Marley, Tevon v. Columbia Correctional Institution et al
Filing
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ORDER granting defendants' 41 Motion for Summary Judgment; denying plaintiff's 51 Motion for Summary Judgment. The clerk of court is directed to enter judgment for defendants and close this case. Signed by District Judge Barbara B. Crabb on 3/6/2018. (jef),(ps)
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - TEVON MARLEY,
OPINION AND ORDER
Plaintiff,
16-cv-609-bbc
v.
STEVEN WILLETT, PETER KARNA,
ISAAC HART, SANDRA HAUTAMAKI,
WELCOME ROSE and CINDY O'DONNELL,
Defendants.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Pro se plaintiff and prisoner Tevon Marley is proceeding on claims that several prison
officials at the Columbia Correctional Institution acted negligently and violated his Eighth
Amendment rights by refusing to allow him to have shoes that he ordered for his foot
condition.
Now before the court are the parties’ cross motions for partial summary
judgment. Dkt. ##41 and 51.
For the reasons set out below, I am granting defendants’ motion for summary
judgment and denying plaintiff’s motion. Plaintiff’s Eighth Amendment claim fails on the
merits and his state law claims must be dismissed because he failed to comply with the notice
of claim requirements of Wis. Stat. § 893.82.
From the defendants’ proposed findings of fact and plaintiff’s responses, I find that
the following facts are undisputed unless otherwise noted. (Plaintiff did not submit his own
proposed findings of fact.)
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UNDISPUTED FACTS
A. The Parties and Background Information
Plaintiff Tevon Marley is incarcerated at the Columbia Correctional Institution.
Defendants Steven Willett, Peter Karna, Isaac Hart and Sandra Hautamaki work at the
institution. Defendants Welcome Rose and Cindy O’Donnell work in the Department of
Corrections central offices.
On March 3, 2014, a podiatrist not employed by the Department of Corrections gave
plaintiff a diagnosis of degenerative joint disease in his right ankle and recommended that
plaintiff’s prison medical providers send him to Aljan Company, an orthotics company with
which the department contracts, so that plaintiff could get an ankle-foot orthosis device for
his right ankle. The podiatrist also recommended that plaintiff get a pair of supportive
athletic shoes to accommodate the orthotics device. Plaintiff asked the department to pay
for the shoes but the Special Needs Committee at the prison denied the request on
September 14, 2014, directing plaintiff to order his shoes through the department’s
approved vendor catalogs at his own expense. None of the defendants served on the prison
committee.
The Department of Corrections has established an approved vendor catalog system
through which inmates may order personal property items, including athletic footwear, from
certain “security-minded” vendors. This system is designed to avoid having prison staff
approve each individual purchase by inmates on a case-by-case basis. The department
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requires that the value of an inmate’s personal property (including shoes) not exceed $75,
excluding tax and shipping costs. DAI Policy #309.20.03, dkt. #54, exh. #2. The reason
for the rule is that owning valuable personal property items increases the risk of theft,
fighting and other misconduct among inmates. Neither the approved vendor catalog nor the
department rule on personal property prevents an inmate from purchasing an item valued
at more than $75 if the item is deemed necessary by medical providers to accommodate an
inmate’s medical condition.
B. October 2014 Medical Restriction for Orthosis and New Balance Shoes
Plaintiff received his orthotics device on October 13, 2014. The orthotics specialist
outside the prison noted that plaintiff would need size 13 New Balance shoes to
accommodate the new device and wrote that “any outside vendor OK.” Dkt. #45, exh. #1
at 2.
On the same day, prison staff made an entry on plaintiff’s “Special Handling
Summary” in the Wisconsin Integrated Corrections System database showing that he was
approved for size 13 extra wide New Balance shoes “to be worn when brace is on” and that
may be ordered from the approved vendor catalog or an outside vendor. (Although it is not
completely clear, it appears that medical staff enters information into this database from
inmates’ medical records so that other prison staff have access to it and can learn about any
medical restrictions inmates may have.)
Plaintiff ordered the recommended New Balance shoes from Eastbay for $74.99 (not
including tax or shipping) and received them on October 30, 2014. Although Eastbay was
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not an approved vendor, the orthotics specialist specifically stated that plaintiff could order
from “any outside vendor.”
Plaintiff continues to use these shoes when wearing his
orthotics.
C. December 2014 Medical Restriction for Athletic Shoes
On December 17, 2014, plaintiff saw the outside podiatrist, who discussed ankle
surgery and gave plaintiff a steroid shot.
The podiatrist recommended that plaintiff
“continue to wear AFO [ankle-foot orthosis] and athletic shoes at all times” and be allowed
to wear and order “high top athletic shoes if not wearing brace” from an “outside vendor or
catalog.” Dkt. #45, exh. #1 at 6. No shoe size was specified on the form completed by the
podiatrist. A Department of Corrections “Medical Restrictions/Special Needs” form dated
the same day notes that as of December 17, 2014, plaintiff was approved for “high top
athletic shoes from catalog or outside vendor to be worn when brace not on” and he “[m]ay
purchase/wear personal high top shoes from outside vendor when not wearing brace for
additional support.” Dkt. #44, exh. #3 at 15. (It is unclear who completed this form and
who had access to it.) As discussed below, this information was not entered into the prison
database and did not appear on plaintiff’s special handling form until October 2015.
Plaintiff had a follow-up appointment with the podiatrist on March 11, 2015, but his
shoe situation was not discussed. Plaintiff later had a magnetic resonance imaging study of
his right foot on May 13, 2015, and he elected to undergo surgery on October 26, 2015.
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D. Air Jordan Shoes
1. Initial pair of Air Jordans
In April 2015, plaintiff’s family ordered plaintiff size 12 Air Jordan high top athletic
shoes from Eastbay. Although the shoes cost $94.99, they were delivered to plaintiff at the
prison.
It is not clear who allowed plaintiff to have the shoes, but a “Property
Receipt/Disposition” dated April 14, 2015 is signed by a sergeant who is not a defendant in
this case. Dkt. #1, exh. #1 at 4. (Plaintiff says that defendant Willet gave him the shoes
but defendants deny it, saying that the approval of the shoe delivery was an error.)
2. Defendant Willett denies delivery of second pair of Air Jordans
On September 8, 2015, plaintiff ordered another size 12 pair of Air Jordan high top
shoes from Eastbay for $114.99 (not including a $17.25 discount). On September 15,
2015, defendant Willett was working in the prison property and mail room. He denied
delivery of plaintiff’s shoes on the ground that plaintiff did not have a medical restriction
allowing him to have the shoes. At that time, plaintiff’s special handling summary did not
reflect the podiatrist’s December 2014 recommendation regarding the additional pair of high
tops to be used without the brace. (Defendants also say that the shoes were partially green
in color , in violation of department rules but there is no evidence that this was a reason that
the shoes were not approved. The policy relating to shoe colors took effect on March 1,
2016, after this shoe order.) Plaintiff says that Willett told him initially that he was not
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delivering the shoes because Willett believed that plaintiff had ordered them for someone
else.
3. Plaintiff files information requests and inmate complaint
On September 22, 2015, plaintiff submitted an information request to defendant
Karna, who was Willett’s supervisor, explaining that the shoes were for him because he had
a medical restriction. Karna responded that “[t]he shoes you ordered are not special need.
You already rec’d podiatry shoes in 2014. The shoes you ordered are not the size specified.”
Dkt. #1, exh. #1 at 18. Karna says that he relied on what he was told by medical staff in
the prison’s health services unit and the Special Needs Committee about plaintiff’s
restrictions.
Plaintiff filed an inmate complaint about his shoes on October 7, 2015, stating that
he had a medical restriction allowing him to have size 13 shoes to wear with his orthotics
device and size 12 high top athletic shoes to wear when he was not wearing his orthotics
device. The complaint was assigned to defendant Hart, an institution complaint examiner.
Meanwhile, prison medical staff made an entry on October 26, 2015 in plaintiff’s
special handling summary in the prison database stating that plaintiff was approved for size
12 extra wide New Balance high top athletic shoes and size 12 wide high top athletic shoes
“to be worn when brace is not on” and that may be ordered from the catalog or an outside
vendor. (It is unclear where the size 12 specification came from because the December 2014
podiatrist note did not make any reference to a size 12 shoe.) The health services unit
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notified plaintiff in a memorandum dated October 27, 2015, that his “special handling” had
been updated to reflect his shoe restriction but that he “must still remain within the
parameters of the shoe restriction as outlined in [his] inmate handbook and DAI [§]
309.20.03 [Inmate Personal Property and Clothing].” Dkt. #45, exh. #1 at 12. (As noted
above, DAI § 309.20.03 sets a $75 price limit on personal property items.)
On October 28, 2015, plaintiff submitted an information request to defendant
Willett, informing Willett that his special handling summary had been updated. Willett
responded on October 29, 2015, denying him the shoes because the “new restriction states
your shoes must be New Balance size 12 extra wide” and “[t]he shoes you got in are Air
Jordan size 12 normal width.” Dkt. #1, exh. #1 at 22. That day, plaintiff submitted a
request to health services, asking them to inform Willett that the size 12 shoes were part of
his medical restriction. On October 29, health services staff responded that the “shoes were
received and did not meet policy requirements. . . .You are allowed size 12 shoes but they
must meet policy color guidelines.” Dkt. #45, exh. #1 at 13. (The color guidelines referred
to did not become formal until March 1, 2016.)
4. Denial of inmate complaint
Defendant Hart recommended dismissal of plaintiff’s inmate complaint on November
6, 2015, noting that he had reviewed plaintiff’s special handling summary stating that
plaintiff could order athletic shoes from the approved vendor catalog or an outside vendor.
Hart explained that the approved vendor catalogs offered high top athletic footwear and that
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plaintiff had not shown that he had exhausted those options. He also noted that the price
limit for personal property applied to the shoes because the special handling summary did
not give plaintiff permission to exceed the $75 limit. However, Hart acknowledged that the
physician’s shoe recommendation was “somewhat vague” and asked the health services unit
manager to clarify it.
Defendant Hautamaki, the deputy warden at Columbia Correctional Institution,
adopted Hart’s recommended decision on November 8, 2015, concluding the institutional
level of review. Plaintiff filed an administrative appeal on November 11, 2015, arguing that
the vendor catalogs were inadequate and that the $75 limit did not apply to him because he
had a medical restriction, but he did not submit any evidence with his appeal to support his
claims about the inadequacy of the shoes offered in the catalog.
On December 10, 2015, defendant Rose, a corrections complaint examiner,
recommended dismissal of plaintiff’s complaint. She noted the following:
This examiner reviewed the high top athletic shoe offerings in both the Union
Supply and the JL Marcus vendor catalogs. Both offer a high top athletic shoe
(Nike in Union Supply and Reebok in JL Marcus) in either size of 12 or 13.
The inmate is required to purchase the shoe from the approved vendor
catalogs, unless the shoe orders have since been updated by the physician to
document that no acceptable offering is available for the inmate’s needs
through the vendor catalogs. Accordingly, it is recommended this appeal be
dismissed. It is further recommended HSM Marshak be copied on the appeal
decision so that the appropriate information is shared with property staff
needing to know whether or not the inmate is able to order a shoe outside of
the vendor catalogs.
Dkt. #44, exh. #3 at 9. Defendant O’Donnell adopted Rose’s recommendation and issued
a final administrative decision on behalf of the secretary of the Department of Corrections
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on December 15, 2015. A copy of that decision was sent to medical staff at the institution.
E. November 2015 Medical Appointments and Restriction
While the appeal of plaintiff’s inmate complaint was pending, plaintiff saw his
podiatrist for a post-surgery follow-up appointment on November 4, 2015. The podiatrist
recommended that plaintiff get a new orthotic device.
When plaintiff’s sutures were
removed on November 18, 2015, the podiatrist again recommended that plaintiff get new
orthotics as soon as possible and be allowed to wear size 13 shoes with the orthotic device
and size 12 regular shoes without it. The podiatrist did not make any recommendation
about where the shoes should be purchased or whether plaintiff could exceed the $75 price
limit set by the department.
A Department of Corrections physician reviewed both
recommendations and approved them.
F. Additional Communications About Shoes
Plaintiff wrote to institution complaint examiner staff at Columbia asking about the
whereabouts of his shoes on January 9, 2016 and again on February 29, 2016, stating that
he refused to send back the Air Jordans and intended to file a lawsuit. On March 1, 2016,
staff told plaintiff that even if he ordered shoes from an outside vendor, he would have to
follow department policies regarding the $75 price limit and allowable colors.
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G. April 2016 Medical Restriction
At an April 6, 2016 appointment, the podiatrist noted that plaintiff had quite a bit
of pain and tendinitis from not wearing a shoe with enough support. The podiatrist stated
that
The shoe that he has is okay, but he can do better. He also needs to get a
custom orthotic. . . . I also recommended that they allow him to exceed the
$75 limit and order from an outside catalog to get shoes to accommodate the
orthotics.
Dkt. #45, exh. #1 at 19.
OPINION
Summary judgment is appropriate when the moving party shows that there is no
genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a
matter of law. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). All reasonable inferences are construed in favor of the
nonmoving party. Foley v. City of Lafayette, 359 F.3d 925, 928 (7th Cir. 2004). The party
opposing the motion for summary judgment must “submit evidentiary materials that set
forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial.” Siegel v. Shell Co,, 612
F.3d 932, 937 (2010) (citations omitted). “The nonmoving party must do more than
simply show that there is some metaphysical doubt as to the material facts.” Id. Summary
judgment is properly entered against a party “who fails to make a showing sufficient to
establish the existence of an element essential to the party's case, and on which that party
will bear the burden of proof at trial.” Parent v. Home Depot U.S.A., Inc., 694 F.3d 919,
922 (7th Cir. 2012) (internal quotations omitted).
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Plaintiff contends that defendants violated the Eighth Amendment and state
negligence law by refusing to let him have the shoes that his podiatrist recommended for his
foot problem, thereby causing him more foot pain.
A. Eighth Amendment
The Eighth Amendment imposes a duty on prison officials to take reasonable
measures to guarantee an inmate’s safety and to ensure that inmates receive adequate
medical care. Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 832 (1994). A prison official’s “deliberate
indifference” to a prisoner’s medical needs or to a substantial risk of serious harm violates
the Eighth Amendment. Id. at 828; Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 104-05 (1976).
At least for purposes of summary judgment, defendants concede that plaintiff had a
serious medical need with respect to his feet. Therefore, the question is whether plaintiff has
submitted enough evidence from which a reasonable jury could conclude that any of the
defendants acted with “deliberate indifference” toward his serious medical need. Gomez v.
Randle, 680 F.3d 859, 865 (7th Cir. 2012).
“Where, as here, an inmate sues prison employees who are not part of the medical
staff, deliberate indifference can be shown with evidence that those employees ignored or
interfered with a course of treatment prescribed by a physician.” McDonald v. Hardy, 821
F.3d 882, 888 (7th Cir. 2016) (citing Estelle, 429 U.S. at 104-05). It is not enough to show
that prison officials merely failed to act reasonably. Gibbs v. Franklin, 49 F.3d 1206, 1208
(7th Cir. 1995). “A state officer is deliberately indifferent when he does nothing . . . or when
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he takes action that is so ineffectual under the circumstances that deliberate indifference can
be inferred.” Figgs v. Dawson, 829 F.3d 895, 903 (7th Cir. 2016) (internal citations
omitted). “[S]pecifically, he 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 that inference.”
Gevas v. McLaughlin, 798 F.3d 475, 480 (7th Cir. 2015) (internal quotation omitted). See
also Norfleet v. Webster, 439 F.3d 392, 397 (7th Cir. 2006) (deliberate indifference is “akin
to criminal recklessness, which requires that the defendant be aware of and disregard an
excessive risk of serious harm to the inmate”). Further, “if a prisoner is under the care of
medical experts, a non-medical prison official will generally be justified in believing that the
prisoner is in capable hands.” Arnett v. Webster, 658 F.3d 742, 755 (7th Cir. 2011).
In this instance, each defendant told plaintiff that he or she was denying his size 12 Air
Jordan shoes because the shoes came from an outside vendor and not from the approved vendor
catalog and their value exceeded the $75 price limit set by the department for personal property
items.
Plaintiff has not challenged the validity of the policies.
Instead, he argues that
defendants should not have applied the policies in his case because he qualified for an exception
on the ground that his podiatrist determined that the shoes were medically necessary for his foot
and ankle problems. However, the undisputed evidence does not show that defendants ignored
or acted contrary to any medical restriction of which they had been informed.
Defendant Willett refused to deliver the size 12 normal-width Air Jordan shoes that
plaintiff ordered in September 2015 because plaintiff did not have a medical restriction for that
shoe. After plaintiff contacted Karna on September 22, 2015, Karna confirmed the lack of a
medical restriction with medical staff and upheld Willett’s decision, stating that plaintiff had
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received special podiatry shoes in 2014 and that the new shoes were not the size specified
in the medical restriction.
At the time Willett and Karna made their decisions, the medical staff had not updated
plaintiff’s special handling summary in the department’s database to reflect plaintiff’s need
for a second pair of shoes to be worn without the brace; the special handling summary
included only the earlier October 2014 restriction for size 13 New Balance shoes to
accommodate plaintiff’s orthotics. (The database was later updated to reflect plaintiff’s need
for size 12 wide shoes, but that change was not made until October 26, 2015, and there is
no evidence that any of the defendants were responsible for the delay or mistake in updating
the form.) Although the podiatrist’s recommendation and the corresponding Department of
Corrections form from December 2014 could be interpreted as authorizing plaintiff to order
from an outside vendor, there is no evidence that Willett or Karna saw these documents or
that they had access to them.
Further, none of the medical restrictions issued by the
podiatrist up to that point specified that plaintiff needed a size 12 shoe and none stated that
the shoes offered in the approved vendor catalog were inadequate or that plaintiff had to
spend more than $75 to obtain the shoes he needed.
Although it seems that mistakes were made in translating the podiatrist’s
recommendations to the prison database, there is no evidence that Willett or Karna knew
about those mistakes or had the authority to correct them. In sum, there is no evidence that
either Willett or Karna knew that plaintiff had a medical need for size 12 shoes from an
outside vendor when they denied his request for shoes in September 2015. Further, Karna
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was entitled to rely on the prison medical staff’s interpretation of plaintiff’s medical
restriction. Rice ex rel. Rice v. Correctional Medical Services, 675 F.3d 650, 676 (7th Cir.
2012) (prison officials generally entitled to rely on judgment of medical professionals
treating inmate).
Plaintiff submitted an information request to defendant Willett on October 28, 2015,
informing Willett that the special handling summary had been updated to approve size 12
extra wide New Balance high top athletic shoes and size 12 wide high top athletic shoes. On
October 29, 2015, Willett again denied plaintiff the shoes because they were size 12 normal
width Air Jordans and the new restriction allowed plaintiff to have only size 12 extra wide
New Balance shoes. It appears that Willett ignored or missed the additional approval of size
12 wide high top shoes of an unspecified brand, and it seems a bit unreasonable that he
would refuse to deliver the shoes plaintiff ordered only because they were normal width.
Non-medical prison officials should not deny personal property needed for a medical
condition on the basis of on an overly technical reading of prison policy or their own
interpretation of vague medical restrictions. However, in updating his special handling
summary, the health services unit made clear to plaintiff in a memorandum dated October
27, 2015 that plaintiff must still follow the rules with respect to inmate personal property,
meaning that he could only order shoes under the $75 limit regardless the shoe size that the
podiatrist recommended. As discussed above, the memorandum did not contradict any
medical restriction issued by the podiatrist. Therefore, even though the medical restrictions
from the podiatrist may not have been particularly clear, it was not deliberate indifference
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for non-medical staff such as Willett to follow them, particularly in this situation in which
prison medical staff had informed plaintiff and Willett’s supervisor of the meaning of the
restrictions.
Because plaintiff has failed to present sufficient evidence that Willett and Karna knew
that the size 12 normal width shoes were medically necessary, a reasonable jury could not
conclude that either defendant acted with deliberate indifference to plaintiff’s serious medical
need in refusing to deliver his shoes. The same holds true for defendants Hart, Rose and
O’Donnell, who reviewed and affirmed Willett’s and Karna’s decisions after reviewing plaintiff’s
medical restrictions.
Hart investigated the inmate complaint that plaintiff filed on October 7, 2015. After
reviewing plaintiff’s recently-updated medical restrictions, Hart concluded on November 6, 2015
that nothing in plaintiff’s special handling summary or the supporting medical restrictions
made it necessary for plaintiff to order shoes from an outside vendor that cost more were
more than $75. Recognizing that the medical restriction paperwork was “somewhat vague,”
Hart flagged the issue for medical staff so that the restrictions could be clarified if necessary.
Although the podiatrist later clarified plaintiff’s medical restriction on November 18, 2015,
recommending that plaintiff wear size 13 shoes with the orthotic device and size 12 regular
shoes without it, the podiatrist did not make any recommendation about where the shoes
should be purchased from or whether plaintiff could exceed the $75 price limit set by the
department. Defendants Hautamaki, Rose and O’Donnell agreed with Hart’s conclusion based
on the information available to them and notified prison medical staff of the final decision, with
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specific instructions to resolve any confusion regarding the recommendations of plaintiff’s
podiatrist.
Plaintiff points out repeatedly in his brief that the podiatrist made clear that the shoes
that plaintiff was wearing to his appointment on April 6, 2016 were only “okay” and that he
“could do better.” As defendants contend, it is unclear whether the podiatrist was referring to
plaintiff’s athletic shoes or the size 13 shoes that would accommodate the orthotics. In any
event, plaintiff has failed to present evidence that any of the defendants were made aware of the
April 2016 recommendations of the podiatrist, which came after O’Donnell made the final
decision with respect to plaintiff’s appeal in December 2015 and after plaintiff wrote the inmate
complaint examiner staff about the whereabouts of his shoes in January and February 2016. In
fact, plaintiff has not made any allegations with respect to defendants’ conduct after the April
2016 appointment. Although defendants admit that the podiatrist’s use of the phrase “I
recommended” in his April 2016 progress note suggests that he previously intended to
recommend that plaintiff be allowed to order from an outside vendor and not subject to the $75
limit, none of the previous recommendations contained this language that would have put
defendants on notice that a medical exception to the policy was necessary.
In sum, plaintiff has failed to present evidence from which a reasonable jury could
conclude that defendants were deliberately indifferent to his serious medical need in requiring
him to follow the Department of Corrections policies requiring inmates to order shoes from
approved vendors that do not cost more than $75. Therefore, I find that defendants are
entitled to summary judgment as to plaintiff’s Eighth Amendment claims against them.
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B. State Law Negligence
Plaintiff also brings negligence claims against defendants. Wisconsin’s notice of claim
statute, Wis. Stat. § 893.92, requires a claimant in a civil action to serve the attorney general
written notice of the circumstances of his claim by certified mail within 120 days of the
event causing the injury. Strict compliance with the statute is a jurisdictional requirement
for a state law claim against a state employee. Sorenson v. Batchelder, 2016 WI 34, ¶ 30,
368 Wis. 2d 140, 154, 885 N.W.2d 362, 368 (citing Wis. Stat. § 893.82(2m)); Ibrahim v.
Samore, 118 Wis. 2d 720, 726, 348 N.W.2d 554, 558 (1984). See also Weinberger v.
Wisconsin, 105 F.3d 1182, 1188 (7th Cir. 1997) (“Section 893.82 is jurisdictional and
strict compliance is required.”). Defendants say that plaintiff did not serve the notice of
claim within 120 days or by certified mail. Defendants are correct that the notice was
untimely.
Although plaintiff submitted a letter to the court on February 17, 2017, dkt. #21, in
which he stated that he served a notice of claim on the attorney general by certified mail, he
stated that he filed his notice on May 18, 2016, which was 246 days after Willett denied
him the shoes on September 15, 2015, and 155 days after defendant O’Donnell affirmed
the denial of his shoes on December 15, 2015. Plaintiff contends that his notice of claim
was timely because only 107 days passed between the filing of his notice of claim on May
18, 2016 and the filing of his complaint in this lawsuit on September 2, 2016. However,
the notice of claim statute requires that the notice be filed 120 days after the event causing
injury. The latest date on which this could have occurred was the date on which O’Donnell
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made the final decision to deny plaintiff’s shoes (December 15, 2015). Because plaintiff
cannot meet the notice of claim requirement, his negligence claims must be dismissed.
ORDER
IT IS ORDERED that the motion for summary judgment filed by defendants, dkt.
#41, is GRANTED, and plaintiff Tevon Marley’s motion for summary judgment, dkt. #51,
is DENIED. The clerk of court is directed to enter judgment for defendants and close this
case.
Entered this 6th day of March, 2018.
BY THE COURT:
/s/
__________________________
BARBARA B. CRABB
District Judge
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