MCGRAW v. CORIZON HEALTH CARE SERVICES

District Court, S.D. Indiana·Decided September 4, 2019·No. 1:18-cv-01459·Unknown

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF INDIANA INDIANAPOLIS DIVISION

RAYMOND MCGRAW, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) v. ) Case No. 1:18-cv-01459-TWP-MPB ) CORIZON HEALTH, INC., PENDLETON ) CORRECTIONAL FACILITY, DUSHAN ) ZATECKY, MR. ALSIP, OFFR. EDWARDS, SGT. ) VANDINE, SGT. McKINNIE, CPT. MASON, MRS. ) FRANCUM, MRS. McCULLOUGH, DR. TALBOT, ) MRS. WELDERS, NURSE SIMPSON, and NURSE ) ROSE, ) ) Defendants. )

ORDER ON CROSS MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

This matter is before the Court on the parties’ cross motions for summary judgment. Plaintiff Raymond McGraw (“Mr. McGraw”), an inmate at Miami Correctional Facility, initiated this civil rights action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging violations of his First and Eighth Amendment rights while he was incarcerated at Pendleton Correctional Facility (“Pendleton”). On March 4, 2019, Mr. McGraw moved for summary judgment. (Dkt. 151.) Thereafter, Defendant Officer Edwards opposed the Motion arguing that there is a dispute of material fact regarding the degree of force she used to secure Mr. McGraw when he refused to take medication on January 14, 2016. (Dkt. 200.) Defendants Corizon Health, Inc. (“Corizon”), Aleycia McCullough (“Ms. McCullough”)Dr. Paul Talbot, Carrie Welders (“Ms. Welders”), Nurse Kim Simpson (“Nurse Simpson”), and Nurse Leah Rose (“Nurse Rose”), (collectively, “the Medical Defendants”) responded and cross-motioned for summary judgment on May 3, 2019. (Dkt. 202.) Mr. McGraw replied on June 6, 2019. (Dkt. 237.) For the reasons stated below, Mr. McGraw’s Motion is denied and the Medical Defendants’ Motion is granted in part and denied in part. I. SUMMARY JUDGMENT STANDARD A motion for summary judgment asks the court to find that a trial is unnecessary because

there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and, instead, the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(a). Whether a party asserts that a fact is undisputed or genuinely disputed, the party must support the asserted fact by citing to specific portions of the record, including depositions, documents, or affidavits. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c)(1)(A). A party can also support a fact by showing that the materials cited by an adverse party do not establish the absence or presence of a genuine dispute or that the adverse party cannot produce admissible evidence to support the fact. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c)(1)(B). Affidavits or declarations must be made on personal knowledge, set out facts that would be admissible in evidence, and show that the affiant is competent to testify on matters stated. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c)(4). Failure to properly support a fact in opposition to a movant’s factual assertion can result

in the movant’s fact being considered undisputed, and potentially in the grant of summary judgment. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(e). In deciding a motion for summary judgment, the court need only consider disputed facts that are material to the decision. A disputed fact is material if it might affect the outcome of the suit under the governing law. Williams v. Brooks, 809 F.3d 936, 941-42 (7th Cir. 2016). “A genuine dispute as to any material fact exists ‘if the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party.’” Daugherty v. Page, 906 F.3d 606, 609−10 (7th Cir. 2018) (quoting Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248 (1986)). The court views the record in the light most favorable to the non-moving party and draws all reasonable inferences in that party’s favor. Skiba v. Illinois Cent. R.R. Co., 884 F.3d 708, 717 (7th Cir. 2018). It cannot weigh evidence or make credibility determinations on summary judgment because those tasks are left to the factfinder. Miller v. Gonzalez, 761 F.3d 822, 827 (7th Cir. 2014). Any doubt as to the existence of a genuine issue for trial is resolved against the moving

party. Anderson, 477 U.S. at 255. When reviewing cross-motions for summary judgment, all reasonable inferences are drawn in favor of the party against whom the motion at issue was made. Valenti v. Lawson, 889 F.3d 427, 429 (7th Cir. 2018) (citing Tripp v. Scholz, 872 F.3d 857, 862 (7th Cir. 2017)). The existence of cross-motions for summary judgment does not imply that there are no genuine issues of material fact. R.J. Corman Derailment Servs., LLC v. Int’l Union of Operating Engineers, Local Union 150, AFL-CIO, 335 F.3d 643, 647 (7th Cir. 2003). II. UNDISPUTED FACTS1 A. Initial Matters Before reciting the facts underlying Mr. McGraw’s claims, the Court must address several

issues that have made it difficult for the Court to determine the undisputed facts. First, Mr. McGraw (who is proceeding pro se) produced more than two thousand pages of exhibits with his Motion for Summary Judgment. (Dkts. 154-159.) While he attempts to identify documents to support his statement of material facts not in dispute, he does so by referencing medical entries from particular dates, rather than particular page numbers, making it difficult for the Court to locate his references.

1 The Medical Defendants object to many statements in Mr. McGraw’s Statement of Facts Not in Dispute as containing hearsay, speculation, legal conclusions, or improper expert testimony from a lay witness. The Court does not need to address those issues in this Order because none of the disputed testimony affects the outcome of the pending summary judgment motions. Disputes of material fact identified by the Court below come mainly from the Medical Defendants’ own Statement of Material Facts and do not implicate any of Mr. McGraw’s disputed statements. The Medical Defendants’ submissions do not fare much better. Some citations in the Medical Defendants’ brief are incorrect, making it difficult for the Court to locate their referenced documents. For example, the Medical Defendants assert that Mr. McGraw submitted a healthcare request form on October 1, 2015. They cite docket “159, pp. 99” as the location of the healthcare

request form, but p. 99 of docket 159 is a medical record dated November 20, 2015. The adjacent pages are part of that medical record. In addition, the accuracy of the records submitted by the Medical Defendants’, and therefore their statement of facts and expert’s opinions that rely upon those records, are called into question by records from an outside neurosurgeon, Gautam Phookan, M.D. (“Dr. Phookan”), who also treated Mr. McGraw. For example, the Medical Defendants’ records do not indicate on what date Mr. McGraw’s staples were removed, but they do indicate that the staples were intact on September 23, 2015 and were not present on October 1, 2015. Dr.

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