David Poe Wood v. Vernon G. Housewright, George Sumner

Dissenting in part:

I agree that Wood failed to prove his claims under the sixth amendment at trial, and also that the district judge did not abuse his discretion in refusing to appoint counsel for him. 1 However, I strongly disagree with Judge Farris’s conclusion that Wood suffered no eighth amendment injury. The confiscation of his sling and the inordinate delay in providing essential medical care clearly constituted “deliberate indifference,” and his resultant pain and suffering clearly meet the standard set forth in Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97 , 97 S.Ct. 285 , 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976).

While Judge Hug and I (and thus the panel majority) are in agreement on this fundamental issue, I must respectfully disagree with his conclusion that there is no need for the district court to reconsider its determination that the two individual defendants bear no share of the legal responsibility for the constitutional violation. The district court's holding that neither House-wright nor Sumner was personally responsible for those constitutional violations cannot be sustained because the court improperly analyzed the nature of the defendants’ duties under Nevada law, and thus failed to…

David Poe Wood, an inmate at the Nevada State Prison sued Vernon Housewright, then Director of the Nevada State Department of Prisons, and George Sumner, Warden of the Nevada State Prison, in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada seeking damages and in-junctive relief under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 . Wood alleged that the defendants were liable for: 1) deliberate indifference by the prison staff to his medical needs, and 2) for denying him meaningful access to the courts in his effort to pursue this action. The district court ruled in favor of the defendants. We affirm.

FACTS

I. Medical Treatment

In early January, two months before he was admitted to the Nevada State Prison, Wood injured his shoulder in a jailhouse fight. A Las Vegas physician repaired the damage by inserting two pins in Wood’s shoulder. He also prescribed a sling to immobilize Wood’s arm and to prevent the pins from coming dislodged.

On March 11, 1983, the Nevada State Prison admitted Wood as a new inmate. Ignoring Wood’s protests, the prison guard admitting Wood confiscated the sling because 1) he believed it to be a security threat and 2) he did not have access to Wood’s medical file to prove…

concurring:

I write separately in affirming the judgment of the district court because I differ with Judge Farris’ analysis of the Eighth Amendment claim. I conclude that the confiscation of the sling and the long and unjustified delay in treatment to remove the broken pin did amount to deliberate indifference as discussed in Judge Reinhardt’s dissent. However, I agree to affirm because I find an insufficient basis to impose personal liability on Housewright, as the Director of the Nevada State Department of Prisons, or Sumner, as the Warden of the Nevada State Prison.

The findings of the district court indicate that there was no personal involvement in, or knowledge of, the confiscation of the sling or the delay in treatment. Sumner testified that it was against the prison policy to confiscate medically necessary equipment. The dissent contends that the failure to establish more exact guidelines to implement that policy was deliberate indifference on the part of Sumner and House-wright. More explicit guidelines may well have prevented this unfortunate exercise of judgment on the part of the guard, but I cannot categorize the lack of more explicit guidelines as rising to the…

900 F.2d 1332 David Poe WOOD, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Vernon G. HOUSEWRIGHT, George Sumner, Defendants-Appellees. No. 87-2519. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted Oct. 6, 1989. Decided April 2, 1990. Jerome I. Braun, Douglas R. Young, Jennifer Schwartz, Farella, Braun & Martel, San Francisco, Cal., for plaintiff-appellant. Brian McKay, Atty. Gen., Waldo DeCastroverde, Deputy Atty. Gen., State of Nevada, Carson City, Nev., for defendants-appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Nevada. Before HUG, FARRIS and REINHARDT, Circuit Judges. FARRIS, Circuit Judge: 1 David Poe Wood, an inmate at the Nevada State Prison sued Vernon Housewright, then Director of the Nevada State Department of Prisons, and George Sumner, Warden of the Nevada State Prison, in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada seeking damages and injunctive relief under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 . Wood alleged that the defendants were liable for: 1) deliberate indifference by the prison staff to his medical needs, and 2) for denying him meaningful access to the courts in his effort to pursue this action. The district court ruled in favor…