Opinion ID: 178734
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Defendant Corrections Officers

Text: Plaintiff claims that twenty-one correction officers were deliberately indifferent to Jones's serious medical needs. He claims that these officers worked in the area where Jones was housed, were aware of his serious medical condition, yet failed to render medical assistance. To support this contention, Plaintiff relies on a chart listing the days each of the officers worked from November 2004 to May 2005 and a Daily Staff Work Station, which lists the officers assigned to Jones's area from February to May 2005. Plaintiff asserts that the guards listed in these charts are those who would have received Jones's kites and who would have observed him not eating his meals and his subsequent weight loss. Plaintiff also submitted the affidavits of Lawson, Poole, Yager, and Dowdell, who contend that they witnessed Jones's deteriorating condition, his failed attempts to obtain medical assistance, and conversations among guards evincing knowledge of and indifference to Jones's condition. Specifically, in Dowdell's affidavit, he states that he was housed in a cell near Jones for at least one and one-half months and that Jones was left on lock-down up until his death. He also claims that Jones would tell the officers that he needed to see a nurse, that they would respond that he should write up a kite, and that he would explain that he had previously done so without any response. Dowdell also states that Jones did not eat anything for weeks and that the guards were there when the food was delivered and would know that he was not eating. According to the affidavit of Yager, she overheard Officers Beal, Gutowski, and Morris stating that Jones was complaining of stomach pain, that Jones thought he might have cancer, and that he had been sending kites out every day. She claims that the officers agreed that Jones was faking his condition. In Poole's affidavit, he stated that he observed Mr. Jones sending kites for medical attention several times a week and they were never answered. He also stated that, when Jones would complain to the guards, different guards would respond that they would get to [him] when we get to [him]. Lawson also stated that he noticed that Jones was repeatedly sending out medical kites and that while the kites would be gone, he was not called down to see a nurse. These affidavits, along with the officers' assignment charts, are insufficient to establish Plaintiff's Section 1983 claim against the Corrections Officers. The affidavits refer to guards in a general sense or to several guards engaged in a conversation about Jones without specifying wrongdoing attributable to any particular defendant. The affidavits do not specify which officers were making comments, which officers ignored his requests for medical care, or which officers observed him not eating food for weeks. Instead, Plaintiff seeks to implicate all twenty-one named guards through the affiants' generalized statements regarding the guards. Additionally, the assignment charts do not assist in identifying which guards purportedly engaged in wrongful conduct. Instead, they merely indicate which officers were around his cell during the relevant six-month period. None of the above-discussed evidence is such as to implicate any specific officer. As such, it does not raise a genuine issue of material fact regarding the liability of any officer. Furthermore, as recognized by the district court, neither the affidavits nor the assignment charts indicate whether it was in fact the guards who were responsible for Jones's lack of medical attention. The parties agree that it is the guards' responsibility to deliver the medical kites to the nursing staff, and it is the nursing staff's responsibility to call the inmate to their office for medical attention. Although these affidavits could plausibly demonstrate that Jones's medical kites were being ignored, they do not demonstrate to whom the failure was attributablewhether the guards for not delivering them, or the nurses for not calling him to the medical center. The affidavits do not indicate that the guards failed to deliver the medical kites to the nurses. They indicate only that Jones was not being called for medical treatment. As such, these affidavits and the assignment chart fail to create a genuine issue of material fact with regard to Plaintiff's Section 1983 claim against Defendant Corrections Officers. Plaintiff does, however, specifically identify the purported wrongful conduct of one officer. He claims that Officer Laura Lewis was deliberately indifferent to Jones's serious medical needs on the date that he died. Plaintiff cites statements from Officer Lewis's deposition, in which she admitted that she left Jones in his cell despite his deteriorating condition without immediately calling an ambulance. This evidence, however, is insufficient to create a genuine issue of material fact because Lewis went on to state in her deposition that she believed the decision whether to call an ambulance did not rest with her but with command. Furthermore, a report filed by Officer Lewis on May 5, 2005, which describes her interaction with Jones in the hours before his death, indicates that prior to his death, Officer Lewis attended to Jones's medical needs and made efforts to make him more comfortable. Accordingly, we find that the district court properly granted summary judgment in favor of the Corrections Officers on Plaintiff's Section 1983 claim.