Erickson v. Pardus

Per Curiam.

Imprisoned by the State of Colorado and alleging violations of his Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment, William Erickson, the petitioner in this Court, filed suit against prison officials in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado. He alleged that a liver condition resulting from hepatitis C required a treatment program that officials had commenced [*90] but then wrongfully terminated, with life-threatening consequences. Deeming these allegations, and others to be noted, to be “conclusory,” the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed the District Court’s dismissal of petitioner’s complaint. 198 Fed. Appx. 694,698 (2006). The holding departs in so stark a manner from the pleáding standard mandated by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that we grant review. We vacate the court’s judgment and remand the case for further consideration.

Petitioner was incarcerated in the Limón Correctional Facility in Limón, Colorado, where respondents Barry Pardus and Dr. Anita Bloor were working as prison officials. After Dr. Bloor removed petitioner from the hepatitis C treatment he had been receiving, petitioner sued under Rev. Stat. § 1979, 42 U. S. C. § 1983, complaining, inter alia, that Dr. Bloor had violated his Eighth Amendment rights by demonstrating deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs. See, e. g., Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U. S. 97, 104-105 (1976) (“[Deliberate indifference to serious medical needs of prisoners constitutes the unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain . .. proscribed by the Eighth Amendment,” and this includes “indifference . . . manifested by prison doctors in their response to the prisoner’s needs or by prison guards in intentionally denying or delaying access to medical care or intentionally interfering with the treatment once prescribed” (footnotes and internal quotation marks omitted)); see also Helling v. McKinney, 509 U. S. 25, 35-37 (1993).