JOHNNY RAY HERMAN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. LEROY HOLIDAY; RICHARD STALDER; POLICE JURY EAST CARROLL PARISH; DETENTION CENTER EAST CARROLL PARISH; JACK WYLY; INSURANCE LIABILITY CARRIERS; W. L. PAYNE; EARL K. FORTENBERRY; BILLY TRAVIS; GEORGE HOPKINS; BROWN F. NELSON; JOSEPH JACKSON; DARRIN DIXON; CLIFTON SCOTT; BOBBY L. MOORE, Defendants-Appellees.
No. 99-30863
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS, Fifth Circuit
January 16, 2001
REVISED, January 17, 2001
238 F.3d 660
Before JONES and DeMOSS, Circuit Judges, and BARZILAY, Judge.
Appeal from the United States District Court For the Western District of Louisiana.
DeMOSS, Circuit Judge:
Johnny Ray Herman (“Herman“), proceeding pro se and in forma pauperis, appeals from a final judgment entered by the district court, Judge Robert G. James presiding, which granted summary judgment to the defendants, East Carroll Detention Center warden Leroy Holiday et al. (collectively “the defendants“), with respect to Herman‘s
Having carefully reviewed the entire record of this case, and having fully considered the parties’ respective briefing on the issues in this appeal, we AFFIRM the judgment of this district court.
BACKGROUND
Beginning on or about June 18, 1997, Johnny Ray Herman was incarcerated for a period of approximately two months at the East Carroll Detention Center in East Carroll Parish, Louisiana.1 Herman alleges that, while he was incarcerated at ECDC, the facility was mosquito infested, had insufficient hot water with which to wash dishes or bathe, did not properly sanitize eating utensils (some of which were allegedly washed in large trash cans without soap), served cold food which had been prepared elsewhere and transported in coolers, contained an open cesspool near the residence areas of the facility, failed to provide adequate loaner clothing on laundry days, and was contaminated with asbestos to which inmates were routinely exposed.
Herman filed his verified civil rights complaint pursuant to
STANDARDS FOR REVIEW
In this appeal, Herman contends that the district court erred in granting the defendants’ motions for summary judgment. We are guided by the following standards for review of the district court‘s award of summary judgment. We review the grant of summary judgment de novo, applying all of the same standards applicable in the district court. See Sherrod v. American Airlines, Inc., 132 F.3d 1112, 1119 (5th Cir. 1998). And we review the summary judgment evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, in this case, Herman. See Melton v. Teachers Ins. & Annuity Ass‘n, 114 F.3d 557, 559 (5th Cir. 1997). Summary judgment under Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure is appropriate only if
. . . the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.
DISCUSSION
Our inquiry into whether the district court erred in granting the defendants summary judgment must proceed in two steps. First we must determine whether Herman has stated or alleged an Eighth Amendment violation. Second, assuming he has, we must determine whether, in light of the Prison Litigation Reform Act,
Eighth Amendment Claim
While the Constitution does not require that custodial inmates be housed in comfortable prisons, the Eighth Amendment‘s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment does require that prisoners be afforded “humane conditions of confinement” and prison officials are to ensure that inmates receive adequate food, shelter, clothing, and medical care. Farmer v. Brennan, 114 S. Ct. 1970, 1976 (1994). In order to establish an Eighth Amendment violation regarding conditions of confinement, an inmate must establish: first, that the deprivation alleged was sufficiently serious (i.e., an official‘s act or omission must have resulted in the denial of “the minimal civilized measure of life‘s necessities“); and second, that the prison official possessed a sufficiently culpable state of mind. See id. at 1977. The required state of mind for cases related to prison conditions is that the official acted with deliberate indifference to inmate health or safety. See Palmer v. Johnson, 193 F.3d 346, 352 (5th Cir. 1999). Deliberate indifference is established by showing that the defendant officials “(1) were aware of facts from which an inference of excessive risk to the prisoner‘s health or safety could be drawn and (2) that they actually drew an inference that such potential for harm existed.” Bradley v. Puckett, 157 F.3d 1022, 1025 (5th Cir. 1998).
In this case, there remain genuine issues of fact with respect to whether Herman was exposed to levels of asbestos sufficient to pose an unreasonable risk of serious damage to his future health, and with respect to whether the ECDC officials were deliberately indifferent to the risk of potential future injury from such exposure. This being said, however, summary judgment may still be appropriate for the defendants if Herman would not be entitled to any relief as a matter of law.
Injunctive and Declaratory Relief
In Helling, the Supreme Court clearly established that, even in the absence of any present physical injury resulting from involuntary exposure to environmental conditions posing a serious health risk, under
In this case, however, we have no doubt that the district court properly concluded Herman was not entitled to either declaratory or injunctive relief, even if he were able to establish that he was exposed to asbestos during his custodial incarceration in violation of the Eighth Amendment. Herman‘s incarceration at the ECDC was for a short period of time. Herman‘s transfer from the ECDC to the Dixon Correctional Institute in Jackson, Louisiana, rendered his claims for declaratory and injunctive relief moot. See Cooper v. Sheriff, Lubbock County, Tex., 929 F.2d 1078, 1084 (5th Cir. 1991). And any suggestion of relief based on the possibility of transfer back to the ECDC is too speculative to warrant relief. See Bailey v. Southerland, 821 F.2d 277, 279 (5th Cir. 1987). Thus, we conclude that the defendants are entitled to summary judgment on Herman‘s claims for declaratory and injunctive relief.
Damages
In his second amended complaint, Herman sought, in addition to injunctive and declaratory relief, money damages for “emotional distress and mental anguish for fear of the unknown disease, such as the deadly asbistos [sic].” In his first amended complaint, Herman sought recovery of money damages for “mental stress, due to the fear of his life of being subjected to life threatening, possible illness of these unconstitutional condictions [sic] of living and eating and sleeping while being housed at [ECDC].” And in his brief before this Court, Herman claims that the defendants’ deliberate indifference “has caused grave emotional and mental depression.” Herman also claims “physical health problems” but at no point in his pleadings, proofs, or briefings, does he specify any physical injury.
No federal civil action may be brought by a prisoner . . . for mental or emotional injury suffered while in custody without a prior showing of physical injury.
To the extent that Herman‘s various complaints can be read as alleging a claim of damages for the actual increased risk of developing an asbestos-related injury as a result of his very brief exposure to asbestos at the ECDC, we decline to characterize such allegations as sufficiently separate from his claim for emotional and mental damages so as to constitute an independent category of non-emotional or non-mental damages, the recovery of which,
Before concluding, we pause to note that with respect to each of Herman‘s other claims for relief (i.e., cold showers, cold food, unsanitary dishes, insect problems, a lack of adequate clothing, and the presence of an open “cesspool” near the housing unit), Herman has sought only damages for the emotional and mental injuries caused by such conditions. We conclude that Herman is not entitled to an award of money damages as to these claims for the same reasons he is not entitled to recover money damages for exposure to asbestos at the ECDC (that is, failure to allege a physical injury resulting therefrom). Likewise, for the same reasons Herman‘s claims for injunctive and declaratory relief regarding his exposure to asbestos must fail (i.e., mootness in light of his transfer to the Dixon Correctional Institute), we also conclude that Herman is not entitled to injunctive or declaratory relief on these additional claims.
CONCLUSION
For all of the reasons discussed above, we conclude that the various defendants were entitled to judgment as a matter of law on each and every claim asserted by Herman. Accordingly, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court granting summary judgment to the defendants.
AFFIRMED.