Hildebrand v. Ouellette

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DAKOTA HILDEBRAND, Plaintiff, v. MARGARET OUELLETTE et al., Defendants.

No. 1:22-cv-1228

United States District Court, W.D. Michigan, Southern Division

January 23, 2023

OPINION

Jane M. Beckering United States District Judge.

This is a civil rights action brought by a state prisoner under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the Rehabilitation Act (RA). Plaintiff has been granted leave to proceed in forma pauperis. (ECF No 4.) Under the Prisoner Litigation Reform Act, Pub. L. No 104-134, 110 Stat. 1321 (PLRA), the Court is required to dismiss any prisoner action brought under federal law if the complaint is frivolous, malicious, fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, or seeks monetary relief from a defendant immune from such relief. 28 U.S.C §§ 1915(e)(2), 1915A; 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(c). The Court must read Plaintiff's pro se complaint indulgently, see Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 520 (1972), and accept Plaintiff's allegations as true unless they are clearly irrational or wholly incredible. Denton v. Hernandez, 504 U.S. 25, 33 (1992). Applying these standards, the Court will dismiss Plaintiff's complaint for failure to state a claim.

Discussion

I. Factual Allegations

Plaintiff is presently incarcerated with the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) at the Lakeland Correctional Facility (LCF) in Coldwater, Branch County, Michigan. The events about which he complains occurred at that facility. Plaintiff sues Medical Provider Margaret Ouellette and Health Care Unit Manager Nathan Mikel in their official and personal capacities. (ECF No. 1, PageID.2.)

Plaintiff alleges that he has a “documented medical history of diminished paraspinus muscle tone throughout the spine.” (Id.) Plaintiff states further that he suffers from degenerative disc disease and “pes cavus” of the feet. (Id.) In 2016, Plaintiff was also diagnosed with moderate to severe spinal stenosis. (Id., PageID.3.) He alleges that he needed surgery in 2016, and that his medical condition has become worse since then. (Id.)

Plaintiff was sentenced to the custody of the MDOC in 2019. (Id.) On April 3, 2022, he was rushed to the Promedica Regional Hospital in Coldwater for “excruciating lower back pain.” (Id.) The attending emergency room physician recommended that Plaintiff receive an electromyography (EMG) within 10 days of discharge. (Id.) Plaintiff also mentions that he was discharged from the hospital with “all his medication to help with his pain.” (Id.)

Plaintiff contends that since his return to LCF, Defendant Ouellette has “refuse[d] to honor all [medical] recommendations.” (Id., PageID.4.) Instead, she has “deferred all treatment to an alternate plan consisting of home exercise/physical therapy.” (Id.) Plaintiff alleges that “as of this present day nothing has happened with [his] medical treatment.” (Id.) Plaintiff wrote to Defendant Mikel about the “inadequate medical treatment,” but alleges that Defendant Mikel “refuses to do anything to assist [Plaintiff] with [his] medical issues regardless [that it is] in black and white on [Plaintiff's] documents.” (Id.)

Based on the foregoing, Plaintiff asserts violations of his Eighth Amendment rights, the ADA, and the RA. (Id., PageID.4-5.) He also asserts state law claims of gross negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. (Id., PageID.6.) Plaintiff seeks declaratory relief, as well as compensatory and punitive damages. (Id.)

II. Failure to State a Claim

A complaint may be dismissed for failure to state a claim if it fails “to give the defendant fair notice of what the . . . claim is and the grounds upon which it rests.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007) (quoting Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 47 (1957)). While a complaint need not contain detailed factual allegations, a plaintiff's allegations must include more than labels and conclusions. Id.; Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (“Threadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of action, supported by mere conclusory statements, do not suffice.”). The court must determine whether the complaint contains “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570. “A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 679. Although the plausibility standard is not equivalent to a “‘probability requirement,' . . . it asks for more than a sheer possibility that a defendant has acted unlawfully.” Id. at 678 (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 556). “[W]here the well-pleaded facts do not permit the court to infer more than the mere possibility of misconduct, the complaint has alleged-but it has not ‘show[n]'-that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Id. at 679 (quoting Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(a)(2)); see also Hill v. Lappin, 630 F.3d 468, 470-71 (6th Cir. 2010) (holding that the Twombly/Iqbal plausibility standard applies to dismissals of prisoner cases on initial review under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1915A(b)(1) and 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii)).

A. ADA and RA Claims

As noted above, Plaintiff asserts violations of the ADA and RA based upon his contention that Defendants have “exclud[ed] Plaintiff from receiving the benefits of medical treatment[] based on his disability.” (ECF No. 1, PageID.5.) The Court presumes that these claims are brought pursuant to Title II of the ADA, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12131 et seq., and Section 504 of the RA, 29 U.S.C. § 794(a).

Title II of the ADA provides, in pertinent part, that no qualified individual with a disability shall, because of that disability, “be denied the benefits of the services, programs, or activities of a public entity, or be subjected to discrimination by any such entity.” Mingus v. Butler, 591 F.3d 474, 481-82 (6th Cir. 2010) (citing 42 U.S.C. § 12132).^[1] In order to state a claim under Title II of the ADA and Section 504 of the RA, Plaintiff must show: (1) that he is a qualified individual with a disability; (2) that defendants are subject to the ADA and the RA; and (3) that he was denied the opportunity to participate in or benefit from defendants' services, programs, or activities, or was otherwise discriminated against by defendants, by reason of plaintiff's disability. See Tucker v. Tennessee, 539 F.3d 526, 532-33 (6th Cir. 2008); see also Jones v. City of Monroe, 341 F.3d 474, 477 (6th Cir. 2003). The term “qualified individual with a disability” includes “an individual with a disability who, with or without . . . the provision of auxiliary aids and services, meets the essential eligibility requirements for the receipt of services or participation in programs or activities provided by a public entity.” 42 U.S.C. § 12131(2).

Both Title II of the ADA and the RA apply to state prisons and inmates. Penn. Dep't of Corr. v. Yeskey, 524 U.S. 206, 210-12 (1998) (noting that the phrase “services, programs, or activities” in § 12132 includes recreational, medical, educational, and vocational prison programs); Diemond v. Mich. Dep't of Corr., No. 18-1344, 2018 WL 7890769, at *2 (6th Cir. Oct. 31, 2018) (“The ADA and RA do apply to state prisons.”). The proper defendant under a Title II claim is the public entity or an official acting in his official capacity. Carten v. Kent State Univ., 282 F.3d 391, 396-97 (6th Cir. 2002). Plaintiff has named Defendants in their individual and official capacities.

Plaintiff's factual allegations, however, fail to suggest that Defendants denied adequate medical treatment because of any disability that Plaintiff may suffer. As the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has explained, “[w]here the handicapping condition is related to the condition(s) to be treated, it will rarely, if ever, be possible to say . . . that a particular decision was ‘discriminatory.'” United States v. Univ. Hosp. 729 F.2d 144, 157 (2d Cir. 1984). Indeed, that distinction explains why the ADA and the RA are not appropriate federal causes of action to challenge the sufficiency of medical treatment. See, e.g., Baldridge-El v. Gundy, No. 99-2387, 2000 WL 1721014, at *2 (6th Cir. Nov. 8, 2000) (“[N]either the RA nor the ADA provide a cause of action for medical malpractice.”); Centaurs v. Haslam, No. 14-5348, 2014 WL 12972238, at *1 (6th Cir. Oct. 2, 2014) (“Although [Plaintiff] may have a viable civil rights claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for inadequate medical care, he has failed to state a prima facie case under the parameters of the ADA.”); Powell v. Columbus Medical Enterprises, LLC, No. 21-3351, 2021 WL 8053886, at *2 (6th Cir. Dec. 13, 2021) (“This dissatisfaction necessarily sounds in medical malpractice, which, ‘by itself, does not state a claim under the ADA.'”).^[2] Plaintiff, therefore, has failed to state claims against Defendants for violations of the ADA and RA, and such claims will be dismissed.

B. Section 1983 Claims

To state a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a plaintiff must allege the violation of a right secured by the federal Constitution or laws and must show that the deprivation was committed by a person acting under color of state law. West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42, 48 (1988); Street v. Corr. Corp. of Am., 102 F.3d 810, 814 (6th Cir. 1996). Because § 1983 is a method for vindicating federal rights, not a source of substantive rights itself, the first step in an action under § 1983 is to identify the specific constitutional right allegedly infringed. Albright v. Oliver, 510 U.S. 266, 271 (1994). As noted above, Plaintiff contends that Defendants violated his Eighth Amendment rights by failing to provide adequate medical care for Plaintiff's back problems following his discharge from the hospital.

The Eighth Amendment...