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TONY D. WALKER, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v. SHARON K. ZUNKER, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
No. 01-2895
UNITED STATES COURT OF
APPEALS FOR THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT
2002 U.S. App. Lexis 3232;
30 Fed. Appx. 625
February 27, 2002, Decided
NOTICE:
RULES OF THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT
COURT OF APPEALS MAY LIMIT CITATION TO UNPUBLISHED OPINIONS. PLEASE REFER TO
THE RULES OF THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THIS CIRCUIT.
Tony Walker appeals the entry of summary judgment against him in his
suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Wisconsin prison officials for denial of
medical treatment. We affirm.
Walker was a prisoner at Waupun
Correctional Institution in Wisconsin when on October 22, 1995, he fell while walking
up a staircase in waist restraints. Walker's fall injured his lower back and
left shoulder. Because of his injuries, he went to see a prison physician, who
diagnosed him with arthritis of the lumbar spine and noted that Walker's range
of motion in his back was somewhat limited. The doctor treated Walker by
prescribing pain medication and physical therapy, as well as giving Walker an
"egg-crate" mattress, an abdominal binder, and extra pillows. Walker
was also given a low-tier/low-bunk/do-not-double assignment due to his health
problems.
In July 1999 Walker was transferred
to Green Bay Correctional Institution (GBCI). During his orientation at the
prison, Walker told medical staff that he was "ok," but that he
"fell in the cell hall at Waupun and I have some arthritis in my
back." Later that month Walker received an examination from defendant Dr.
Metodio Reyes, a prison staff physician, who denied Walker's requests for an
egg-crate mattress. Reyes told Walker that egg-crate mattresses are not used to
treat back pain. Reyes did, however, acknowledge that Walker had received knee
surgery in 1989 and thus ordered him to be placed in a lower bunk.
Walker's back continued to hurt,
so Reyes examined him a second time in late July. At that visit Walker
requested a single cell. Reyes denied the request, stating that Walker did not
have a medical reason to receive a single-cell assignment.
Unhappy with his medical treatment, Walker
wrote letters of complaint to defendants Daniel Bertrand, warden of GBCI, and Wendy Bruns, an
inmate complaint examiner at GBCI. When the defendants did not act on his
complaints, Walker filed suit against Bertrand, Bruns, Reyes, Jeananne
Greenwood (GBCI's manager of health services), Jeffrey Jaeger (GBCI's security
director), Sharon Zunker (director of Wisconsin's Bureau of Health Services),
the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, and the Wisconsin Bureau of Health
Services. Walker alleged that his deprivation of medical treatment by the defendants
amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. Walker also moved for leave to
proceed in forma pauperis, which the district court denied with prejudice
because Walker's claim reflected merely dissatisfaction with his treatment and
did not rise to the level of cruel and unusual punishment.
Walker then moved for reconsideration under Fed. R. Civ. P. 59(e),
arguing that the court had misinterpreted his complaint and that he had in fact
alleged receiving no treatment at all for his back. In light of Walker's
explanation, the district court vacated its earlier order, granted Walker's
motion for reconsideration, and granted his motion for leave to proceed in
forma pauperis. The court's order also dismissed the Wisconsin Department of Corrections and Bureau of Health Services as
defendants, commenting that they "cannot be held personally responsible
for failure to treat petitioner and thus cannot be held liable for damages
under § 1983."
The
court granted the defendants' subsequent motion for summary judgment,
concluding that Walker failed to establish that he had a serious medical
condition. According to the court, Walker's statement to medical staff that he
was "ok" and the fact that he was able to play basketball at GBCI on
at least one occasion suggested that his back pain was not severe.
We
review the district court's grant of summary judgment de novo. Construing all
facts and drawing all reasonable inferences from the record in the light most
favorable to Walker. Sherrod v. Lingle,
223 F.3d 605, 610 (7th Cir. 2000). To survive a motion for summary judgment,
however, Walker must demonstrate that a genuine issue of material fact existed.
See Chapman v. Keltner, 241 F.3d 842, 845 (7th Cir. 2001).
Walker first argues that his back pain was sufficiently serious that the
deprivation of care amounted to cruel and unusual punishment by prison
officials. To state a claim for cruel and unusual punishment arising from
improper medical care, a prisoner must "allege acts or omissions
sufficiently harmful to evidence deliberate indifference to serious medical
needs." Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 106, 50 L. Ed. 2d 251, 97 S. Ct.
285 (1976). A medical condition is serious when "the failure to treat a
prisoner's condition could result in further significant injury or the
unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain." Gutierrez v. Peters, 111 F.3d
1364, 1373 (7th Cir. 1997). Serious conditions, for example, include those that
"significantly affect an individual's daily activities" or cause "chronic
and substantial pain." See Walker, 200 F.3d at 503 (quoting McGuckin v.
Smith, 974 F.2d 1050, 1059-60). Walker argues that his medical condition was
serious, but intermittent, affecting him at least once per week. Walker's
evidence consists of his own affidavit that his pain was severe as well as a
February 1996 physical therapy report stating that his back pain "can be
very severe" and that he "can't lay on back or stomach." It is
unclear from the report whether the entry merely recorded Walker's own
complaints of pain, or whether it reflected the treating therapist's personal
diagnosis of Walker's condition (and thereby corroborated Walker's pain
complaints). Given the ambiguity inherent in the report, we decline to conclude
that there is no competent evidence in the record to support Walker's claim
that his condition was objectively serious.
But
even if we were to assume
that Walker's condition was objectively serious, we nevertheless conclude that
Walker failed to show that prison staff treated him with deliberate
indifference. Although the district court did not reach this question,
the record shows no evidence that prison officials acted with "reckless
disregard" towards his medical needs by "'inaction or woefully
inadequate action.'" Reed v. McBride, 178 F.3d 849, 854 (7th Cir. 1999)
(quoting Hudson v. McHugh, 148 F.3d 859, 863 (7th Cir. 1998)). Mere dissatisfaction with a
particular course of treatment, or even malpractice, does not amount to
deliberate indifference. See
Snipes v. DeTella, 95 F.3d 586, 592 (7th Cir. 1996). Here, Walker's only evidence
that his treatment was inadequate is his dissatisfaction, stated in his
affidavit and letters to prison authorities, with the care he received at GBCI.
The record shows that he was not denied care at GBCI, but was examined on
several occasions by Reyes, who gave Walker a low-bunk assignment. Without any
medical evidence of inadequate treatment, a prisoner's self-serving opinion of
the quality of treatment is insufficient to
raise a genuine issue of material fact. See Walker, 233 F.3d at 504.
Walker also appeals the district court's dismissal of two defendants,
the Wisconsin Department of Corrections and the Wisconsin Bureau of Health
Services. The district court dismissed them because it found that they were not
suable entities under § 1983. The district court is correct that state agencies
are not "persons" within the meaning of § 1983 and thus are not
subject to suit. See Ryan v. Ill. Dept. of Children and Family Servs., 185 F.3d
751, 758 (7th Cir. 1999) (holding that state agency was not a
"person" under § 1983). Thus, the district court properly dismissed
these defendants.
In
a related argument, Walker contends that the district court erred by denying
his motion to amend his complaint to reintroduce the Department of Corrections
and Bureau of Health Services as defendants. The proposed amendments would have
added allegations regarding the involvement of those agencies in his medical
care. Although leave to amend is "freely given when justice so requires,"
Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a), "leave to amend need not be given if there is an
apparent reason not to do so, such as...futility of amendment.'" Chavez v.
Ill. State Police, 251 F.3d 612, 632 (quoting Payne v. Churchich, 161 F.3d
1030, 1036 (7th Cir. 1998)). As stated above, the agencies are not subject to
suit under § 1983, and the district court therefore did not abuse its
discretion in concluding that any amendment to add these defendants would have
been futile.
Lastly, Walker appeals the court's denial of his motions for Rule 11
sanctions. Walker's motions argued that the defendants presented false
information as to whether he had received medication for his back and that the
defendants failed to answer his interrogatories. The district court denied the motions,
noting that the allegation of false information was nothing more than a
disagreement regarding the evidence. The court then found that the motion
regarding the defendants' failure to answer interrogatories was untimely
because it was not filed until after summary judgment and because Walker had
never moved to compel production. The district court's decisions were
well-founded and not an abuse of discretion.
The
decision of the district court is AFFIRMED.
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