Court Opinion

ID: 9407603
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-07-07 17:01:16.653925+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:20:39.108080
License: Public Domain

NOT FOR PUBLICATION                           FILED
                    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS                        JUL 7 2023
                                                                      MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
                                                                       U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
                           FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

RAYMOND RICHARD WHITALL,                        No.    21-16463

                Plaintiff-Appellant,            D.C. No. 3:17-cv-05889-CRB

 v.
                                                MEMORANDUM*
STEPHANIE TRAN PHAN, M.D., Primary
Care Physician, CDC and Rehabilitation; A.
NEWTON, Supervising R.N. II, Salinas
Valley State Prison; MS. DOWLESS, Public
Health Nurse, Salinas Valley State Prison;
LIZ DOEHRING, N.P.C. TTA Nurse
Practitioner, Salinas Valley State Prison;
LAW SAN FU, M.D., Physician and
Surgeon, Salinas Valley State Prison;
LAWRENCE GAMBOA, M.D., Chief
Physician and Surgeon, Salinas Valley State
Prison; WILSON, Dr., Chief Nurse
Executive, Salinas Valley State Prison; KIM
KUMAR, M.D., Chief Medical Executive,
Salinas Valley State Prison; ELAINE
CANTU, Acting Chief Executive Officer,
Salinas Valley State Prison; B.
BRIZENDINE, Psy. D., MBA, CCHP, Chief
Executive Officer, Salinas Valley State
Prison; ROGER L. MARTINEZ,
Correctional Lieutenant, Salinas Valley State
Prison; GONZALEZ, Correctional Captain,
SVSP Health Care Services, Salinas Valley
State Prison; W. L. MUNIZ, Warden, Salinas

      *
             This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
Valley State Prison; KATHLEEN
ALLISON, Director, CDC and
Rehabilitation; N. WALKER, Associate
Warden; J. LEWIS, Deputy Director, Policy
and Risk Management,

                Defendants-Appellees.

                   Appeal from the United States District Court
                     for the Northern District of California
                   Charles R. Breyer, District Judge, Presiding

                              Submitted July 5, 2023**

Before: WALLACE, O’SCANNLAIN, and SILVERMAN, Circuit Judges.

      Raymond Richard Whitall, a California state prisoner, appeals pro se from

the district court’s summary judgment for defendants in his 42 U.S.C. § 1983

action alleging deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs. We have

jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We review de novo, Toguchi v. Chung, 391

F.3d 1051, 1056 (9th Cir. 2004), and we affirm.

      The district court properly granted summary judgment to defendants because

Whitall failed to raise a genuine dispute of material fact as to whether the treatment

for his arthritis “was medically unacceptable under the circumstances and was

chosen in conscious disregard of an excessive risk to [his] health.” Id. at 1058

      **
             The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision
without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).

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(explaining that a difference of medical opinion is insufficient, as a matter of law,

to establish deliberate indifference) (citation and internal quotation omitted).

      On appeal, Whitall argues that he has raised several disputes of material fact,

and that the question of whether his treatment was medically unacceptable should

be presented to a jury. However, Whithall has not presented evidence that Phan’s

treatment was medically unacceptable, and so summary judgment for the

defendants was appropriate. See Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-23

(1986) (plaintiff’s complete failure of proof concerning an essential element of his

case necessarily renders all other facts immaterial).

      AFFIRMED.

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