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LEFAY v. COOPERSMITH6/5/1990
Leslie and Nellie LeFay, individually, and Leslie LeFay, as the personal representative of the estate of Clayton LeFay, deceased, appeal from a judgment entered in the Superior Court (Knox County, Chandler, J.) on a jury verdict awarding the LeFays total damages in the amount of $5,000 against the defendants, Morton Coopersmith and Juanita Wilkerson. The LeFays contend that the trial court erred by directing a verdict in favor of Coopersmith on their civil rights claim against him pursuant to 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983 (West 1981) and by refusing to reinstate that claim and by denying their motion for an additur to the damages awarded or, in the alternative, for a new trial. By their cross-appeal, the defendants contend that the court (Smith, J. and Silsby, J.) erred in the disposition of the defendants' motion seeking sanctions for the LeFays' failure to comply with the time limits set forth in 24 M.R.S.A. § 2903-A(1). We find no error in the record and affirm the judgment.
I
This action arises from the facts surrounding the death of the LeFays' 24-year-old son Clayton, an inmate of the Maine State Prison at Thomaston. The jury heard the following evidence: Coopersmith was the prison physician, and Wilkerson was the physician's assistant who worked with him at the prison. Clayton visited the prison medical department on Saturday, November 16, 1985, complaining of neck and shoulder pain. The duty nurse gave him a pain medication and a compress and told him to see the doctor on Monday. On Monday, November 18, Clayton visited Coopersmith and repeated his complaint of Saturday, stating that he had been lifting weights the previous Thursday when he felt pain at the back of his head and neck. Coopersmith examined Clayton, found spasms in his shoulder muscles, prescribed various palliative treatments and told him to cease lifting weights. Clayton returned to the medical department on Thursday, November 21, and was examined by Wilkerson. She noted that he had pain in the occipital area radiating to the temples, muscle spasm, dizziness and nausea. She changed his medication, gave him a cervical collar and told him not to work for a few days.
On Friday, November 22, Clayton again appeared at the medical department complaining of persistent pain. Coopersmith performed a partial neurological examination with normal results and found Clayton's range of motion to be good. He ordered hot showers and pain medication and made arrangements for an x-ray of Clayton's cervical spine. During Saturday, November 23, and Sunday, November 24, Clayton frequently visited the medical department complaining to the nursing staff of persistent neck pain and demanding to be transferred to a hospital. The nurses noted that he had not been resting as ordered by Coopersmith and had refused his pain medications. On Sunday morning, the nursing staff confined him to his cell to enforce bed rest until his next examination by Coopersmith.
On Monday, November 25, Coopersmith called Clayton to the medical department, advised him that the x-ray results were negative, gave him more medication and ordered the continuance of rest confinement for one week. On Tuesday, November 26, a nurse visited Clayton in his cell after regular medical department hours. Clayton was lying in a fatal position but sat up without difficulty. When reaching toward
On Wednesday, November 27, Coopersmith and Wilkerson performed a neurological examination of Clayton. Although the results were normal, Coopersmith referred Clayton to Robert Stein, a neurologist at Pen Bay Medical Center. The neurological examination of Clayton performed by Stein later that day yielded results within normal limits. However, a CAT scan disclosed a right tempo
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