Bobby Marion Dixon v. Eddie Ylst

Appellant Dixon, a state prisoner, sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 , claiming that prison officials denied him adequate medical treatment in violation of his Eighth Amendment rights. The case went to trial. The magistrate judge granted defendants’ motion for a directed verdict. Dixon appeals, claiming that: (1) he was entitled to have an Article III judge, not a magistrate judge, try his case; (2) he was denied the right to call witnesses at his trial; and (3) the physical restraints applied to him during trial recesses interfered with his preparation. We affirm.

I. Jurisdiction over the Appeal.

When Dixon consented to trial before a magistrate judge, he also consented to have any appeal heard by the district court. See 28 U.S.C. § 636 (c)(4). Although his notice of appeal specified that he was appealing to the district court, his appeal was referred to this court, briefed, and calendared for argument without objection. Since the consent to district court appeal “does not create a permanent and nonwaivable jurisdictional bar to appeal to this court,” we have jurisdiction which we may, and in this case do, exercise in the absence of objection. Ridings v. Lane County, Or., 862 F.2d…