The district court dismissed the 42 U.S.C. sec. 1983 complaint brought by a Louisiana prisoner who alleged that he had been detrimentally exposed to secondhand smoke while incarcerated. The district court “ruled that President had had not propounded either evidence suggesting that the exposure was the cause of his various ailments or evidence suggesting that recent changes to his prison’s smoking policy were ineffective.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed, ruling that, while President filed several affidavits of several inmates, including himself, showing that the prison’s smoking policy is not enforced, he failed to file them before the district court and there was no explanation why. Therefore, “the district court’s failure to grant President’s Rule 56(f) motion was not abuse of discretion.” The dismissal upon summary judgment is affirmed.
90 Fed. Appx. 711, 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 1638 (U.S.C.A. 5th Cir. 2004).
