Mork v. Russell

District Court, D. Nevada·Decided February 18, 2025·No. 3:21-cv-00077·Unknown

Opinion

1 Colorado Bar No. 35811 Holland, Holland Edwards, & Grossman, LLC 2 1437 N. High Street Denver, CO 80218 3 Phone: (303) 860-1331 Fax: (303) 832-6506 4 anna@hheglaw.com Attorney for Plaintiff, pro hac vice 5 AARON D. FORD 6 Attorney General DOUGLAS R. RANDS, Bar No. 3572 7 Senior Deputy Attorney General State of Nevada 8 Public Safety Division 100 N. Carson Street 9 Carson City, Nevada 89701-4717 Tel: (775) 684-1150 10 E-mail: drands@ag.nv.gov Attorneys for Defendants Kathy 11 Henderson and Martin Naughton 12 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 13 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 14 NICOLAI MORK, Case No. 3:21-cv-00077-MMD-CSD 15 Plaintiff, 16 vs. JOINT PRETRIAL ORDER 17 PERRY RUSSELL, et al., 18 Defendants. 19 Following pretrial proceedings in this case, 20 IT IS ORDERED: 21 I. NATURE OF ACTION AND CONTENTIONS OF THE PARTIES 22 A. NATURE OF ACTION 23 24 This jury trial involves two § 1983 claims brought by Plaintiff Nicolai Mork (“Mork”), a 25 formerly incarcerated inmate, against Defendants Nurse Kathy Henderson and Dr. Martin Naughton, 26 former employees of the Nevada Department of Corrections (“NDOC”), alleging deliberate 27 indifference to his serious medical needs, constituting cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth 28 1 February 12, 2024, the Court denied the Motion for Summary Judgment. (ECF No. 77). 2 3 Therefore, this matter is proceeding to trial. 4 B. CONTENTIONS OF THE PARTIES 5 Plaintiff Mork’s First Claim: Deliberate Indifference to Dental Pain (against Defendant 6 Henderson) 7 Plaintiff was a prisoner at Stewart Conservation Camp (“SCC”), a low security NDOC facility, 8 in 2020 and 2021. Plaintiff alleges that while incarcerated at SCC he repeatedly informed Nurse 9 Henderson that he had a painful, worsening, rotten tooth, and that although Nurse Henderson knew 10 Plaintiff was in significant, unaddressed pain and distress from March 21, 2020 to March 11, 2021 she 11 refused to take steps to cause him to be timely seen by a dentist or otherwise meaningfully address his 12 pain. He was not seen by a dentist until March 11, 2021, just prior to his release. Plaintiff further alleges 13 14 that Defendant Henderson refused to provide him grievance forms and threatened to withhold care if he 15 continued asking for help. 16 Plaintiff Mork’s Second Claim: Deliberate Indifference to Extreme Discomfort from Pervasive Skin Rash and Related Right to Treatment (against Defendants Henderson and Naughton) 17 18 Plaintiff alleges that he first informed Dr. Naughton of a skin rash in September 2019, and 19 although Dr. Naughton was aware Mr. Mork needed to see a dermatologist, he denied Plaintiff access to 20 a specialist while persisting in diagnoses he knew were not correct and treatments he knew wouldn’t 21 help Plaintiff. Plaintiff further alleges that both Nurse Henderson and Dr. Naughton mocked Plaintiff’s 22 suffering and threatened to withhold medical care because he was becoming a “troublemaker” by 23 continuing to seek medical attention. Plaintiff further alleges that Dr. Naughton threatened to get Mr. 24 25 Mork transferred to a high security prison if he continued seeking treatment for his rash. 26 Plaintiff would like to discuss striking Defendants’ asserted Affirmative Defenses at the pre-trial 27 conference as they don’t appear be viable defenses. A few of them were raised and already ruled on by 28 1 briefly responds to each below: 2 3 FIRST AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE: “The Complaint fails to state a claim upon which relief can be 4 granted.” Defendant raised and lost this argument in the course of the case. 5 SECOND AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE: “Defendants are not personally involved in the cause in fact 6 and/or the proximate cause of the alleged claims.” Defendants were personally involved in the case and 7 this boilerplate affirmative defense is at odds with the Court’s Orders and the defendants’ testimony. 8 THIRD AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE: “This action is time-barred by applicable statutes of limitations.” 9 10 The lawsuit was timely brought. 11 FOURTH AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE: “Defendants acted in good faith toward Plaintiff. Therefore, 12 Defendants are entitled to qualified good faith immunity from damages.” Good faith immunity is not a 13 defense recognized under 42 U.S.C. §1983 caselaw. 14 FIFTH AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE: “Defendants are entitled to qualified and absolute immunity.” 15 Defendants are not entitled to absolute immunity and lost their Summary Judgment challenge to these 16 claims which included an assertion of qualified immunity. 17 18 SIXTH AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE: “Defendants acted in accord with applicable law and legally 19 mandated prison procedures.” This constitutes an argument rather than a legal defense. 20 SEVENTH AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE: “Plaintiff fails to state a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the 21 Nevada Constitution, Article 6, subsection 6, and NRS 41.031.” Defendants lost their Summary 22 Judgment challenge to Plaintiff’s § 1983 claims and Mr. Mork did not bring a claim under the Nevada 23 Constitution. 24 EIGHTH AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE: “Plaintiff fails to mitigate damages, if any, and is thus barred 25 26 from seeking monetary damages.” Under §1983 failure to mitigate is an argument not a defense to all 27 damages. 28 1 the sole, primary, and superseding cause of any damages sustained by him, if any.” While some state 2 3 claims may have such defenses, there is no contributory negligence bar to a §1983 civil rights claim. 4 TENTH AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE: “Plaintiff’s punitive damage claims are barred by law.” §1983 5 allows for punitive damages against individuals. 6 ELEVENTH AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE: “Defendants are immune from liability because the acts 7 complained of were discretionary in nature or were performed under relevant statutory or regulatory 8 authority.” This asserted defense is vague and without factual support developed during litigation in 9 10 any way to support this purported defense. 11 TWELFTH AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE “Defendants held a good faith belief that she was acting 12 reasonably and that her actions were privileged and legally justified.” This asserted defense is vague 13 and without factual support developed during litigation in any way to support this purported defense. 14 THIRTEENTH AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE: “Plaintiff failed to exhaust administrative remedies as 15 required by the Prison Litigation Reform Act.” Defendant lost this argument on Summary Judgment. 16 FOURTEENTH AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE: “Plaintiff’s conduct constitutes a waiver of any alleged 17 18 wrongful conduct undertaken by Defendants.” There is no such waiver or contributory negligence type 19 defense under § 1983. 20 FIFTEENTH AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE: “Plaintiff’s conduct ratified any alleged wrongful conduct by 21 the Defendants.” This asserted defense is vague. 22 SIXTEENTH AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE: “Defendants are immune from liability as a matter of law.” 23 Defendants lost their qualified immunity challenge in this case at Summary Judgment. 24 25 2. Defendant’s Contentions 26 Defendant contends that the evidence does not support Mork’s allegations. Defendant 27 incorporates any Affirmative Defenses from the Answer as it pertains to the Defendant. Defendant 28 1 C. RELIEF SOUGHT 2 Mork seeks compensatory, and punitive damages. 3 4 II. STATEMENT OF JURISDICTION 5 This is a civil action commenced under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. This Court has jurisdiction pursuant 6 to 28 U.S.C. § 1331. 7 8 9 III. UNCONTESTED FACTS ADMITTED BY THE PARTIES WHICH REQUIRE NO PROOF 10 11 1.

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