PRITT v. CORRECT CARE SERVICES

CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Indiana
DecidedJune 1, 2020
Docket1:17-cv-02664
StatusUnknown

This text of PRITT v. CORRECT CARE SERVICES (PRITT v. CORRECT CARE SERVICES) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Indiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
PRITT v. CORRECT CARE SERVICES, (S.D. Ind. 2020).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF INDIANA INDIANAPOLIS DIVISION

STEVEN W. PRITT, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) v. ) No. 1:17-cv-02664-JPH-MPB ) CORRECT CARE SOLUTIONS, et al., ) ) Defendants. )

ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

Plaintiff Steven Pritt, an Indiana inmate currently confined at the New Castle Correctional Facility ("New Castle"), was transferred from New Castle to the Marion County Jail several times between December of 2015 and February of 2017. He brings this action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging that he received inadequate medical care for his heart condition and mental health issues while he was confined at the Jail. He has sued Correct Care Solutions ("CCS"), the private contractor that provides medical services at the Jail; several individual medical providers; and a social worker. The defendants move for summary judgment on these claims and Mr. Pritt has responded. The defendants replied and Mr. Pritt filed a surreply.1 For the following reasons, the defendants' motion for summary judgment is granted in part and denied in part. The motion is granted as to Ms. Andrews, Nurse Clemons, and Nurse Poland; the motion is denied as to Nurse

1 Local Rule 56(d) allows a surreply when the movant cites new evidence or objects to the admissibility of evidence in the response. The defendants move to strike to Mr. Pritt's surreply arguing that it was filed too late and does not merely address the objections to the evidence presented in his response brief. As discussed below, the surreply has been considered, but makes no difference as to the outcome. Accordingly, the motion to strike, dkt. [120], will be DENIED. Carter, Nurse Clark, Nurse Hansen, Nurse Kannaple, Nurse Roberts, Nurse Wheatcraft-Hadley, and CCS. I. Standard of Review 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 Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). As the current version of Rule 56 makes clear, whether a party asserts that a fact is undisputed or genuinely disputed, the party must support the asserted fact by citing to particular parts 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 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)). On summary judgment, a party must show the Court what evidence it has that would convince a trier of fact to accept its version of the events. Gekas v. Vasilades, 814 F.3d 890, 896 (7th Cir. 2016). The moving party is entitled to summary judgment if no reasonable fact-finder could return a verdict for the non-moving party. Nelson v. Miller, 570 F.3d 868, 875 (7th Cir.

2009). 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. Ill. 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 fact-finder. Miller v. Gonzalez, 761 F.3d 822, 827 (7th Cir. 2014). The Court need only consider the cited materials, Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c)(3), and the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has repeatedly assured the district courts that they are not required to "scour every inch of the record" for evidence that is potentially relevant to the summary judgment motion before them. Grant v. Trs. of Ind. Univ., 870 F.3d 562, 573-74 (7th Cir. 2017). Any doubt as to the existence of a genuine issue for trial is resolved against the moving party. Anderson, 477 U.S. at 255.

II. Statement of Material Facts The following statement of facts is evaluated pursuant to the standard set forth above. That is, these facts are not necessarily objectively true, but are viewed in the light most favorable to Mr. Pritt as the non-moving party. The statement of facts is based on Mr. Pritt's medical records, the defendants' testimony, and Mr. Pritt's sworn testimony. To the extent that the defendants object to some of Mr. Pritt's testimony, the Court has considered only the testimony that is based on his personal knowledge and that describes his symptoms as he experienced them. Factual disagreements about disputed events have been noted. In addition, the defendants argue that Mr. Pritt's version of the facts should not be considered when his version conflicts with his medical records. In support, the defendants reference the Supreme Court's holding in Scott v. Harris that, when "opposing parties tell two different stories, one of which is blatantly contradicted by the record, so that no reasonable jury

could believe it, a court should not adopt that version of the facts for purposes of ruling on a motion for summary judgment." 550 U.S. 372, 380 (2007). In Scott, the disputed factual issue was whether a motorist fleeing law enforcement officials was driving in way that endangered human life. Id. The non-moving party's version of events was discredited by a videotape that recorded the incident. Id. at 378. Unlike a videotape, Mr. Pritt's medical records do not constitute an indisputable objective record of his medical treatment. Indeed, the accuracy of the medical records is one of the central disputed issues as Mr. Pritt argues that "[s]ome [medical providers] documented his complaints and some did not." Dkt. 114-1 at 3.

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PRITT v. CORRECT CARE SERVICES, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pritt-v-correct-care-services-insd-2020.