Court Opinion

ID: 997764
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2013-07-04 17:01:41.180092+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:02:58.695965
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

RAYMOND WARREN PERRY, II,
Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.
                                                                   No. 97-7872
G. R. WHITE; MCDOWELL, Mr.;
PERRY STRICKLAND, Chairman,
Darlington County Council,
Defendants-Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court
for the District of South Carolina, at Columbia.
David C. Norton, District Judge.
(CA-95-3309-3-18BC)

Submitted: December 15, 1998

Decided: February 12, 1999

Before NIEMEYER and TRAXLER, Circuit Judges, and
HALL, Senior Circuit Judge.

_________________________________________________________________

Affirmed in part and vacated and remanded in part by unpublished
per curiam opinion.

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COUNSEL

Raymond Warren Perry, II, Appellant Pro Se. Robert Thomas King,
WILLCOX, MCLEOD, BUYCK & WILLIAMS, P.A., Florence,
South Carolina, for Appellees.

_________________________________________________________________
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. See
Local Rule 36(c).

_________________________________________________________________

OPINION

PER CURIAM:

Raymond Warren Perry, II, appeals from the district court's grant
of summary judgment in favor of the Defendants in his 42 U.S.C.A.
§ 1983 (West Supp. 1998) claim alleging unconstitutional conditions
of confinement, deliberate indifference to serious medical needs, and
denial of access to the courts. We affirm in part, and vacate and
remand in part.

This Court reviews a grant of summary judgment de novo. See
Higgins v. E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., 863 F.2d 1162 (4th Cir.
1988). Summary judgment is properly granted when there are no gen-
uine issues of material fact and when the record taken as a whole
could not lead a rational trier of fact to find for the non-moving party.
See Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323 (1986). All reason-
able inferences are to be drawn in favor of the non-moving party. See
Cole v. Cole, 633 F.2d 1083, 1092 (4th Cir. 1980).

We have reviewed the record and the district court order and find
no reversible error as to Perry's access to the courts claim. Accord-
ingly, we affirm the grant of summary judgment as to that claim on
the reasoning of the district court. See Perry v. White, No. CA-95-
3309-3-18BC (D.S.C. Nov. 26, 1997).*

Addressing Perry's conditions of confinement claim, to survive the
_________________________________________________________________
*Although the district court's order of judgment is marked as "filed"
on November 25, 1997, the district court's records show that it was
entered on the docket sheet on November 26, 1997. Pursuant to Rules 58
and 79(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, it is the date that the
order was entered on the docket sheet that we take as the effective date
of the district court's decision. See Wilson v. Murray, 806 F.2d 1232,
1234-35 (4th Cir. 1986).

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Defendants' motion for summary judgment, Perry must demonstrate
conditions which are so objectively serious that they violate contem-
porary standards of decency, that the Defendants knew the conditions
existed, and that he suffered a serious or significant physical or emo-
tional injury as a result. See Rhodes v. Chapman , 452 U.S. 337, 346
(1981); Strickler v. Waters, 989 F.2d 1375, 1381 (4th Cir. 1993). Our
review of the record under the previously articulated summary judg-
ment standard leads us to conclude that Perry has demonstrated a gen-
uine issue as to each of these elements. Accordingly, we vacate the
district court's grant of summary judgment as to this claim and
remand this portion of the appeal to the district court.

Finally, turning to Perry's deliberate indifference claim, we note
that Perry is not attacking the judgment of his treating physician, but
rather is asserting that the correctional center at which he was
detained was so understaffed in both medical and other personnel that
it could not carry out the physician's directives as to the mental treat-
ment Perry should receive, and that the Defendants were aware of this
problem as well as Perry's suicidal tendencies and need for mental
health treatment. Because we do not believe that this claim was con-
sidered below, we also vacate the district court's grant of summary
judgment as to this claim and remand this portion of the appeal to the
district court for further consideration.

We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal conten-
tions are adequately presented in the materials before the court and
argument would not aid the decisional process.

AFFIRMED IN PART, VACATED AND REMANDED IN PART

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