FEDD v. BRYSON et al
Filing
42
ORDER adopting in part and rejecting in part 16 Report and Recommendations. Plaintiff's deliberate indifference to medical needs claims and procedural process claims may go forward. Ordered by US DISTRICT JUDGE C ASHLEY ROYAL on 3/14/2018 (lap)
THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF GEORGIA
MACON DIVISION
LEVI ARTHUR FEDD,
:
:
Plaintiff,
:
Civil Action
:
No. 5:17‐cv‐70‐CAR‐TQL
v.
:
:
HOMER BRYSON, et al.,
:
:
Defendants.
:
_____________________________________
ORDER ON THE ORDER AND RECOMMENDATION
OF THE UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE
Currently before the Court is the Order and Recommendation of the United
States Magistrate Judge [Doc. 16] to allow Plaintiff’s deliberate indifference claims
against all Defendants to proceed for further factual development, and to dismiss
without prejudice all of Plaintiff’s other claims pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§1915A(a) and
1915(e). Plaintiff has filed an Objection to the Recommendation wherein he largely
restates his claims and contentions that have been thoroughly and completely
addressed in the Recommendation.
This Court has fully considered the record in this case and investigated de novo
those portions of the Recommendation to which Petitioner objects. For the reasons that
follow, the Order and Recommendation [Doc. 16] is hereby ADOPTED IN PART and
REJECTED IN PART. The Order and Recommendation is ADOPTED as to dismissing
Plaintiff’s conditions of confinement, equal protection, access to courts, and retaliation
claims, and allowing his deliberate indifference to medical needs claims proceed for
further factual development. Thus, Plaintiff’s conditions of confinement, equal
protection, access to courts, and retaliation claims are DISMISSED; and his deliberate
indifference to medical needs claims may go forward. The Order and
Recommendation, however, is NOT ADOPTED as to the recommendation to dismiss
Plaintiff’s procedural due process claims. As explained below, Plaintiff has stated a
claim for violation of procedural due process and thus that claim should go forward.
The Recommendation recommends dismissing Plaintiff’s due process claim1 as
Plaintiff “has not alleged how long he was confined to the administrative segregation
unit; nor has he alleged any facts that would show the conditions in administrative
segregation were particularly harsh,” as required by case law in order to make out a
due process claim.2 However, in Plaintiff’s Recast Complaint he alleges he “was [kept]
in lockdown over 9 to 10 month[s],”3 that he was “in lockdown 24 hours [with] no
outside at no time,”4 that “all [Defendants] left Plaintiff in lockdown with no outside 24
hours a day,”5 and that he was “refuse[d] health care on and about 11 to 12 month[s]
The Recommendation suggests Plaintiff’s allegation in his Recast Complaint that he was “placed in
administrative segregation for no cause,” might be Plaintiff attempting to allege a violation of due
process claim. Pl.’s Recast Complaint, [Doc. 15] at p. 10.
2 Order and Recommendation, [Doc. 16] at p. 8.
3 Pl.’s Recast Complaint, [Doc. 15] at p. 6.
4 Id. at 7.
5 Id. at 14.
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suffering in lockdown.”6 Additionally, in Plaintiff’s Objection to the Recommendation,
Plaintiff alleges “all Defendant[s] refuse[d] health care over [a] year at Wilcox State
Prison in lockdown.”7 Also in his Objection, Plaintiff alleges he had to be medicated due
to “injury from Wilcox State Prison lock down in that small cell for a year.”8
Construing Plaintiff’s allegations liberally, as the Court must at this stage,
Plaintiff’s claims that he was placed in administrative segregation/lockdown for close to
a year with no outside time is sufficient to state a due process violation.9 Additionally,
Plaintiff’s lack of specificity in alleging which Defendants are responsible for his
placement in administrative segregation does not necessarily preclude Plaintiff’s claims
from going forward; Plaintiff may not yet know who is responsible. “[I]nstead of
dismissing a complaint because it fails to identify certain unnamed defendants, the
district court should order their disclosure or permit the plaintiff to obtain their identity
through discovery.” 10 Accordingly, Plaintiff’s procedural due process claims may go
forward.
For the reasons set forth above, the Order and Recommendation [Doc. 16] is
Id. at 18.
Pl.’s Objection to the Order and Recommendation, [Doc. 19] at p. 10.
8 Id. at 23.
9 Wallace v. Hamrick, 229 F. Appʹx 827, 829‐31 (11th Cir. 2007) (allowing inmates’ claim that his twenty‐
eight‐day stay in administrative segregation, with no hot water, ventilation, or opportunity for exercise,
while awaiting a disciplinary hearing violated due process was sufficient to proceed passed frivolity
review, despite lack of record of what process inmate was afforded and how this hardship compared to
the conditions of his fellow inmates).
10 Brown v. Sikes, 212 F.3d 1205, 1209 n.4 (11th Cir. 2000) (quoting Duncan v. Duckworth, 644 F.2d 653, 656
(7th Cir. 1981)).
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hereby ADOPTED IN PART and REJECTED IN PART. The Order and
Recommendation is ADOPTED as to dismissing Plaintiff’s conditions of confinement,
equal protection, access to courts, and retaliation claims, and allowing his deliberate
indifference to medical needs claims proceed for further factual development. Thus,
Plaintiff’s conditions of confinement, equal protection, access to courts, and retaliation
claims are DISMISSED; and his deliberate indifference to medical needs claims may go
forward. The Order and Recommendation, however, is NOT ADOPTED as to
dismissing Plaintiff’s procedural due process claims. Accordingly, Plaintiff’s due
procedural process claims may go forward.
SO ORDERED, this 14th day of March, 2018.
S/ C. Ashley Royal
C. ASHLEY ROYAL, SENIOR JUDGE
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
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