Stewart v. Winter

• Decision Date: 05 March 1982
• Docket Number: No. 80-3899,80-3899
• Citation: 669 F.2d 328
• Parties: Eugene STEWART, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. William WINTER, Individually and in his official capacity as Governor of the State of Mississippi, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 328

669 F.2d 328

Eugene STEWART, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. William WINTER, Individually and in his official capacity as Governor of the State of Mississippi, et al Defendants-Appellees.

No. 80-3899.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

March 5, 1982.

Yvonne L. Hughes, Cleveland, Miss., Bruce Johnson, Lexington, Miss., for plaintiffs-appellants.

R. Lloyd Arnold, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., P. Roger Googe, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, Miss., Hugh R. Varnado, Jr., Belzoni, Miss., for defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.

Before COLEMAN, REAVLEY and SAM D. JOHNSON, Circuit Judges.

REAVLEY, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiffs, 18 past or present inmates in county jails in Mississippi, brought this action against various Mississippi state and county officials. They sought to represent a class of all persons who have been or will be incarcerated in the county jails of any of the 82 counties in Mississippi against a class of defendants including all state and county officials in any way responsible for maintaining or overseeing the conditions in the jails. After granting defendants' motion to stay discovery pending resolution of the class certification issues, the district court denied certification of both the plaintiff and defendant classes, and it dismissed this action without prejudice. 87 F.R.D. 760 (N.D.Miss.1980). The central question on appeal is whether the district court erred in denying certification to the plaintiff class and thereby refusing to adjudicate in the one suit the constitutional problems and remedies for every county jail in the State of Mississippi. While we conclude that several of the grounds the district court relied on in denying class certification were erroneous, we hold that the court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to certify the plaintiff class.

I. Background

A. The County Jails

Mississippi law requires each county to erect and maintain a jail at its own expense. Miss.Code Ann. § 19-3-41 (1972); see id. § 19-9-11 (renovation or erection of new jail); id. §§ 19-9-1, -93 (methods of funding). The county must also feed, clothe, and care for its inmates at county expense. Id. §§ 47-1-47, -57. The county jails have generally been used to house pretrial detainees and convicts whose sentences are not more than one year ("county inmates"). ¹ In 1977, however, Mississippi enacted a law which authorizes the state department of corrections to place "(a)ny person ... placed under (its) custody" (any "state prisoner") in a county jail until space becomes available in the penitentiary. Miss.Code Ann. § 47-5-112(1). This provision was passed as a result of the limitations imposed in Gates v. Collier, 423 F.Supp. 732 (N.D.Miss.1976), aff'd, 548 F.2d 1241 (5th Cir. 1977), on the number of inmates that may be incarcerated in the state penitentiary.

B. Procedural History

On or prior to June 9, 1980, the date this suit was filed, plaintiffs were state prisoners, pretrial detainees, and county inmates of eight county jails. ² Plaintiffs' primary contention is that the conditions in the county jails constitute cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth Amendment. They also allege that the conditions violate the First Amendment and the equal protection and substantive due process guarantees of the Fourteenth Amendment. Finally, they claim that summary discipline administered in the jails violates the procedural due process guarantee of the Fourteenth Amendment. Concerning the conditions of confinement, plaintiffs allege in general terms that many of the jails are in a state of deterioration and are overcrowded; that visiting privileges, classification and diagnosis of inmates, medical care, access to legal materials, staff training, rehabilitation programs, and recreational opportunities are all inadequate; and that the result of these inadequacies is tension and violence among the inmates. Concerning the procedural due process claim, plaintiffs allege that "arbitrary, capricious and unlawful summary discipline" is administered and that no "code of in jail behavior" exists.

Plaintiffs served with their complaint a motion for certification of the plaintiff class and a request for the production of documents. After the court had granted defendants' motion for additional time to respond to plaintiffs' document request, ³ defendants filed a motion requesting dismissal on various grounds as well as a class certification hearing, and then moved to hold all discovery in abeyance until the court ruled on their motion. Plaintiffs responded with a motion to compel. The court granted the motion to hold discovery in abeyance and denied plaintiffs' motion.

At the certification hearing, the court dismissed two of the eight counties named in this suit on the ground that one county's jail was already operating under court order and the other was the subject of a pending class action instituted by one of the plaintiffs named in this suit. Then, in a written opinion, 87 F.R.D. 760 (N.D.Miss.1980), the court granted the state defendants' motion to dismiss on the ground that the state officials had no authority over the county jails and thus had no responsibility for their conditions. Id. at 768. Treating the remainder of the suit as one against county officials, the court refused to certify the plaintiff class on the grounds, inter alia, that (1) the evidence at the certification hearing demonstrated a diversity of conditions among the county jails rather than common questions of law or fact, id. at 769, and that (2) the named plaintiffs were not adequate class representatives, id. at 770. Finally, the court held that the defendant class did not meet the requirements of Rule 23. See id. at 770-71. Having denied class certification, the court dismissed the suit "without prejudice to plaintiffs' right to prosecute individually their claims against the county officials in charge of the jail of any county." Id. at 771.

We hold that the district court erred in dismissing the state defendants and in holding that plaintiffs were not adequate representatives on the grounds assigned in its opinion. Nevertheless, we affirm the court's judgment because it did not abuse its discretion in concluding that there were no common questions of law or fact within the meaning of Rule 23(a)(2). We express no opinion on any of the other views expressed in the district court's opinion.

II. Denial of Discovery

Whether discovery will be permitted in connection with a motion for a class certification determination "lies within the sound discretion of the trial court." Kamm v. California City Dev. Corp., 509 F.2d 205, 209 (9th Cir. 1975). And, as in all discovery matters, the district court has broad discretion in limiting the scope of discovery. Pan-Islamic Trade Corp. v. Exxon Corp., 632 F.2d 539, 550 (5th Cir. 1980), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 102 S.Ct. 427, 70 L.Ed.2d --- (1981). In light of the mandate of Rule 23(c)(1) that a certification determination be made "(a)s soon as practicable after the commencement of (the) action," we think it imperative that the district court be permitted to limit pre-certification discovery to evidence that, in its sound judgment, would be "necessary or helpful" ⁴ to the certification decision. Our prior decisions make it clear, however, that in most cases "a certain amount of discovery is essential in order to determine the class action issue and the proper scope of a class action." Pittman v. E. I. duPont de Nemours & Co., 552 F.2d 149, 150 (5th Cir. 1977).

Plaintiffs' discovery motion asked the court to produce "all the documents requested" in their notice to produce, and on appeal they renew their contention that they were entitled to receive, prior to the certification hearing, all documents within the scope of their document request. ⁵ We hold that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying this part of plaintiffs' motion. There were potentially millions of pages of documents within the scope of plaintiffs' 61-paragraph document request, which asks for documents relating to every aspect of life in the jails of Mississippi's 82 counties. ⁶ While much of this material may have been relevant to the merits of the class claims, very little of it could have been "necessary or helpful" to determining the threshold issues posed by Rule 23(a) and (b). Enforcing plaintiffs' sweeping request would have imposed on defendants one of the major burdens of defending this omnibus class action prior to any determination that the action was maintainable as such. The district court acted within its discretion in denying plaintiffs' motion to compel production of all the documents requested.

It is apparent from the court's order denying the motion, however, that it construed plaintiffs' motion as making an alternative request for production of three identified documents ⁷-three "comprehensive reports" on the conditions in Mississippi's county jails, all prepared by the state. ⁸ Ordinarily so limited a request would have to be allowed. Production of "comprehensive reports" could have been helpful in identifying any common question of law or fact raised by the conditions in the several jails. As will be seen, however, this case is one of those where the decision on certification of the class action can properly be made upon the information afforded by the pleadings. See Huff v. N. D. Cass Co., 485 F.2d 710, 713 (5th Cir. 1973) (en banc).

III. Dismissal of the State Defendants

The district court dismissed the suit against all of the state officials named as defendants on the ground that, under the applicable Mississippi statutes, "the state officials sued by the plaintiffs have no authority over the maintenance, administration or operation of county jails and that no judgment against them could effectuate the relief sought by plaintiffs." 87 F.R.D. at 768. This was not a proper ground for...