Blyden v. Mancusi
| Citation | 186 F.3d 252 |
| Decision Date | 01 August 1997 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 97-2912,AL-JUNDI |
| Parties | (2nd Cir. 1999) HERBERT X. BLYDEN, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated; PETER BUTLER, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated; CHARLES 'FLIP' CROWLEY, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated; KENDU HAIKU, also known as Willie Stokes, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated; CALVIN HUDSON, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated; JOHNNIE BARNES, as the Administrator of the goods, chattels, and credits which were of John Barnes, deceased, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated; JOSEPH LITTLE, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated; KIMANTHI MPINGO, also known as Edward Dingle, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated; GEORGE 'CHE' NIEVES, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated; JOMO JOKA OMOWALE, also known as Eric Thompson, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated; ROBIN PALMER, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated; AKIL, also known as Herbert Scott Deane, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated; ALFRED PLUMMER, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated; OOJI KWESI SEKOU, also known as Chris Reed, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated; JEROME ROSENBERG, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated; ELIZABETH DURHAM, Mother and Legal Representative of Allen Durham, deceased, on behalf of him/herself and all others similarly situated; LITHO LUNDY, Mother and Legal Representative of Charles Lundy, deceased, on behalf of him/herself and all others similarly situated; THERESA HICKS, Widow and Legal Representative of Thomas Hicks, deceased, on behalf of him/herself and all others similarly situated; ALICE MCNEIL, Mother and Legal Representative of Lorenzo McNeil, deceased, on behalf of him/herself and all others similarly situated; MARIA SANTOS, Mother and Legal Representative of Santiago Santos, deceased, on behalf of him/herself and all others sim |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit) |
Appeal from judgments of the United States District Court for the Western District of New York (John T. Elfvin, Judge), in favor of two named plaintiffs in a representative class action brought for violation of prisoners' civil rights after the retaking of Attica prison, entered after a liability verdict and subsequent individual damages trials. We reverse and remand. [Copyrighted Material Omitted]
[Copyrighted Material Omitted]
[Copyrighted Material Omitted] ELIZABETH M. FINK, Brooklyn, New York (Michael E. Deutsch, People's Law Office, Chicago, Illinois; Ellen M. Yacknin, Greater Upstate Law Project, Inc., Rochester, New York; Daniel Meyers, New York, New York; Dennis Cunningham, San Francisco, California; Joseph J. Heath, Syracuse, New York; Frank B.B. Smith, pro se, Brooklyn, New York, of counsel), for Plaintiffs-Appellees.
MITCHELL J. BANAS, JR., Jaeckle Fleischmann & Mugel (Randy C. Rucinski, Charles J. Scibetta, Jr., of counsel), Buffalo, New York for Defendant-Appellant.
Before: WINTER, Chief Judge, POOLER, Circuit Judge, and DORSEY, District Judge.*
This appeal arises out of a class action for civil rights violations brought by prisoners after the riot in Attica prison in 1971. Karl Pfeil, a former Assistant Deputy Superintendent at Attica, appeals from judgments in favor of Frank Smith and David Brosig.
Plaintiffs instituted this class action twenty-five years ago against Pfeil and other New York State officials and corrections personnel, based on the various defendants' roles during and subsequent to the 1971 Attica prison riot. The amended complaint asserted claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violations of the inmates' constitutional rights during and after the prison retaking. The case was assigned to Judge Elfvin, who certified a class action and bifurcated the case into liability and damages phases. The liability trial appears to have been intended to have the jury resolve each defendant's liability or non-liability to the entire class. The damages phase was to proceed with new juries determining the damages suffered by each individual plaintiff. After a jury found appellant liable in the liability phase, two juries in the damages phase awarded Smith and Brosig $4 million and $75 thousand, respectively.
The lynch-pin of the liability award was a verdict sheet that on its face did not require findings sufficient to support class-wide liability or even liability to particular, identifiable plaintiffs. Absent a valid finding of liability, the damage awards to Smith and Brosig must be reversed. Moreover, appellant's Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial was violated by allowing the damages phase juries to revisit many of the same issues as were considered by the liability jury. We therefore reverse both the liability and damages verdicts.
This appeal arises out of events that followed the forceable retaking of Attica prison from riotous inmates in 1971. The case did not reach a final judgment, however, until 1997 -- fully twenty-three years after it was filed. We set forth the facts directly relevant to this appeal; more detailed accounts of the events following the Attica riot can be found in Al-Jundi v. Estate of Rockefeller, 885 F.2d 1060, 1062-64 (2d Cir. 1989), and Inmates of Attica Correctional Facility v. Rockefeller, 453 F.2d 12, 15-19 (2d Cir. 1971) [Inmates of Attica].
On September 9, 1971, more than 1200 inmates of Attica seized control of substantial portions of the facility and took numerous hostages. While part of the prison was retaken that same day, prisoners remained in control of an area known as the D Yard. They remained there for the next several days, as authorities and representatives of the inmates attempted to negotiate a restoration of state control. Negotiations failed, and then-Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller authorized then-Corrections Commissioner Russell G. Oswald to order the State Police forceably to retake the D Yard. The subsequent retaking resulted in the deaths of ten hostages and twenty-nine prisoners.
There is very substantial evidence that, following the retaking, some, and perhaps most or even all, of the D Yard inmates were the victims of brutal acts of retaliation by prison authorities. Among those who testified for the plaintiffs at trial were numerous non-inmate witnesses, including seven National Guard personnel who entered the prison shortly after the retaking.
The inmates in D Yard were forced to strip naked and lie down on the ground. Later, there were at least two gauntlets through which the naked and barefoot prisoners were forced to proceed, one at a time, across broken glass, while being beaten by baton-wielding corrections officers and subjected to threats and racial slurs. See Inmates of Attica, 453 F.2d at 16. Prisoners who were identified as having played a significant role in the riot were singled out for additional and more egregious punishment, including torture. See id. at 18-19. For example, Smith was forced to lie on a table while officers brutally beat and burned him. During this time, he was forced to hold a football against his throat with his chin and was told that he would be killed if it fell.
There was also evidence of numerous random acts of violence against prisoners. One prisoner, who had two fractured femurs, was being returned to the E housing unit on a gurney when corrections officers dumped him onto the ground. He was told to crawl back to his cell but was unable to do so. Officers were then observed repeatedly shoving a screw-driver into the injured prisoner's anus. There was other testimony of numerous instances of outrageous behavior, including corrections officials playing "Russian roulette" with jailed inmates.
Plaintiffs' complaint, filed on September 13, 1974, and amended on September 11, 1975, alleged widespread violations of the inmates' constitutional rights by numerous state officials before, during, and after the retaking and sought class-action certification. The defendants opposed certification and, on September 19, 1975, filed a motion to dismiss. More than four years later, on October 31, 1979, the district court dismissed certain claims and certain defendants. At the same time it certified a plaintiff class consisting of those prisoners who were in the D yard during the riot and the retaking of the prison.
The ensuing year...
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