In Labatad v. Corrections Corp. of America, published May 1, 2013, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment in favor of correctional officials in a suit brought by a prison inmate beaten by his cellmate, a member of a different gang. Three days before, the plaintiff had had a fight with another member of the gang. The fight was not gang related, and they shook hands afterward. Absent other information that placing the two inmates in the same cell posed a risk to the plaintiff, the appellate court ruled, the undisputed facts established that the officials were not liable under the Eighth Amendment for deliberate indifference to risk of harm to the plaintiff.
The Ninth Circuit also ruled that the district court erred in sending the inmate notice of the procedural requirements for summary judgment oppositions after the plaintiff had already filed his opposition. The court further noted that harmless-error analysis usually does not apply to such errors. But it found the error harmless here, because the plaintiff's opposition fully complied with the requirements set forth in the notice.
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