Yehoshua Israel Millay v. Daviess County

Summary

The court grants Daviess County’s motion for summary judgment and denies Yehoshua Israel Millay’s cross-motion in a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action. Millay, a pretrial detainee, alleged that inadequately sanitized communal hair clippers at the Daviess County Detention Center caused him to contract MRSA and that the County was deliberately indifferent under the Fourteenth Amendment. The court concludes that Millay failed to establish a substantial risk of serious harm, deliberate indifference, causation, or an unconstitutional municipal policy or custom.

Holdings

1. Millay failed to establish a genuine dispute that the detention center's communal-clipper practices exposed him to a substantial risk of serious harm or that County officials deliberately and recklessly disregarded such a risk.
2. Millay's municipal-liability claim failed because he did not establish an underlying constitutional violation or an unconstitutional policy or custom attributable to Daviess County.
3. Daviess County was entitled to summary judgment, and Millay was not entitled to summary judgment.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the evidence created a genuine dispute that Daviess County subjected Millay to conditions posing a substantial risk of serious harm in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.
2. Whether Daviess County acted deliberately and recklessly in connection with its communal-clipper sanitation procedures.
3. Whether Millay established an official county policy or custom that caused an underlying constitutional violation sufficient for municipal liability under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
4. Whether either party was entitled to summary judgment.

Disposition

other