Conley v. Anglin

513 F. App'x 598
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedMarch 25, 2013
DocketNo. 11-3262
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 513 F. App'x 598 (Conley v. Anglin) 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
Conley v. Anglin, 513 F. App'x 598 (7th Cir. 2013).

Opinion

[599]*599ORDER

Anthony Conley is incarcerated at the Danville Correctional Center in Illinois. In this suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, he claims that Danville administrators and medical staff were deliberately indifferent to his serious medical needs. The district court granted summary judgment for the defendants on the ground that Mr. Conley’s failure to exhaust his administrative remedies is undisputed. See 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a). That ruling is problematic, but any error is harmless because Mr. Conley’s amended complaint fails to state a plausible claim of deliberate indifference.

Named as defendants are Keith Anglin, the warden at Danville; Mary Miller, the Health Care Administrator; Bashirahmed Ameji, a contract physician who no longer works at the prison; and Christina Miles, a nurse who was never served with process. (Mr. Conley’s amended complaint also identifies as defendants an assistant warden and the former director of nursing at Danville, but his allegations against them are too trivial for discussion.) Mr. Conley, who is diabetic and asthmatic, alleges that he went to the infirmary to give a routine blood sample but Ms. Miles botched the procedure, causing an infection and blood clot that led to several heart attacks. Afterward, Mr. Conley continues, Dr. Ameji covered for Ms. Miles by falsifying his medical record to reflect normal EKG readings. And though his arm was swollen from the infection and he was complaining of chest pains, says Mr. Conley, the defendants would not send him to the hospital until he authorized a $2 co-payment. And later, Mr. Conley concludes, Ms. Miller failed to intervene when a nurse (who is not a defendant) delayed his receipt of orthopedic shoes prescribed because of his diabetes and also caused him to go a month without medication prescribed for high cholesterol. About Warden Anglin, Mr. Conley says only that he “took [a]ll permits for special order shoes.”

These events occurred during the period from February 2008 through May 2009. At summary judgment, in addressing § 1997e(a), the parties focused on grievances that Mr. Conley submitted in March 2008, July 2008, and June 2009. Dr. Ameji argued that Mr. Conley had failed to exhaust as to him because his name does not appear in the March 2008 grievance, which is the only one of the three that concerns events involving the doctor. Moreover, Dr. Ameji contended, Mr. Conley did not timely appeal that grievance and also expanded its factual allegations improperly after it had been denied. For their part, both Mr. Anglin and Ms. Miller, the warden and Health Care Administrator, insisted that none of Mr. Conley’s three grievances concerns his orthopedic shoes. Warden Anglin also noted that he is not mentioned in the June 2009 grievance about Mr. Conley’s cholesterol medication. Ms. Miller’s name is prominent in that grievance, but she ignored it. Except as noted, the evidence adduced at summary judgment about Mr. Conley’s three grievances is undisputed.

Ms. Miles, the nurse, drew blood from Mr. Conley’s arm in late February 2008 for a lab test. A few days later he submitted the first of his three grievances. Mr. Conley complained that Ms. Miles had performed the procedure poorly, causing pain and an infection. He asked that she be given remedial training in drawing blood from diabetic inmates and explained that he decided to submit the grievance “in order to cover myself in case there is something major wrong with my arm.” No reference is made to the heart or to Dr. Ameji. The grievance counselor referred the matter to Danville’s director of nursing, who reported that Mr. Conley’s [600]*600infection had been treated even before he filed the grievance.

On that basis the grievance officer deemed the matter moot, and Warden Anglin concurred. Warden Anglin denied the grievance on May 1 but apparently withheld that written decision until May 6, the date Mr. Conley signed it indicating his intent to appeal. Mr. Conley sent a copy of the rejected grievance to the Administrative Review Board, though first he padded its factual narrative with additional allegations, including that the blood draw had caused a clot affecting his heart. Dr. Ameji still is not mentioned. In Mr. Conley’s affidavit submitted at summary judgment, he attests that he placed his appeal in the prison mail bag on May 27. The ARB received it on Monday, June 2 — 32 days after the date of Warden Anglin’s decision — and denied it as untimely.

About a month later, in July 2008, Mr. Conley submitted the second grievance, this time asserting that Dr. Ameji would not renew his prescription for an inhaler. Once again the grievance counselor sent the matter to the director of nursing, who responded that another inhaler had been prescribed for Mr. Conley. The grievance counselor and Warden Anglin concluded that this grievance too was moot. The ARB upheld that decision.

Then in June 2009, Mr. Conley submitted the third grievance. He explained that his cholesterol medication had run out but on May 1 a “low level” nurse (who is not a defendant) blocked him from seeing the physician’s assistant who could renew that prescription. That same nurse, Mr. Conley continued, interfered again on May 21 when he wanted the physician’s assistant to help him obtain his orthopedic shoes. Mr. Conley says that Ms. Miller was present during these encounters yet did nothing. The grievance counselor sought input from Ms. Miller, who replied that Mr. Conley’s special shoes had been ordered and added, inexplicably, that Mr. Conley would see an optometrist as soon as the doctor scheduled a visit. Ms. Miller said nothing about Mr. Conley’s cholesterol medication.

As before, the grievance counselor and Warden Anglin declared the matter moot, despite Ms. Miller’s silence about Mr. Conley’s cholesterol medication. In appealing that decision to the ARB, Mr. Conley criticized Ms. Miller for mentioning the eye doctor since eye care is not a subject of his grievance. The ARB upheld the warden’s decision, but only after conducting its own investigation about the cholesterol medication. The ARB concluded that Mr. Conley had gone without his medication for 30 days only because he missed the deadline for his monthly refill and thus had to wait until the next order date.

In granting summary judgment for the defendants, the district court accepted Dr. Ameji’s argument that he must be dismissed because his name does not appear in the March 2008 grievance. Moreover, the court said, Mr. Conley did not timely appeal the denial of that grievance. This second reason is also the sole explanation for dismissing Ms. Miles, the nurse who drew Mr. Conley’s blood, even though the court recognized that Mr. Conley (who was not proceeding in forma pauperis) did not even serve Ms. Miles with process. As for Warden Anglin, the district court also accepted his contention that he must be dismissed because Mr. Conley did not mention him in the June 2009 grievance about the cholesterol medication. Moreover, the court reasoned, the warden could not be liable for deferring to medical personnel. Similarly, the district court accepted Warden Anglin’s contention, which Ms. Miller joined, that Mr. Conley had not submitted a grievance concerning the denial of orthopedic shoes at Danville. Finally, as to Ms. Miller, the district court seemed to appre-[601]*601date that Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
513 F. App'x 598, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/conley-v-anglin-ca7-2013.