17-b-4 Examples of Common Tort Actions

LibraryA Jailhouse Lawyer's Manual (2020 Edition)

17-B-4. Examples of Common Tort Actions

This Section describes five torts that can happen in prison and the elements you must prove to win damages for these torts. Excessive force and failure to protect from other prisoners are two types of actions that are not included in this Chapter, because they are covered in JLM, Chapter 24, "Your Right to be Free from Assault." You should read that Chapter if you have been assaulted by a corrections officer or if you feel that the prison failed to protect you from assault by another prisoner. While the footnotes for this Section include citations to relevant cases, you should use these cases only as a starting point for your research. If you use the cases cited here, you should read the full text of those cases.

This Chapter only includes cases from New York and some federal cases. While New York cases are not binding on the courts of any other state, the tort law of most states is very similar to New York's. For that reason, the case summaries in this Chapter should serve as a useful starting point for determining the types of claims that other states' courts will hear. However, you should make sure to research the law in your state so that you know which cases to cite in your lawsuit.

The following are just a few examples of claims that you can bring; there are many other torts that happen in prison that can form the basis of a lawsuit. Look for cases with similar facts to your situation where the prisoner won, and use those cases to support your claim.

(a) Injuries Relating to Work and Work-Release Programs

Injuries sustained during the course of work within the prison or while on work release are considered work injuries. Tort actions under this category include the state's failure to provide reasonably safe equipment, as well as the state's failure to warn prisoners of specific dangers they might face when using the equipment.26

For example, one court awarded damages to a prisoner who lost his fingers working in an on-site prison sawmill because his wood chipping machine was missing a safety guard.27 The state violated its duty to maintain safe machinery since it failed to provide a safety guard for the machine. Similarly, another court awarded damages to a prisoner who was injured in the course of repair work when the scaffolding beneath him collapsed.28

Just as the state has a duty to maintain a safe workplace, you too have a responsibility to take proper care of yourself while working in the prison or work-release program. If the court finds that your carelessness played a role in your injury, it can reduce your damages by the amount for which it believes you were responsible, or even prevent you from recovering altogether. This is called "comparative negligence" or "contributory negligence." 29

For example, in the wood chipping case above, the court only awarded half of the total damages to the prisoner, because the prisoner should not have climbed onto the chipping machine in the first place. 30 In another case, the court reduced damages because the prisoner did not follow safety instructions. 31 However, if you were ordered to do the dangerous act that caused your injury, courts may not reduce your damages under a contributory negligence theory.32 This is because courts know that prisoners can be punished for disobeying instructions. 33

Furthermore, if the court believes that you behaved recklessly in a work-related setting, it can refuse to award you damages at all. Recklessness in this context means ignoring a known or obvious risk. 34 Whether the court considers that you were reckless depends partially on how knowledgeable you were about the field or area in which you were working. For instance, one court denied a prisoner damages for injuries suffered after touching a live wiring because his previous electrical training made him aware that touching wires was dangerous. 35 By contrast, a prisoner who had received only minimal training was not held responsible for his own injuries. 36

Note that you may be unable to recover from the state for work-release injuries that do not occur on prison grounds, especially if the state was not the owner or contractor at the work site. 37 Also, the state cannot be sued on the grounds of recommending a prisoner for a work-release program if the officers that made the recommendation had discretion to do so under their job title. 38 Finally, the state has no duty to inspect possible work sites for work-release programs. 39

You may be able to determine whether the state is liable for your injury by researching New York State labor laws, which courts have found applicable to prison work.40

(b) Medical Care Provided to Prisoners 41

Claims relating to inadequate or inappropriate medical care are negligence claims. The state has a duty to provide prisoners with reasonable and adequate medical care in a timely manner.42 If you believe the state has violated this duty to you in a way that caused you actual harm, you may have a successful medical tort claim.

In order to pursue a tort claim for medical negligence, you will have to prove that the treatment the state gave you (or failed to give you) was not standard-that it was not within "accepted medical practice." 43

Second, you will have to prove that the state's action or inaction directly caused your injury and that the injury would not have happened otherwise. This is called proximate cause. 44 For example, even if you had to wait a long time for treatment, you would not be able to recover damages unless the waiting caused your injury or made it significantly worse. 45 In order to prove the cause of your injury, you will almost always need testimony from medical experts. 46 As with other negligence tort claims, you must also show that the injury you suffered was a foreseeable result of the improper treatment you received.47

If you believe you have been injured due to improper or inadequate medical care, you can also seek damages under the theory of "ministerial neglect," which means that when the state makes rules describing its duty to provide medical care and then fails to follow those rules, it is...

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