By Ray King
The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday reversed and sent back to Jefferson County Circuit Court a civil rights and medical malpractice lawsuit involving a man currently housed in a state prison in Lincoln County.
The high court said Circuit Judge Jodi Raines Dennis needs to hold a hearing to determine if claims by Dexter Harmon state a “colorful cause of action” under medical malpractice and civil rights statutes.
Harmon, 29, who is currently incarcerated at the Varner Supermax Unit filed a complaint against Nurses Estalla Bland and Matthew Wood, health services administrator Jason Kelley and ADC Deputy Director Rory Griffin. He alleged that they “demonstrated deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs in violation of the Arkansas Constitution.”
Harmon also claimed that Bland and Wood committed medical malpractice and negligence. He asked the court to order prison officials to take his medical needs seriously and provide proper treatment and monetary damages.
He filed the petition as a pauper without attorney assistance and Dennis ruled that he demonstrated indigency. She later denied Harmon’s complaint, ruling that it made only conclusory allegations without factual support.
The high court said Dennis “improperly relied upon the statutory burden of proof for medical malpractice claims when determining that Harmon’s complaint failed to state a colorable cause of action.”
Writing for the court, Associate Justice Shawn Womack said “The statute provides that in an action for medical injury, unless the asserted negligence could be comprehended by a jury as a matter of common knowledge, the plaintiff has the burden of proving three propositions by expert testimony: (1) the applicable standard of care; (2) the defendant’s failure to act in accordance with that standard; and (3) that the failure was the proximate cause of the plaintiff ’s injuries. Id. Whether Harmon meets this statutory burden of proof is irrelevant to the question of whether his complaint stated a colorable cause of action for medical malpractice.”
Harmon is serving a 30-year sentence from Pulaski County for aggravated robbery, terroristic act and theft of property based on a 2012 conviction. He will be eligible to apply for parole in 2032.
