Opinion
C20-5678JLR
04-18-2024
JOSEPH LOCHUCH EWALAN, Plaintiff, v. ROBERT SCHREIBER, et al., Defendants.
ORDER
JAMES L. ROBART UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
Before the court are Defendants Robert Schreiber, Arlee Rothwell, Russell Dickerson, Kendra Wakefield, and Denny Larsen's (“Defendants”) written exceptions to the court's proposed preliminary and course of trial jury instructions.(Resp. (Dkt. # 253).) Defendants raise only one exception, objecting to Preliminary Instruction No. 2, which presently states: “The plaintiff is incarcerated and asserts that each of the five defendants violated his constitutional right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment by failing to protect him from two separate assault incidents involving fellow inmates.” (See 4/11/24 Order (Dkt. # 246) at App'x A (emphasis added).) Defendants propose the following: “The plaintiff is incarcerated and asserts that each of the five defendants violated his constitutional right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment by being deliberately indifferent to a substantial risk of serious harm that plaintiff faced involving fellow inmates.” (Resp. at 3.)
Pro se Plaintiff Joseph Lochuch Ewalan did not file written exceptions to the preliminary or course of trial jury instructions. (See generally Dkt.; see also 4/11/24 Order (Dkt. # 246) at 2 (setting April 16, 2024 deadline to file exceptions).)
It is the court's typical practice to issue a preliminary instruction that provides a statement of the case expressed in colloquial terms rather than legal elements. Nevertheless, the court will modify the instruction in this instance, as follows: “The plaintiff is incarcerated and asserts that each of the five defendants violated his constitutional right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment by being deliberately indifferent to a substantial risk of serious harm, thereby failing to protect him from two separate assault incidents involving fellow inmates.”