WATANABE V. DERR, No. 23-15605 (9th Cir. 2024)
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Kekai Watanabe, an inmate at the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu, was severely injured during a gang-related assault in July 2021. Despite his serious injuries, including a fractured coccyx and bone chips in surrounding tissue, the prison nurse only provided over-the-counter medication and refused to send him to a hospital. Watanabe was kept in solitary confinement for over two months and repeatedly requested medical attention, which was largely ignored. He was not properly diagnosed until February 2022 and had not seen a specialist by the time of the court proceedings.
The United States District Court for the District of Hawaii initially allowed Watanabe’s claim against the nurse to proceed but later dismissed it, concluding that no Bivens remedy existed for his Eighth Amendment claim. Watanabe appealed the dismissal.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reviewed the case and reversed the district court’s dismissal. The Ninth Circuit held that Watanabe’s claim did not present a new Bivens context, as it was not meaningfully different from the Supreme Court’s decision in Carlson v. Green, where an implied damages action was recognized under the Eighth Amendment for deliberate indifference to an inmate’s serious medical needs. The court found that Watanabe’s allegations were sufficiently similar to those in Carlson, thus allowing his Bivens claim to proceed.
Additionally, the Ninth Circuit construed Watanabe’s request for injunctive relief related to his ongoing medical care as standalone claims for injunctive relief, not under Bivens. The court remanded the case to the district court to address whether Watanabe may amend his request for injunctive relief and to address any such claims in the first instance.
Court Description: Bivens The panel reversed the district court’s dismissal of a Bivens action brought by Kekai Watanabe, incarcerated at Federal Detention Center, who alleged that his Eighth Amendment rights were violated when the medical staff were deliberately indifferent to his serious medical needs.
Watanabe alleged that after he sustained severe injuries from an assault, the prison nurse treated him with over-the- counter medication for his pain instead of transporting him to a hospital or permitting him to be examined by a specialist.
The panel held that Watanabe’s claim does not present a new Bivens context—it is not meaningfully different from the cases in which the Supreme Court has implied a damages action against federal officials for violating the Constitution—and therefore the district court erred in dismissing his Bivens claim. His claim is in all meaningful respects identical to Carlson v. Green, 446 U.S. 14 (1980), where the Supreme Court recognized an implied damages cause of action under the Eighth Amendment against prison officials who acted with deliberate indifference to an incarcerated individual’s serious medical needs.
Accordingly, the panel reversed and remanded so that Watanabe’s Bivens claim could proceed. The panel construed Watanabe’s request for injunctive relief related to his ongoing medical care as claims not under Bivens, but rather as standalone claims for injunctive relief, and remanded to the district court to address in its discretion whether Watanabe may amend his request for injunctive relief and to address any claim for injunctive relief in the first instance.
Concurring in part and dissenting in part, Judge M.
Smith dissented as to the reinstatement of Watanabe’s Bivens claim because his claim is meaningfully different than Carlson and therefore presents a new Bivens context.
Judge M. Smith concurred in the majority’s decision to remand to the district court Watanabe’s claim for injunctive relief.
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