Dodd, Jason v. Dr. Syed

CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Wisconsin
DecidedFebruary 10, 2020
Docket3:17-cv-00569
StatusUnknown

This text of Dodd, Jason v. Dr. Syed (Dodd, Jason v. Dr. Syed) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dodd, Jason v. Dr. Syed, (W.D. Wis. 2020).

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN

JASON R. DODD,

Plaintiff, OPINION AND ORDER v. 17-cv-569-wmc DR. SYED and NURSE BEVERLY,

Defendants.

Pro se plaintiff Jason R. Dodd is proceeding on Eighth Amendment claims against two staff members at the Columbia Correctional Institution (“CCI”) in Portage, Wisconsin, allegedly arising out of deliberate indifference to needed treatment of his broken hand in 2015. In particular, plaintiff was granted leave to proceed (1) against Nurse Beverly for concluding that plaintiff did not need to see a physician shortly after he broke his hand, and instead simply wrapped his broken hand in an ace bandage; and (2) against Dr. Syed for later failing to arrange for timely corrective surgery after he learned via CT scan results that Dodd’s hand injury had not healed. Defendants have moved for summary judgment on the ground that plaintiff failed to exhaust his administrative remedies. (Dkt. #32.) Dodd has also filed a proposed amended complaint, seeking to proceed against several, additional Doe defendants on claims related to how they handled his request for medical attention. (Dkt. #20.) For the following reasons, the court will deny both motions. OPINION I. Defendants’ Exhaustion Motion (dkt. #32) A. Undisputed Facts On February 3, 2016, Dodd submitted an inmate complaint (“CCI-2016-2556”)

regarding medical staff indifference to his pain. On March 16, the Inmate Complaint Examiner (“ICE”) found no wrongdoing by the medical staff and recommended the denial of Dodd’s complaint. According to the administrative process, ICE makes a recommendation to a Reviewing Authority (“RA”), who then decides to dismiss or affirm the inmate complaint. On March 24, the RA accepted ICE’s recommendation and

dismissed Dodd’s complaint. When Dodd actually became aware of this decision is unclear on this record, in part because Dodd was transferred to the Milwaukee County Jail on March 25, 2016, where he remained for 11 days. In particular, Dodd maintains that (1) he was unaware of the RA’s decision before being transferred, and (2) the Milwaukee County Jail does not provide inmates with the opportunity or resources to appeal decisions from ICE. Regardless, it is

undisputed that (1) Dodd returned to CCI on April 5, and (2) he was placed in disciplinary segregation from April 12 to May 12. Dodd also avers that he actually received notice of the RA’s March 24 dismissal for the first time on April 12, at which point, he immediately submitted an appeal to the Corrections Complaint Examiner (“CCE”) that same day. Finally, further muddling this record, Dodd’s appeal was inexplicably postmarked by the Portage Post Office on April 25, 2016, and the CCE did not receive this appeal until May

2, 2016. Regardless, the CCE dismissed Dodd’s appeal notice as untimely upon receipt, noting that the RA issued her decision on March 24, and was printed out that same day, but his appeal was not received until May 2, 2016. Even taking into account a four-day grace period for the “prison mail box rule,” therefore, the CCE found that Dodd’s appeal

was well beyond the 10-day timeframe for prisoners to submit an appeal under Wis. Admin. § DOC 310.13(1), and that there was no good cause to accept the late filing.1 Both parties presented affidavits to explain the time lapse between April 12 and May 2. Through an affidavit from CCI’s ICE Michael J. Glass, defendants assert that a letter submitted by an inmate in general population or disciplinary segregation on Tuesday, April 12, 2016, would be driven to the Portage Post Office on the morning of Wednesday,

April 13, 2016. (Glass Decl. (dkt. #44) ¶ 11.) Glass also avers that a letter postmarked by the Portage Post Office on Monday, April 25, 2016, would have been submitted no earlier than Saturday, April 23, 2016, at least assuming that the letter was postmarked on the same day it was received. (Id. ¶ 12.) Based on this, defendants conclude that “[t]he most likely explanation for the thirteen-day gap between the date on the appeal and the postmark is that Plaintiff dated the appeal April 12, 2016, but submitted it for mailing

much later.” (Defs.’ Br. (dkt #43).) Dodd presents a different account in his sworn declaration. Dodd avers that as soon

1 Dodd’s good cause argument for being late before the CCE had hinged upon his claimed misunderstanding of the distinction between ICE’s recommendation date (March 16) and the RA’s decision date (March 24). Dodd apparently believed that his appeal was due 10 days from the ICE recommendation date, meaning March 26, the day after his transfer to Milwaukee County Jail. Given the impossibility of his meeting this deadline, Dodd alleged that he believed the deadline would be viewed as a “delay tactic” by the institution when viewed jointly with his transfer to the Milwaukee County Jail on March 25. (Dkt #34-2.) The CCE did not find this to be good cause for the untimeliness of Dodd’s appeal. as he actually received the RA’s decision, he appealed, even though he knew it was late. (Dodd Decl. (dkt #47) ¶ 10.) To account for the delay in time, Dodd further alleges, without providing any examples, that correctional officers have been known to play games with inmate mail by delaying it or throwing it away and that “staff, even when they are

not a defendant still have each other [sic] backs and will sometimes do things to intentionally sabotage an [inmate’s] lawsuit or appeal process.” (Id. ¶ 7.)

B. Analysis at Summary Judgment At the summary judgment stage, a court’s function is not to weigh the evidence and determine the truth, but to determine whether there is a genuine, material issue for trial. Anderson 477 U.S. at 249. Summary judgment is appropriate if the moving party shows “there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). “Material facts” are those that “might affect the

outcome of the suit.” Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248 (1986). A dispute over a fact is “genuine” if “the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party.” Id. If the moving party shows there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact, the opposing party must provide evidence “on which the jury could reasonably find for the nonmoving party” to survive summary judgment. Trade Fin. Partners, LLC v. AAR Corp.,

573 F.3d 401, 406–407 (quoting Anderson 477 U.S. at 252). During summary judgment, disputed facts are viewed in a light most favorable to the plaintiff as the non-moving party; however, this treatment does not extend to inferences supported by only speculation or conjecture. Parker v. Four Seasons Hotels, Ltd., 845 F.3d 807, 812 (7th Cir. 2017); Coleman v. City of Peoria, Ill., 925 F.3d 336, 345 (7th Cir. 2019). Generally, “summary judgment cannot be used to resolve swearing contests between litigants.” Quirino v. Peterson, No. 16- CV-1007, 2017 WL 6805635, at *2 (E.D. Wis. Nov. 9, 2017) (quoting Payne v. Pauley, 337 F.3d 767, 770 (7th Cir. 2003)). However, if opposing parties tell two different stories,

a court may issue summary judgment when one side is blatantly contradicted by the record, pushing its story beyond belief for a reasonable jury. See Scott v.

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

Related

Haines v. Kerner
404 U.S. 519 (Supreme Court, 1972)
Estelle v. Gamble
429 U.S. 97 (Supreme Court, 1976)
Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc.
477 U.S. 242 (Supreme Court, 1986)
Booth v. Churner
532 U.S. 731 (Supreme Court, 2001)
Berry v. Peterman
604 F.3d 435 (Seventh Circuit, 2010)
Scott v. Harris
550 U.S. 372 (Supreme Court, 2007)
Forbes v. Edgar
112 F.3d 262 (Seventh Circuit, 1997)
Barbara Payne v. Michael Pauley
337 F.3d 767 (Seventh Circuit, 2003)
Roosevelt Burrell v. Marvin Powers
431 F.3d 282 (Seventh Circuit, 2005)
Shane Holloway v. Delaware County S
700 F.3d 1063 (Seventh Circuit, 2012)
Farmer v. Brennan
511 U.S. 825 (Supreme Court, 1994)
Trade Finance Partners, LLC v. AAR CORP.
573 F.3d 401 (Seventh Circuit, 2009)
Juana Gonzalez-Koeneke v. Donald West
791 F.3d 801 (Seventh Circuit, 2015)
Ross v. Blake
578 U.S. 632 (Supreme Court, 2016)
Christopher Coleman v. City of Peoria, Illinois
925 F.3d 336 (Seventh Circuit, 2019)
Jeremy Lockett v. Tanya Bonson
937 F.3d 1016 (Seventh Circuit, 2019)
Gutierrez v. Peters
111 F.3d 1364 (Seventh Circuit, 1997)
Parker v. Four Seasons Hotels, Ltd.
845 F.3d 807 (Seventh Circuit, 2017)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
Dodd, Jason v. Dr. Syed, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dodd-jason-v-dr-syed-wiwd-2020.