On March 23, 1987, inmates at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution filed a class action lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. 1983 against the Oregon Department of Corrections in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon. The plaintiffs alleged that their constitutional rights had been violated by inadequate healthcare at the prison.

On May 29, 1991, the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon (Judge Owen M. Panner) denied the defendants' motion for summary judgment, holding that the defendants had been deliberately indifferent to the plaintiffs' serious medical needs by failing to correct systematic deficiencies in the prison's health care system. In addition, the court found that the plaintiffs' rights had been violated by needless pain and suffering because of inadequate physician staff, over-reliance on nurses, inadequate mental health care, and incomplete medical records, which delayed proper treatment. Van Patten v. Pearce, No. 87-298, 1991 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21134 (D.Or. May 29, 1991). The defendants appealed. On June 17, 1991, the U.S. District Court for the Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part, remanding the case for trial. This opinion is not publicly available.

On March 13, 1996, the parties entered into a stipulated judgment, and on March 15, 1996, the district court (Judge Panner) entered judgment according to that stipulation. A copy of the settlement is not publicly available.

This is the end of our docket records, which are current as of July 18, 2014. Since this date predates pacer, many of the documents are not available. Accordingly, this summary is based on a review of the docket itself.

Kristen Sagar - 09/10/2006
Megan Richardson - 07/18/2014
Virginia Weeks - 03/30/2018


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