(PC) Israel v. Carter

District Court, E.D. California·Decided March 24, 2022·No. 2:21-cv-01267·Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 AKIVA A. ISRAEL, No. 2: 21-cv-1267 JAM KJN P 12 Plaintiff, 13 v. ORDER AND FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 14 RUBY CARTER, et al., 15 Defendants. 16 17 Plaintiff is a state prisoner, proceeding without counsel, with a civil rights action pursuant 18 to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. On September 20, 2021, the undersigned issued an order and findings and 19 recommendations addressing plaintiff’s first amended complaint. (ECF Nos. 8, 13.) The 20 undersigned found that plaintiff’s first amended complaint stated a potentially colorable Eighth 21 Amendment claim against defendant Carter and ordered service of defendant Carter. (ECF No. 22 8.) The undersigned recommended that the remaining claims and defendants be dismissed. (ECF 23 Nos. 8, 13.) 24 On February 14, 2022, plaintiff filed objections to the September 20, 2021 findings and 25 recommendations. (ECF No. 35.) Attached to plaintiff’s objections is a second amended 26 complaint. (Id.) The second amended complaint supersedes the first amended complaint. Fed. 27 R. Civ. P. 15. 28 //// 1 Good cause appearing, the September 20, 2021 findings and recommendations are vacated 2 and the undersigned herein screens the second amended complaint. For the reasons stated herein, 3 the undersigned recommends that all claims raised in the second amended complaint except for 4 claims one and two alleging that defendant Carter violated the Eighth Amendment by denying 5 plaintiff medication be dismissed. 6 The second amended complaint names as defendants Licensed Vocational Nurse Ruby 7 Carter, Registered Nurse Shawntel Snow, Chief Executive Officer Traci Patterson, Chief of 8 Health Care Correspondence and Appeals Branch Sara Gates and Correctional Counselor 9 Specialist II Dawn Santos. (ECF No. 35 at 6-7.) 10 Claims One and Two (ECF No. 35 at 10-14) 11 In claims one and two, plaintiff alleges that on August 18, 2020, defendant Carter violated 12 the Eighth Amendment by denying plaintiff Mirtazapine and Hydroxyzine. These claims are 13 duplicative to claims one and two of the operative first amended complaint. (ECF No. 7 at 5-9.) 14 The undersigned previously found these claims potentially colorable and ordered service on 15 defendant Carter. (ECF No. 8.) On January 3, 2022, defendant Carter filed an answer. (ECF No. 16 26.) 17 Accordingly, defendant Carter is ordered to respond to claims one and two raised in the 18 second amended complaint. 19 Claims Three and Four (ECF No. 35 at 15-17) 20 In claim three, plaintiff alleges that defendants Snow, Patterson, Gates and Santos violated 21 the Eighth Amendment by attempting to cover-up defendant Carter’s failure to give plaintiff her 22 medication on August 18, 2020. 23 The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment of a convicted prisoner. 24 See Whitley v. Albers, 475 U.S. 312, 318–19 (1986). Prison officials are required to provide 25 inmates with adequate medical care and the failure to do so can constitute an Eighth Amendment 26 violation. See Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 103–05 (1976); Colwell v. Bannister, 763 F.3d 27 1060, 1066 (9th Cir. 2014). A claim for inadequate medical care requires proof of both an 28 objective component—i.e., the existence of a “serious medical need” —and a subjective 1 component—a prison official’s “deliberate indifference” thereto. Colwell, 763 F.3d at 1066. 2 An inmate’s medical need is “serious” if failure to treat his or her medical condition 3 “could result in further significant injury” or could cause “the ‘unnecessary and wanton infliction 4 of pain.’” Jett v. Penner, 439 F.3d 1091, 1096 (9th Cir. 2006) (citation omitted). 5 A prison official is deliberately indifferent under the subjective element of the test only if the 6 official “knows of and disregards an excessive risk to inmate health and safety.” Toguchi v. 7 Chung, 391 F.3d 1051, 1057 (9th Cir. 2004) (citation omitted). This “requires more than ordinary 8 lack of due care.” Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 835 (1994) (quoting Whitley, 475 U.S. at 9 319). “[T]he official must both be aware of facts from which the inference could be drawn that a 10 substantial risk of serious harm exists, and he must also draw the inference.” Id. at 837. A delay 11 in treatment does not constitute a violation of the Eighth Amendment, unless the delay or denial 12 was harmful. See McGuckin v. Smith, 974 F.2d 1050, 1060 (9th Cir. 1991), overruled on other 13 grounds by WMX Technologies, Inc. v. Miller, 104 F.3d 1144 1136 (9th Cir. 1997). 14 Plaintiff does not describe the actions taken by defendants Snow, Patterson, Gates and 15 Santos to cover-up defendant Carter’s actions. Although the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 16 adopt a flexible pleading policy, a complaint must give fair notice and state the elements of the 17 claim plainly and succinctly. Jones v. Cmty. Redev. Agency, 733 F.2d 646, 649 (9th Cir. 1984). 18 Plaintiff must allege with at least some degree of particularity overt acts (or omissions) which 19 defendants engaged in that support plaintiff’s claim. Id. Plaintiff’s allegations that defendants 20 Snow, Patterson, Gates and Santos covered-up defendant Carter’s alleged misconduct are so 21 vague and conclusory that the undersigned cannot find that they state a potentially colorable 22 claim for relief. Accordingly, claim three should be dismissed. 23 In claim four, plaintiff alleges that defendants Snow, Patterson and Gates violated the 24 Eighth Amendment because they were informed of “multiple violations to patients’ medical care” 25 by defendant Carter through reports, administrative reports and appeals. Plaintiff alleges that 26 defendants Snow, Patterson and Gates were and remain aware that defendant Carter engages in 27 the unauthorized practice of medicine. Plaintiff alleges that these defendants are aware that 28 defendant Carter made decisions regarding whether to treat inmate-patients and whether to refer 1 inmate-patients to physicians without adequate supervision. 2 A supervisor is liable for the acts of his subordinates “if the supervisor participated in or 3 directed the violations, or knew of the violations [of subordinates] and failed to act to prevent 4 them.” Taylor v. List, 880 F.2d 1040, 1045 (9th Cir. 1989); Johnson v. Duffy, 588 F.2d at 743- 5 44. Generally, a supervisor is liable “if there exists either (1) his or her personal involvement in 6 the constitutional deprivation, or (2) a sufficient causal connection between the supervisor's 7 wrongful conduct and the constitutional violation. Starr v. Baca, 652 F.3d 1202, 1207 (9th Cir. 8 2011). “The requisite causal connection can be established ... by setting in motion a series of acts 9 by others, ... or by knowingly refus[ing] to terminate a series of acts by others, which [the 10 supervisor] knew or reasonably should have known would cause others to inflict a constitutional 11 injury.” Id. at 1207-08 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).

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