PHILADELPHIA – A Delaware County man claims he was subjected to a lack of medical care and cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of his constitutionally-protected civil rights.
Maurice Taylor of Upper Darby first filed suit in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas on Jan. 26 versus the City of Philadelphia (doing business as “Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility”) and Curran-Fromhold’s Warden Pierre LaCombe, Commissioner Blanche Carney, Deputy Commissioner Terrence Clark, Deputy Warden Karen Butler and Deputy Warden Robert Rose, all of Philadelphia.
“On or about May 2021, plaintiff was arrested and brought to CFCF. Plaintiff was incarcerated in CFCF from May through July 2021. For approximately one month of his incarceration, from in or around May until June 2020, without reason, plaintiff was subjected to barbaric and inhumane treatment,” the suit says.
“This treatment included, but is not limited to: Not being allowed to leave his cell, not being given single shower, not being given a toothbrush, not being allowed to change his sheets, not being allowed to remove the trash from his cell and properly clean his cell, causing the cell to become insanitary, not being able to exchange his jumper for a clean one and not being allowed to receive or make any phone calls.”
The suit adds while plaintiff asked numerous times for a shower, toothbrush, trash removal, clean sheets and a clean jump suit, his requests were denied. The plaintiff was eventually moved to an intake floor to be transferred to another facility, however, he was never transferred and instead was forced to sleep on the concrete floor for two days straight.
“This intake floor consisted of approximately nine other inmates who slept next to plaintiff. Plaintiff sustained serious personal injuries to his back as a result of sleeping on a concrete floor. Upon information and belief, all defendants knew or should have known about the deplorable treatment of plaintiff and should have done something about it,” the suit states.
“Specifically, defendants did not take the proper precautions to make sure that inmates were being treated properly. Upon information and belief, it was common for inmates not to be provided necessities. Upon information and belief, defendants Carney, LaCombe, Clark, Butler and Rose, are the decision-makers regarding the aforesaid custom, policy and/or practice.”
The defendants removed the action to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Feb. 28, and then motioned to dismiss the case in its entirety on March 7.
“Plaintiff Maurice Taylor disregards the law by suing defendants the City of Philadelphia (doing business as “Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility”), Carney, LaCombe, Clark, Butler and Rose under 42. U.S.C. Section 1983 without making sufficient factual allegations that he suffered a cognizable constitutional injury. Specifically, plaintiff’s kitchen sink approach to his failure to protect, failure to keep safe, failure to provide medical care and cruel and unusual punishment claim in violation of the Fourth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments against all defendants (Count I), somehow, fails to illustrate how any of the moving defendants violated his constitutionally-protected rights,” according to the motion to dismiss.
“Moreover, plaintiff fails to appreciate that the moving defendants are immunized by Pennsylvania statute against state law claims. Plaintiff’s claim of negligence brought under Pennsylvania common law against the City and all individual moving defendants, the City’s employees (Count II), is barred by the Pennsylvania Tort Claims Act. Finally, plaintiff failed to plead sufficient facts to raise a municipal liability claim by failing to identify a municipal decision-maker or a policy, custom, or practice that was the moving force behind the alleged constitutional violation (Count III). Accordingly, the Court should dismiss the plaintiff’s claims against the moving defendants with prejudice.”
For counts of failure to protect, failure to keep safe, failure to provide medical care, cruel and unusual punishment, negligence and violation of Monell, the plaintiff is seeking damages individually, jointly and/or severally, in excess of $50,000, including punitive damages and further relief as this Honorable Court deems necessary and just, including attorney’s fees and costs.
The plaintiff is represented by David A. Berlin of Weisberg Law in Morton and Gary Schafkopf of Hopkins Schafkopf, in Bala Cynwyd.
The defendants are represented by Jonah Santiago-Pagan of the City of Philadelphia’s Law Department.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania case 2:23-cv-00785
Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas case 230100333
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com