Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca3-15-02677/USCOURTS-ca3-15-02677-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Eugene Kenneth Brinson
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

BLD-126 NOT PRECEDENTIAL

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT

___________

No. 15-2677

___________

EUGENE KENNETH BRINSON,

 Appellant

v.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

____________________________________

On Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Middle District of Pennsylvania

(D.C. Civil No. 3-12-cv-01451)

District Judge: Honorable Matthew W. Brann

____________________________________

Submitted for Possible Dismissal Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)

or Pursuant to Third Circuit L.A.R. 27.4 and I.O.P. 10.6.

January 28, 2016

Before: FUENTES, KRAUSE and SCIRICA, Circuit Judges

(Opinion filed: February 5, 2016 )

_________

OPINION*

_________

PER CURIAM

 

* This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7 does not 

constitute binding precedent.

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Appellant Eugene Kenneth Brinson appeals from the District Court’s award of 

damages in the amount of $350.00 for the Appellee’s negligence in serving chicken 

tainted with salmonella to Appellant while he was an inmate at USP-Canaan on June 25, 

2011. For the reasons stated below, we will summarily affirm. Because the parties are 

familiar with the facts and procedural history of the case, we need not reiterate them.

Brinson brought a claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act (“FTCA”) against the 

United States, claiming that he was served chicken tainted with salmonella on June 25, 

2011, while incarcerated at USP-Canaan. He claims that, as a result, he suffered from 

symptoms of salmonella poisoning for 60 days, including stomach pain, cramping, 

nausea, dehydration, and diarrhea. He sought punitive damages.

The Appellees conceded liability and the matter proceeded to a bench trial on the 

issue of damages. Brinson argued that he was kept behind a locked door and denied 

access to medical care for his salmonella poisoning for the 13 days after the incident due 

to a prison lockdown. He asserts that he is entitled to damages in the amount of $10,000 

a day for each of the 13 days he was denied treatment and experiencing severe physical 

pain and mental anguish. He also argues that he was given inappropriate and inadequate 

medication for his illness, which caused salmonella to remain in his system for over 60 

days. As a result, he was unable to go to work at the prison or interact with the other 

inmates. 

The District Court made a finding of fact that Brinson had symptoms of 

salmonella for only seven days based on Brinson’s medical records. The Court also 

found that Dr. Holloway, a physical at USP-Canaan at the time of the outbreak, went 

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door to door providing treatment to the inmates. Based on Dr. Holloway’s testimony, the 

standard medical protocol for treating salmonella was hydration, and not the antibiotics 

that Brinson requested. The Court noted that the FTCA does not permit the grant of 

punitive damages; however, the Court awarded Brinson 50 dollars per day for the seven 

days he had salmonella poisoning symptoms for his intangible damages of pain and 

suffering, inconvenience, and loss of capacity for enjoyment of life. Brinson appealed.

We have appellate jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We exercise plenary 

review over the District Court’s legal conclusions and review its findings of fact for clear 

error. O’Donald v. Johns, 402 F.3d 172, 173 n.1 (3d Cir. 2005) (per curiam). A district 

court’s determination of damages is only disturbed upon a showing of clear error. See

Tyminski v. United States, 481 F.2d 257, 271 (3d Cir.1973). Absent “a firm conviction 

that the damages award was so inadequate as to warrant interference on the appellate 

level,” we will uphold a District Court’s award. Id.; see also Lanning v. Southeastern 

Pennsylvania Transp. Auth., 181 F.3d 478, 501-02 (3d Cir.1999) (clear error standard 

requires district court to be affirmed if its account is plausible in light of the entirety of 

the record even though appellate court might have weighed the evidence differently). 

We may take summary action if an appeal does not present a substantial question. See 3d 

Cir. I.O.P. 10.6.

Brinson argues that he suffered symptoms of salmonella poisoning for at least 60 

days. The medical records Brinson attached to his complaint indeed indicate he 

experienced diarrhea and abdominal pain as of mid-August 2011, about two months after 

he ingested chicken tainted with salmonella. The District Court reasoned, however, that 

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based on its review of Brinson’s medical records and the testimony of Dr. Holloway, 

Brinson had salmonella poisoning for only seven days. The Court found persuasive a 

nonbinding decision, Gil v. United States of America, 2006 WL 385088 (M.D. Fl. 2006), 

where a district court awarded a federal inmate who suffered food poisoning 

noneconomic damages of 50 dollars per day. Similar to the case at bar, the district court 

in Gil reasoned that 50 dollars a day was “a fair and reasonable amount to compensate 

[the] Plaintiff for his intangible losses” where a federal prisoner had suffered from a few 

days of acute gastroenteritis from eating tainted ham at the prison dining hall. Id. at *3. 

The Court reasoned that the prisoner did not incur any “medical expenses, lost wages, or 

other special damages,” and therefore, his recovery was limited to “intangible damages 

for pain and suffering, inconvenience, and loss of capacity for enjoyment of life.” Id.

While Brinson appears to have suffered from diarrhea and abdominal pain for a 

few months after he ate the salmonella-tainted chicken, we cannot conclude the District 

Court clearly erred in limiting his damages award calculation to the seven days. As the 

Court noted, Brinson’s continued diarrhea could have been caused by factors other than 

salmonella poisoning, such as his pre-existing gastroenteritis, and from the antibiotics he 

was given for his sinusitis. His medical records from mid-July and mid-August indicate 

that his other vital signs were normal. Moreover, the District Court did not err in 

declining to grant the punitive damages Brinson requested because such damages are 

prohibited in FTCA cases. See Molzof v. United States, 502 U.S. 301, 312 (1992). 

As this appeal presents no substantial question, we will summarily affirm.

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