Court Opinion

ID: 9931657
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-02-09 17:00:55.325904+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:25:17.185493
License: Public Domain

Appellate Case: 23-1153     Document: 010110997623         Date Filed: 02/09/2024      Page: 1
                                                                                      FILED
                                                                          United States Court of Appeals
                       UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS                             Tenth Circuit

                              FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT                            February 9, 2024
                          _________________________________
                                                                             Christopher M. Wolpert
                                                                                 Clerk of Court
  EMANUEL PITTMAN,

        Plaintiff - Appellant,

  v.                                                            No. 23-1153
                                                      (D.C. No. 1:22-CV-01266-KLM)
  JEREMY KAHN; JAMES GILLIS;                                     (D. Colo.)
  MICHELLE FOREMAN,

        Defendants - Appellees.
                       _________________________________

                              ORDER AND JUDGMENT *
                          _________________________________

 Before MATHESON, BALDOCK, and EID, Circuit Judges.
                   _________________________________

        Emanuel Pittman, a Colorado state prisoner proceeding pro se, appeals the

 district court’s dismissal of his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action. Exercising jurisdiction

 under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm.

        *
          After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined
 unanimously that oral argument would not materially assist in the determination of this
 appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2); 10th Cir. R. 34.1(G). The case is therefore ordered
 submitted without oral argument. This order and judgment is not binding precedent,
 except under the doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may
 be cited, however, for its persuasive value consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and
 10th Cir. R. 32.1.
Appellate Case: 23-1153    Document: 010110997623        Date Filed: 02/09/2024    Page: 2

                                  I. BACKGROUND

       Mr. Pittman sued Jeremy Kahn, James Gillis, and Michelle Foreman, prison

 officials at the Limon Correctional Facility (“LCF”), in their individual and official

 capacities. His third amended complaint charged that the defendants violated the

 Eighth Amendment by failing to protect him from unnamed inmates.

       Mr. Pittman alleged that

           • Mr. Kahn heard him tell a prison official about rumors that sex offenders
             “got beat up or paid rent in LCF,” ROA, Vol. I at 76;

           • he later sent Mr. Kahn a kite (informal note) claiming that unnamed
             prisoners had threatened his life;

           • Mr. Kahn met with him about the threats but denied the grievance because
             he had not followed the grievance procedure;

           • the next day, Mr. Gillis and Ms. Foreman met with him to discuss the
             grievance and asked for the names of the inmates who were threatening
             him;

           • he refused to provide the names, so he was returned to his pod;

           • a few days later, unnamed inmates attacked him, giving him a black eye
             and an unspecified “permanent mark,” id. at 77; and

           • at some point before the attack, his brother called Mr. Kahn, presumably
             regarding Mr. Pittman’s sex offender status.

 Id. at 65–78.

       The district court referred the pleadings to a magistrate judge, who

 recommended dismissal of the official capacity claims. The district court adopted the

 recommendation and dismissed those claims.

       The Defendants then moved under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) to

 dismiss the individual capacity claims for failure to state a claim. The magistrate

                                            2
Appellate Case: 23-1153     Document: 010110997623         Date Filed: 02/09/2024     Page: 3

 judge recommended dismissal, determining that Mr. Pittman failed to state a

 plausible failure-to-protect claim against any of the Defendants because he did not

 allege sufficient facts to show they knew he faced a substantial risk of serious harm. 1

 The district court adopted the recommendation, granted the motion, and dismissed

 the case. Mr. Pittman now appeals the dismissal of his individual capacity claims. 2

                                     II. DISCUSSION

                   A. Standard of Review and Rule 12(b)(6) Dismissal

        Mr. Pittman represents himself, so we construe his filings liberally. See Hall

 v. Bellmon, 935 F.2d 1106, 1110 (10th Cir. 1991). We review de novo a dismissal

 for failure to state a claim under Rule 12(b)(6). Smith v. United States, 561 F.3d

 1090, 1098 (10th Cir. 2009). Under this standard, we accept as true all well-pleaded

 factual allegations and view them in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Id.

 “To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter,

 accepted as true, to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Ashcroft v.

        1
         The magistrate judge’s order contains a subsection titled “A. Official Capacity
 Claims.” ROA, Vol. I at 159. This appears to be a typographical error as the analysis
 following that subsection header addresses the individual capacity claims, and the district
 court had already dismissed the official capacity claims. See Aplee Suppl. App. at 12–13.
        2
          The magistrate judge’s order discusses whether Mr. Pittman should be granted
 leave to amend his third amended complaint. ROA, Vol. I at 169–72. The magistrate
 judge determined that Mr. Pittman had three previous opportunities to correct the
 deficiencies in his complaint and that further amendment would be futile. Id. at 172.
 Mr. Pittman does not raise this issue on appeal, so we decline to address it. See Bronson
 v. Swensen, 500 F.3d 1099, 1104 (10th Cir. 2007) (“[W]e routinely have declined to
 consider arguments that are not raised, or are inadequately presented, in an appellant’s
 opening brief.”).

                                              3
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 Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (quotations omitted); see Thomas v. Kaven, 765 F.3d

 1183, 1190 (10th Cir. 2014). “Threadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of

 action, supported by mere conclusory statements, do not suffice.” Iqbal, 556 U.S. at

 678. Even though we read a pro se complaint liberally, we “should dismiss claims

 which are supported only by vague and conclusory allegations.” Northington v.

 Jackson, 973 F.2d 1518, 1520–21 (10th Cir. 1992).

                                  B. Failure to Protect

       The Eighth Amendment imposes a duty on prison officials to provide humane

 conditions of confinement, including “reasonable measures to guarantee the safety of

 the inmates.” Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 832 (1994) (quotations omitted).

 This obligation includes a duty “to protect prisoners from violence at the hands of

 other prisoners.” Id. at 833 (quotations omitted).

       “To prevail on a failure to protect claim, an inmate must show (1) that the

 conditions of his incarceration present[ed] an objective substantial risk of serious

 harm and (2) prison officials had subjective knowledge of the risk of harm.”

 Requena v. Roberts, 893 F.3d 1195, 1214 (10th Cir. 2018) (quotations omitted). To

 satisfy the second prong, the inmate must show that the prison official was

 deliberately indifferent to the inmate’s health or safety. Farmer, 511 U.S. at 834. A

 prison official will not be liable unless he “knows of and disregards an excessive risk

 to inmate health or safety; the official must both be aware of facts from which the

 inference could be drawn that a substantial risk of serious harm exists, and he must

 also draw the inference.” Id. at 837.

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                                C. Pleading Sufficiency

       We provide two case examples applying the pleading standards to failure-to-

 protect cases.

       First, in Requena, we determined the inmate-plaintiff adequately pled a

 failure-to-protect claim. 893 F.3d at 1214. In that case, the inmate notified prison

 officials that he feared retaliation by other Native American inmates after he was

 found guilty of impermissibly keeping in his cell drumsticks that had been kept for

 and used in the prison’s Native American “callout” for decades. Prison officials

 removed the drumsticks from use. He also requested a transfer to avoid retaliation.

 Id. at 1213 & n.12. The prison officials did not act on the inmate’s request. Two

 Native American inmates brutally beat him with a blunt object during mealtime. Id.

 at 1214. The inmate further claimed that one of the prison officials “knew a fight

 was about to occur because inmates were table hopping, yet he prevented another

 officer from doing anything because he wanted to see a fight.” Id. (quotations

 omitted).

       Conversely, in Riddle v. Mondragon, we concluded the inmate-plaintiff failed

 to state a failure-to-protect claim. 83 F.3d 1197, 1206 (10th Cir. 1996). In Riddle,

 the inmate’s complaint alleged he was “exposed to adverse prison setting, constantly

 in fear of his life by physical assaults from other inmates who may discover his crime

 as sex offense at any time.” Id. at 1205. The inmate did not provide the defendant-

 officials with details about a specific risk of harm. Id. We determined the inmate’s

                                            5
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 allegations were conclusory and that he failed to allege sufficient facts to show that

 the prison officials were deliberately indifferent to his safety. Id. at 1205–06.

       This case is similar to Riddle and not to Requena.

                                       D. Analysis

       Mr. Pittman’s allegations lack sufficient facts to show the Defendants were

 deliberately indifferent to his safety. We therefore affirm the district court.

    Claim Against Mr. Kahn

       Mr. Pittman alleged that Mr. Kahn overheard a conversation between Mr.

 Pittman and another prison official regarding rumors about mistreatment of sex

 offenders at LCF. Mr. Pittman further alleged that (1) he later sent Mr. Kahn a kite

 reporting that numerous unnamed prisoners had threatened his life, (2) Mr. Kahn met

 with him about the threats mentioned in the kite, and (3) Mr. Kahn denied the

 grievance because Mr. Pittman had not followed the grievance procedure. He also

 alleged that his brother called Mr. Kahn, presumably regarding Mr. Pittman being a

 sex offender.

       Based on these allegations, the only information relevant to Mr. Pittman’s

 claim is he told Mr. Kahn that unnamed prisoners had threatened him. Mr. Pittman

 did not provide any detail, so Mr. Kahn was not aware who made the threats or when

 or why they were made. Mr. Pittman therefore did not plausibly allege that Mr. Kahn

 was “aware of facts from which the inference could be drawn that a substantial risk

 of serious harm exists,” or that Mr. Kahn drew the inference. Farmer, 511 U.S. at

                                             6
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 837. Thus, because Mr. Pittman did not satisfy the subjective prong of the failure-to-

 protect test, dismissal of his claim against Mr. Kahn was appropriate.

    Claim Against Mr. Gillis and Ms. Foreman

       Mr. Pittman alleged that Mr. Gillis and Ms. Foreman met with him to discuss

 the grievance but that he chose to return to his pod rather than provide the names of

 the inmates who were threatening him or any other details about the threats. Thus,

 like Mr. Kahn, Mr. Gillis and Ms. Foreman were not told who made the threats or

 when or why they were made.

       Mr. Pittman’s assertions that unnamed prisoners had threatened him and that

 he feared for his life were insufficient to show that Mr. Gillis and Ms. Foreman knew

 of and disregarded a substantial risk of serious harm. Id.; Riddle, 83 F.3d at 1206.

 Thus, because Mr. Pittman did not allege sufficient facts showing that Mr. Gillis and

 Ms. Foreman were deliberately indifferent to his safety, dismissal of his claim against

 them was also appropriate.

                                  III. CONCLUSION

       We affirm the district court’s judgment dismissing Mr. Pittman’s amended

 complaint. We deny Mr. Pittman’s motion for leave to proceed without prepayment

 of costs and fees.

                                            Entered for the Court

                                            Scott M. Matheson, Jr.

                                            7