Loyd v. Alabama Dept. of Corrections, 98-6189

• Citation: 176 F.3d 1336
• Decision Date: 26 May 1999
• Docket Number: No. 98-6189,98-6189
• Parties: 12 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. C 895 Jeffrey LOYD, Bruce Capshaw, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, Michael Haley, Commissioner, Defendants-Cross-Defendants-Appellees, Lyle Haas, Administrator of the Jackson County Department of Health in his official capacity, Defendant-Appellee, J.D. Atkins, Jackson County Commissioner; et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (11th Circuit)

Page 1336

176 F.3d 1336

12 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. C 895

Jeffrey LOYD, Bruce Capshaw, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, Michael Haley, Commissioner, Defendants-Cross-Defendants-Appellees, Lyle Haas, Administrator of the Jackson County Department of

Health in his official capacity, Defendant-Appellee,

J.D. Atkins, Jackson County Commissioner; et al.,

Defendants-Appellees.

No. 98-6189.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

May 26, 1999.

Christopher M. Johnson, Robert E. Toone, Jr., Southern Center for Human Rights, Atlanta, GA, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.

Alice Ann Byrne, Montgomery, AL, for Joe Hopper.

Ellen Leonard, Andrew W. Redd, Alabama Dept. of Corrections, Montgomery, AL, for Joe Hopper and Alabama Department of Corrections.

Gary W. Lackey, Scottsboro, AL, for Jackson County Commissioner.

Ashley Hamlett, Montgomery, AL, for Alabama Dept. of Public Health.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Before BIRCH and BARKETT, Circuit Judges, and ALAIMO ^*, Senior District Judge.

BIRCH, Circuit Judge:

Appellants, representing all prisoners who are or will be confined at the Jackson County Jail in Scottsboro, Alabama, appeal the district court order terminating: (1) a 1994 consent decree governing the conditions of confinement at the Jackson County Jail, (2) a 1995 permanent injunction ordering the state to remove state inmates from the Jackson County Jail in a timely manner, and (3) a 1995 consent decree governing the responsibilities of the state of Alabama in removing state prisoners from Jackson County jails.

I. BACKGROUND

On November 7, 1994, the district court entered an order approving and adopting a consent decree concerning the conditions of confinement at the Jackson County Jail. The parties to that consent decree included the appellants, Jackson County, the Jackson County Commissioners, the Jackson County Sheriff, and the Chief Jailor of the Jackson County Jail. On January 12, 1995, the district court entered a permanent injunction against the Alabama Department of Corrections, ordering the timely removal of state prisoners from the Jackson County Jail. On March 17, 1995, the district court entered an order adopting and approving a second consent decree concerning the removal of state prisoners from county jails, signed by the appellants, the Commissioner of the Department of Corrections, the Department of Corrections, the Alabama Department of Public Health, and the Administrator of the Jackson County Health Department. On July 2, 1997, the Attorney General and the Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections (hereinafter collectively referred to as the "Attorney General") filed a motion to terminate the consent decrees and the permanent injunction pursuant to the Prison Litigation Reform Act ("PLRA"), codified at 18 U.S.C. § 3626(b)(2). ¹ The Attorney General claimed status as an intervenor under 18 U.S.C. § 3626(b)(2) of the PLRA and as a representative of the Alabama Department of Corrections and the Department of Public Health. On January 27, 1998, the district court granted the Attorney General's motion for termination of both consent decrees and the permanent injunction.

The appellants argue that the Attorney General does not have standing to intervene to terminate the 1994 consent decree because the state of Alabama was not a party to that consent decree. They also challenge the decision of the district court not to hold an evidentiary hearing on the motion to terminate. The appellants further contend that the termination provisions of the PLRA under 18 U.S.C. § 3626(b)(2) are unconstitutional.

We review de novo a district court's judgment on intervention as of right. See Purcell v. BankAtlantic Fin. Corp., 85 F.3d 1508, 1512 (11th Cir.1996). We review the district court's denial of an evidentiary hearing for abuse of discretion. See United States v. Fernandez, 136 F.3d 1434, 1438 (11th Cir.1998). Questions of constitutional law we review de novo. See Pleasant-El v. Oil Recovery Co., 148 F.3d 1300, 1301 (11th Cir.1998).

II. DISCUSSION

A. Intervention by the Attorney General

The appellants argue that the Attorney General did not possess standing to intervene and file a motion to terminate the 1994 consent decree because the Attorney General was not a party to the decree. As an initial matter, we note that this circuit has held that "a party seeking to intervene need not demonstrate that he has standing in addition to meeting the requirements of Rule 24 as long as there exists a justiciable case and controversy between the parties already in the lawsuit." Chiles v. Thornburgh, 865 F.2d 1197, 1213 (11th Cir.1989). ² See also Cox Cable Communications, Inc. v. United States, 992 F.2d 1178, 1181 (11th Cir.1993). We, therefore, need not inquire into the Attorney General's standing to seek intervention in this case.

Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 24, a party may seek to intervene of right ³ or with the permission of the district court. ⁴ A movant must establish the following requirements to intervene as of right:

(1) his application to intervene is timely; (2) he has an interest relating to the property or transaction which is the subject of the action; (3) he is so situated that disposition of the action, as a practical matter, may impede or impair his ability to protect that interest; and (4) his interest is represented inadequately by the existing parties to the suit.

Chiles, 865 F.2d at 1213.

No party has challenged the timeliness of the Attorney General's intervention. We focus instead on whether the Attorney General has sufficient "interest" in the existing suit to make intervention proper. The intervenor must be "at least a real party in interest in the transaction which is the subject of the proceeding. This interest has also been described as a direct, substantial, legally protectable interest in the proceedings." Worlds v. Department of Health & Rehabilitative Servs., 929 F.2d 591, 594 (11th Cir.1991) (per curiam) (footnotes, citations, and quotation marks omitted). Here, the 1994 consent decree states in Section D, titled "Population," that:

Inmates in the Jackson County Jail who have been sentenced to imprisonment in the custody of the Alabama Department of Corrections shall be transferred from the existing and new jail, and accepted by the Department of Corrections, on a timely basis. A timely basis shall be defined as within 30 days of the time the necessary documents associated with the inmate's sentence and transfer have been completed and forwarded to the Department of Corrections. The Jackson County Sheriff shall enlist the assistance of the Jackson County Circuit Judges and District Judge, as well as the assistance of the Circuit Clerk, to ensure timely preparation and forwarding of these documents. Defendants shall inform the monitor of all unreasonable delays in the preparation and forwarding of these documents.

R5-117, 1994 Consent Decree at p 25(g). The decree orders that state inmates will be transferred from county to state jails within a specified period of time, impacting the economic ability of the State to have facilities available for the transfer. The 1994 consent decree thus directly affects the interests of the State of Alabama, even though the State is not a party to the consent decree.

Furthermore, Alabama was a party to the initial suit. The fact that certain parties formed a consent decree does not eliminate the State's interest in the suit. As the Supreme Court stated:

Of course, parties who choose to resolve litigation through settlement may not dispose of the claims of a third party, and a fortiori may not impose duties or obligations on a third party, without that party's agreement. A court's approval of a consent decree between some of the parties therefore cannot dispose of the valid claims of nonconsenting intervenors; if properly raised, these claims remain and may be litigated by the intervenor.

Local Number 93, Int'l Ass'n of Firefighters v. Cleveland, 478 U.S. 501, 529, 106 S.Ct. 3063, 3079, 92 L.Ed.2d 405 (1986). Both consent decrees and the preliminary injunction arise out of the same litigation. It strains reason to argue now that these orders are so unrelated that a defendant to the initial litigation cannot now act as an intervenor.

Under the third and fourth factors described in Chiles, when the interests of the State are affected by the 1994 consent decree, prohibiting the State from intervening would impair the State's ability to protect its interests. See Chiles, 865 F.2d at 1213. ⁵ Alabama, therefore, satisfies the requirements for intervention as of right under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 24(a)(2). Once a party establishes all prerequisites to intervention, the trial court has no discretion to deny the intervention. See Purcell, 85 F.3d at 1512.

The appellants argue that because the Attorney General did not specifically invoke Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 24 in his motion to terminate, the attempt to intervene must fail. ⁶ The Attorney General stated in his motion to terminate that he was intervening under 18 U.S.C. § 3626(b)(2). Here, the Attorney General did not file a motion to intervene, but rather filed only a motion to terminate the consent decree. Without expressly considering the intervention issue under Rule 24, the district court did, however, rule on the Attorney General's motion to terminate. In Farina v. Mission Investment Trust, 615 F.2d 1068 (5th Cir.1980), we held that it is within the discretion of the district court to treat a motion to remove as a motion to intervene. Since the district court granted the motion to remove, the circuit court concluded that the court necessarily had accepted the intervenor as a party in the suit. Id. at 1075. ⁷ Accordingly, we find that it was within the discretion of the district court here to rule upon the motion to terminate as if the State also had filed...