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A Connecticut federal of serious harm to an inmate and
judge granted summary judg- disregarded it,” he said.
ment to seven of the defendants, In Tangreti’s lawsuit, Menashi
but denied Bachmann qualified found that the pretrial record did
immunity protections on the The ruling held there not “support the inference” that
grounds that she was “conceiv- was no special test for Bachmann had known or disre-
ably personally involved” in the supervisory liability in light garded an excessive risk to the
abuses. of a 2009 U.S. Supreme inmate’s health or safety. At most,
Court decision in “Ashcroft he said, Bachmann “could have or
Bachmann, who oversaw the should have made an inference of
day-to-day operations of a prison v. Iqbal.”

substance abuse program, said the risk of sexual abuse.”
that she had witnessed inap- Bachmann, Menashi said,
propriate interactions between made that connection at the end
Tangreti and the guards, and re- of October, and was entitled to
ported emotional changes in the woman while the qualified immunity absent a showing that she was
abuse was occurring. She denied having any per- “subjectively aware of the risk.”
sonal knowledge of sexual abuse until one of the “Contrary to the district court’s conclusion, it is
guards confessed in October 2014. not enough for Tangreti to show that Bachmann
In his ruling, Menashi said that the Supreme was negligent, or even grossly negligent, in her su-
Court’s decision in Iqbal had “cast doubt on the pervision of the correctional officers or in failing to
continued viability of the special standards for act on the information she had,” the judge wrote.
supervisory liability.” Circuit courts, Menashi Menashi was joined in the ruling by Second
said, have since struggled to parse Iqbal‘s effect Circuit Judge John M. Walker Jr. The panel’s third
on civil rights litigation, with some holding that member, Ralph K. Winter, died Dec. 8, before the
there was simply “no special rule of liability for ruling was issued. Both Walker and Menashi were
supervisors.” in agreement in deciding the matter.
“We join these circuits in holding that after Iqbal, Ponvert did not immediately respond Monday to
there is no special rule for supervisory liability,” a request for comment.
Menashi wrote. The case was captioned Tangreti v. Bachmann. ¦
“For deliberate-indifference claims under the
Eighth Amendment against a prison supervisor, Tom McParland of New York Law Journal can be
the plaintiff must plead and prove that the supervi- contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on
sor had subjective knowledge of a substantial risk Twitter @TMcParlandALM.

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