Collins v. Schoonfield

• Citation: 363 F. Supp. 1152
• Decision Date: 18 September 1973
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 71-500-H.
• Parties: Vernon COLLINS et al., Plaintiffs, v. Hiram L. SCHOONFIELD et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maryland

363 F. Supp. 1152

Vernon COLLINS et al., Plaintiffs, v. Hiram L. SCHOONFIELD et al., Defendants.

Civ. No. 71-500-H.

United States District Court, D. Maryland.

September 18, 1973.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Lawrence B. Coshnear, Michael S. Elder, and Charles F. Morgan, Legal Aid Bureau, Inc., Baltimore, Md., for plaintiffs.

Patrick A. O'Doherty, Baltimore, Md., for defendant Schoonfield.

Hilary D. Caplan, Baltimore, Md., for defendant Parks.

Charles E. Chlan, Baltimore, Md., for defendant Harper.

HARVEY, District Judge:

Presently before the Court is the second phase of this action brought under the Civil Rights Act by certain individuals who were confined in the Baltimore City Jail as pre-trial detainees at the time suit was instituted. The original complaint named as defendants the Warden of the Jail, two Deputy Wardens and various members of the Baltimore City Jail Board. Equitable and declaratory relief and monetary damages were sought by the plaintiffs pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

In Collins v. Schoonfield, 344 F.Supp. 257 (D.Md.1972), Judge Kaufman of this Court decided the equitable issues raised by this action and ordered the elimination of various unconstitutional practices.¹ As indicated by Judge Kaufman in his Opinion, the parties had agreed that the issues as to damages would be tried separately from and at a different time from the trial of the equitable issues. The following was said in this regard (344 F.Supp. at 262-263):

"The parties agreed that the equitable issues should be tried separately from the damage claims and that the former should be tried first. The plaintiffs have not asked for a jury trial of the damage or any other claims. However, the Warden and the two Deputy Wardens, from whom monetary damages are sought, have reserved their respective individual rights to a jury trial of the damage claims. In advance of trial of the equitable issues counsel for both sides agreed that the first equitable issue, i. e., the constitutionality of solitary confinement in the Jail, and the damage claims growing out of specific alleged instances of such confinement, might pose for determination common questions of disputed fact and that under the principles set forth in Dairy Queen, Inc. v. Wood, 369 U.S. 469, 82 S.Ct. 894, 8 L.Ed.2d 44 (1962), and its progeny, the Warden and the two Deputy Wardens have the right not to have any disputed fact found in a non-jury trial of the first equitable issue which would be relevant and material in the later trial of the damage claims. Additionally, during trial, it became apparent to Court and counsel that the non-jury trial of equitable issues 2-10, inclusive, might also require the finding of facts which might not be entirely unconnected with disputed factual areas presented by the solitary confinement issue and/or the monetary damage claims. For that reason, counsel and each of the parties have agreed that no facts found by this Court in this opinion will be used as evidence in the trial still to be held, nor will the transcript of the trial, which has been held, `be used, in any manner, by any party to this litigation' during the trial still to be held though none of the parties are prohibited from seeking to introduce in that future trial `any evidence' used in the trial which has been held." (Footnotes omitted.)

By Order dated January 31, 1973, Judge Kaufman directed that the damage issues be tried by another judge, and that aspect of the case was thereupon transferred to the undersigned. With the consent of the Court, an amended complaint was subsequently filed, containing only allegations pertinent to the recovery of money damages.² Five plaintiffs³ are now seeking compensatory and punitive damages from Hiram L. Schoonfield, formerly Warden of the Baltimore City Jail, from Howard B. Parks, formerly Deputy Warden and Acting Warden at the time of the hearing, and from Harry E. Harper, Deputy Warden. New counsel have now entered their appearance and are representing the defendants in the damages aspect of this litigation. This part of the case has therefore been tried on a record different from that before Judge Kaufman and with different counsel participating.

At the final pre-trial conference, defendants waived their right to a jury trial. The case was accordingly tried by the undersigned judge without a jury, and the trial lasted some five days.

At the outset, some comment is necessary with respect to the different posture of the damage claims from that of the equitable claims. Judge Kaufman was concerned with the constitutionality of long-term practices and procedures at the Baltimore City Jail and, in particular, with their effect on a class of pretrial detainees. In this phase of the litigation, the undersigned judge is called upon to rule upon specific acts of alleged unconstitutional conduct committed by the individual defendants and is asked to award damages to the individual plaintiffs because of those acts for which the defendants may be held liable under § 1983. In the trial before Judge Kaufman, substantial parts of the plaintiffs' proof were not in dispute.⁴ Numerous non-party witnesses testified for both sides. Following lengthy hearings and the testimony of the many witnesses⁵ and following numerous conferences with the Court, the parties during the first stage of this litigation entered into stipulations concerning many of the facts necessary for an adjudication of the equitable issues.

Here, there are sharp conflicts as to almost every fact essential to plaintiffs' right to recover damages under 42 U.S. C. § 1983. Most of these conflicts can be resolved only by resort to the credibility of the witnesses. All five remaining plaintiffs testified at the trial, as did all three defendants. Unlike the earlier hearings, defendants did respond at this trial to specific allegations as to statements and attitudes attributed to them. See Collins v. Schoonfield, supra at 267.

Not only is the record now before the Court markedly different from the one before Judge Kaufman, but the legal principles to be applied are also different. Federal courts have been taking an increasingly enlightened and progressive approach in considering constitutional attacks on the conditions of confinement in state and local penal institutions. Sostre v. McGinnis, 442 F.2d 178 (2d Cir. 1971), cert. den. sub nom., Sostre v. Oswald, 404 U.S. 1049, 92 S.Ct. 719, 30 L.Ed.2d 740 (1972); Bundy v. Cannon, 328 F.Supp. 165 (D.Md.1971); Landman v. Royster, 354 F.Supp. 1302 (E.D. Va.1973). Standards formerly accepted as modern and desirable penological goals are today recognized, under what has been called the "maturing sensitivity" of this age (442 F.2d at 190), as basic constitutional minima. This and other Courts have not hesitated to enter broad decrees requiring state and local prison officials to conform to the constitutional requirements of today. Collins v. Schoonfield, supra; Bundy v. Cannon, supra; Landman v. Royster, 333 F. Supp. 621 (E.D.Va.1971); Sostre v. McGinnis, supra.

The thrust of a damage action under § 1983 is somewhat different. This statute authorizes the recovery of compensatory and punitive damages against an individual defendant for the unjustifiable violation of the constitutional rights of an individual plaintiff "under color" of state law. Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167, 81 S.Ct. 473, 5 L. Ed.2d 492 (1961); Basista v. Weir, 340 F.2d 74 (3d Cir. 1965). Thus, the liability is entirely personal in nature, intended to be satisfied out of the individual defendant's pocket. Sostre, supra, 442 F.2d at 205. Individual actions rather than general prison practices must therefore be critically examined to determine if constitutional violations have occurred.

Moreover, whereas injunctive relief, such as that previously ordered by the Court in this case, operates prospectively in most instances, the responsibility of individual prison officials to answer in damages requires the imposition of monetary penalties for their past actions. It has therefore been recognized that it would contravene basic notions of fundamental fairness if prison officials were held to be liable monetarily for acts which they could not reasonably have known were unlawful. Landman v. Royster, 354 F.Supp. at 1317. While state officials may be expected to be reasonable men, they neither can nor should be expected to be "seers in the crystal ball of constitutional doctrine" nor "charged with predicting the future course of constitutional law." Westberry v. Fisher, 309 F.Supp. 12, 17 (D.Me. 1970); Pierson v. Ray, 386 U.S. 547, 557, 87 S.Ct. 1213, 18 L.Ed.2d 288 (1967); Eslinger v. Thomas, 476 F.2d 225 (4th Cir. 1973). If a prison official acts in a reasonable good faith reliance on what was standard operating procedure in his prison, he is not required to respond personally in damages. Skinner v. Spellman, 480 F.2d 539 (4th Cir. 1973).

I The Issues

Plaintiffs' claims arise as a result of three different occasions when plaintiffs, or one or more of them, were placed in isolated or segregated confinement, as follows:

1. The segregated confinement of plaintiffs Collins, Whitfield and Dutton from February 24 to March 9, 1971;

2. The confinement in isolation of plaintiffs Dailey, Whitfield, Collins and Dutton from November 18 or November 19, 1971 to November 23, 1971;

3. The confinement in isolation of plaintiff Morris in December 1970 for a period of three days and the segregated confinement of plaintiff Morris in Sections K and A in January, February and March, 1971.

On February 24, 1971, Sgt. Joseph Green, a guard, was assaulted and beaten in L Section, which is the maximum security Section of the Baltimore City Jail. Plaintiffs Collins, Whitfield and Dutton and three other inmates were charged with the assault and placed in segregated confinement. They remained in such confinement for some thirteen days, from February 24, 1971 to March 9, 1971.

On November 18, 1971, plaint...