Lyasia Ashley v. Eric Bradley

── Lyasia Ashley v. Eric Bradley ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Date: June 09, 2026 Category: General NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT ____________ No. 25-2341 ____________ LYASIA N. ASHLEY, Administratrix of the Estate of Willie Lee Gary, Appellant v. ERIC BRADLEY; CORRECTIONS OFFICER ORNER; RICK BRILL; RYAN SWARTZFAGER; JEFFREY CONNOR; RONALD ATCAVAGE; JEFFREY BARONSKI; CRAIG PRICE; JAMES GRIZZANTI; MICHAEL YOUNG; ERIC DECKER; UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ____________ On Appeal from the United States District Court For the Middle District of Pennsylvania (D.C. No. 3:23-cv-01594) District Judge: Honorable Karoline Mehalchick ____________ Submitted Under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a) June 8, 2026 Before: HARDIMAN, BOVE, and FISHER, Circuit Judges. (Filed: June 9, 2026) ____________ OPINION* ____________ * This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7 does not constitute binding precedent. HARDIMAN, Circuit Judge. Lyasia Ashley, Administratrix of the Estate of Willie Gary, appeals an order dismissing her claims arising out of Gary’s death while an inmate at United States Penitentiary (USP) Canaan. The District Court held that Ashley could not state a claim under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388 (1971) or the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). We agree with the District Court. I Gary was beaten to death by fellow inmates in September 2021. The assault began when his cellmate attacked and injured him in their shared cell. The cellmate then forced Gary into another cell where other inmates were lying in wait. While one inmate acted as guard and lookout, the others continued the beating. Gary eventually collapsed, became unconscious, and died from his injuries. The inmate who guarded the entrance remained there for around three hours after the assault ended. The emergency alarm in Gary’s cell was triggered during the initial assault by his cellmate, and live video footage showed the inmate blocking the doorway into the second cell, yet officers inexplicably failed to discover Gary until hours after he died. Ashley quickly learned that Gary had been killed by other inmates, though she alleges that because of a federal investigation into the incident, she “was unable to receive any documentation” from USP Canaan until January 2023 and “had no reason until that time to know of the actions and inactions of Defendants.” App. 33. She sued in September 2023. Invoking Bivens and Carlson v. Green, 446 U.S. 14 (1980), Ashley claimed that she had an implied cause of action under the Eighth Amendment against 2 individual prison officials for deliberately failing to protect and treat Gary. She also sued the United States for negligence under the FTCA. In August 2024, nearly a year after filing this suit, Ashley filed an FTCA administrative claim with the Bureau of Prisons (BOP). After about a year and a half of extensions, during which Ashley amended her complaint once, the District Court dismissed all of Ashley’s claims. The District Court held that no Bivens claim exists for the alleged Eighth Amendment violations and that it had no jurisdiction over the FTCA claim because it was time-barred. The Court also deni