Thomas v. Anderson

Dist. Ct. erred in entering partial judgment in favor of certain defendants-prison officials in jury trial on plaintiff-prisoner’s section 1983 action alleging that said defendants retaliated against him for filing prior grievances and lawsuits by issuing phony disciplinary report and for conducting sham disciplinary hearing. With respect to both claims, Dist. Ct. improperly overlooked plaintiff’s testimony that provided reasonable basis from which reasonable jury could infer retaliatory motive, where plaintiff testified that: (1) two defendants orchestrated plaintiff’s late return to his cell to trump up false disciplinary charge; and (2) defendants-hearing officers stated during hearing on said charge that plaintiff should not have filed prior grievances/lawsuits if he did not want to be in his current predicament. Also, Dist. Ct. did not err in denying plaintiff’s initial request for recruitment of counsel, where plaintiff failed to indicate that he had previously attempted to recruit counsel. Moreover, Dist. Ct. was not required to revisit issue in plaintiff’s subsequent request for recruitment of counsel, even though plaintiff alleged that he had made efforts to retain counsel, where initial request had been properly resolved.