Ramirez v. Galaza

• Citation: 334 F.3d 850
• Decision Date: 27 June 2003
• Docket Number: No. 00-15994.,00-15994.
• Parties: Luis RAMIREZ, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. George M. GALAZA, Warden; James Gomez, Director of CDC; R. McEnroe, Lieutenant; O. Pena, Chief Deputy Warden; Adrian Chacon, Medical Assistant; Garth Embree, Physician; J. Batchelor, Examiner; Linda L. Melching, Chief Inmate Appeals Branch, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)

334 F.3d 850

Luis RAMIREZ, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. George M. GALAZA, Warden; James Gomez, Director of CDC; R. McEnroe, Lieutenant; O. Pena, Chief Deputy Warden; Adrian Chacon, Medical Assistant; Garth Embree, Physician; J. Batchelor, Examiner; Linda L. Melching, Chief Inmate Appeals Branch, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 00-15994.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted December 6, 2002.

Filed June 27, 2003.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Peter Huang, McDermott, Will & Emery, Palo Alto, CA, for the plaintiff-appellant.

Thomas S. Patterson, Deputy Attorney General, San Francisco, CA, for the defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California; Robert E. Coyle, Chief Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-99-06282-REC/DLB.

Before COWEN,^* HAWKINS and W. FLETCHER, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

COWEN, Circuit Judge:

California state prisoner Luis Ramirez brought this civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging violations of the Due Process and Equal Protection guarantees of the Fourteenth Amendment. Ramirez's complaint alleged that his constitutional rights were violated by the procedures utilized in a prison disciplinary hearing, and a subsequent administrative appeal. Ramirez also alleged that the conditions of his term of administrative segregation exceeded the normal hardships associated with incarceration. The District Court dismissed the challenge to the disciplinary procedures reasoning that Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477, 114 S.Ct. 2364, 129 L.Ed.2d 383 (1994), and Edwards v. Balisok, 520 U.S. 641, 117 S.Ct. 1584, 137 L.Ed.2d 906 (1997), required Ramirez to invalidate his disciplinary sentence before seeking damages under § 1983. The District Court also dismissed Ramirez's claims regarding his two-year term of administrative segregation as lacking a protected liberty interest.

We conclude that Ramirez may challenge the conditions of his confinement under § 1983 because his claim, if successful, would not necessarily invalidate a disciplinary action that affects the fact or length of his confinement. We further conclude that Ramirez's challenge to his term of segregated confinement is cognizable under § 1983 as a potentially atypical and significant hardship. Finally, based on our interpretation of the favorable termination rule, we conclude that the District Court's dismissal of Ramirez's Equal Protection and supervisory liability claims was an abuse of discretion. We will therefore reverse the dismissal, and remand for further proceedings.

I. BACKGROUND

Ramirez is incarcerated at the Corcoran State Prison in California. On July 27, 1997, a correctional officer discovered Ramirez's cellmate wounded inside their shared cell. Ramirez, the only other occupant, was charged with "battery of an inmate with a weapon with serious bodily injury." The charge stemmed from the report of the responding officer, and two medical reports prepared by the emergency room personnel who treated the cellmate's injuries. On September 27, 1997, the prison held a disciplinary hearing on the charges. During the hearing, Ramirez sought to call his cellmate and the medical staff to testify as to their statements. Both requests were denied. He was found guilty and sentenced to ten days of disciplinary detention and sixty days loss-of-privileges, and was referred to administrative segregation. Subsequently, he was assigned to administrative segregation for a term of twenty-four months. Ramirez filed two unsuccessful administrative appeals challenging the procedures used during the disciplinary process, and the resulting disciplinary sentence.

Ramirez then filed a complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California alleging that the disciplinary hearing, and subsequent administrative appeals, violated his federal constitutional rights of Due Process and Equal Protection. Ramirez sought damages, declaratory relief, and an injunction requiring, among other things, the vacation of his disciplinary conviction. The matter was referred to a Magistrate Judge.

Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(a), the Magistrate Judge screened the complaint for possible dismissal. The Magistrate Judge reasoned that Ramirez's allegations regarding the procedures utilized at his disciplinary hearing, if proven, would necessarily imply that the outcome of the hearing was invalid. Citing the Supreme Court's decision in Edwards v. Balisok, the Magistrate Judge concluded that because Ramirez had not previously invalidated his disciplinary sentence, the constitutional challenges to the disciplinary hearing should be dismissed for failure to state a claim.

Separately, the Magistrate Judge determined that Ramirez's claims regarding the prison appeals process should be dismissed because the actions of prison officials in reviewing an administrative appeal could not serve as a basis for liability under § 1983. Finding no actionable claims, the Magistrate Judge recommended that Ramirez's complaint be dismissed without leave to amend, but without prejudice to refiling if his disciplinary sentence was invalidated through a writ of habeas corpus.

Ramirez filed objections to the report and recommendations of the Magistrate Judge. On May 8, 2000, the District Court adopted the Magistrate Judge's report and recommendations in full, and dismissed the complaint. Ramirez now appeals¹ and we exercise appellate jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291.

II. DISCUSSION

We review de novo the District Court's dismissal of Ramirez's complaint under 28 U.S.C. § 1915A for failure to state a claim. Resnick v. Hayes, 213 F.3d 443, 447 (9th Cir.2000). We review the denial of leave to amend for an abuse of discretion. Lopez v. Smith, 203 F.3d 1122, 1130 (9th Cir.2000) (en banc). In reviewing the District Court's dismissal, "we consider only the contents of the complaint, taking as true all the allegations of material fact," construed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Cooper v. Pickett, 137 F.3d 616, 622 (9th Cir.1997); see also Resnick, 213 F.3d at 447. We note finally that courts must generally construe pro se pleadings liberally. Resnick, 213 F.3d at 447.

A. The Disciplinary Hearing

We begin with Ramirez's argument that Heck v. Humphrey and Edwards v. Balisok do not require the invalidation of his disciplinary sentence to pursue an action under § 1983 for the constitutional violations allegedly committed during his disciplinary hearing. To understand the District Court's rationale for dismissing these claims, it is necessary to examine the framework of the federal civil rights and habeas corpus statutes, and the Supreme Court cases explaining the use of § 1983 to challenge prison administrative decisions. Although several opinions of this Court have discussed the concerns underlying the "favorable termination rule," no decision has addressed whether the rule applies to prison disciplinary sanctions that do not affect the fact or length of a prisoner's confinement. See Nonnette v. Small, 316 F.3d 872, 878 (9th Cir.2002); Cabrera v. City of Huntington Park, 159 F.3d 374 (9th Cir.1998); Neal v. Shimoda, 131 F.3d 818 (9th Cir.1997); Butterfield v. Bail, 120 F.3d 1023 (9th Cir.1997); Gotcher v. Wood, 66 F.3d 1097 (9th Cir.1995), on remand, 122 F.3d 39 (9th Cir.1997). Thus, we also consider the numerous circuit court decisions on this issue.

1.

While the Civil Rights Act of 1871 (now codified at 28 U.S.C. § 1983), and the federal habeas corpus statute, 28 U.S.C. § 2254, both provide access to the federal courts "for claims of unconstitutional treatment at the hands of state officials, ... they differ in their scope and operation." Heck, 512 U.S. at 480, 114 S.Ct. 2364. Section 1983 provides a remedy for injuries caused by violations of federal law by persons acting under the color of state law.² "Congress's purpose in enacting § 1983 was to create a novel civil remedy for violation of established constitutional rights." Martinez v. City of Oxnard, 270 F.3d 852, 856 n. 2 (9th Cir.2001). Given this unique legislative intent to provide a federal forum for the vindication of federal rights, courts historically declined to require § 1983 plaintiffs to exhaust state remedies. Patsy v. Bd. of Regents, 457 U.S. 496, 507, 102 S.Ct. 2557, 73 L.Ed.2d 172 (1982); Sisk v. CSO Branch, 974 F.2d 116, 117 (9th Cir.1992). Congress altered this tradition in 1996 with the enactment of the Prison Litigation Reform Act by requiring prisoners to exhaust all available administrative remedies before filing a § 1983 action. 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a)("No action shall be brought with respect to prison conditions under section 1983 of this title, or any other Federal law, by a prisoner confined in any jail, prison, or other correctional facility until such administrative remedies as are available are exhausted.").

In contrast, the federal habeas corpus statute explicitly requires state prisoners to first seek relief in a state forum. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b).³ This exhaustion requirement "is rooted in considerations of federal-state comity," and allows "the state court system that has convicted a defendant the first opportunity ... to correct the errors made in the internal administration of their prisons." Preiser v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 475, 491-92, 93 S.Ct. 1827, 36 L.Ed.2d 439 (1973); Young v. Kenny, 907 F.2d 874, 875-76 (9th Cir.1989). The burden of satisfying the exhaustion requirement of § 2254, and the absence of a similar restriction in § 1983, left the two statutes on a "collision course." Heck, 512 U.S. at 492, 114 S.Ct. 2364 (Souter, J., concurring in the judgment).

2.

The Supreme Court first addressed the intersection between § 1983 and writs of habeas corpus in Preiser v. Rodriguez, holding that "when a state prisoner is challenging the very fact or duration of his physical confinement," and where "the relief he seeks is a determination that he is entitled to immediate...