Bass v. Wallenstein

United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit · 1985 · Torts

TortsSection 1983Prison medical careDamagesSurvival and wrongful death1983Eighth AmendmentFourteenth Amendment

Facts

Bass, a Stateville inmate, repeatedly requested medical help during the night, but medical technicians refused to let him be taken to the hospital and instead sent pills. When Bass was later found unconscious, there was evidence from correctional officers and the pathologist that he still had signs of life and was alive when some resuscitative measures were undertaken. Dr. Hoffman, the only physician on duty, did not respond immediately to repeated emergency calls and arrived ten to fifteen minutes after first being notified. There was also evidence that Stateville's emergency medical system had serious deficiencies in sick-call access, staffing, training, and cardiac-arrest procedures, and that Wallenstein and Such were aware of those deficiencies.

Issue

Whether the evidence was sufficient to support jury findings that Dr. Hoffman and prison administrators Wallenstein and Such were deliberately indifferent to Bass's serious medical needs and that their conduct caused his death. The court also considered whether Wallenstein and Such were entitled to qualified immunity and whether the jury was properly instructed on damages in an estate-based Section 1983 action.

Rule

A Section 1983 plaintiff must prove a causal connection between the defendant's unconstitutional conduct and the injury. In prison medical-care cases, deliberate indifference may be shown not only by an individual physician's intentional failure to respond promptly to an emergency, but also by systemic and gross deficiencies in staffing, personnel, and sick-call procedures that effectively deny inmates access to adequate medical care. Under Section 1988, state survivorship or wrongful-death rules may be borrowed only if consistent with Section 1983; where the constitutional deprivation causes death, state law cannot bar the estate from recovering damages for loss of life, pre-death conscious pain and suffering, and punitive damages where the Smith v. Wade standard is met.

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One of 10 multiple-choice questions for this case. Pick an answer to see why.

At a correctional facility in Springfield, Illinois, inmate Darren Cole collapsed in his housing unit. A nurse said she felt a faint carotid pulse, began chest compressions, and the inmate reached the infirmary seven minutes later, but the on-call physician—after twice being told it was an emergency—did not arrive for another twelve minutes. The estate's cardiology expert testified that with prompt advanced cardiac life support, Darren would have had a meaningful chance of survival, though not a guaranteed one.

If the physician moves for judgment notwithstanding the verdict after a plaintiff's verdict, what is the strongest basis for denying the motion?

Explanation. The majority required proof of a causal connection between the unconstitutional conduct and death, but held that exact proof of certain survival is unnecessary. Evidence that the inmate was still alive and that timely advanced care could have given him a meaningful chance of survival is enough for a jury to find causation, defeating judgment notwithstanding the verdict when the evidence is viewed favorably to the verdict winner.