United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ____________ United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit No. 23-30486 FILED ____________ August 22, 2024 Bobby Stevenson, Lyle W. Cayce Clerk Plaintiff—Appellee,

versus Paul M. Tocé, in his individual capacity; Randy Lavespere, in his individual capacity,

Defendants—Appellants. ______________________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana USDC No. 3:22-CV-472 ______________________________ Before Clement, Graves, and Ramirez, Circuit Judges. James E. Graves, Circuit Judge: Bobby Stevenson is a prisoner at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana. He alleges that for years he has been forced to labor in the prison’s agricultural fields despite extreme pain in his ankle caused by two broken surgical screws. Now, he sues two prison physicians who he claims refused to fix the broken screws or relieve him from field labor. The physicians moved to dismiss the suit, invoking the defense of qualified immunity. The district court found Stevenson’s allegations sufficient to overcome the defense. We AFFIRM. Case: 23-30486 Document: 88-1 Page: 2 Date Filed: 08/22/2024

No. 23-30486

I. BACKGROUND a. Factual background The following facts are contained in Stevenson’s operative complaint or were explicitly incorporated into it from an earlier complaint. At the motion to dismiss stage, we accept Stevenson’s allegations as true. Crane v. City of Arlington, 50 F.4th 453, 461 (5th Cir. 2022). Stevenson fractured his right ankle playing basketball in the prison yard in 2003. He was treated outside the prison by an orthopedic surgeon, who installed surgical screws in Stevenson’s ankle to keep the bones in place. To keep the screws from breaking, Stevenson was permanently relieved of field duty status, meaning he could not be required to perform manual labor or even stand or walk for prolonged periods. For some reason, Stevenson’s duty status was later revoked, and he was required to return to work in the agricultural fields. The strain on his ankle caused one of the screws to break, as revealed in a May 2006 x-ray. The broken screw caused pain and swelling. Stevenson was again relieved of field duty status, but he was not told about the broken screw. In 2019, Stevenson’s out-of-field status was revoked again, this time by defendant Dr. Randy Lavespere. In 2020, a second x-ray revealed another broken screw in Stevenson’s ankle. Again, Stevenson was not told. But his ankle continued to cause him “tremendous pain” and “daily pain and torment” and affected his ability to walk normally, causing secondary injuries. He complained continually and requested a change in duty status to relieve him of work in the fields. But “[w]ithout knowledge of the broken screws,” Stevenson alleges, he “did not know to ask for their surgical removal or repair.”

2 Case: 23-30486 Document: 88-1 Page: 3 Date Filed: 08/22/2024

No. 23-30486

In April 2021, Stevenson saw another prison physici