Collazo-Perez v. Puerto Rico

• Decision Date: 20 February 2015
• Docket Number: Civil No. 14–1134CCC.
• Citation: 100 F.Supp.3d 88
• Parties: Julio COLLAZO–PEREZ, Plaintiff v. Commonwealth of PUERTO RICO; Superintendent, Administración De Corrección (Corrections Administration); Porfirio Green, Chief of Security, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico

100 F.Supp.3d 88

Julio COLLAZO–PEREZ, Plaintiff

v.Commonwealth of PUERTO RICO; Superintendent, Administración De Corrección (Corrections Administration); Porfirio Green, Chief of Security, Defendants.

Civil No. 14–1134CCC.

United States District Court, D. Puerto Rico.

Signed Feb. 20, 2015.

Signed March 16, 2015.

Julio Collazo–Perez, Aguadilla, PR, pro se.

Aurea Yadira Rivera–Alvarado, Puerto Rico Department Of Justice, San Juan, PR, for Defendants.

JUDGMENT

CARMEN CONSUELO CEREZO, District Judge.

Having considered the analysis and conclusions set forth in the Magistrate–Judges Report and Recommendation filed on February 20, 2015 (D.E. 18), as well as the allegations raised in the pro se Complaint (D.E. 2) and the Amended Complaint filed on February 18, 2014 by the plaintiff before the Court of First Instance of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Superior Part of Guayama, which was dismissed by a Final Judgment, said Report and Recommendation (D.E. 18 ) is APPROVED and ADOPTED in its entirety. Accordingly, it is ORDERED and ADJUDGED that the pro se complaint be and is hereby DISMISSED.

SO ORDERED AND ADJUDGED.

MAGISTRATE JUDGE'S REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION

JUSTO ARENAS, United States Magistrate Judge.

Plaintiff inmate Julio Collazo Perez has filed a pro se complaint pursuant to the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, claiming that his civil rights were violated by the defendants, and that as a result of that violation he has suffered damages which he values at $75,000. (Docket No. 2 at 6). Claims are brought against the Superintendent of the Corrections Administration, and Porfirio Green who was Head of Security at the Bayamon Penal Complex (where plaintiff found himself imprisoned in April, 2009). (Docket No. 2 at 5). When plaintiff first filed the complaint in this court, he was housed in a penal institution in Aguadilla, and was later transferred to a penal institution in Guayama. (Docket No. 6). He is now apparently back at the Aguadilla penal institution. (Docket No. 16). He is serving a 49–year sentence for robbery and has previously been in medium custody at the Aguadilla prison.

Plaintiff claims that he was the author of confidential information which was disseminated to the penal population of the correctional institution at Bayamon (1072) in late April, 2009 by the Head of Security there, Mr. Porfirio Green, and that due to a poorly executed search of the prisoners and their cells (further explained), plaintiff's life was placed at risk as well as was his rehabilitation. (Docket Nos. 2 at 5; 7 at 1). Plaintiff states that Mr. Green is incompetent, and asks that he be relieved from his post. He holds the Superintendent of the Corrections Administration responsible for anything that might happen to him. Finally he seeks damages payable by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in the amount of $75,000 to compensate him for damages suffered. (Docket No. 2).

On June 25, 2014, the defendants moved to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted under Rule 12(b)(6), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. (Docket No. 15). Without waiving any affirmative defenses, they also argue that they are protected from suit based on sovereign immunity under the Eleventh Amendment. Finally, they move to dismiss the complaint based on res judicata because not only has plaintiff previously filed the same cause of action against the same defendants in a Commonwealth court in Aguadilla, but also because that trial court ruled against him, as did the Commonwealth court of appeals. In the alternative, the defendants correctly note the procedural defect that plaintiff has failed to provide English translations for his pleadings written in the Spanish language. (Docket No. 15 at 9). This is a common pro se phenomenon in this court.

In accordance with the liberal pleading standard of Rule 8(a)(2), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and because petitioner is proceeding pro se, his pleadings are “ ‘to be liberally construed,’ Estelle [v. Gamble], 429 U.S. [97] at 106, 97 S.Ct. 285 [50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976) ], and a ‘pro se complaint, however inartfully pleaded, must be held to less stringent standards than formal pleadings drafted by lawyers.’ Ibid. ” Erickson v. Pardus, 551 U.S. 89, 94, 127 S.Ct. 2197, 167 L.Ed.2d 1081 (2007) (following Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 520–21, 92 S.Ct. 594, 30 L.Ed.2d 652 (1972) and Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45–46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957) ). “The policy behind affording pro se plaintiffs liberal interpretation is that if they present sufficient facts, the court may intuit the correct cause of action, even if it was imperfectly pled.” Ahmed v. Rosenblatt, 118 F.3d 886, 890 (1st Cir.1997) ; see Castro v. United States, 540 U.S. 375, 381, 124 S.Ct., 786, 157 L.Ed.2d 778 (2003) (noting that courts may construe pro se pleadings so as to avoid inappropriately stringent rules and unnecessary dismissals of claims). All well-pleaded factual averments made by a pro se plaintiff and reasonable inferences drawn therefrom must be accepted as true. Aulson v. Blanchard, 83 F.3d 1, 3 (1st Cir.1996).

Plaintiff prisoner apparently provided some information to the authorities, and that fact was carelessly (and indirectly) shared with other prisoners in Bayamon (1072), where Mr. Green was then head of security. This occurred in late April, 2009. Aside from appearing to have been unhappy and insecure in penal institutions other than the one in Aguadilla where he again resides, petitioner does not relate many other facts beyond this claim and the information before the court. He mentions that because he has been placed in solitary confinement in Guayama, he has been denied the benefits of rehabilitation, therapies, schooling, and any other program which Corrections offers. (Docket No. 7). He notes that he was doing well, adjusting well in Aguadilla, until being arbitrarily transferred to Guayama on April 8, 2014. He wishes to be returned to Aguadilla (where he apparently is now, or at least since October, 2014, and also where he does not run the risk to his safety as he did in Guayama).

Section 1983 creates a cause of action against those who, acting under color of state law, violate federal constitutional or statutory law. See 42 U.S.C. § 1983 ;¹ Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527, 535, 101 S.Ct. 1908, 68 L.Ed.2d 420 (1981), overruled on other grounds by Daniels v. Williams, 474 U.S. 327, 330–31, 106 S.Ct. 662, 88 L.Ed.2d 662 (1986) ; Wilson v. Town of Mendon,

294 F.3d 1, 6 (1st Cir.2002). In order for a defendant to be held liable under section 1983, his or her conduct must have caused the alleged constitutional or statutory deprivation. See Monell v. Dep't of Soc. Servs. of City New York, 436 U.S. 658, 692, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978) ; Soto v. Flores, 103 F.3d 1056, 1061–62 (1st Cir.1997). If Mr. Collazo–Perez's claim alleges a violation of federal constitutional law effected by state actors, his suit properly arises under section 1983. However, if it does not, then it cannot survive a Rule 12(b)(6) motion. Plaintiff does not specifically or generically describe which one of his civil rights was violated. He does not invoke the violation of any particular constitutional right. Nor does he refer to any specific statutory violation. The court may possibly intuit that he is charging a violation to substantive or procedural due process at best because the facts related may point to carelessness or negligence but nothing else if that. For the plaintiff to succeed in a procedural due process claim it must be found that he was deprived of a property interest without a constitutionally adequate process. Logan v. Zimmerman Brush Co., 455 U.S. 422, 428, 102 S.Ct. 1148, 71 L.Ed.2d 265 (1982) ; PFZ Props., Inc. v. Rodríguez, 928 F.2d 28, 30 (1st Cir.1991) ; Del Toro–Pacheco v. Pereira–Castillo, 662 F.Supp.2d 202, 214 (D.P.R.2009). In order to support a finding that his substantive due process rights were violated, plaintiff “ha[s] to prove that [he] suffered [a] deprivation of an established life, liberty, or property interest, and that such deprivation occurred through governmental action that shocks the conscience.” Clark v. Boscher, 514 F.3d 107, 112–13 (1st Cir.2008) (citing Pagán v. Calderón, 448 F.3d 16, 32 (1st Cir.2006) ; Rivera v. Rhode Island, 402 F.3d 27, 33–34 (1st Cir.2005) ). Substantive Due Process protects individuals from “particularly offensive actions on the part of government officials....” Pagán v. Calderón, 448 F.3d at 32. These standards have not been met by the facts in the complaint, regardless of how liberally the court may intuit a cause of action based upon a violation of the Constitution.

I. FAILURE TO STATE A CLAIM

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) allows for the dismissal of an action for “failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted[.]” Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). Dismissal under the rule is appropriate where the plaintiff has failed to show its claim is at least “plausible.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 557, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007). In ruling upon a Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) motion, the court must accept as true all the well-pleaded factual allegations in the complaint and construe all reasonable inferences in favor of the plaintiff. Perry v. New England Bus. Serv., Inc., 347 F.3d 343, 344 (1st Cir.2003) (citing Beddall v. State St. Bank & Trust Co., 137 F.3d 12, 16 (1st Cir.1998) ).

Nothing that plaintiff describes amounts to or approaches a violation of a federal constitutional or statutory law. Admittedly, the safety and security of all prisoners is protected by the Constitution. See DeShaney v. Winnebago County Dep't of Soc. Servs., 489 U.S. 189, 190, 109 S.Ct. 998, 103 L.Ed.2d 249 (1989) ; Youngberg v. Romeo, 457 U.S. 307, 315–16, 102 S.Ct. 2452, 73 L.Ed.2d 28 (1982). However, to state a constitutional claim that the defendants endangered him, plaintiff must allege that the defendants were aware of and...