Wright v. Washington et al
Filing
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OPINION and ORDER of Partial Summary Dismissal and Directing Plaintiff to Show Cause Why Case Should not be Dismissed. Willis Chapman (Warden) and Heidi Washington terminated. Signed by District Judge Stephanie Dawkins Davis. (THal)
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN
SOUTHERN DIVISION
KENNETH WRIGHT, No. 307677,
v.
Case No. 4:21-cv-10115
Plaintiff,
Stephanie Dawkins Davis
U.S. District Judge
HEIDI WASHINGTON, WILLIS CHAPMAN,
UNKNOWN PURDOM, UNKNOWN WISNER,
UNKNOWN RIVARD, AND CANDY DONAHUE,
Defendants.
____________________________________________/
OPINION AND ORDER OF PARTIAL SUMMARY DISMISSAL
AND DIRECTING PLAINTIFF TO SHOW CAUSE WHY
CASE SHOULD NOT BE DISMISSED
This is a pro se prisoner civil rights case. Plaintiff, Kenneth Wright, is
incarcerated at the Macomb Correctional Facility in New Haven, Michigan.
Plaintiff sues six individually named employees of the Michigan Department of
Corrections, claiming that they acted with deliberate indifference to his health and
safety when they forced him to carry another prisoner who was incapacitated up a
flight of stairs. He asserts that he was thereby exposed to the risk of contracting
COVID-19 and he injured his back. The court will summarily dismiss the case for
Plaintiff’s failure to state a claim against Defendants Washington and Chapman,
and it will order Plaintiff to show cause why the case should not be dismissed with
respect to the remaining Defendants.
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I.
STANDARD OF DECISION
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a) requires that a complaint set forth “a
short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief,”
as well as “a demand for the relief sought.” FED. R. CIV. P. 8(a)(2), (3). The
purpose of this rule is to “give the defendant fair notice of what the . . . claim is
and the grounds upon which it rests.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544,
555 (2007). While this pleading standard does not require “detailed” factual
allegations, id., it does require more than the bare assertion of legal conclusions or
“an unadorned, the-defendant-unlawfully-harmed-me accusation.” Ashcroft v.
Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009). “A pleading that offers labels and conclusions or
a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do.” Id. “Nor
does a complaint suffice if it tenders naked assertions devoid of further factual
enhancement.” Id.
Plaintiff has been granted leave to proceed without prepayment of the filing
fee for this action due to his indigence. Under the Prison Litigation Reform Act
(“PLRA”), the Court is required to sua sponte dismiss an in forma pauperis
complaint before service on a defendant if it determines that the action is frivolous
or malicious, fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, or seeks
monetary relief against a defendant who is immune from such relief. See 42
U.S.C. § 1997e(c); 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B). Similarly, the court is required to
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dismiss a complaint seeking redress against government entities, officers, and
employees that it finds to be frivolous or malicious, fails to state a claim upon
which relief may be granted, or seeks monetary relief from a defendant who is
immune from such relief. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b). A complaint is frivolous if it
lacks an arguable basis in law or in fact. Neitzke v. Williams, 490 U.S. 319, 325
(1989).
II.
COMPLAINT
Plaintiff names six Defendants: (1) Heidi Washington, Director of the
Michigan Department of Corrections, (2) Willis Chapman, Warden, (3) Sgt.
Unknown Purdom, (4) Corrections Officer Unknown Wisner, (5) Nurse Unknown
Rivard, and (6) Nurse Candy Donahue.
The complaint is terse. Plaintiff asserts that on March 12, 2020, the MDOC
put an order in effect to protect prisoners from contracting COVID-19. He also
asserts that he has a bottom-bunk detail due to a prior back injury.
Plaintiff states that on July 31, 2020, he “was forced by all defendants
Purdom, Wisner, Rivard, and Donahue to physically pick up prisoner Perry-El
#135959 who was experiencing cardiac arrest. Prisoner Perry-El was soiled in
urine and unresponsive. Plaintiff was not provided gloves or PPE gear in the midst
of this COVID-19 pandemic. Plaintiff was forced to carry prisoner Perry-El up a
flight of stairs while all defendants stood by idly watching and not rendering aid or
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assistance.” (ECF No. 1, PageID.4-5). He asserts that since the incident he has
been experiencing non-stop excruciating back pain.
Plaintiff does not allege whether any of the Defendants knew of his preexisting back condition. He does not allege that he contracted COVID-19. Nor
does Plaintiff assert any additional facts surrounding the incident.
III.
DISCUSSION
First, with respect to Defendants Washington and Chapman, Plaintiff fails to
allege facts showing that these Defendants were present or directly involved in the
incident. Government officials may not be held liable for the unconstitutional
conduct of their subordinates under a theory of respondeat superior or vicarious
liability. Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 676; Monell v. New York City Dep't of Soc. Servs., 436
U.S. 658, 691 (1978). A claimed constitutional violation must be based upon
active unconstitutional behavior. Grinter v. Knight, 532 F.3d 567, 575-76 (6th Cir.
2008); Greene v. Barber, 310 F.3d 889, 899 (6th Cir. 2002). The acts of one’s
subordinates are not enough, nor can supervisory liability be based on the mere
failure to act. Grinter, 532 F.3d at 576. “[A] plaintiff must plead that each
Government-official defendant, through the official's own individual actions, has
violated the Constitution.” Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 676. Plaintiff fails to allege that
Defendants Washington or Chapman engaged in any active unconstitutional
behavior. Accordingly, he fails to state a claim against them.
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With respect to the remaining four Defendants, to bring a claim under the
Eighth Amendment “cruel and unusual punishments” provision, a plaintiff must
satisfy a two-prong test that encompasses an objective element and a subjective
element. See Wilson v. Seiter, 501 U.S. 294, 297-98 (1991). The objective
element asks whether the deprivation the plaintiff experienced was sufficiently
serious. Id. The subjective element asks whether the defendant officials acted
with a sufficiently culpable state of mind. Id. In cases challenging prison
conditions, the culpable state of mind is deliberate indifference. Whitley v. Albers,
475 U.S. 312, 319 (1986).
“[A]cting or failing to act with deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of
serious harm to a prisoner is the equivalent of recklessly disregarding that risk.”
Farmer v. Brennen, 511 U.S. 825, 836 (1994). This means that a prison official
will not be liable under the Eighth Amendment for denying a prisoner humane
conditions of confinement “unless the official 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.
Plaintiff’s complaint asserts that he was given what amounted to a work
detail to assist with an incapacitated prisoner. While the Sixth Circuit has not
explicitly held that prison work conditions are conditions of confinement subject to
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Eighth Amendment scrutiny, several other circuits and district courts within the
Sixth Circuit, including the Eastern District of Michigan, have so held. See e.g.,
Berry v. Bunnell, 39 F.3d 1056, 1057 (9th Cir. 1994) (collecting cases); Bibbs v.
Armontrout, 943 F.2d 26, 27 (8th Cir. 1991) (holding that prison work conditions
are conditions of confinement under the Eighth Amendment); Jackson v. Cain, 864
F.2d 1235, 1245 (5th Cir. 1989) (“We have found, that in certain circumstances,
prison work conditions may amount to cruel and unusual punishment.”); Johnson
v. Campbell, 25 Fed. Appx. 287, 288 (6th Cir. 2001) (unpublished) (rejecting
prisoner plaintiff’s Eighth Amendment claim for injuries suffered while working at
a recycling center because defendants were at most negligent for creating the
dangerous work conditions, and a prisoner “cannot base an Eighth Amendment
claim on mere negligence”).
Assuming the intentional placing of prisoners in dangerous working
conditions can violate the Eighth Amendment, Plaintiff must still plead sufficient
facts to state a claim under Farmer’s two-part test. Applying that test here,
Plaintiff’s complaint is too threadbare to state a claim. He does not allege facts
regarding the difficulty or dangerousness of the task he was asked to perform. The
incident is alleged to have occurred on July 31, 2020, well into the COVID-19
crises. Yet the complaint does not state whether the incident happened on a
COVID unit. Certainly by July the MDOC was not and could not keep all
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prisoners at all facilities physically separate from one another. Moreover, other
than a reference to a flight of stairs, the complaint is short on allegations about
what exactly Plaintiff was directed to do. The allegations made are insufficient to
allow the Court to determine whether Plaintiff was asked to do something that was
sufficiently serious to satisfy the objective component of the Farmer test.
As for the second factor, the complaint must assert that “the official knows
of and disregards an excessive risk.” Farmer, 511 U.S. at 837. Here, the
complaint fails to disclose that any of the named Defendants knew about Plaintiff’s
back condition. That is, Plaintiff does not allege facts showing that Defendants
were aware of any risk of serious harm to Plaintiff’s back if they did not know of
his pre-existing medical condition. As it stands, Plaintiff has failed to state an
Eighth Amendment claim against Defendants Purdom, Wisner, Rivard, or
Donahue.
Rather than summarily dismiss the complaint in its entirety, however, a
district court has discretion to allow a plaintiff to amend his complaint to avoid
dismissal under the Prisoner Litigation Reform Act. See LaFountain v. Harry, 716
F.3d 944, 951 (6th Cir. 2013). Though the complaint does not presently contain
sufficient factual allegation to state a claim against these Defendants, the allegation
that have been made suggest that Plaintiff may plausibly state a claim for relief if
he provides the Court with more information about the incident. Thus, in lieu of
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dismissing the complaint, the Court orders Plaintiff to show cause within thirty
days of this order why the complaint should not be dismissed for failing to state a
claim upon which relief can be granted against Defendants Purdon, Wisner,
Rivard, and Donahue.
IV.
CONCLUSION
Accordingly, under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1915(e)(2) and 1915A(b), and 42 U.S.C.
§ 1997e(c), the Court will dismiss the complaint for Plaintiff’s failure to state a
claim against Defendants Washington and Chapman
Plaintiff is directed to show cause within thirty days of the date of this order
why the complaint should not be dismissed with respect to the remaining named
Defendants.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
Dated: May 27, 2021
s/Stephanie Dawkins Davis
Stephanie Dawkins Davis
United States District Judge
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