Newark, NJ -- Seton Hall University School of Law’ s Center for Social Justice won an important victory this week when the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that its client is entitled to seek compensatory damages because prison officials had failed to properly treat his glaucoma, resulting in his blindness.

The Center for Social Justice noted that following the arrest of Rodney Thomas, prison officials had failed to provide Thomas with the regimen of medication needed to preserve his eyesight. As a result, his eyesight degraded from normal vision to blindness. After Thomas filed suit to recover damages for being denied the treatment that could have prevented his blindness, the district court dismissed his complaint, stating that prison medical supervisors were not sufficiently implicated to be liable because they did not personally fail to provide the necessary medical care.

Following that ruling, Professor Jon Romberg of Seton Hall Law School's Center for Social Justice served as Thomas's pro bono counsel on appeal, assisted by third-year Seton Hall Law students Adam Wells and Kathryn Diehm, who briefed and argued the case before the Second Circuit.

“The appeals court’s ruling not only provides substantial justice to Mr. Thomas himself, it also crystallizes the broad scope of legal obligations for prison medical supervisors,” commented Romberg. “The ruling plainly shows that prison supervisors are required to investigate and correct serious medical problems that are brought to their attention, even if those problems are not of their own making.”



The only private law school in New Jersey, Seton Hall University School of Law was founded in 1951, and is located in the city of Newark. Seton Hall Law School offers both day and evening programs leading to the Juris Doctor (J.D.), Master of Laws (LL.M.) and Master of Science in Jurisprudence (M.S.J.) degrees. For more information on Seton Hall Law School, visit law.shu.edu.