Jose Morales v. Robert Horel

MEMORANDUM

Jose Luis Morales, a California state prisoner, appeals pro se from the district court’s summary judgment in his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action alleging that defendants were deliberately indifferent to his serious ■medical needs. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We review de novo. Toguchi v. Chung, 391 F.3d 1051, 1056 (9th Cir.2004). We affirm.

The district court properly granted summary judgment for defendants Pompan, Risenhoover, and Duncan because Morales failed to raise a genuine dispute of material fact as to whether defendants’ treatment of Morales’s right knee constituted deliberate indifference. See id. at 1057-58 (deliberate indifference occurs when the prison official knows of and disregards an excessive risk to the inmate’s health and safety; a mere disagreement between a prisoner and medical personnel over the proper course of treatment fails to establish deliberate indifference). Morales does not challenge the dismissal of the other defendants named in his original complaint.

The district court did not abuse its discretion by denying Morales’s motion for appointment of counsel because Morales failed to demonstrate exceptional circumstances. See…