Case: Allah v. Thomas

On October 9, 2015 plaintiff filed a complaint against several prison officials and medical providers at SC-Chester, a state prison in Pennsylvania. Plaintiff, an incarcerated individual with chronic Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and other illnesses filed his lawsuit under Section 1983 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania alleging violations of the First and Eighth Amendments. The case was assigned to Judge Gene E.K. Pratter.

Plaintiff alleged that he was improperly denied treatment for his pain as well as for his HCV. Plaintiff was diagnosed with HCV in 1993 and asked to be placed on the prison's treatment list in 2014. He was told he was ineligible because he was to receive parole within a year, so he would not be in prison long enough to receive a full course of treatment. After his parole was delayed in 2015 he again asked to receive treatment, this time with newly available Direct-Acting Antivirals (DAA), which would only take 2-3 months for a full course of treatment. Plaintiff alleged he was denied DAA treatment at that time solely on the basis of cost.

Plaintiff initially filed this action pro se and applied for a volunteer attorney on October 16, 2015. The Court granted plaintiff's motion on November 10, 2015, and placed him on a waiting list to receive pro bono counsel. While he was waiting for appointment of counsel, the defendants in the case filed two motions to dismiss - the first on December 14, 2015 and the second on January 20, 2016. By June 2016, plaintiff still had not been granted counsel. On June 14, 2016, the Court granted both motions to dismiss because plaintiff never filed a response or provided explanation for his failure to respond to either motion as he was required to do. The Court dismissed the case without prejudice.

On July 6, 2016, plaintiff filed a notice of appeal from the dismissal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. In a non-precedential opinion by Judges Patty Schwartz, Robert E. Cowen, and Julio M. Fuentes issued on February 13, 2017, the appellate court affirmed the District Court's dismissal in part, and vacated it in part. The Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of plaintiff's claims that he was denied medication for his pain, but found that plaintiff's allegation that SC-Chester denied him HCV treatment solely on the basis of cost was sufficient to support a claim of deliberate indifference in violation of the Eighth Amendment. The court then remanded plaintiff's HCV claim for further proceedings. 679 Fed.Appx. 216. 

On March 28, 2017, plaintiff filed his notice of intent to proceed with his lawsuit even though he was still unrepresented by counsel. The remaining defendants responded with a motion for summary judgment on June 29, 2017. In the midst of an ongoing discovery dispute between the parties, plaintiff filed a motion for pro bono counsel on September 14, 2017 which was granted by the District Court on October 3, 2017. Plaintiff was officially appointed counsel on July 2, 2018. However, plaintiff instead decided to proceed unrepresented.  Ultimately, the parties reported to the court that the matter had settled, and the district court dismissed the action with prejudice and closed the case on April 9, 2021.  The terms of the settlement are not known to the Clearinghouse.