Patricia Bowman, Plaintiff-Appellee/cross-Appellant v. Corrections Corporation of America, Defendant-Appellant/cross-Appellee

350 F.3d 537, 62 Fed. R. Serv. 1485, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 23730, 2003 WL 22742802
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedNovember 21, 2003
Docket00-6719, 00-6720
StatusPublished
Cited by81 cases

This text of 350 F.3d 537 (Patricia Bowman, Plaintiff-Appellee/cross-Appellant v. Corrections Corporation of America, Defendant-Appellant/cross-Appellee) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Patricia Bowman, Plaintiff-Appellee/cross-Appellant v. Corrections Corporation of America, Defendant-Appellant/cross-Appellee, 350 F.3d 537, 62 Fed. R. Serv. 1485, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 23730, 2003 WL 22742802 (6th Cir. 2003).

Opinion

OPINION

BOGGS, Chief Judge.

Anthony Bowman was an inmate at the South Central Correctional Center (SCCC) who had a long history of medical problems associated with sickle cell anemia. Over the course of his incarceration at SCCC, Anthony experienced numerous infections, and was hospitalized repeatedly. During one such episode, on January 3, 1996, Dr. Coble, the medical director at SCCC, admitted Anthony to the SCCC infirmary, having diagnosed him with “an early pneumonia,” and on January 4, 1996, Anthony was transferred to the Nashville Memorial Hospital where he died a day later, at the age of twenty-eight.

Anthony’s mother, Patricia Bowman, on behalf of her son and his two children (collectively Bowman) filed a civil rights complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, naming as defendants, among others, the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), Kevin Myers, the warden of CCA’s South Central Facility, and Dr. Robert B. Coble, the physician with whom CCA contracted for medical services for inmates housed within SCCC. The complaint alleged that the defendants had violated her son’s constitutional right to adequate medical care while incarcerated. The case went to trial and the jury found that the defendants had not acted with deliberate indifference towards Anthony’s serious medical condition. The district court entered judgment in accordance with the jury verdict, but granted Bowman’s motion for judgment as a matter of law in part, holding that CCA’s *489 medical policy, as reflected in its agreement with Dr. Robert B. Coble, is unconstitutional. On this basis, the district court enjoined CCA and all parties acting in concert with it from enforcing its contract with Dr. Coble and additionally granted the plaintiffs motion for sanctions, but only to the extent of awarding attorney’s fees in relation to a particular evi-dentiary dispute in which CCA failed to supplement properly its discovery responses as to the number of referrals it had made to medical specialists on behalf of inmates. Bowman also moved for an award of attorney’s fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1988 as a “prevailing party” in a § 1983 ease. The district court awarded Bowman attorney’s fees and costs, but only on a pro-rated basis for the issues upon which she had “prevailed” against the defendants.

CCA appeals both the district court’s injunction and its award of attorney’s fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1988 to Bowman. Bowman cross-appeals the district court’s partial denial of her motion for a judgment as a matter of law or for a new trial, on her claims for compensatory and punitive damages against CCA, Dr. Coble, and Myers for them alleged violations of Bowman’s son’s Eighth Amendment right to be free of “cruel and unusual punishment.” We affirm the district court’s denial of Bowman’s motion for judgment as a matter of law or a new trial because there was evidence to support the jury’s verdict and the district court did not abuse its discretion in making the various evidentiary rulings objected to by Bowman. We reverse the district court’s holding with respect to the unconstitutionality of CCA’s medical policy and the injunction awarded on that basis, because this issue is moot as to Bowman and she had no standing upon which to bring such a claim for prospective relief. Finally, we vacate the district court’s award of attorney’s fees to Bowman, because Bowman is no longer the prevailing party.

I

A. The Medical Contract

During 1990, the State of Tennessee issued a request for proposals from private companies to manage the South Central Correctional Center (SCCC) 1 . The proposals were to include a detailed budget of projected costs for operating the SCCC, including the cost of providing medical care to SCCC inmates. Tennessee required the companies submitting proposals to state how much they would charge Tennessee on a per inmate per day (PIPD) basis to manage the SCCC and their estimated profit for doing so. On January 24, 1992, following negotiations regarding the SCCC budget and CCA’s profit margin, CCA entered into a three-year contract with the State of Tennessee, acting through the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC), to house state prisoners at CCA facilities, including SCCC. The contract contained an option to renew for two additional years.

As part of the contract process, CCA estimated its medical expenses for the treatment of prisoners. This expense category included hospital expenses incurred during the first seventy-two hours up to four thousand dollars per hospitalization, referrals to medical specialists, prescription drugs and laboratory tests. CCA’s initial projection was $500,000 per year for these expenses (projecting an average of $1.34 PIPD in 1992, gradually rising over the years to an average of $1.48 in 1997). However, during 1992, 1993, and 1994, CCA’s actual expenses for these services *490 and products averaged $1,000,000 per year ($3.75 PIPD in 1992, $3.16 PIPD in 1993, and $2.41 PIPD in 1994). In response to being so dramatically over budget, CCA negotiated a contract with Dr. Coble to be the exclusive provider of medical services at SCCC. Dr. Coble was, among other things, to “determine the existence of medical emergencies,” and therefore determine when it was necessary to send a patient to the hospital or for a medical referral. This contract was executed on October 6, 1994, and effectively created a managed health-care system at SCCC. The contract automatically renewed itself on an annual basis and could be terminated by either party upon 60 days notice.

Unlike CCA’s previous agreements with other physicians, this contract provided a “capitation plan,” which provided Dr. Co-ble with a financial incentive to reduce the PIPD costs for CCA. Dr. Coble received a minimum salary under the contract, but was able to earn up to an additional $100,000 annually by reducing CCA’s costs. 2 The way in which the incentive system worked is laid out in the contract and can be understood as follows:

According to CCA’s contract with Dr. Coble, he was to be paid a flat rate of $9.40 per inmate under his care, every month. However, twenty percent of that figure was “withheld” so that Dr. Coble’s minimum salary was actually eighty percent of $9.40 or $7.52 per inmate, per month. Every six months, CCA would calculate the amount being spent PIPD. If the amount being spent was equal to or more than $3.07, which was the average amount being spent by CCA PIPD at the time of contract negotiations with Dr. Coble, no further money would be distributed to Dr. Coble. If, however, the amount being spent PIPD was less than $3.07, Dr. Coble would receive a “proportionate return” of the amount withheld, up to the full $9.40 per inmate. Finally, Dr. Coble would receive an additional five percent bonus if he was able to keep the PIPD cost below $2.47.

From the very beginning, it is undisputed that Dr.

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Bluebook (online)
350 F.3d 537, 62 Fed. R. Serv. 1485, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 23730, 2003 WL 22742802, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/patricia-bowman-plaintiff-appelleecross-appellant-v-corrections-ca6-2003.