DISCLAIMER: Any unofficial case summaries below are prepared by the clerk's office
as a courtesy to the reader. They are not part of the opinion of the court.
054363P.pdf 01/23/2007 Lee Ambrose v. Major Darin Young
U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 05-4363
U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota
[PUBLISHED][ Riley, Author, with Lay and Riley, Circuit Judges]
Civil case - civil rights. In action by an deceased inmates' family
following his death by accidental electrocution while on a prison work
detail, deliberate indifference standard was the appropriate liability
standard as the prison official in charge of the work detail had time to
deliberate and assess the situation before he gave the work orders which
placed the inmate in danger; ordering an inmate to work near a downed
power line poses a substantial risk of serious harm; defendant Young's
directions to inmates to stomp out a fire near the dangling power line
constituted deliberate indifference to a known and substantial risk, and a
reasonable officer would have known that his conduct violated the
inmate's Eighth Amendment rights; as a result, the district court did not
err in denying defendant Young's motion for summary judgment based on
qualified immunity; defendant Tisdale was entitled to qualified immunity
as there was no evidence he committed any act or omission with the
requisite culpability to give rise to an Eighth Amendment violation;
district court erred in concluding Warden's failure to train Young and
Tisdale gave rise to an Eighth Amendment violation as nothing in this
record suggest a training inadequacy so obvious it would put the Warden
on notice a constitutional violation was likely to result, and there was no
evidence or reasonable inference from the evidence which supported
plaintiff's claim that a deficiency in training caused the inmate's death.