Vondelle M. Over v. Sarah English, et al.

Summary

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin granted summary judgment to prison medical defendants in an inmate’s Eighth Amendment deliberate-indifference action concerning a chest mass and associated pain. The court deemed certain facts admitted because the plaintiff failed to comply with local summary-judgment procedures and concluded that the medical testing, examinations, and pain-management options provided defeated her claim. The case was dismissed.

Holdings

1. The court may strictly enforce its local rules governing summary-judgment responses and may deem admitted proposed facts to which the nonmoving party failed to respond properly with specific record citations.
2. Defendants were entitled to summary judgment because the undisputed evidence did not permit a reasonable jury to find that the chest mass was an objectively serious medical condition or that defendants were deliberately indifferent to it.
3. Even assuming that Over's chronic chest and left-arm pain was an objectively serious medical condition, defendants were not deliberately indifferent because the totality of the medical care showed repeated evaluation, diagnostic testing, and pain-management treatment options.

Questions Presented

1. Whether defendants were entitled to summary judgment on Over's Eighth Amendment deliberate-indifference claim concerning the chest mass.
2. Whether defendants were entitled to summary judgment on the alleged deliberate indifference to Over's chronic chest and left-arm pain.
3. Whether the court could deem admitted proposed facts to which Over failed to respond in compliance with the court's local summary-judgment rules.

Disposition

dismissed