Torres v. Fauver

• Decision Date: 23 May 2002
• Docket Number: No. 99-5574.,99-5574.
• Citation: 292 F.3d 141
• Parties: Antonio TORRES, Appellant, v. William FAUVER, New Jersey Commissioner of Corrections; E. Calvin Neubert, Administrator Bayside State Prison; Conrad Dilks, Assistant Administrator Bayside State Prison; Lance Meehan; Percy Garner; Sgt. Adams; Lisa Little; Joe Doe, fictitious name of individual to be identified when the identity becomes known; Jane Doe, fictitious name of individual to be identified when the identity becomes known, all of them in their official capacity and individually; Dr. Richard Cevasco, Director of Psychological Services, individually and in his official capacity.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

Page 141

292 F.3d 141

Antonio TORRES, Appellant, v. William FAUVER, New Jersey Commissioner of Corrections; E. Calvin Neubert, Administrator Bayside State Prison; Conrad Dilks, Assistant Administrator Bayside State Prison; Lance Meehan; Percy Garner; Sgt. Adams; Lisa Little; Joe Doe, fictitious name of individual to be identified when the identity becomes known; Jane Doe, fictitious name of individual to be identified when the identity becomes known, all of them in their official capacity and individually; Dr. Richard Cevasco, Director of Psychological Services, individually and in his official capacity.

No. 99-5574.

United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Argued: June 21, 2001.

Filed: May 23, 2002.

Philip N. Yannella (argued), Dechert, Price & Rhoads, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for appellant.

John J. Farmer, Jr., Attorney General of New Jersey, Patrick DeAlmedia, Deputy Attorney General, Lisa A. Puglisi (argued), Deputy Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General of New Jersey, Division of Law, Richard J. Hughes, Justice Complex, Trenton, New Jersey, for appellees.

BEFORE: ROTH, AMBRO, and FUENTES, Circuit Judges.

OPINION OF THE COURT

AMBRO, Circuit Judge.

Antonio Torres, a former state prisoner who is no longer "in custody" within the meaning of 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (the federal habeas corpus statute),¹ appeals the District Court's grant of summary judgment dismissing his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action, which alleged, inter alia, that his due process rights were violated when he was sanctioned for violating prison rules. The sanctions imposed on Torres did not revoke any good-time credits or otherwise affect the fact or length of his confinement; he was placed in disciplinary detention for 15 days and administrative custody for 120 days. Yet the District Court ruled that his due process claim was not cognizable under § 1983 because of the "favorable termination rule" announced in Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477, 114 S.Ct. 2364, 129 L.Ed.2d 383 (1994), and extended to prison disciplinary sanctions that alter the duration of a prisoner's incarceration in Edwards v. Balisok, 520 U.S. 641, 117 S.Ct. 1584, 137 L.Ed.2d 906 (1997). Under that rule, a § 1983 plaintiff cannot seek damages for harm caused by actions the unlawfulness of which would necessarily render the fact or length of his confinement invalid, unless he can prove that the conviction, sentence, or prison disciplinary sanction that resulted from those actions has been reversed, invalidated, or called into question by a grant of federal habeas corpus relief (in other words, terminated favorably to the plaintiff). Heck, 512 U.S. at 486-87, 114 S.Ct. 2364; Edwards, 520 U.S. at 646-48, 117 S.Ct. 1584.

Torres's appeal presents a question that neither the Supreme Court nor our Court has decided: whether someone no longer in custody (and thus unable to petition for a writ of habeas corpus) can seek damages under § 1983 for an allegedly unconstitutional prison disciplinary sanction that did not affect the fact or length of his confinement. We hold that the favorable termination rule does not apply to claims that implicate only the conditions, and not the fact or duration, of a prisoner's incarceration. We thus hold that the District Court erred in ruling that Torres's due process claim is not cognizable under § 1983.

Nonetheless, we affirm the District Court's grant of summary judgment on a different ground. The sanctions imposed on Torres were within the scope of his sentence and, under Sandin v. Conner, 515 U.S. 472, 115 S.Ct. 2293, 132 L.Ed.2d 418 (1995), and our recent decision in Fraise v. Terhune, 283 F.3d 506 (3d Cir.2002), did not impinge a liberty interest protected by the Constitution's Due Process Clause.

I. Factual and Procedural History

On July 14, 1993, Torres, a former inmate at New Jersey's Bayside State Prison ("BSP"), appeared before the BSP Classification Committee (the "Committee") while still in prison. The Committee informed Torres that it had granted him "Full Minimum Status," which in this instance meant placement in a minimum security prison for a work detail. That minimum security prison, known as the Farm Unit, is located outside the walls surrounding the main prison at BSP.

After leaving the Committee, Torres, a paranoid schizophrenic, entered a delusional state and became convinced that placement in the Farm Unit would harm him. He asked defendant Percy Garner, the prison guard escorting him from the Committee hearing, if he could return to the Committee and ask for reconsideration of his reassignment. After his request was denied, Torres informed Garner that if he was reassigned to the Farm Unit he would try to escape. Garner authored a disciplinary report based on Torres's statement, charging him with violating New Jersey Administrative Code § 10A:44.1(a)*.102 (attempting to plan an escape). As a result, Torres was placed in pre-hearing detention. He subsequently requested and received a consultation with defendant Lisa Little, the staff psychologist, who determined that he was mentally fit for the general prison population.

On July 19, 1993, defendant Lance Meehan, a hearing officer, conducted a disciplinary hearing with regard to the escape charge against Torres. Meehan found Torres guilty of attempting to plan an escape, sentenced him to 15 days of disciplinary detention and 120 days of administrative segregation, and referred him for a psychological evaluation. Meehan did not revoke any of Torres's good-time credits.

Torres appealed Meehan's decision to defendants E. Calvin Neubert and Conrad Dilks, the Prison Administrators, who affirmed it. Torres did not appeal to the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division, as permitted under New Jersey Court Rule 2:2-3(a)(2).²

On December 12, 1993, Torres was released from custody. A year and a half later, he filed a pro se § 1983 action in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, alleging that the defendants acted unlawfully in connection with the disciplinary decision.³ He subsequently retained counsel and filed an amended complaint on June 24, 1996. In that complaint, Torres alleged that William Fauver (the Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Corrections), Meehan, Neubert, and Dilks violated his right to due process because he was found guilty of the disciplinary charge and sanctioned even though the charge was not supported by substantial evidence. He also alleged Eighth Amendment violations that are not pertinent here.

On January 16, 1998, the defendants moved for summary judgment. On September 29, 1998, the District Court granted summary judgment in favor of Fauver, Meehan, Neubert, and Dilks on Torres's due process claim, and denied Torres's cross-motion for summary judgment against Meehan. The Court relied on Edwards v. Balisok, 520 U.S. 641, 117 S.Ct. 1584, 137 L.Ed.2d 906 (1997), to find that Torres's claim was not cognizable because its success necessarily would imply the invalidity of the disciplinary decision to place him in detention and administrative segregation. In addition, the Court dismissed Torres's Eighth Amendment claims against all of the defendants except Neubert and Dilks. After further discovery, on June 29, 1999, the Court granted summary judgment in favor of Neubert and Dilks on the remaining claims. Torres filed a timely notice of appeal, and we subsequently appointed pro bono counsel for him.⁴

Torres's sole claim on appeal is that the District Court erred in concluding that the favorable termination rule bars a former prisoner from using § 1983 to challenge a prison disciplinary sanction that did not affect the length of his confinement. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291.

II. Standard of Review

We must review the record to determine whether the District Court properly concluded that there was no genuine issue of material fact and that the defendants were entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Bushman v. Halm, 798 F.2d 651, 656 (3d Cir.1986). We exercise plenary review over the District Court's choice and interpretation of legal precepts as well as its application of those precepts to the historical facts. Orvosh v. Program of Group Ins. for Salaried Employees of Volkswagen of Am., Inc., 222 F.3d 123, 129 (3d Cir.2000).

III. Section 1983 and Prison Disciplinary Sanctions

Whether Torres's due process claim is cognizable under § 1983 raises two separate questions: whether the favorable termination rule applies to prison disciplinary sanctions that do not affect the fact or length of a prisoner's confinement, and, more generally, whether the rule applies to persons who cannot seek habeas relief. Only if both questions are answered affirmatively does the favorable termination rule bar Torres's claim; if the answer to either question is no, his claim is cognizable.

With respect to the first question, the Supreme Court has consistently distinguished between claims that necessarily implicate the fact or duration of confinement (which it has repeatedly held are subject to the favorable termination rule) and claims that relate only to the conditions of incarceration (which it has not suggested are subject to the favorable termination rule). Edwards v. Balisok, 520 U.S. 641, 646-48, 117 S.Ct. 1584, 137 L.Ed.2d 906 (1997); Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477, 486-87, 114 S.Ct. 2364, 129 L.Ed.2d 383 (1994); Preiser v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 475, 499, 93 S.Ct. 1827, 36 L.Ed.2d 439 (1973). This line of cases instructs, and all but one of the circuit courts to consider the issue have held, that both current and former prisoners can use § 1983 to raise claims relating only to the conditions, and not the fact or duration, of their confinement without satisfying the favorable termination rule. Because Torres raises such a claim (and thus the answer to the first question above is no), we need not consider the second, broader question of whether the favorable termination rule applies to persons unable to ...