Mandriez Spivey v. Michael Breckon

── Mandriez Spivey v. Michael Breckon ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Date: April 20, 2026 Category: General USCA4 Appeal: 24-6490 Doc: 52 Filed: 04/20/2026 Pg: 1 of 16 PUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 24-6490 MANDRIEZ SPIVEY, Plaintiff - Appellant, v. MICHAEL BRECKON, Warden of USP Lee; JAMES PHELPS, Captain, USP Lee, JAMES BOWLES, Lieutenant, USP Lee; PHILLIP MULLINS; WILLIAM CANTRELL; NANCY SMITH; WANDA MCINTYRE; KAREN PEASE; THOMAS KIRBY; JESSICA BABNEW; LAUREN BAILEY; TANYA CUNIC, MARK MOORE, Defendants - Appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, at Roanoke. Michael F. Urbanski, Senior District Judge. (7:20-cv-00400-MFU-JCH) Argued: December 12, 2025 Decided: April 20, 2026 Before NIEMEYER, GREGORY, and AGEE, Circuit Judges. Affirmed by published opinion. Judge Niemeyer wrote the opinion, in which Judge Gregory and Judge Agee joined. ARGUED: Wynne Muscatine Graham, ALL RISE TRIAL & APPELLATE, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for Appellant. Laura Taylor, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Roanoke, Virginia, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Samuel Weiss, D. Dangaran, RIGHTS BEHIND BARS, Washington, D.C.; Devi M. Rao, RODERICK & USCA4 Appeal: 24-6490 Doc: 52 Filed: 04/20/2026 Pg: 2 of 16 SOLANGE MACARTHUR JUSTICE CENTER, Washington, D.C., for Appellant. Zachary T. Lee, Acting United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Abingdon, Virginia, for Appellees. 2 USCA4 Appeal: 24-6490 Doc: 52 Filed: 04/20/2026 Pg: 3 of 16 NIEMEYER, Circuit Judge: Mandriez Spivey, a former federal inmate, commenced this Bivens action * against federal employees of the Bureau of Prisons, alleging that they provided him with delayed or inadequate medical treatment and used excessive force against him during his incarceration. He maintained that the defendants’ conduct violated the Eighth Amendment (prohibiting cruel and unusual punishments) and, alternatively, the Fourth Amendment (prohibiting seizures that apply excessive force). For relief, he sought $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. The district court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss Spivey’s complaint, concluding that “a Bivens remedy [was] unavailable” for the plaintiff’s claims. For the reasons that follow, we affirm. I Spivey, a federal inmate at USP Lee in Pennington Gap, Virginia, during the period between December 2017 and October 2018, commenced this action against 13 prison officials for damages, relying on Bivens and its progeny. In his third amended complaint, he alleged that when he arrived at USP Lee, he was suffering from a tooth cavity and tooth inflammation. A prison official advised Spivey that USP Lee did not have a staff dentist but that she would place him on the waitlist for dental care. He did not receive that care, however, until he was transferred to a new facility. * See Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Fed. Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388 (1971). 3 USCA4 Appeal: 24-6490 Doc: 52 Filed: 04/20/2026 Pg: 4 of 16 Spivey also alleged that while at USP Lee, a tooth broke, resulting in part of it falling out, and that he removed the remainder of the tooth himself,