STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA
 

SUPREME COURT OF APPEALS
 

Orville C. Massey, Jr., FILED 

Petitioner Below, Petitioner August 25, 2017 

RORY L. PERRY II, CLERK vs) No. 16-0784 (Fayette County 16-C-200-H) SUPREME COURT OF APPEALS 

OF WEST VIRGINIA 

Patrick A. Mirandy, Warden, 

St. Marys Correctional Center, 

Respondent Below, Respondent 

MEMORANDUM DECISION 

Petitioner Orville C. Massey, Jr., pro se, appeals the August 5, 2016, order of the Circuit 

Court of Fayette County denying a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in which petitioner 

requested an immediate discharge from custody due to alleged cruel and unusual punishment. 

1 Respondent Patrick A. Mirandy, Warden, St. Marys Correctional Center, by counsel John H. 

Boothroyd, filed a summary response in support of the circuit court’s order. Petitioner filed a 

reply. 

The Court has considered the parties’ briefs and the record on appeal. The facts and legal 

arguments are adequately presented, and the decisional process would not be significantly aided 

by oral argument. Upon consideration of the standard of review, the briefs, and the record 

presented, the Court finds no substantial question of law and no prejudicial error. For these 

reasons, a memorandum decision affirming the circuit court’s order is appropriate under Rule 21 

of the Rules of Appellate Procedure. 

Petitioner is an elderly inmate in the custody of the West Virginia Division of Corrections 

2 (“DOC”). On July 11, 2016, petitioner filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in which he 

requested an immediate discharge from the DOC’s custody due to alleged cruel and unusual 

punishment. As grounds for his request, petitioner alleged that he had either nerve damage or a 

degenerative hip joint and that the DOC’s medical contractor’s deliberate indifference to his 

serious medical need constituted cruel and unusual punishment. As an alternative to immediate 

release, petitioner requested a referral to an outside specialist. Petitioner attached a May 2, 2016, 

1

Pursuant to Rule 41(c) of the Rules of Appellate Procedure, we have substituted the 

respondent party’s name with Warden Patrick A. Mirandy because petitioner is currently 

incarcerated at St. Marys Correctional Center. 

2

Petitioner states that he is in his seventies, and respondent gives petitioner’s age as 

seventy-three years old. 

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grievance to his petition, which was subsequently denied by the DOC, in which he claimed that 

there was “a [n]erve problem” and requested a MRI as well as “a [wheelchair] to take me to the 

chow hall.” 

By order entered on August 5, 2016, the circuit court denied petitioner’s petition. The 

circuit court determined that there was no deliberate indifference to petitioner’s serious medical 

need based on a full review of “the complete contents of the court file.” The circuit court found that 

petitioner acknowledged the following: (1) that a doctor told him that his hip joint was normal 

following a x-ray of his leg; (2) that medical staff proscribed Mobic, a drug used to treat arthritis; 

(3) that medical staff gave him a cane to aid him in walking; and (4) that medical staff offered 

petitioner a walker that he declined to use. Accordingly, the circuit court concluded that petitioner 

was receiving treatment for his complaints and that his mere disagreement with the prescribed 

course of treatment did not justify the requested relief. Subsequent to the August 19, 2016, filing of 

petitioner’s appeal from the circuit court’s denial of his petition, the DOC transferred petitioner 

from Mount Olive Correctional Complex to St. Marys Correctional Center, a facility designated to 

house inmates who are “[r]eviewed/[a]pproved for [medical] placement” and “[g]eriatric inmates 

determined to be appropriate for dormitory living.” DOC Policy Directive 401.01 §§ V(C)(4)(b) 

and (c). 

Petitioner now appeals from the circuit court’s August 5, 2016, order denying his habeas 

petition. We apply the following standard of review in habeas cases: 

In reviewing challenges to the findings and conclusions of the circuit court 

in a habeas corpus action, we apply a three-prong standard of review. We review 

the final order and the ultimate disposition under an abuse of discretion standard; 

the underlying factual findings under a clearly erroneous standard; and questions of 

law are subject to a de novo review. 

Syl. Pt. 1, Mathena v. Haines, 219 W.Va. 417, 633 S.E.2d 771 (2006). 

An inmate within the DOC’s custody may file a habeas petition to “challenge[ ] . . . the 

constitutionality of prison . . . conditions[.]” State ex rel. Anstey v. Davis, 203 W.Va. 538, 544, 509 

S.E.2d 579, 585 (1998). In syllabus points 4 and 5 of Nobles v. Duncil, 202 W.Va. 523, 505 S.E.2d 

442 (1998), we held as follows: 

4. Deliberate indifference to the serious medical needs of prisoners constitutes 

unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain which is proscribed by the prohibition on 

cruel and unusual punishment in the Federal and State Constitutions. 

5. To establish that a health care provider’s actions constitute deliberate 

indifference to a prison inmate’s serious medical need, the treatment, or lack 

thereof, must be so grossly incompetent, inadequate, or excessive as to shock the 

conscience or be intolerable to fundamental fairness. 

On appeal, petitioner alleges that his request for a MRI was denied because of the cost. We 

find that the record belies petitioner’s allegation. According to the response section of the May 2, 

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2016, grievance form, an MRI was not ordered because the physician who examined petitioner on 

that same day concluded that “[an] MRI was not indicated,” which was explained to petitioner 

during the examination. As found by the circuit court, petitioner previously had a x-ray of his left 

leg that showed that his hip joint was normal. Because an MRI was not indicated, the denial of 

petitioner’s request for one did not constitute deliberate indifference under syllabus point 5 of 

Nobles. See United States v. DeCologero, 821 F.2d 39, 42 (1st Cir. 1987) (stating that, “though it is 

plain that an inmate deserves adequate medical care, he cannot insist that his institutional host 

provide him with the most sophisticated care that money can buy”). 

Respondent argues that the DOC has provided petitioner with adequate medical care. We 

agree. While petitioner claimed in the May 2, 2016, grievance that he had a nerve problem, that 

complaint was likewise answered by the registered nurse who responded to his grievance. The 

nurse stated that she reviewed petitioner’s medical records and that he “[did] not have signs of 

nerve problems” in his left leg. The nurse also denied petitioner’s request that he be permitted to 

use a wheelchair. However, petitioner acknowledged in his grievance that the medical staff at 

Mount Olive gave him a cane to aid him in walking, offered him a walker, which he declined to 

use. On appeal, petitioner further concedes that since his transfer to St. Marys, he has been allowed 

the use of a wheelchair.3 Therefore, we find that there has been no deliberate indifference to 

petitioner’s serious medical need. Accordingly, we conclude that the circuit court did not abuse its 

discretion in denying petitioner’s habeas petition in which he requested an immediate discharge 

from custody or, in the alternative, a referral to an outside medical specialist. 

For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the circuit court’s August 5, 2016, order denying 

petitioner’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus. 

Affirmed. 

ISSUED: August 25, 2017 

CONCURRED IN BY: 

Chief Justice Allen H. Loughry II 

Justice Robin Jean Davis 

Justice Margaret L. Workman 

Justice Menis E. Ketchum 

Justice Elizabeth D. Walker 

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Petitioner argues that his transfer to St. Marys was retaliation by the DOC for the filing of 

his habeas petition. But see DOC Policy Directive 401.01 §§ V(C)(4)(b) and (c) (designating St. 

Marys for elderly and/or infirm inmates). Respondent counters that we should not address this 

claim because it was not presented to the circuit court. We agree with respondent and decline to 

address petitioner’s allegation of retaliation. See Syl. Pt. 2, Sands v. Sec. Trust Co., 143 W.Va. 

522, 102 S.E.2d 733 (1958) (holding that “[t]his Court will not pass on a non[-]jurisdictional 

question which has not been decided by the trial court in the first instance”). 

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