Spears v. MTC Corp CEOs et al

Filing 32

ORDER adopting 30 Report and Recommendations of Magistrate Judge F. Keith Ball; denying 28 Motion for Summary Judgment for the reasons set out in the order. Signed by District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III on July 18, 2016. (SP)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI
NORTHERN DIVISION
MARION CHAD SPEARS

PLAINTIFF

v.

CIVIL ACTION NO. 3:15cv119-DPJ-FKB

TONYA MORGAN

DEFENDANT
ORDER

This pro se § 1983 prisoner case is before the Court on Defendant Tonya Morgan’s
Motion for Summary Judgment [28] and the Report and Recommendation [30] of Magistrate
Judge F. Keith Ball. Judge Ball recommended Morgan’s motion be denied as to Plaintiff Marion
Chad Spears’s claim that Morgan was deliberately indifferent to a substantial risk of harm to
Spears. Morgan filed Objections [31] to the Report and Recommendation. Because the Court
agrees with Judge Ball that genuine issues of material fact exist as to Spears’s Eighth
Amendment claim, the Report and Recommendation will be adopted.
Spears, who suffers from a seizure disorder, has been housed at the East Mississippi
Correctional Facility since November 2013. Because of his seizure disorder, Spears has a
medical restriction to be assigned to a bottom bunk, but on September 30, 2014, Spears was
assigned a top bunk in EMCF’s Unit 3. Spears testified that he informed Morgan, Unit 3’s
manager, that he required a lower bunk on several occasions but Morgan refused to take any
action to assign Spears a bottom bunk. Spears testified that, while housed in Unit 3 during the
fall of 2014, he suffered a seizure, fell off the top bunk, and sustained a head injury.1

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Spears testified that the fall occurred on October 14, 2014, but as Judge Ball noted, the
medical records contain no documentation of an injury on that date. The medical records,
instead, show that Spears suffered a head laceration necessitating staples on December 2, 2014.

Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to Spears, Judge Ball found that his
testimony established a question of fact as to whether Morgan “was deliberately indifferent to a
substantial risk of serious harm to” Spears. Johnson v. Epps, 479 F. App’x 583, 590 (5th Cir.
2012); see Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 837 (1994) (explaining that prison official acts
with deliberate indifference if she “knows of and disregards an excessive risk to inmate health or
safety”).
In her Objections, Morgan takes issue with this conclusion, complaining that Spears’s
only evidence “is his self-serving testimony . . . that he talked to Morgan and purportedly sent
her written requests regarding his medical restriction and need for a lower bunk prior to his
alleged fall.” Objections [31] ¶ 2. Morgan goes on to assert that Spears’s testimony was
essentially not credible because it was “riddled with inconsistent and/or unsubstantiated
assertions . . . .” Id. And she says that she “denies that Plaintiff ever informed her that he had a
seizure disorder prior to his alleged fall [or] requested to be moved to a lower bunk.” Id.
It is axiomatic that a court may not “make credibility determinations or weigh the
evidence” in ruling on a motion for summary judgment. Man Roland, Inc. v. Kreitz Motor
Express, Inc., 483 F.3d 476, 478 (5th Cir. 2006). And the fact that Spears’s testimony is selfserving does not render it incompetent summary-judgment evidence. C.R. Pittman Constr. Co.,
Inc. v. Nat’l Fire Ins. Co. of Hartford, 453 F. App’x 439, 443 (5th Cir. 2011). Judge Ball
properly concluded that Spears’s testimony creates a fact issue as to whether Morgan knew of
and disregarded an excessive risk to his safety. Summary judgment is therefore denied.
For the foregoing reasons, the Court finds that the Report and Recommendation [30] of
Magistrate Judge F. Keith Ball should be adopted as the Court’s opinion. Morgan’s Motion for

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Summary Judgment [28] is denied. This matter is reset for Pretrial Conference on December 9,
2016, a time to be determined at a later date, and the Court’s civil term beginning January 3,
2017.
SO ORDERED AND ADJUDGED this the 18th day of July, 2016.
s/ Daniel P. Jordan III
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

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