United States Ninth Circuit

In this prisoner civil rights action in which plaintiff alleges that Arizona state prison officials failed to protect an inmate from an attack by two other inmates during a prison escort, summary judgment in favor of defendants is reversed and the case is remanded, where: 1) there was sufficient evidence that the undermanned escort by one prison guard of three mutually hostile, half-restrained, high-security inmates through an isolated prison passage posed a substantial risk of harm; 2) there was sufficient evidence that the escorting officer was subjectively aware of the risk involved and acted with deliberate indifference to the inmate's safety; and 3) because there were disputed material facts with respect to deliberate indifference, and because Arizona's gross negligence standard is lower than the federal deliberate indifference standard, there were also disputed material facts with respect to gross negligence.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/26/2015
• Published 01/26/2015

Judges

• Friedland

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel