The Indiana Court of Appeals has ruled against an inmate who sued after money was withdrawn from his prison account to pay for the medical bills of a correctional officer he injured 30 years ago.

Aaron Isby’s complaint last year against the Indiana Department of Correction argued the agency didn’t have the constitutional authority to impose a restitution sanction without obtaining a civil judgment against him. A Miami County judge dismissed the case, citing an Indiana Supreme Court ruling IDOC’s actions weren’t subject to judicial review.

The appeals court, in a filing last month, upheld the dismissal.

“We are bound to follow the authority of the Indiana Supreme Court,” the appeals court noted.

Isby, in custody at Miami Correctional Facility in Bunker Hill, was first sentenced in 1988 for robbery, according to IDOC records. Court documents say that while in custody at another facility, Isby stabbed a guard in an altercation in 1990.