Court Opinion

ID: 9909934
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-12-14 17:00:53.855795+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:50:17.513509
License: Public Domain

United States Court of Appeals
                          For the Eighth Circuit
                      ___________________________

                              No. 23-2089
                      ___________________________

                                Derrick D. Fields

                      lllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiff - Appellant

                                         v.

  Correctional Officer Darnequious Evans, MCDC, also known as Correctional
     Officer Evans; Correctional Officer Kameron Dockery, also known as
 Correctional Officer Dockery; Nurse Steven King; Nurse Lisa Davidson; Nurse
                    Chelsey Foster; Allan Hickerson, MCDC

                    lllllllllllllllllllllDefendants - Appellees
                                     ____________

                   Appeal from United States District Court
               for the Western District of Arkansas - Texarkana
                                ____________

                        Submitted: December 11, 2023
                          Filed: December 14, 2023
                                [Unpublished]
                               ____________

Before GRUENDER, ERICKSON, and STRAS, Circuit Judges.
                         ____________

PER CURIAM.
       Derrick Fields appeals the district court’s1 adverse grant of summary judgment
in his pro se 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action. Reviewing de novo, we affirm. See Hall v.
Higgins, 77 F.4th 1171, 1178 (8th Cir. 2023) (standard of review).

       The correctional officer defendants are entitled to qualified immunity unless
they exhibited “deliberate or callous indifference to [Fields’s] safety.” See Patterson
v. Kelley, 902 F.3d 845, 851 (8th Cir. 2018) (internal quotation marks omitted).
Summary judgment was appropriate on this count because Fields failed to raise a
genuine dispute of material fact that the correctional officer defendants knew of and
were deliberately indifferent to any danger posed to Fields. See Holden v. Hirner,
663 F.3d 336, 340-42 (8th Cir. 2011); see also Tucker v. Evans, 276 F.3d 999, 1001
(8th Cir. 2002) (“We have held in several cases that qualified immunity for prison
officials is appropriate when . . . [a] failure-to-protect claim arises from inmate
injuries resulting from a surprise attack by another inmate.”).

       The nurse defendants are entitled to summary judgment unless Fields can raise
a genuine dispute of material fact that “(1) he suffered from an objectively serious
medical need, and (2) defendants knew of the need yet deliberately disregarded it.”
Hall, 77 F.4th at 1178. “[A] detainee’s mere disagreement with a medical
professional’s treatment decisions, alone, is insufficient.” Id. at 1179. The nurse
defendants evaluated Fields, responded to his requests, and provided him with
medication. Although Fields may disagree with their treatment decisions, he has not
raised a genuine dispute of material fact that he had an objectively serious medical
need or that, even assuming arguendo he had such a need, it was deliberately
disregarded.

      1
       The Honorable Susan O. Hickey, Chief Judge, United States District Court for
the Western District of Arkansas, adopting the report and recommendations of the
Honorable Barry A. Bryant, United States Magistrate Judge for the Western District
of Arkansas.

                                         -2-
       As Fields did not establish that any individual defendant committed a
constitutional violation, we agree that summary judgment was proper on the official-
capacity claims against all defendants. See Murray v. Lene, 595 F.3d 868, 873 (8th
Cir. 2010).

      We deny Fields’s pending motion and affirm. See 8th Cir. R. 47B.
                     ______________________________

                                        -3-