UNITED
STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT
RUSSELL M.
BOLES,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
v.
RICHARD
DANSDILL;LT. et. al.,
Defendants
-Appellant.
No. 09-1145
2010 U.S. App. Lexis 724
January 12, 2010, Filed
NOTICE:
PLEASE REFER TO
FEDERAL RULES OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE RULE 32.1 GOVERNING THE CITATION TO
UNPUBLISHED OPINIONS.
ORDER AND JUDGMENT *
After examining the briefs and the appellate
record, this three-judge panel has determined unanimously that oral argument
would not be of material assistance in the determination of this appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2);
10th Cir. R. 34.1(G). The case
is therefore ordered submitted without oral argument.
In a 42
U.S.C. § 1983 claim, plaintiff-appellant Russell M. Boles sued various
officials at the Fremont Correctional Facility ("FCF") for violations
of his First and Eighth Amendment rights related to
the denial of kosher food and adequate medical care. The magistrate issued a
thorough and comprehensive recommendation that summary judgment be granted in
favor of the defendants. The district court agreed with the recommendation and
entered judgment for the defendants. Mr. Boles now appeals. We have
jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291,
and we AFFIRM.
I. BACKGROUND
Mr. Boles alleges that he suffers from
various medical conditions, including hypoglycemia,
sleep apnea, irritable bowel syndrome, and allergies. He is also an orthodox
Jew. In Claim One of his complaint, Mr. Boles alleges that Captain Richard Dansdill (FCF's kitchen manager), Lieutenant Charles
Peoples (FCF's officer responsible for food and snack preparation), and Dr.
Timothy Creany (FCF's chief physician) violated his Eighth Amendment rights when they
cancelled, interfered with, or did not properly deliver therapeutic kosher
snacks that had been prescribed to help with Mr. Boles's
hypoglycemia and irritable bowel syndrome. He further alleges that Dr. Creany deliberately ignored or overlooked his medical
symptoms and thus failed to diagnose him properly in violation of the Eighth Amendment. Finally, Mr. Boles
alleges that Tom Mallary (FCF's food services
manager) violated his First Amendment
rights by authorizing the improper preparation of kosher food and that
Lieutenant Peoples similarly violated his First Amendment rights by not kashering
the kitchen workspace and by forcing him to eat his Passover meal away from the
chow hall.
In Claim Two, Mr. Boles alleges that Michael
Walsh (a physician's assistant at FCF) was deliberately indifferent to his
allergy symptoms in violation of the Eighth
Amendment, and that Mr. Walsh further violated his Eighth Amendment rights by denying
him prescribed medication and access to medical personnel.
We address the allegations and evidence in
more detail below, beginning with Mr. Boles's
allegations in Claim Two, and then turning to his claims regarding the
therapeutic snacks and preparation of kosher food.
II. DISCUSSION
A. Standard of Review
We review summary judgment decisions de novo,
applying the same legal standard as the district court. Simms v. Okla. ex rel. Dep't of Mental Health & Substance Abuse Servs.,
165 F.3d 1321, 1326 (10th Cir. 1999).
Summary judgment is appropriate if there is no genuine issue as to any
material fact and the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of
law. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c). "When applying
this standard, we view the evidence and draw reasonable inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to the nonmoving
party." Simms, 165
F.3d at 1326.
B. Treatment of Allergies (Eighth Amendment Claim)
Mr. Boles alleges that Mr. Walsh violated
his Eighth Amendment rights by
denying him medical treatment for his allergy symptoms. The Eighth
Amendment prohibits the infliction of "cruel and unusual
punishments." U.S. Const. amend. VIII. The Eighth Amendment prohibits prison
officials from being deliberately indifferent to the serious medical needs of
prisoners in their custody. See Estelle
v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 104, 97 S. Ct. 285, 50 L. Ed. 2d 251 (1976)
("[D]eliberate indifference to serious medical
needs of prisoners constitutes the 'unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain'
proscribed by the Eighth Amendment.")
(citation omitted). An Eighth Amendment claim involves "a two-pronged inquiry, comprised of an objective component and a
subjective component." Self v. Crum, 439 F.3d 1227, 1230 (10th Cir. 2006).
"Under the objective inquiry, the alleged deprivation must be sufficiently
serious to constitute a deprivation of constitutional dimension." Id. (quotations omitted); see also Hudson v. McMillian, 503 U.S. 1, 9, 112 S.
Ct. 995, 117 L. Ed. 2d 156 (1992) (Eighth Amendment violation recognized
only if medical needs are "serious"). Under the
subjective inquiry, the defendant must have acted with a "sufficiently
culpable state of mind." Wilson v. Seiter, 501 U.S. 294, 297, 111 S.
Ct. 2321, 115 L. Ed. 2d 271 (1991). Thus, negligence will not
give rise to an Eighth Amendment
claim. See Berry v. City of Muskogee,
900 F.2d 1489, 1495-96 (10th Cir. 1990). Accordingly, in order to
establish an Eighth Amendment
claim that prison officials were deliberately indifferent to his medical needs,
Mr. Boles must demonstrate that: (1) he suffered objectively serious medical
needs; and (2) that the prison officials actually knew of and deliberately
disregarded those needs. See Ramos v. Lamm, 639 F.2d 559, 575 (10th Cir. 1980)
(two-pronged standard "requires deliberate indifference on the part of
prison officials and it requires the prisoner's medical needs to be serious").
Mr. Boles claims that Mr. Walsh denied him
the prescription Vasocon for his allergies. The
undisputed evidence, however, shows that Mr. Walsh did not discontinue or deny
Mr. Boles's prescription for Vasocon
eye drops. Instead, in late 2004 or early 2005, the Colorado Department of
Corrections' ("CDOC") Non-Formulary Committee removed Vasocon from the CDOC's Formulary List. As a result, Vasocon could no longer be prescribed without specific
authorization from the Non-Formulary Committee. As Mr. Walsh is not a member of
the CDOC's Non-Formulary Committee, he was not personally involved in this
decision and cannot be held liable for it. See Olson v. Stotts, 9 F.3d
1475, 1477 (10th Cir. 1993).
Mr. Boles's claim
that Mr. Walsh did not properly treat him amounts to no more than his
disagreement with the type of treatment he received and is not cognizable under
the Eighth Amendment. See Perkins v. Kan. Dep't of Corr., 165 F.3d
803, 811 (10th Cir. 1999) "[A]
prisoner who merely disagrees with a diagnosis or a prescribed course of
treatment does not state a constitutional violation."). In addition, there
is no evidence that Mr. Walsh deliberately disregarded Mr. Boles's
medical needs in violation of the Eighth
Amendment. Finally, Mr. Boles's related claim
that Mr. Walsh made treatment decisions based on his own prejudice is simply conclusory and not supported by any objective evidence. See
Hall v. Bellmon,
935 F.2d 1106, 1111 (10th Cir. 1991) ( "[C]onclusory and self-serving affidavits are not sufficient"
to establish the existence of a disputed material fact and therefore defeat a
motion for summary judgment).
C. Denial of
Therapeutic Snacks (Eighth Amendment
Claim)
Mr. Boles alleges that Mr. Dansdill and Dr. Creany violated
his Eighth Amendment rights by
discontinuing his therapeutic snacks. In October 2001, a dietician issued an
order for Mr. Boles to receive therapeutic snacks to ameliorate some of his
health conditions. The order expired in 2002 and was never renewed.
Nonetheless, Mr. Boles continued to receive therapeutic snacks. In April 2004,
Mr. Boles complained to Captain Dandsill about the
quality of the snacks. Captain Dansdill investigated
and learned that there was no current order for Mr. Boles to receive
therapeutic snacks. Because FCF's Food Services cannot issue snacks to an
inmate without a valid written medical order, Food Services stopped preparing
snacks for Mr. Boles on April 28. Accordingly, the undisputed evidence
demonstrates that Mr. Boles did not have a medical order to receive such
snacks; the evidence does not support Mr. Boles's
allegation that Captain Dansdill and Dr. Creany canceled or discontinued his snacks in violation of
the Eighth Amendment.
Moreover, Mr. Boles received a new order for
therapeutic snacks on July 29, 2004, and he has not put forth evidence that the
three-month period during which he did not receive snacks caused him any
physical harm. See Sealock v. Colorado, 218 F.3d 1205, 1210 (10th Cir.
2000) (delay in providing medical care to a prisoner violates the Eighth Amendment only if it results
in substantial harm). To the contrary, his medical records show that his
hypoglycemia has not progressed into diabetes or otherwise worsened.
D. Preparation of Kosher Food (First and Eighth Amendment Claims)
Mr. Boles contends that Lieutenant Peoples
caused his kosher foods and therapeutic snacks to "become non-kosher"
and to "deviate from the prescribed diet." He alleges that he was served
smelly eggs and rotten fruit, the food preparation area in the kitchen was not
properly kashered, and Passover meals were served in
a separate area away from the chow hall. We agree with the magistrate's
comprehensive analysis of the legal issues and the evidence underlying these
claims, which we incorporate by reference here. In short, the undisputed
evidence shows that rabbinical advisors to FCF's Food Services repeatedly
concluded that FCF's kosher preparation area was satisfactory and that FCF Food
Services was properly following guidelines for kosher food preparation. There
is no evidence that any of the defendants knowingly served bad or rotten food
or that any occasional problems were handled inappropriately. Finally, to the
extent Mr. Boles complains that the Passover meals were served in the
"holiday observance area" rather than in the chow hall, the evidence
demonstrates that CFC was following the Passover Guidelines, which state that
"the dining room is not an appropriate place for meal service due to there
being chometz [i.e., forbidden foods] in the
area." Moreover, FCF was not required to serve Passover meals in multiple
locations. See O'Lone v. Estate of Shabazz,
482 U.S. 342, 348, 107 S. Ct. 2400, 96 L. Ed. 2d 282 (1987) ( an inmate's free exercise rights may be limited in order
to achieve legitimate correctional goals or to maintain prison security).
III. CONCLUSION
The judgment of the district court is
AFFIRMED, and Mr. Boles motion to proceed without
prepayment of fees is DENIED. Mr. Boles must immediately pay the unpaid balance
of his filing fees.
ENTERED FOR THE COURT,
Deanell Reece Tacha
Circuit Judge
*
This order and judgment is not binding precedent except under the doctrines of
law of the case, res judicata and collateral estoppel. It may be cited, however, for its persuasive
value consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th
Cir. R. 32.1.