Gentry v. Duckworth

• Decision Date: 20 September 1995
• Docket Number: No. 93-1407,93-1407
• Citation: 65 F.3d 555
• Parties: Kenneth E. GENTRY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Jack R. DUCKWORTH, Superintendent, Indiana State Reformatory, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 555

65 F.3d 555

Kenneth E. GENTRY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Jack R. DUCKWORTH, Superintendent, Indiana State

Reformatory, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 93-1407.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued May 12, 1995.

Decided Aug. 29, 1995.

Rehearing Denied Sept. 20, 1995.

Jerold S. Solovy, Lawrence S. Schaner, Steven P. Blonder (argued), Jenner & Block, Chicago, IL, for plaintiff-appellant.

Laurel Taback Twinney, Wayne Uhl (argued), Office of the Attorney General, Indianapolis, IN, for defendant-appellee.

Before BAUER, MANION, and KANNE, Circuit Judges.

KANNE, Circuit Judge.

Kenneth Gentry, an inmate at the Indiana State Reformatory, claims he was denied materials necessary to complete an adequate court filing. Gentry argues that the denial violated his constitutional right of access to the courts. The district court granted summary judgment against Gentry; we vacate and remand.

I. Background

Kenneth Gentry is a prisoner of the State of Indiana, convicted of burglary, theft, and of being a habitual offender. Those convictions were affirmed on direct appeal. On May 22, 1990, Gentry filed a petition for state post-conviction relief. The trial court denied the petition; Gentry appealed to the Indiana Court of Appeals. The brief that Gentry filed in support of his appeal did not meet procedural requirements. It was handwritten (rather than typed), it was not properly bound along the left margin, its cover was white paper (rather than blue), and it did not contain a verbatim statement of the judgment. For those four reasons, on January 21, 1992, the Indiana Court of Appeals dismissed Gentry's petition for substantial non-conformance with procedural rules, without ever reaching the merits. Gentry v. State, 586 N.E.2d 860 (Ind.App.1992). The Indiana Supreme Court denied transfer.

On May 4, 1992, Gentry filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in United States district court. On August 25, 1992, the district court denied Gentry's habeas petition. Meanwhile, on May 14, 1992, Gentry filed a complaint in United States district court under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983, alleging that prison officials had violated his right of access to the courts by denying him materials necessary to allow him to conform his (earlier, dismissed) brief to procedural rules. Jack Duckworth was superintendent of the Indiana State Reformatory when Gentry was denied scribe materials. Instead of naming the prison employees who actually refused him materials, Gentry proceeded solely against Duckworth. ¹ The district court granted summary judgment for Duckworth; Gentry appeals.

II. Analysis

We review a district court's grant of summary judgment de novo. Hedberg v. Indiana Bell, 47 F.3d 928, 931 (7th Cir.1995). We view all the facts in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, and we draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the nonmoving party. Id. A district court must grant summary judgment where the record before it shows "there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); see Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2552, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986).

Prisoners have a constitutional right to "meaningful" access to the courts. Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 828, 97 S.Ct. 1491, 1498, 52 L.Ed.2d 72 (1977); Shango v. Jurich, 965 F.2d 289, 291 (7th Cir.1992); Gometz v. Henman, 807 F.2d 113, 116 (7th Cir.1986). Prisoners must receive "that quantum of access to prison libraries--not total or unlimited access--which will enable them to research the law and determine what facts may be necessary to state a cause of action." Hossman v. Spradlin, 812 F.2d 1019, 1021 (7th Cir.1987); see also Campbell v. Miller, 787 F.2d 217, 226 (7th Cir.1986). While access to law libraries is the most frequently discussed element of access to the courts, part of meaningful access is furnishing basic scribe materials for the preparation of legal papers. Bounds, 430 U.S. at 824, 97 S.Ct. at 1496; Gluth v. Kangas, 951 F.2d 1504, 1510 (9th Cir.1991). Being able to formulate abstract legal theories is insufficient to give access to the courts without the physical means of filing a complaint based on those theories. Necessary scribe materials include paper, some means of writing, staplers, access to notary services where required by procedural rules, and mailing materials. ² Of course, prisoners are not entitled to limitless supplies of such materials, merely to that amount minimally necessary to give them meaningful access to the courts.

We use a two-part test to decide if prison administrators violated the right of access to the courts. Smith v. Shawnee Library Sys., 60 F.3d 317 (7th Cir.1995); Jenkins v. Lane, 977 F.2d 266, 268 (7th Cir.1992). First, the prisoner must show that prison officials failed " 'to assist in the preparation and filing of meaningful legal papers by providing prisoners with adequate law libraries or adequate assistance from persons trained in the law.' " Id., quoting Bounds, 430 U.S. at 828, 97 S.Ct. at 1498. Providing adequate scribe materials is included within the actions required of prison officials. Second, he must show "some quantum of detriment caused by the challenged conduct of state officials resulting in the interruption and/or delay of plaintiff's pending or contemplated litigation." Jenkins, 977 F.2d at 268.

The district court found that Gentry had satisfied the first part of the test. A genuine issue of fact existed as to whether prison officials had denied Gentry the blue paper, typewriter, and binding materials necessary to conform his brief to Indiana's procedural rules. Nonetheless, the district court granted summary judgment for Duckworth, finding that Gentry could not prove that he suffered any detriment and thus could never meet the second part of the test.

To understand the district court's rationale, we must examine Gentry's various appeal and post-conviction proceedings. On direct appeal, Gentry alleged three areas of error; the Indiana court hearing his direct appeal affirmed his convictions. Gentry then filed a petition for post-conviction relief in the trial court, but he based his petition on grounds of alleged error different from those on which he had based his direct appeal. Therefore, the Indiana trial court concluded that Gentry had forfeited his new arguments by his failure to include them in his direct appeal. Gentry appealed the trial court's denial of his petition; it was that appeal that the Indiana Court of Appeals dismissed as defective.

When granting summary judgment on Gentry's Sec. 1983 claim, the district court reasoned:

There is no basis in the record ... to conclude that Gentry would have prevailed in his appeal from the postconviction action even if it had been typed, presented with a blue cover and defect-free in every other procedural aspect. The task which he would not have surmounted is to have persuaded the Indiana Court of Appeals to disregard Indiana law concerning procedural waiver and return the case to the trial court for consideration of the merits of the post-conviction claims. Unless that was accomplished, there was no conceivable possibility of Gentry prevailing in the postconviction action. Hence, despite the ill-fated appeal, Gentry has not suffered detriment in any meaningful sense.

The district court correctly concluded that "detriment" means some sort of real prejudice. This is apparent from our most frequent formulation of the test: that the prisoner must show "some quantum of detriment caused by the challenged conduct of state officials resulting in the interruption and/or delay of plaintiff's pending or contemplated litigation." Alston v. DeBruyn, 13 F.3d 1036, 1041 (7th Cir.1994); Shango, 965 F.2d at 292; Howland v. Kilquist, 833 F.2d 639, 642-43 (7th Cir.1987); Hossman, 812 F.2d at 1021 n. 2. That phrasing means that a detriment must exist, a detriment resulting from illegal conduct that affects litigation. It does not mean that any delay is a detriment. Kincaid v. Vail, 969 F.2d 594, 603 (7th Cir.1992), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 1002, 122 L.Ed.2d 152 (1993). Regardless of the length of an alleged delay, a prisoner must show actual substantial prejudice to specific litigation. Id. If a mere allegation of some delay, even to contemplated litigation, were adequate, the second part of the test would have no real import.

Contrary to the district court's conclusion, however, Gentry has alleged, for summary judgment purposes, that he was prejudiced by prison officials' refusal to give him scribe materials, and thus he suffered "detriment." First, the Indiana Court of Appeals would not necessarily have refused to hear the merits of Gentry's petition for post-conviction relief. In Indiana, procedural waiver is not absolute. Even when an appellant has waived claims of error by not including them in his direct appeal, they may still be raised in a post-conviction proceeding where certain forms of "fundamental error" are claimed. Bailey v. State, 472 N.E.2d 1260, 1263 (Ind.1985); Smith v. State, 559 N.E.2d 338, 343-44 (Ind.App.1990). A "fundamental error" is a blatant error that violates due process--for example, violation of the right to effective assistance of counsel. Bailey, 472 N.E.2d at 1263. The district court erred in concluding that Gentry could never have succeeded in the Indiana Court of Appeals, for procedural waiver in Indiana lacks the ultimate finality the district court ascribed to it.

That is reason enough to set aside the district court's grant of summary judgment. More integrally, however, it is necessary that we make clear what constitutes prejudice in this context. Prejudice to the right of access to the courts occurs whenever the actions of a prison official causes court doors to be actually shut on a complaint, regardless of whether the suit would ultimately have succeeded.

As Judge Bauer explained at oral...