Filed: Dec. 27, 2013
Latest Update: Mar. 02, 2020
Summary: NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT _ No. 13-1926 _ ROOSEVELT A. BATTS, Appellant v. COMMISSIONER LOUIS GIORLA; CITY OF PHILADELPHIA; PRISON HEALTH SYSTEM _ On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (D.C. Civil Action No. 2-11-cv-05941) District Judge: Honorable Eduardo C. Robreno _ Submitted Pursuant to Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a) December 24, 2013 Before: SMITH, GARTH and ROTH, Circuit Judges (Opinion filed: Decembe
Summary: NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT _ No. 13-1926 _ ROOSEVELT A. BATTS, Appellant v. COMMISSIONER LOUIS GIORLA; CITY OF PHILADELPHIA; PRISON HEALTH SYSTEM _ On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (D.C. Civil Action No. 2-11-cv-05941) District Judge: Honorable Eduardo C. Robreno _ Submitted Pursuant to Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a) December 24, 2013 Before: SMITH, GARTH and ROTH, Circuit Judges (Opinion filed: December..
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NOT PRECEDENTIAL
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
___________
No. 13-1926
___________
ROOSEVELT A. BATTS,
Appellant
v.
COMMISSIONER LOUIS GIORLA;
CITY OF PHILADELPHIA; PRISON HEALTH SYSTEM
____________________________________
On Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
(D.C. Civil Action No. 2-11-cv-05941)
District Judge: Honorable Eduardo C. Robreno
____________________________________
Submitted Pursuant to Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a)
December 24, 2013
Before: SMITH, GARTH and ROTH, Circuit Judges
(Opinion filed: December 27, 2013)
___________
OPINION
___________
PER CURIAM
Pro se appellant Roosevelt Batts, a prisoner in the Philadelphia Prison System
(PPS) appeals the District Court’s orders (1) granting summary judgment to defendants
Louis Giorla, the Commissioner of PPS; the City of Philadelphia; and Prison Health
System, the contractor that provided medical services for PPS (collectively, “the
defendants”); and (2) denying his request for discovery. We exercise a plenary standard
of review over the District Court’s summary judgment order, see State Auto Prop. & Cas.
Ins. Co. v. Pro Design, P.C., 566 F.3d 86, 89 (3d Cir. 2009), and review the discovery
order for abuse of discretion, see Petrucelli v. Bohringer & Ratzinger,
46 F.3d 1298, 1310
(3d Cir. 1995). For the reasons set forth below, we will affirm the District Court’s
judgment.
After preliminary proceedings not relevant here, Batts filed a second amended
complaint in the District Court asserting the following two claims under 42 U.S.C.
§ 1983: (1) the defendants provided him inadequate medical treatment; and (2) the
defendants impermissibly housed him together with two other prisoners in a cell designed
for only two. The defendants filed a motion for summary judgment as to the inadequate-
medical-treatment claim only. The District Court (Judge Robreno) granted the
defendants’ motion, concluding that Batts had failed to show that the defendants
displayed deliberate indifference to his medical needs. Judge Robreno then entered
judgment on the medical-treatment claim pursuant to Rule 54(b) of the Federal Rules of
Civil Procedure, and transferred the prison-overcrowding claim to Judge Shapiro, who is
handling a number of consolidated cases involving the same issue. See E.D. Pa. Civ. A.
No. 11-3711. Batts then filed a timely notice of appeal to this Court.
As an initial matter, the defendants contend that we lack jurisdiction over this
appeal. We disagree. In a case like this, where the District Court relies on Rule 54(b) to
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certify a judgment for appeal and states explicitly in its order that “there is no just reason
for delay,” our jurisdiction “depends upon whether the district court properly granted
54(b) certification.” Elliott v. Archdiocese of N.Y., 682 F.3d 213, 219 (3d Cir. 2012)
(internal quotation marks omitted). We have set forth a number of factors for district
courts to consider in determining whether certification is appropriate, and we will
“disturb the trial court’s assessment of the equities only if we can say that the judge’s
conclusion was clearly unreasonable.” Berckeley Inv. Grp., Ltd. v. Colkitt,
455 F.3d 195,
202 (3d Cir. 2006). Here, the District Court’s analysis was reasonable. Most pertinently,
the certified claim (concerning medical treatment) is largely independent of the
remaining claim (concerning triple celling). Moreover, there is no possibility that
proceedings in the District Court could moot this appeal; there is little chance that this
Court could be forced to consider the same claims again; and, since Batts is the plaintiff
as to both claims, there will be no set-off. See
id. at 203 (setting out these factors).
Therefore, the District Court did not abuse its discretion in certifying this judgment under
Rule 54(b), and we deny the defendants’ motion to dismiss.1
We will affirm the District Court’s judgment on the merits. We have consistently
held that “[a] defendant in a civil rights action must have personal involvement in the
alleged wrongs; liability cannot be predicated solely on the operation of respondeat
1
Further, contrary to the defendants’ suggestion, district courts may exercise their
certification power sua sponte. See Weiss v. York Hosp., 745 F.2d 786, 804 (3d Cir.
1984); see also 10 Charles Alan Wright et al., Federal Practice and Procedure § 2660 (3d
ed. 2013).
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superior.” Rode v. Dellarciprete, 845 F.2d 1195, 1207 (3d Cir. 1988). Batts has not
claimed that Giorla, the Commissioner of PPS, had a role in providing or determining the
medical treatment that Batts received. While he claims that he sent letters to Giorla
complaining about his medical care, that is not sufficient to establish liability under §
1983. See Spruill v. Gillis,
372 F.3d 218, 236 (3d Cir. 2004). Therefore, the District
Court did not err in granting summary judgment to Giorla on this claim.
Meanwhile, to bring a § 1983 claim against a local government agency, such as
the City of Philadelphia, or against a private healthcare provider that is allegedly acting
under color of state law, such as Prison Health System, the plaintiff must show that an
official policy, practice, or custom caused an injury. See Monell v. Dep’t of Soc. Servs.,
436 U.S. 658, 690 (1978); Natale v. Camden Cnty. Corr. Facility,
318 F.3d 575, 583-84
(3d Cir. 2003). Critically, to sustain a claim under this framework, Batts must establish
an underlying constitutional violation. See Sanford v. Stiles,
456 F.3d 298, 314 (3d Cir.
2006). Here, he cannot do so.2
Batts complains about the treatment he received for a skin infection, for injuries he
sustained after falling from his bunk, and for injuries he sustained when a cellmate fell on
him. However, he acknowledges that he did receive continual care for each of these
ailments. For his skin infection, medical and prison personnel provided him with
2
While we have not yet determined the precise standard that applies to medical-treatment
claims when brought by pretrial detainees (like Batts in this case), see Natale, 318 F.3d at
581 n.5, we need not resolve the issue here because Batts has failed to show that his care
was inadequate under any relevant standard.
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antibiotics, ointment, and bandages, and Batts has agreed that this treatment cured the
infection. For the two falls, he received numerous examinations (one of which he missed
because he was playing in a basketball tournament), pain medication, x-rays (which
showed no fracture or dislocation), and even an ultrasound. While Batts might have
preferred different treatment, we have recognized that courts will “disavow any attempt
to second-guess the propriety or adequacy of a particular course of treatment[,] which
remains a question of sound professional judgment.” Inmates of Allegheny Cnty. Jail v.
Pierce, 612 F.2d 754, 762 (3d Cir. 1979) (internal alterations, quotation marks omitted)).
Indeed, in his complaint, Batts repeatedly uses the words “negligence” and “malpractice”
to describe his care; allegations of this sort are “not sufficient to establish a Constitutional
violation.”
Spruill, 372 F.3d at 235. Therefore, the District Court properly granted
summary judgment on this claim to the defendants.
Finally, the District Court did not abuse its discretion in denying Batts’s discovery
request for information concerning the amount of a certain medication that PPS had
ordered over a two-year period. He has not shown how this information could have
advanced his claim, and he is therefore entitled to no relief on appeal. See Anderson v.
Wachovia Mortg. Corp., 621 F.3d 261, 281 (3d Cir. 2010) (explaining that a discovery
order will not be disturbed “absent a showing of actual and substantial prejudice”).
Accordingly, we will affirm the District Court’s order. We also deny Batts’s
motion to file a supplemental appendix. Batts has not identified the documents that he
omitted from his initial appendix and wishes to include in his supplemental appendix.
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However, to the extent that the documents are already part of the District Court’s record,
it is unnecessary to include them in a supplemental appendix, as this Court already has
access to them; to the extent that they are not part of the District Court’s record, Batts has
not shown that his case presents the type of “exceptional circumstances” that would
justify supplementing the record on appeal. Burton v. Teleflex Inc., 707 F.3d 417, 435
(3d Cir. 2013).
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