Johnson v. Pearson.

U.S. District Court

SMOKING

Johnson v. Pearson, 316 F.Supp.2d 307 (E.D.Va. 2004). A prisoner brought a civil rights action under [section] 1983 against state prison officials, alleging that they acted with deliberate indifference to his risk of medical harm when they refused to assign him to a nonsmoking cell. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants in part, and denied in part. The court held that the defendants acted with deliberate indifference to the risk of serious damage to the prisoner's future health as the result of his exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, and that the defendants were not entitled to qualified immunity from the prisoner's future injury claims. The court also held that the prisoner's allegations regarding present injuries from environmental tobacco smoke stated a cognizable claim under the Eighth Amendment, and that the defendants were not entitled to qualified immunity from that claim. The inmate alleged that he experienced mild headaches, difficulty breathing, eye irritation, runny nose, dizziness, and occasional stomach cramping when he was housed with a smoking inmate. The court noted that officials never considered the consequences of future health problems when they refused to transfer the inmate to a nonsmoking cell, but were only concerned with administrative convenience. (Sussex II State Prison, Virginia)