Halderman v. Pennhurst State School & Hospital

• Decision Date: 23 March 1982
• Docket Number: No. 81-2381,81-2381
• Parties: Terri Lee HALDERMAN, a retarded citizen, by her mother and guardian, Winifred Halderman; et al., Plaintiffs-Intervenors, v. PENNHURST STATE SCHOOL & HOSPITAL, et al. Appeal of Helen O'BANNON and the Department of Public Welfare.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

Page 628

673 F.2d 628

Terri Lee HALDERMAN, a retarded citizen, by her mother and guardian, Winifred Halderman; et al., Plaintiffs-Intervenors, v. PENNHURST STATE SCHOOL & HOSPITAL, et al.

Appeal of Helen O'BANNON and the Department of Public Welfare.

No. 81-2381.

United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Argued Nov. 23, 1981.

Decided Feb. 26, 1982.

Rehearing Denied March 23, 1982.

LeRoy S. Zimmerman, Atty. Gen., Allen C. Warshaw, Deputy Atty. Gen., Chief, Special Litigation (argued), Robert B. Hoffman, Deputy Atty. Gen., Harrisburg, Pa., for appellants.

David Ferleger, Philadelphia, Pa., Penelope A. Boyd (argued), Philadelphia, Pa., for Terri Lee Halderman, et al.

Thomas K. Gilhool (argued), Frank J. Laski, Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pa., for Pennsylvania Ass'n for Retarded Citizens, et al.

Alexander Ewing, Jr., Asst. U. S. Atty., Philadelphia, Pa., Louise A. Lerner, Asst. Atty. Gen., U. S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., for United States.

Before SEITZ, Chief Judge, and ALDISERT, GIBBONS, HUNTER, WEIS, GARTH, HIGGINBOTHAM and SLOVITER, Circuit Judges.

OPINION OF THE COURT

GIBBONS, Circuit Judge, with whom ALDISERT, WEIS, A. LEON HIGGINBOTHAM, Jr., and SLOVITER, Circuit Judges join:

The Honorable Helen O'Bannon, Secretary of the Department of Public Welfare of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and that Department, appeal from an August 25, 1981, order of the District Court, 533 F.Supp. 631, holding them in civil contempt, after a hearing, for failure to comply with the terms of the court's orders of June 4, 1981, and July 14, 1981. Those orders directed that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania pay into the Registry of the District Court estimated costs for the operation of the Office of Special Master created under the terms of prior orders in this protracted lawsuit. The plaintiffs have moved to dismiss the appeal from the contempt order for want of an appealable order. We conclude that we have appellate jurisdiction, and we affirm.

I

This civil contempt proceeding arises out of a class action granting injunctive relief against the fact or conditions of confinement in Pennhurst State School and Hospital (Pennhurst) of persons suffering mental retardation. The action was commenced in May of 1974 by Terri Lee Halderman, a minor resident of Pennhurst. A motion by the United States to intervene as a plaintiff was granted in January, 1975, and the Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Citizens (PARC) successfully moved to intervene thereafter. The Commonwealth defendants are the Department of Public Welfare, the Secretary of the Department, and a number of state officials having responsibility for the habilitation of the mentally retarded in Pennsylvania and for the operation of Pennhurst. Additional defendants, not involved in the contempt proceedings, are five counties of southeastern Pennsylvania which, under Pennsylvania law, share responsibility with the Commonwealth for the habilitation of the mentally retarded. After extensive pretrial discovery and a lengthy trial, the District Court in December 1977 made findings of fact and conclusions (t)he Master shall engage such staff of his or her own as he or she finds necessary, subject to the approval of the Court. The Master and his or her staff shall be compensated by the commonwealth defendants at a rate to be set by the court; the expenses of the mastership to be borne by the commonwealth defendants. ²

of law holding that the rights of class members secured to them by the Pennsylvania Mental Health and Mental Retardation Act of 1966, Pa.Stat.Ann. tit. 50, §§ 4101-4704 (Purdon 1969) (MH/MR Act of 1966), by several federal statutes, and by the federal constitution were being violated. ¹ When the parties were unable to agree on an order which would remedy the continuing violations of law which the district court found, on March 17, 1978 the Court issued a permanent injunction ordering that Pennhurst eventually be closed and that suitable community living arrangements and necessary support services be provided for its residents. Particularly relevant to the contempt proceedings is the provision in the March 17, 1978 order for the appointment of a Special Master to supervise the planning and implementation of arrangements for placing Pennhurst residents elsewhere, and for the operation of Pennhurst until such placements were accomplished. Paragraph 8 of the District Court's March 17, 1978 order provided that

All defendants appealed from the March 17, 1978 Order. An application to stay that order was denied by the District Court, ³ and a panel of this Court denied a stay pending appeal. Before this Court the Commonwealth defendants opposed the March 17, 1978 order in all respects, but in particular because (1) the prospective relief which was ordered required the expenditure of Commonwealth funds, and (2) the appointment of a Special Master was improper. This Court expressly rejected both of those objections. ⁴ For the most part we affirmed the District Court's order. We did, however, conclude that in ordering that Pennhurst be closed and in prohibiting all future admissions to that institution, the judgment went beyond what the law required. Instead, we held individual determinations of need were required for each present resident or future admittee.

(I)nstitutionalization is a disfavored approach to habilitation. Only where the court or the Master finds that an improved Pennhurst is the only appropriate place for individual patients should it be used. For all other patients, CLAs must be provided. We caution both the trial court and the Master that before ordering transfers to CLAs they must have assurances that the sanitary, staffing, and program deficiencies which were found at Pennhurst are not duplicated on a smaller scale in the CLAs. ⁵

Thus both the March 17, 1978 judgment and our opinion and judgment affirming and modifying it, contemplated a significant ongoing role for the Special Master both with respect to the internal conditions at Pennhurst and with respect to returning Pennhurst inmates to a more normal environment. Even those judges who dissented from the provisions of the judgment requiring steps toward normalization of inmates rather than perpetual confinement made no objection to the use of a Special Master to bring about an internal improvement of the intolerable conditions at Pennhurst. The judgment on appeal therefore made no change in the provision in paragraph 8 of the District Court's March 17, 1978 judgment ordering the Commonwealth to pay the expenses of the Master. In that respect this Court was unanimous.

The March 17, 1978 order in relevant respects has been in place and unstayed at all times since. It was the clear understanding of the Court and all parties that On June 10, 1980 the Supreme Court granted certiorari from the prior judgment of this Court. ⁶ Prior thereto no stay of our mandate had been sought. Thus the modification of the March 17, 1978 judgment by the April 24, 1980 District Court order establishing a Hearing Master was plainly within the District Court's jurisdiction and complied with our mandate. On June 30, 1980 the Supreme Court entered a partial stay of the judgment of the Court of Appeals "to the extent that the judgment mandates the movement of residents of the Pennhurst facility to 'appropriate community living arrangements' " but denied a stay in all other respects. ⁷ Among the requests to the Supreme Court for a stay which were considered and denied were several addressed to the operation of the Office of Special Master. ⁸ When advised of the Supreme Court's action on the application for a stay, the District Court on July 14, 1980 further modified the injunction only to the extent of directing the Hearing Master, provided for in the April 24, 1980 order, to determine whether transfers out of Pennhurst were voluntary. All involuntary transfers to community living arrangements were terminated pending a further ruling by the Supreme Court. ⁹ No appeal was taken from this order, which enlarged the role of the Masters slightly. ¹⁰ After entry of the July 14, 1980 order, the Commonwealth continued to make payments in compliance with the Court's periodic payment orders, until June of 1981.

the costs of the Special Master's office be borne by the Commonwealth. This clear understanding is confirmed by the fact that beginning in 1978, each of the District Court's periodic orders for payment of the cost of the Master was directed to the Commonwealth as such. In compliance with the mandate of this Court, the scope of the Master's duties was modified by a District Court order of April 24, 1980, which established an impartial hearing procedure and appointed a Hearing Master to provide an individual hearing for Pennhurst residents who desired to live in the community. No appeal was taken from the April 24, 1980 order, which modified the March 17, 1978 injunction. After the April 24, 1980 modification, the Court continued the prior practice of issuing periodic payment orders to the Commonwealth. No appeal was ever taken by the Commonwealth from any of these periodic payment orders. They all were honored by payment until the order of June 4, 1981.

On April 20, 1981 the Supreme Court reversed the judgment of this Court and remanded with a direction for further proceedings in conformity with the opinion of the Court. ¹¹ The Supreme Court's judgment did not affect the District Court's March 17, 1978 judgment as modified by the April 24, 1980 and July 14, 1980 orders. Insofar as those orders deal with the expense of the Special Master's office, those orders have been in effect at all relevant times. Moreover, the Court's periodic payment orders of June 4, 1981 directing the Commonwealth to pay $67,746.08 have not been appealed by anyone, and the Commonwealth as such has not appealed the July 14, 1981 periodic payment orders. In the opinion on remand from the Supreme...