Morris v. Kingston
Opinion of the Court
ORDER
Darren D’Wayne Morris sued a number of prison officials, claiming that he missed meals, showers, and recreation time because his hearing disability prevented him from complying with prison rules. The district court granted summary judgment for the defendants. We affirm.
Morris sued for damages and injunctive relief under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12131-12134. He claimed that the defendants knew about his disability but deliberately disregarded his needs by passing him over for meals and medication. Morris also claimed that the prison’s policy requiring him to respond to an audio cue in order to get essential needs violated the ADA, which prohibits discrimination in the provision of public services. 42 U.S.C. § 12132; Wis. Cmty. Servs., Inc. v. City of Milwaukee, 465 F.3d 737, 750 (7th Cir. 2006). He sought damages under the ADA for deprivation of food and medicine, and injunctive relief requiring Waupun to redesign lunchroom facilities to ensure that those with hearing disabilities would be safe even though they could not respond to an audible alarm.
The district court granted summary judgment to the defendants. The court concluded that missing a few meals and doses of medicine did not so seriously deprive Morris as to violate the Eighth Amendment. Moreover, the court concluded that Morris had not established that the defendants were deliberately indifferent to his needs for food and medicine, and that the prison officials were at most negligent. As for the ADA claims, the court concluded that his request for injunctive relief was mooted by his transfer from Waupun, and that his failure to make out an Eighth Amendment claim doomed his request for damages, which are available under Title II only for constitutional violations.
On appeal, Morris contends that the district court improperly granted summary judgment for the defendants. He maintains that a genuine issue exists concerning how seriously he was affected by missing food and medicine. He also contends that his request for injunctive relief was not moot because, as a prisoner serving a life sentence, he is likely to be transferred back to Waupun at some later point.
The Eighth Amendment requires prison officials to provide adequate food, clothing, shelter, and medical care to prisoners. Fanner v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 832, 114 S.Ct. 1970, 128 L.Ed.2d 811 (1994); Sain v. Wood, 512 F.3d 886, 893 (7th Cir. 2008). To establish an Eighth Amendment violation, a prisoner must show that he has been severely harmed and that prison officials were deliberately indifferent to that harm. Farmer, 511 U.S. at 834, 114 S.Ct. 1970; Collins v. Seeman, 462 F.3d 757, 760 (7th Cir. 2006). This requires that prison officials knew about a substantial risk of
Morris argues that his weight loss while in segregation belies the district court’s conclusion that he suffered no serious harm. But as the district court noted, he was examined five times by medical staff during his 24-day stay in segregation, and the staff noted no serious medical problem related to weight loss or otherwise caused • by missing food or medicine. Whether or not the 17-day delay in placing the placard outside his cell suggests a failure to provide adequate care, Morris cannot establish a constitutional violation because he has not shown that missing his meals or medicine caused serious harm or lasting detriment. See Freeman v. Berge, 441 F.3d 543, 547 (7th Cir. 2006) (concluding that even a 45-pound weight loss would not support a claim without evidence of serious suffering or lasting harm); Smith v. Carpenter, 316 F.3d 178, 187 (2d Cir. 2003) (upholding jury’s finding that missing one week of HIV medication did not cause serious injury); Zentmyer v. Kendall County, Ill., 220 F.3d 805, 811-12 (7th Cir. 2000) (concluding that missing some doses of medicine was not a constitutional violation without showing of serious harm).
As for his ADA claims, although Morris correctly notes that Title II applies to prisoners, see Pa. Dep’t of Corr. v. Yeskey, 524 U.S. 206, 210, 118 S.Ct. 1952, 141 L.Ed.2d 215 (1998); Stanley v. Litscher, 213 F.3d 340, 343 (7th Cir. 2000), the district court correctly rejected his request for injunctive relief. “[Wjhen a prisoner who seeks injunctive relief for a condition specific to a particular prison is transferred out of that prison, the need for relief, and hence the prisoner’s claim, become moot.” Lehn v. Holmes, 364 F.3d 862, 871 (7th Cir. 2004); see also Higgason v. Farley, 83 F.3d 807, 811 (7th Cir. 1996). Morris was transferred to Columbia in October 2006, and he needed to provide more than just his conjecture of a possible return to Waupun to stave off dismissal for mootness. Preiser v. Newkirk, 422 U.S. 395, 403, 95 S.Ct. 2330, 45 L.Ed.2d 272 (1975); Moore v. Thieret, 862 F.2d 148, 150 (7th Cir. 1988).
But his claim for damages based on past conduct is not mooted by his transfer. Ortiz v. Downey, 561 F.3d 664, 668 (7th Cir. 2009). The district court correctly recognized that Title II creates a private cause of action for damages against states for conduct that violates the Fourteenth Amendment, and so Title II abrogates state sovereign immunity at least for those claims that independently violate the Constitution. United States v. Georgia, 546 U.S. 151, 159, 126 S.Ct. 877, 163 L.Ed.2d 650 (2006); Toeller v. Wis. Dep’t of Corr., 461 F.3d 871, 874 (7th Cir. 2006). As the district court properly stated, though, Morris’s inability to establish an Eighth Amendment claim forecloses this avenue for relief.
But the district court did not note that in Georgia the Court left open the question whether the ADA could validly abrogate sovereign immunity for non-constitutional violations. 546 U.S. at 159, 126 S.Ct. 877. In reserving this question, the Court instructed lower courts to determine in the first instance, claim by claim, whether Congress’s purported abrogation of sovereign immunity is valid when the challenged conduct violates the ADA but not the Constitution. Georgia, 546 U.S. at 159, 126 S.Ct. 877.
But Title II only provides for damages if a public official intentionally discriminates because of disability. See Bd. of Educ. of Twp. High Sch. Dist. No. 211 v.
AFFIRMED.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Darren D'Wayne MORRIS v. Phillip A. KINGSTON
- Status
- Published