No. 24-1098

LUTHER C. PARENTE; ERIC L. STEWART,

Plaintiffs, Appellees,

v.

NELSON LEFEBVRE, in his official capacity as Warden of the Department of Corrections Intake Service Center; MICHELLE GARRIEPY, JENNIFER MAGEAU, and NANCY RUOTOLO HULL, in their official capacities as Registered Nurses for the Department of Corrections; RHODE ISLAND DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS,

Defendants, Appellants,

ASHBEL T. WALL, individually; MATTHEW KETTLE, individually and in his official capacity as Warden of the Department of Corrections Maximum Security Facility; JENNIFER CLARKE, individually and in her official capacity as Medical Director of the Rhode Island Department of Corrections; SIMON MELNICK, individually and in his official capacity as Corrections Physician of the Department of Corrections; TEJ BANSAL, individually and in her official capacity as Corrections Physician of the Rhode Island Department of Corrections; MARTIN J. BAUERMEISTER, individually and in his official capacity as Psychiatrist of the Rhode Island Department of Corrections; FRED H. VOHR, individually; PATRICIA ANNE COYNE-FAGUE, in her official capacity as Director of the Rhode Island Department of Corrections; WAYNE J. SALISBURY, JR., in his official capacity as Acting Director of the Rhode Island Department of Corrections; NELSON LEFEBVRE, in his individual capacity; MICHELLE GARRIEPY, in her individual capacity; JENNIFER MAGEAU, in her individual capacity; NANCY RUOTOLO HULL, in her individual capacity,

Defendants.

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF RHODE ISLAND [Hon. Mary S. McElroy, District Judge]

Before

Gelpí and Rikelman, Circuit Judges Katzmann,* Judge

James J. Arguin, Special Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General of Rhode Island, for appellants. Chloe A. Davis, with whom Richard A. Sinapi and Sinapi Law Associates, Ltd. were on brief, for appellees.

December 5, 2024

* Of the United States Court of International Trade, sitting by designation. GELPÍ, Circuit Judge. Plaintiffs-Appellees Luther C. Parente ("Parente") and Eric L. Stewart ("Stewart") sued the Rhode Island Department of Corrections and its staff (collectively, "RIDOC") for failing to properly treat their preexisting medical conditions. They allege various federal and state constitutional, statutory, and common law bases for relief, including a claim under the Rhode Island Civil Rights Act of 1990 ("RICRA"). Only the RICRA claim is before us. The district court denied RIDOC's motion for summary judgment on Eleventh Amendment grounds as to RICRA. RIDOC argues that the district court erred in holding that violations of civil rights under RICRA are subject to the general waiver of Eleventh Amendment immunity under Rhode Island's Tort Claims Act.1 Parente and Stewart respond that the Rhode Island Supreme Court's decision in Laird v. Chrysler Corp., 460 A.2d 425 (R.I. 1983), establishes that RICRA claims must be subject to this general waiver. In evaluating the Eleventh Amendment question posed by this appeal, we conclude that there is "special reason" to certify the underlying state-law issue to the Rhode Island Supreme Court. Figueroa-Rodriguez v. Aquino, 863 F.2d 1037, 1045 (1st Cir. 1988) ("[I]f the [federal] court felt there was special reason to do so, it could certify the [state-law] issue to the [relevant state supreme court], whose finding of waiver, if made,

1 Individual-capacity defendants are not parties to this appeal.

- 3 - would be binding . . . notwithstanding the statute's lack of explicit l