Fulton v. Goord

• Decision Date: 22 December 2009
• Docket Number: No. 06-5023-cv.,06-5023-cv.
• Citation: 591 F.3d 37
• Parties: Eunice FULTON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Commissioner Glen S. GOORD, Department of Correctional Services, Theresa K. David, Director of Classification & Movement, Department of Correctional Services; State of New York, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

591 F.3d 37

Eunice FULTON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Commissioner Glen S. GOORD, Department of Correctional Services, Theresa K. David, Director of Classification & Movement, Department of Correctional Services; State of New York, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 06-5023-cv.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued: April 7, 2009.

Decided: December 22, 2009.

Samuel J. Lieberman, Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman LLP, New York, NY, (Douglas F. Curtis, Shauna K. Friedman, Wilmer Culter Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, New York, NY, on the brief), for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Kate H. Nepveu, Assistant Solicitor General, (Barbara D. Underwood, Solicitor General, Andrea Oser, Deputy Solicitor General, on the brief), for Andrew M. Cuomo, Attorney General of the State of New York, Albany, NY, for Defendants-Appellees.

Before: JACOBS, Chief Judge, WALKER, and LEVAL, Circuit Judges.

JOHN M. WALKER, JR., Circuit Judge.

Eunice Fulton suffers from multiple sclerosis. Her illness prevented her from visiting her husband in an upstate New York prison, roughly 300 miles from her New York City home, as part of a state-run Inmate Visitor Program (IVP). Proceeding pro se, Fulton sued officials of the New York State Department of Correctional Services (DOCS), pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. § 12132, and the Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. § 794(a), seeking relief for the defendants' asserted failure to accommodate her disability in administering the IVP. The United States District Court for the Northern District of New York (Gary L. Sharpe, Judge) dismissed Fulton's suit for both lack of standing and failure to state a claim. The district court, however, was misguided in viewing Fulton's suit as consisting of claims solely based on the defendants' refusal to transfer her husband to a prison closer to New York City, when in fact the basis of Fulton's claim is broader: the defendants' failure even to consider whether her disability could be reasonably accommodated.

BACKGROUND

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease in which the body's immune system attacks the central nervous system, repeatedly injuring the nerves and ultimately causing them to degenerate. MS has no cure and can often lead to partial or complete paralysis, but medication can slow the disease's progression.

In 2005, twelve years after she was diagnosed with MS, Fulton was paralyzed in the lower left side of her body. She required a wheelchair to move, and a health care professional to assist her with her daily needs. Although she could stand on her own for short periods, her MS prevented her from traveling long distances.

In April 2005, Fulton's husband was convicted of two crimes and sentenced in New York state court to a prison term of two to four years. In June 2005, upon his admission to a DOCS inmate processing facility, he asked to be housed in a prison near his wife because of her disability. DOCS denied this request and, in July 2005, transferred Fulton's husband to the Altona Correctional Facility, some 300 miles from New York City in DOCS's Clinton County "Hub Area." Soon thereafter, when he asked to be placed in a facility closer to New York City, DOCS told him that, under DOCS policy, he would have to spend two years in the Clinton Hub before he would be eligible for a transfer. The DOCS IVP permitted prisoners to be visited in prison by "friends and relatives," DOCS Directive No. 4403 § I (1993), but Fulton's MS made it impossible for her to visit her husband at the Altona prison.

In October 2005, Fulton wrote to defendant Glen Goord, DOCS Commissioner, told him of her disability, and, according to the complaint, "requested that reasonable accommodations be made to enable her to visit with her husband." (Compl. ¶ 15.) She asked that "consideration be given to transfer [sic] her husband" to somewhere closer to her. (Compl. ¶ 15.) Around that time, Fulton and her husband each also wrote to defendant Theresa David, DOCS Director of Classification and Movement, to "request[] reasonable accommodation" for Fulton "to participate in the visiting program." (Compl. ¶ 16.)

In November 2005, Fulton received a letter from David stating that, in light of the DOCS two-year transfer policy, Fulton's husband would need to stay in the Clinton Hub until at least July 2007. The letter did not mention Fulton's disability or consideration of any other accommodation.

In December 2005, Fulton filed this lawsuit pro se against Goord, David, and the State of New York. Her complaint sought an injunction requiring the defendants to "provide reasonable accommodation [for her] to participate in the [DOCS] visiting program" and $75,000 in damages. (Compl. at 8.)

The district court dismissed Fulton's complaint. Fulton v. Goord, No. 1:05-CV-1622 (GLS/DRH), 2006 WL 2850601, at *1 (N.D.N.Y. Oct. 2, 2006). The district court held that Fulton lacked standing, because she had no "protected liberty interest" in visiting her inmate husband and therefore her "inability to take advantage of a DOCS visitation program does not constitute a redressable injury." Id. at *2. The district court concluded that, in any event, Fulton had failed to state a claim. Id. at *3.

This appeal followed. Because her husband has been released from prison, Fulton, now represented by counsel, seeks only monetary relief. She argues that she both has standing to proceed and has properly stated a claim. We agree that Fulton has standing, and we remand for the district court to reconsider whether she has stated a claim. We also grant Fulton leave to amend her complaint, to which the defendants consent.

DISCUSSION

I. Fulton's Standing

We review questions of standing de novo. Comer v. Cisneros, 37 F.3d 775, 787 (2d Cir.1994). "Because standing is challenged on the basis of the pleadings, we accept as true all material allegations of the complaint, and must construe the complaint in favor of the complaining party." W.R. Huff Asset Mgmt. Co. v. Deloitte & Touche LLP, 549 F.3d 100, 106 (2d Cir.2008) (internal quotation marks omitted).

The "irreducible constitutional minimum of standing," rooted in Article III's case-or-controversy requirement, consists of three elements: (1) an "injury in fact," by which is meant "an invasion of a legally protected interest"; (2) "a causal connection between the injury and the conduct complained of"; and (3) a likelihood that "the injury will be redressed by a favorable decision." Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992) (internal quotation marks omitted). The legally protected interest "may exist solely by virtue of statutes creating legal rights, the invasion of which creates standing." Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 500, 95 S.Ct. 2197, 45 L.Ed.2d 343 (1975) (internal quotation marks omitted). Accordingly, "standing is gauged by the specific common-law, statutory or constitutional claims that a party presents." Int'l Primate Prot. League v. Adm'rs of Tulane Educ. Fund, 500 U.S. 72, 77, 111 S.Ct. 1700, 114 L.Ed.2d 134 (1991).

Fulton sued under the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act.¹ The ADA states, in relevant part, that

no qualified individual with a disability shall, by reason of such disability, be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of the services, programs, or activities of a public entity, or be subjected to discrimination by any such entity.

42 U.S.C. § 12132. Similarly, the Rehabilitation Act states:

No otherwise qualified individual with a disability . . . shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. . . .

29 U.S.C. § 794(a). The ADA provides "remedies, procedures, and rights . . . to any person alleging discrimination on the basis of disability in violation of section 12132," 42 U.S.C. § 12133, and the Rehabilitation Act does the same for "any person aggrieved" by disability-based discrimination, 29 U.S.C. § 794a(a)(2). Because of the breadth of these provisions, we have held that ADA and Rehabilitation Act actions are not subject to any of the prudential limitations on standing that apply in other contexts. See Innovative Health Sys., Inc. v. City of White Plains, 117 F.3d 37, 47 (2d Cir.1997) (concluding that standing under these statutes should be defined as broadly as constitutionally permitted), overruled on other grounds by Zervos v. Verizon N.Y., Inc., 252 F.3d 163, 171 n. 7 (2d Cir.2001). The ADA and Rehabilitation Act generously confer the right to be free from disability-based discrimination by public entities and federally funded programs and, in so doing, confer standing for persons claiming such discrimination to enforce that right. Fulton asserts that she was discriminatorily denied a reasonable accommodation for her disability in violation of her rights under the two acts. This is plainly an injury in fact that is sufficient to form the basis for Article III standing.

In arguing otherwise, the defendants, like the district court, misconceive Fulton's claim. The defendants argue that Fulton has no "legally cognizable interest in having her incarcerated spouse transferred to a facility she can more readily visit." (Appellee's Br. at 8.) Whatever the merit of such an argument, Fulton's complaint is not so narrow: The essence of Fulton's challenge is the defendants' refusal, in light of her disability, to provide her with, or even to consider, a "reasonable accommodation to participate in the visiting program." (Compl. ¶ 16.) The defendants' decision to house her husband in Altona is only one aspect of this larger issue and not necessarily dispositive, at least at this stage of the proceedings. Fulton's complaint rests on her right to be free from disability-based discrimination, and the defendants fail to explain why a violation of this right, as distinct from any rights (if...