[PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

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No. 23-11132 ____________________

MICHAEL CHAPMAN, Plaintiff-Appellant, versus JEFFERSON S. DUNN, Former Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections, in his Individual Capacity, RUTH NAGLICH, Assoc Comm Health A.D.O.C., MARY COOKS, Former Warden Draper CF, MICHELLE SAGERS COPELAND, Former HSA, CHARLIE T. WAUGH, et al., USCA11 Case: 23-11132 Document: 58-1 Date Filed: 02/25/2025 Page: 2 of 45

2 Opinion of the Court 23-11132

Defendants-Appellees.

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Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama D.C. Docket No. 2:20-cv-00007-WKW-CSC ____________________

Before JORDAN, NEWSOM, and BRASHER, Circuit Judges. NEWSOM, Circuit Judge: After an untreated ear infection led to more serious injuries, Alabama inmate Michael Chapman sued prison officials and staff for exhibiting deliberate indifference to his medical needs in viola- tion of the Eighth Amendment. The district court granted sum- mary judgment for all defendants save one—the prison’s medical contractor, which had filed for bankruptcy. Chapman presents sev- eral arguments on appeal. He contends that the district court wrongly rejected his claim against nurse Charlie Waugh as time- barred. He maintains that the court applied the wrong deliberate- indifference standard in adjudicating his claim against Waugh and erroneously rejected his request for injunctive relief against Com- missioner John Hamm on sovereign-immunity grounds. And he insists that the district court failed to follow proper procedures in granting summary judgment against him. After careful consideration of the parties’ arguments, and with the benefit of oral argument, we reverse the district court’s USCA11 Case: 23-11132 Document: 58-1 Date Filed: 02/25/2025 Page: 3 of 45

23-11132 Opinion of the Court 3

determination that Chapman’s claim against Waugh was time- barred, and we vacate and remand the district court’s judgment for all other defendants. I A Michael Chapman is an indigent Alabama inmate.1 Throughout the period relevant to this appeal, he was incarcerated at Draper Correctional Facility in Elmore, Alabama. In June 2017, Chapman submitted a sick call complaining of an ear infection. That call went ignored, as did several others over the course of the next month. In August, Chapman met with nurse Charlie Waugh for a scheduled chronic-care visit regarding an unrelated issue. The parties dispute what happened during that visit: Chapman alleges that he showed Waugh clear evidence that he had an ear infection, including a Q-tip covered in pus that had drained from his ears overnight; Waugh asserts, to the contrary, that she saw no signs of an infection and that she told Chapman his ears were “pink and rosy.” Chapman left the appointment with no treatment for his ail- ment. Over the n