A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that officials at California State Prison, Sacramento, can be sued by an inmate whose right thumb failed to heal properly after a fall from a bunk bed. The fractured thumb had not been set and cast.

Reversing a district judge's ruling, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the case of Lance Jett against two prison doctors and a warden. The appeals court said Jett was entitled to a trial in federal court in Sacramento on his claim of "deliberate indifference to serious medical needs," in violation of the Eighth Amendment.

Jett can also try to prove a violation of a California statute that requires medical care to be summoned for an inmate who needs to have a fractured bone set and cast, the court said. A spokeswoman said the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation expects to win the trial, given the district court's initial decision that Jett had a weak case.

Nevertheless, suits like Jett's, threatening court-ordered payouts to individual prisoners, add pressure to reform the California prison health care system, which has been placed in court-supervised receivership because of similar and worse Eighth Amendment violations. A federal judge found last year that an average of one inmate fatality a week was caused by official mistreatment or neglect.

The 9th Circuit decision "should add to the notice" that the state has been violating federal standards, said Steven Fama, a prisoners' rights lawyer in the receivership case.

He said individual suits have been relatively rare because few inmates have had the resources to pursue and maintain them.