United States First Circuit

In a suit alleging violations of the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments under 42 U.S.C. section 1983 and medical malpractice under Puerto Rico law after the death of a prison inmate, the judgment of the district court is affirmed where the part of the district court's decision that dismissed plaintiff's claim as a sanction was harmless error since summary judgment was appropriately granted in the alternative given the absence of a genuine issue of material fact regarding the defendants' deliberate indifference to the deceased's serious medical needs.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/24/2007
• Published 04/24/2007

Judges

• DiCLERICO, District Judge., Before TORRUELLA and LIPEZ, Circuit Judges, and DiCLERICO, JR., District Judge.

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• José R. Olmo-Rodríguez, for appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Susana I. Peñagarícano-Brown, Assistant Solicitor General, Department of Justice, with whom Salvador J. Antonetti-Stutts, Solicitor General, and Maite D. Oronoz-Rodríguez, Deputy Solicitor General, were on brief, for appellees.