Stewart v. Thigpen, 83-4329

• Decision Date: 30 April 1984
• Docket Number: No. 83-4329,83-4329
• Parties: Bennie STEWART, Jr., Individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Morris L. THIGPEN, Commissioner, Mississippi Department of Corrections, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 1002

730 F.2d 1002

Bennie STEWART, Jr., Individually and on behalf of all

others similarly situated, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Morris L. THIGPEN, Commissioner, Mississippi Department of

Corrections, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 83-4329.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

April 30, 1984.

Michael T. Shareef, N. MS Rural Legal Serv., Walterine Langford, Clarksdale, Miss., for plaintiff-appellant.

W.V. Westbrook, III, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, Miss., for defendants-appellees.

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

Before POLITZ, RANDALL and JOLLY, Circuit Judges.

E. GRADY JOLLY, Circuit Judge:

Bennie Stewart, former inmate at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, brought this section 1983 action for damages against several officers and employees of the penitentiary who allegedly deprived him of his constitutional rights by improperly processing a disciplinary incident in which he was involved in 1980. Stewart also alleged violations of state tort law. The district court granted the defendants' motion for directed verdict on Stewart's claims against the state commissioner of corrections, prison warden, deputy warden, and disciplinary committee. The jury found for the defendants on the remaining claims. Stewart appeals both the court's granting of a directed verdict and the jury's verdict, claiming neither is supported by substantial evidence. We hold that Stewart's failure to move for a directed verdict in his own behalf at trial precludes his pursuing his claims on appeal against all defendants except the ones which the court allowed to go to the jury. We also hold that for these defendants, sufficient evidence exists in the record to support the jury's verdict.

I.

Bennie Stewart, now free on parole, was a class C prisoner at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at the time the incidents giving rise to this lawsuit occurred. Penitentiary regulations require that class C prisoners be supervised at all times by prison personnel.

On the morning of November 26, 1980, while standing in the breakfast line, Stewart began to complain loudly and profanely about the constant presence of prison guards. Corrections Officer Larry Harris, present that morning, had warned Stewart several times previously that such disruptive behavior was unacceptable. Harris felt that on the morning of November 26, Stewart was trying to incite bad feelings among fellow inmates toward the corrections officers. Thus, Harris told Stewart to be quiet, and when Stewart continued to complain, Harris issued Stewart a formal reprimand. He removed Stewart from the community dining area to his cell, where Stewart remained for more than an hour.

Later that day, pursuant to prison rules and procedures approved in Gates v. Collier, 454 F.Supp. 579, 586 (1978), aff'd, 606 F.2d 115 (5th Cir.1979), Harris issued Stewart a Rules Violation Report specifying the unacceptable behavior and the rule it violated. The report alleged that Stewart had been loud and boisterous in the dining hall and had refused to be quiet when ordered to do so. Simultaneously, Harris completed an incident report recounting the events of the morning in some detail.

Harris then forwarded the report forms to the classifications officer, who was to classify the offense as "minor" or "serious." The court-approved prison rules allow a single disciplinary hearing officer to review minor offenses, and limit the amount and type of punishment that officer may impose. A full disciplinary committee reviews all serious offenses, and minor offenses as well if the prisoner requests in writing that it do so. As set forth in the prison handbook, the inmate has procedural protections before the committee that he does not have before a hearing officer, including the right to call witnesses, to have the matter investigated by a prison employee, and to present written evidence. The full committee, however, may impose any punishment the rules authorize it to impose, regardless of the classification of the offense. The classification officer classified Stewart's November 26 offense as minor.

On December 4, Corrections Officer Jerry Upton called Stewart to his office to issue him a formal charge sheet as required by the prison rules. The charge sheet informs the inmate of the classification of his charge, of his right to have minor violations reviewed by a full committee, and of the prison rule requiring that he submit a written request for a full committee hearing if the classification officer classified the offense as minor. The charge sheet explicitly informs the inmate that a full committee reviewing a minor charge may impose any penalty it is authorized to impose, even if the offense is minor and one for which the prison rules circumscribe the punishment a single disciplinary officer may impose. The charge sheet further informs the inmate that he may have a prison employee investigate the incident, but that he must request the investigation in writing. It provides a space for the inmate to sign indicating that he wants a prison employee to investigate the incident. Similarly, the form provides a space for the inmate to indicate by signing that he wishes to call witnesses to testify at the committee hearing. It provides a space for listing potential witnesses. Finally, the form has a space for the inmate to indicate by signature that he has read the charge sheet and received a copy of it. Stewart signed the charge sheet, indicating that he wanted the incident investigated, indicating that he intended to call four witnesses, whose names he inserted in the spaces provided, and indicating that he read and received a copy of the charge sheet.

At the disciplinary hearing, Stewart's defense was that he had been falsely accused and that Harris and Upton brought the rules violation charges against him because of personal animosity towards him. Stewart requested that the prison log for November 26 be brought into evidence. All incidents occurring at the prison should be noted in the log, and Stewart wanted to support his false accusation defense by showing that the alleged incident of misbehavior was not noted in the log. The committee, however, refused to consider the prison log because the issue before it was whether Stewart misbehaved, and not whether the incident had been properly noted in the log. Although Stewart's witnesses declined to appear on his behalf, as prison rules and regulations give them a right to do, one witness provided a written statement that corroborated Stewart's version of the facts. This statement and Stewart's own testimony comprised all the evidence supporting Stewart's case.

After considering the Rules Violation Report, the Incident Report, the testimony of Stewart and of Officer Harris, the written statement of Stewart's witness, and the fact that Stewart's witnesses declined to appear personally, the committee found that Stewart had violated the prison rule forbidding loud and boisterous conduct in the dining hall. It recommended a sentence of loss of sixty days earned time and ten days in isolation. This sentence is greater than allowed for a minor offense heard before a single disciplinary officer.

Section 47-5-104 of the Mississippi Code requires that a classification committee review all decisions of the disciplinary committee which subject an offender to demotion or deprivation of earned time. The classification committee, therefore, reviewed Stewart's sentence, and upheld the disciplinary committee's decision. As allowed by the approved prison rules, Stewart appealed the disciplinary committee's decision to the prison warden. The warden had the deputy warden review the hearing record, and on the deputy warden's recommendation, affirmed the disciplinary committee.

Stewart subsequently filed this section 1983 lawsuit in federal district court, requesting declaratory and injunctive relief, as well as compensatory and punitive damages, for alleged violations of his constitutional rights. The district court issued an order dismissing several of Stewart's claims before trial by adopting the recommendations of a federal magistrate. Stewart does not challenge this order. Stewart then was paroled, thereby mooting his claims for declaratory and injunctive relief. His remaining claims for damages were tried before a jury. The court granted the defendants' motion for directed verdicts against Stewart on most of his claims. The jury heard evidence on his remaining claims that Officer Harris falsely accused him, that Officer Upton failed to inform him of the consequences of requesting a full committee hearing, and that both officers harbored personal animosity toward him. It returned verdicts unfavorable to Stewart on all of them. Stewart appeals.

II.

We begin our analysis by noting that the role of the federal courts in reviewing prison proceedings is a narrow one. "The Supreme Court has articulated for the federal courts a policy of minimum intrusion into the affairs of state prison administration; state prison officials enjoy wide discretion in the operation of state penal institutions." Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974); Williams v. Edwards, 547 F.2d 1206, 1212 (5th Cir.1977). In reviewing prison administrative actions in section 1983 actions, the court must uphold the administrative decision unless it was arbitrary and capricious. Smith v. Rabalais, 659 F.2d 539, 545 (5th Cir.1981). Further, courts need not review a disciplinary board's factual findings de novo, but need consider only whether the decision is supported by "some facts" or "any evidence at all." Id., quoting Willis v. Ciccone, 506 F.2d 1011 (8th Cir.1974). If the state provides a procedurally adequate hearing, it does not deprive an inmate of constitutional rights, because the constitution guarantees only the right to be free from deprivation of life, liberty or property without due...