Ambrose v. Godinez

510 F. App'x 470
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedFebruary 22, 2013
DocketNo. 11-3068
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 510 F. App'x 470 (Ambrose v. Godinez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ambrose v. Godinez, 510 F. App'x 470 (7th Cir. 2013).

Opinion

ORDER

Richard Ambrose is civilly committed under the Illinois Sexually Dangerous Persons Act, 725 ILCS 205/1.01-12. In this lawsuit he raises a number of claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and state law, all of which the district court (either directly or through a magistrate judge acting by consent) resolved in favor of the defendants at various points of the litigation. We affirm the judgment.

Ambrose has been confined at Big Muddy River Correctional Center for more than a decade. In 2008 he (and several other detainees who are not parties on appeal) filed this action claiming that Mark Carich, a licensed counselor who designed and runs the facility’s program for sexually dangerous detainees, had (1) refused him medical care, including sex-offender treatment, and (2) jeopardized his safety by housing him in the general population among convicted inmates and encouraging them to taunt and physically assault him. The operative complaint, which Ambrose filed after obtaining counsel, also named as defendants two other Big Muddy employees — counselor Karen Spilman and psychiatrist Angeline Stanislaus — along with the (now former) director of the Illinois Department of Corrections and his predecessor. After current director Salvador Godi-nez was appointed to his post in 2011, Ambrose voluntarily dismissed the individual-capacity claims against both former directors and substituted Godinez on the official-capacity claims.

The procedural history is complicated, and Ambrose has submitted a lengthy appellate brief challenging numerous rulings by the district court. We can simplify our review by carving away the insignificant claims and defendants, beginning with the claims arising under Illinois law. Ambrose asserted that the defendants violated statutes obligating the Department of Corrections to “safely” confine sexually dangerous persons and provide them with medical care, including “care and treatment ... designed to effect recovery.” See 725 ILCS 205/8; 730 ILCS 5/3-7-2(d). We cannot find any authority suggesting that the Illinois courts would infer a damages remedy from statutes regulating the Department of Corrections. See McNeil v. Carter, 318 Ill.App.3d 939, 252 Ill.Dec. 413, 742 N.E.2d 1277, 1280-81 (2001) (concluding that Uniform Code of Corrections, of which § 5/3-7-2 is part, “does not provide a private cause of action for prisoners who receive inadequate medical care”); Ashley v. Snyder, 316 Ill.App.3d 1252, 250 Ill.Dec. 900, 739 N.E.2d 897, 902 (2000) (explaining that Unified Code of Corrections was “designed to provide guidance to prison officials in the administration of prisons,” not to confer rights on inmates).

The claims against Director Godinez also can be put aside. Suing a state employee in his official capacity is the same as suing the state, Norfleet v. Walker, 684 F.3d 688, 690 (7th Cir.2012); Williams v. Wisconsin, 336 F.3d 576, 580 (7th Cir.2003), and a state is not a “person” subject to an action for damages under § 1983. Will v. Michigan Dept. of State Police, 491 U.S. 58, 64, 109 S.Ct. 2304, 105 L.Ed.2d 45 (1989). It might be that Ambrose added Godinez to anchor prospective relief if he prevailed on constitutional claims against other defendants, see Ex parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 28 S.Ct. 441, 52 L.Ed. 714 (1908); Council [472]*472SI of the Am. Fed’n of State, County & Mun. Emps., AFL-CIO v. Quinn, 680 F.3d 875, 882 (7th Cir.2012), but his lawyer’s statements at trial imply otherwise. After Ambrose presented his case in chief, counsel conceded that the § 1983 claims against Godinez must be dismissed because there was no evidence pointing to his “individualized knowledge” of the alleged constitutional violations. That concession suggests that Ambrose was trying to hold the Department of Corrections accountable for the policy decisions of its directors, but governmental liability under Monell v. Department of Social Services of the City of New York, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978), is limited to municipalities, which a state is not. See Joseph v. Bd. of Regents of Univ. of Wis. Sys., 432 F.3d 746, 748-49 (7th Cir.2005); Hernandez v. O’Malley, 98 F.3d 293, 297 (7th Cir.1996).

That leaves the § 1983 claims against Carich, Spilman, and Dr. Stanis-laus. The district court dismissed the latter two at summary judgment on the ground that Ambrose had not exhausted his administrative remedies before filing suit. See 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a). For this same reason the court dismissed Am-brose’s allegations that Carich had denied him medical care for physical ailments, and that he instigated inmate assaults against the plaintiff. The grievance process applicable to Illinois prisons covers detainees at Big Muddy, see Kalinowski v. Bond, 358 F.3d 978-79 (7th Cir.2004), and one requirement is that grievances supply “factual details regarding each aspect” of a detainee’s complaint and also name, or at least describe, “each person who is the subject of or who is otherwise involved,” 20 III. Admin Code § 504.810(b); see Maddox v. Love, 655 F.3d 709, 720-21 (7th Cir.2011). Ambrose submitted grievances, including several accusing Carich of verbal abuse and withholding efficacious sex-offender treatment. But no grievance mentions Spilman or Stanislaus by name or inference. And no grievance implicates Carich in a physical assault or complains that he withheld medical care for physical ailments.

So the district court properly narrowed the case to the § 1983 claims accusing Carich of inciting verbal abuse and failing to provide adequate sex-offender treatment. Carich never sought dismissal for failure to state a claim, and neither did he move for summary judgment on any ground other than failure to exhaust. Thus both claims reached trial, but after Ambrose rested, the district court concluded, relying on our decision in Allison v. Snyder, 332 F.3d 1076, 1079-81 (7th Cir.2003), that Carich was protected by qualified immunity on the claim for failure to treat. The jury found for Carich on the other claim.

As the district court recognized, Allison

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Untitled Case
C.D. Illinois, 2026
Poff, Jeff v. Kartman, Mark
W.D. Wisconsin, 2025
Jordan v. Brookhart
S.D. Illinois, 2025
Taliani v. Garza
C.D. Illinois, 2025
Morris v. Malkowski
N.D. Illinois, 2025
Miles v. Wills
S.D. Illinois, 2025
Baker v. Mitchell
S.D. Illinois, 2024
Ball v. Beachem
N.D. Illinois, 2024
Abuharba v. Lawson
S.D. Illinois, 2024
Chatman v. Obaisi
S.D. Illinois, 2024
McCall v. Jeffreys
S.D. Illinois, 2024
Price v. Osmundson
C.D. Illinois, 2023
Moy v. Osmundson
C.D. Illinois, 2023
Rusk v. Smith
C.D. Illinois, 2023
Perkins v. Brown
S.D. Illinois, 2022
Lyke v. Lank
N.D. Illinois, 2022

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
510 F. App'x 470, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ambrose-v-godinez-ca7-2013.