Case ID: f-appx_11/html/0652-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Tommie E. MASON, Appellant, v. Sara MCQUILLIAMS, Warden, Delta Regional Unit; David Guntharp, Deputy Assistant Director, Appellees.
    No. 00-1782.
    United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.
    Submitted April 6, 2001.
    Decided April 10, 2001.
    
      Before MORRIS SHEPPARD ARNOLD, RICHARD S. ARNOLD, and FAGG, Circuit Judges.
   [UNPUBLISHED]

PER CURIAM.

Arkansas inmate Tommie E. Mason filed this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action claiming the prison officials sued by Mason (collectively the appellees) acquiesced to the non-enforcement of the prison’s smoking policy and thus showed deliberate indifference to Mason’s health' problems associated with second-hand cigarette smoke. Following an evidentiary hearing, the district court granted judgment for appellees and Mason appealed.

Having reviewed the record, we find no abuse of discretion in the district court’s refusal to grant Mason a default judgment as a discovery sanction against appellees, see Ackra Direct Marketing Corp. v. Fingerhut Corp., 86 F.3d 852, 856 & n. 4 (8th Cir.1996) (standard of review); or in denying Mason leave to amend sought two years into the proceedings, and which likely would have been futile, see Fuller v. Sec’y of Def, 30 F.3d 86, 88-89 (8th Cir.), cert, denied, 513 U.S. 1019, 115 S.Ct. 583, 130 L.Ed.2d 497 (1994). Given the testimony showing Mason did not have a serious medical need and appellees took measures to enforce the smoking policy, we affirm the judgment in their favor.