is about to or has already expired on
some of these claims during the pendency of this federal litigation, Montgomery risks
being time-barred if he does not file any such action in a New Jersey court within 30 days
of this decision. See 28 U.S.C. § 1367(d); Binder v. Price Waterhouse & Co., L.L.P., 923
A.2d 293, 297 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. 2007).
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