Burley v. Miller

241 F. Supp. 3d 828, 2017 WL 976665, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35853
District Court, E.D. Michigan·Decided March 13, 2017·No. Case Number 15-12637·Published·Cited by 11 cases

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER REJECTING IN PART REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION, SUSTAINING IN PART PLAINTIFF’S OBJECTIONS, GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART DEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT, DISMISSING CERTAIN CLAIMS AND PARTIES, AND CONTINUING ORDER OF REFERENCE

DAVID M. LAWSON, United States District Judge

Plaintiff Edward Burley, a Michigan prisoner representing himself, filed this lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against prison correction officers alleging that they forced him to stand in freezing rain and then sit in a classroom in his wet clothes, knowing that he suffered from respiratory ailments, including asthma. That conduct, he says, violated the Eighth Amendment, and also the First Amendment, because it was in retaliation for the plaintiffs past grievances. The Court referred the case to United States Magistrate Judge Mona K. Majzoub under 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(B) and E.D. Mich. LR 72.1(b)(3) to conduct pretrial proceedings. Thereafter, the defendants filed a motion [832] for summary judgment. Judge Majzoub filed a report on March 17, 2016 recommending that the defendants’ motion be granted and the ease be dismissed.

The magistrate judge concluded that the facts of the case did not support the First Amendment violation claim, or any Eighth Amendment claim against defendant Stacey Bosworth. She also concluded that the plaintiff demonstrated that defendants Patrick Miller and Daniel Heilman violated the plaintiffs rights under the Eighth Amendment, but those rights were not clearly established at the time of the events, and therefore those defendants were entitled to dismissal on the basis of qualified immunity.. None of the defendants objected to the report. The plaintiff filed timely objections to the report and recommendation, and the matter is now before the Court for fresh review.

I.

In her report, the magistrate judge focused on Burley’s allegation that he was forced to wait in freezing rain before he was allowed to enter a building for a program class. According to Burley, on November 11, 2013, he was authorized to attend a Bridge Builders class in prison school building 300. Burley alleges that when he entered the building 10 to 12 minutes before the class began, defendants Miller, Heilman, and Bosworth ordered him to leave the building and “to stand out in the freezing rain for a period of time, without proper winter attire.” Burley says that he informed Miller, Heilman, and Bosworth that he had asthma and other respiratory complications. Nonetheless, they ordered him. back into the freezing rain. And even though his housing unit was 40 yards from the school building, he was not allowed to return to his unit to avoid the severe weather conditions. But Burley also asserted that once he was admitted into the building, he was not allowed to change his clothes and was forced to sit in his saturated clothing for two hours. The magistrate judge ignored that aspect of Burley’s complaint when she conducted her qualified immunity analysis.

The defendants argued to the magistrate judge that their actions were justified by MDOC policy regarding prisoner call-outs for attendance at programs. Judge Majzoub rejected that rationale, concluding that the policies do not support the order for the plaintiff to stand in the rain or prohibit him from entering the building at the time he arrived before his class. Judge Majzoub also observed that the plaintiffs ■ conditions-qf-confinement claim required proof of a subjective component and an objective component, and that the plaintiff satisfied both as to defendants Miller and Heilman. The defendants -did not object to those findings, and therefore the Court will not discuss them further. See McClanahan v. Comm’r of Soc. Sec., 474 F.3d 830, 837 (6th Cir. 2006) (explaining that “ ‘[ojnly those specific objections to the magistrate’s report made to the district court will be preserved for appellate review; making some objections but failing to raise others will not preserve all the objections a party may have’ ”) (quoting Smith v. Detroit Fed’n of Teachers Local 231, 829 F.2d 1370, 1373 (6th Cir. 1987)).

Judge Majzoub also -found that Brniey had not established that defendant Bos-worth was aware of Burley’s respiratory ailments when he ordered him to stand in the-rain, or that Bosworth was involved personally in the incident. She concluded, therefore, that the plaintiff had not supplied evidence to satisfy the subjective component of his Eighth Amendment claim against that defendant, and recommended dismissal.

Turning to the qualified immunity question, the magistrate judge then observed that the Sixth Circuit has not dealt with a [833] conditions-of-eonfinement case under the Eighth Amendment in which a prisoner complained of exposure to cold weather. She defined the issue as follows: “whether it is clearly established that ordering a prisoner with a respiratory condition to stand in freezing rain for a short period of time amounts to a violation.” She concluded that such a proposition was not “clearly established,” a reasonable prison guard would not have understood that his actions violated the plaintiffs constitutional rights, and therefore the defendants were entitled to qualified immunity.

Finally, Judge Majzoub could not find any evidence that supported the plaintiffs retaliation claim, and recommended that it be dismissed.

The report and recommendation was filed on March 17, 2016. Because no objections were presented by the Clerk to the Court within the deadline, the Court adopted the report and entered judgment on April 4, 2016. The following day, Bur-ley’s objections were docketed. Because the objections were dated March 25, 2016, the Court determined that they were timely and vacated the order adopting the magistrate judge’s report and judgment. On April 5, 2016, Burley also filed a “Rule 56(f) motion,” in which he suggested that discovery may unearth some facts that would support his claims. The defendants subsequently filed a response to Burley’s objections, but, as noted above, did not file objections of their own.

II.

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Burley v. Miller, 241 F. Supp. 3d 828, 2017 WL 976665, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35853 (E.D. Mich. 2017).

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