In Davidson v. Cannon (1986) 474 U.S. 344, the Supreme Court held two prison officials had not engaged in the requisite culpable conduct to sustain a section 1983 claim, even though their failure to timely act had resulted in an inmate being attacked and seriously injured by another inmate. (Davidson, at pp. 347-348.) There, an inmate had given a note to the assistant superintendent of the prison facility, stating he had been threatened with violence by another inmate. The note was put aside and forgotten. (Id. at p. 345.) In rejecting the plaintiff inmate's Fourteenth Amendment claim, the Supreme Court explained: "Far from abusing governmental power, or employing it as an instrument of oppression, respondent . . . simply forgot about the note. The guarantee of due process has never been understood to mean that the State must guarantee due care on the part of its officials." (Id. at p. 348.)