NOT FOR PUBLICATION
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FILED
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT APR 24 2015
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
MICHAEL T. HAYES, ) No. 13-35306
)
Plaintiff - Appellant, ) D.C. No. 1:09-cv-00122-BLW
)
v. ) MEMORANDUM*
)
CORRECTIONS CORPORATION )
OF AMERICA; JOHN FERGUSON; )
STEVE GARETT; SUSAN )
BAJOVICH; JANET STANGER, )
LPN at ICC Medical; JOHN/JANE )
DOES, Members SMU Placement )
Committee ICC; BRIAN DOSER, )
Unit Manager; BRENT )
ARCHIBALD, ICC Investigation )
Officer, )
)
Defendants - Appellees. )
)
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the District of Idaho
B. Lynn Winmill, Chief District Judge, Presiding
Argued and Submitted April 8, 2015
Seattle, Washington
Before: FERNANDEZ, HAWKINS, and CALLAHAN, Circuit Judges.
*
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.
Michael Hayes appeals from the judgment issued by the district court in
favor of Corrections Corporation of America (“CCA”) and a number of its
employees.1 The judgment issued after a jury verdict in a trial on the claims
against Doser and Acosta wherein the jury answered “NO” to the question: “While
incarcerated at the Idaho Correctional Center on K-Pod, did [Hayes] face a
substantial risk of serious harm?” Prior to that, the district court had granted
summary judgment against him on his claims against CCA, the Warden, and the
Committee. We affirm.
Hayes brought a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action in which he claimed that his rights
under the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution had been violated
during his incarceration. In order to prevail, he had to prove that CCA and the
employees had violated his constitutional rights because they were deliberately
indifferent when they allowed him to be subjected “to a substantial risk of serious
harm”2 from other inmates.
Hayes asserts that the verdict must be overturned because the district court
1
“The employees” are Brian Doser, Justin Acosta, Phillip Valdez (the
Warden), Brandon Delaney, Dan Prado and April Chapman. The latter three
individuals were the members of the Segregation Housing Committee, and will be
referred to hereafter as the Committee.
2
Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 828, 114 S. Ct. 1970, 1974, 128 L. Ed. 2d
811 (1994).
2
excluded certain “concern forms” that other prisoners had sent to other prison
workers some time after the incident in question here. We disagree. The district
court did not abuse its “‘wide discretion,’”3 when it determined that those pieces of
evidence were not relevant4 to the case at hand. The district court did not
arbitrarily establish a rule that it would not admit any reports (or concern forms)
regarding incidents that occurred after Hayes’ incident;5 rather, it declared it would
remain flexible, and it did. Indeed, the district court did admit a good deal of
evidence regarding the concern forms. Moreover, any error in excluding the forms
in question was harmless. See Harper v. City of Los Angeles, 533 F.3d 1010, 1030
(9th Cir. 2008).
Hayes then asserts that the district court erred when it granted summary
judgment to the Warden and the Committee. While we perceive no error, even if
there were error it was harmless because the jury’s determination that Hayes did
3
See United States v. Alvarez, 358 F.3d 1194, 1205 (9th Cir. 2004) (quoting
United States v. Long, 706 F.2d 1044, 1054 (9th Cir. 1983)).
4
See Fed. R. Evid. 401; M2 Software, Inc. v. Madacy Entm’t, 421 F.3d
1073, 1088 (9th Cir. 2005).
5
See United States v. Hinkson, 585 F.3d 1247, 1262–63 (9th Cir. 2009) (en
banc).
3
not face “a substantial risk of serious harm”6 necessitated that he could not prevail
against them — “there’s no way that the jury could have found that [they] were
liable.”7 Similarly, CCA could not be found liable8 in the absence of “a substantial
risk of serious harm” to Hayes.9
AFFIRMED.
6
Farmer, 511 U.S. at 828, 114 S. Ct. at 1974.
7
See Peralta v. Dillard, 744 F.3d 1076, 1087 (9th Cir. 2014) (en banc)
(Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50(a) judgment upheld), cert. denied, __ U.S. __,
135 S. Ct. 946, 190 L. Ed. 2d 829 (2015); see also Anderson v. Liberty Lobby,
Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 250–52, 106 S. Ct. 2505, 2511–12, 91 L. Ed. 2d 202 (1986)
(summary judgment “standard mirrors the standard for a directed verdict under
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50(a)”).
8
See Monell v. Dep’t of Soc. Servs., 436 U.S. 658, 694, 98 S. Ct. 2018,
2037–38, 56 L. Ed. 2d 611 (1978); Tsao v. Desert Palace, Inc., 698 F.3d 1128,
1138–39 (9th Cir. 2012).
9
Farmer, 511 U.S. at 828, 114 S. Ct. at 1974.
4