Jones v. Simek

Clifford B. Jones suffers from a painful and debilitating condition known as Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy ("RSD") and, as a result, has lost the use of his right arm and hand. He attributes his affliction to the treatment he received at the hands of the four defendants, all employees of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, during a stay at Chicagos Metropolitan Correctional Center ("MCC"). Jones filed this civil rights suit under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388 (1971), alleging that the defendants had subjected him to excessive force and refused to give him medical treatment, in violation of the Eighth Amendments prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The district court dismissed the medical care claim in response to the defendants motion in the alternative for dismissal on the pleadings or summary judgment. It allowed the excessive force claim to go to a bench trial, after which the court found for the defendants. Jones now appeals the dismissal of the medical care claim, as well as the district courts decisions on two pre-trial motions. We affirm in part and reverse in part.