McKinnon v. Talladega County, Ala.

• Decision Date: 05 November 1984
• Docket Number: No. 83-7572,83-7572
• Parties: Ralph Edward McKINNON, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. TALLADEGA COUNTY, ALABAMA; Jerry Studdard, individually and as Sheriff of Talladega County, Alabama; Mack Cole, Olan Sims, Lowell Fannin, Jim Gallops and W. Forest Killough, individually and as members of the Talladega County Commission, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1360

745 F.2d 1360

40 Fed.R.Serv.2d 545

Ralph Edward McKINNON, individually and on behalf of all

others similarly situated, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. TALLADEGA COUNTY, ALABAMA; Jerry Studdard, individually and as Sheriff of Talladega County, Alabama; Mack Cole, Olan

Sims, Lowell Fannin, Jim Gallops and W. Forest Killough,

individually and as members of the Talladega County

Commission, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 83-7572.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

Nov. 5, 1984.

Robert L. Wiggins, Michael L. Quinn, Birmingham, Ala., for plaintiff-appellant.

Ralph D. Gaines, Jr., Charles P. Gaines, Talladega, Ala., for defendants-appellees.

Barry E. Teague, Montgomery, Ala., for Governor and State.

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

Before HILL and HENDERSON, Circuit Judges, and WISDOM ^*, Senior Circuit Judge.

WISDOM, Circuit Judge:

Appellant Ralph Edward McKinnon, formerly an inmate at Talladega County Jail, brought a class action against officials of Talladega County and, later, the State of Alabama for declaratory and injunctive relief and for damages. Before the suit was certified under Fed.R.Civ.P. 23, the state moved McKinnon from Talladega County Jail. On defendants' motion for summary judgment, the district court held that the prisoner's transfer mooted his claims for individual relief. Moreover, because it found that McKinnon's claim became moot before the class was certified, the district court dismissed the purported class action. The court then denied McKinnon's motion for a new trial. This appeal followed. We hold that although McKinnon's transfer mooted his claim for declaratory and injunctive relief, it did not moot the claim for monetary damages. We therefore reverse the order dismissing appellant's claim for damages and remand the case for further proceedings relating to the status of the class action.

I.

Plaintiff-appellant Ralph Edward McKinnon first filed a complaint against authorities at Talladega County on November 19, 1980, alleging that conditions at the Talladega County Jail violated the Eighth Amendment. McKinnon alleged overcrowding, inadequate internal security, poor lighting and ventilation, inadequate plumbing, unacceptable food, and unsanitary conditions throughout the facility. He sought declaratory and injunctive relief for himself and for the class of all inmates at the jail. The class was never certified. ¹ On November 16, 1981, McKinnon was transferred to a state prison facility. He later amended his complaint against Talladega County Jail to add a claim for monetary damages for himself and for other inmates at that facility. He sought one dollar in nominal damages and $2,500 in compensatory damages. The parties performed discovery (apparently assuming this was still a class action), and the court granted preliminary relief by removing sixty-seven inmates from the jail.

Finally, on July 22, 1983, the County defendants moved for summary judgment on the ground that the case was moot because McKinnon was no longer in the Talladega County facility. The district court, hearing for the first time that McKinnon was no longer in Talladega County Jail, dismissed the action without prejudice. The court reasoned that the case was moot as to McKinnon, and that dismissal as to all other plaintiffs was proper because the class had not yet been certified. The memorandum opinion made no mention of McKinnon's earlier claim for monetary damages. McKinnon himself also failed to mention the claim for monetary damages in a subsequent motion for a new trial. The district court denied that motion. McKinnon appeals this denial, alleging that his claims for damages and for injunctive relief were not moot and that there was insufficient evidence of "delay or contumacious conduct" to justify dismissal for "lack of aggressive prosecution".

II.

The district court should not have dismissed petitioner's claim for money damages simply because he was transferred from the Talladega County facility. Transfer of a prisoner does not moot a claim for money damages. Cruz v. Estelle, 5 Cir.1974, 497 F.2d 496, 499. A claim for damages does not expire upon the termination of the wrongful conduct. Johnson v. American Credit Co., 5 Cir.1978, 581 F.2d 526, 530. Unlike declaratory and injunctive relief, which are prospective remedies, awards for monetary damages compensate the claimant for alleged past wrongs. McKinnon's transfer from the Talladega County Jail simply signalled the end of the alleged deprivation of his constitutional rights. It did not destroy his cause of action for the time he was in the jail.

The defendants have argued on appeal that the district court dismissed the damages claim because it was "frivolous". We, however, find nothing in the district court's opinion that indicates such a finding. In fact, the memorandum opinion shows that the district court dismissed McKinnon's suit without prejudice only for mootness. It is true that McKinnon added the damages claim after his original filing (and after his transfer from Talladega County Jail), but this later filing does not make the damage claim facially frivolous. The petitioner could sue for damages at any time before the statute of limitations ran. The district court approved the amendment to the complaint that added the claim for damages. Defendants never moved for dismissal of a "frivolous or malicious" action. We are reluctant to construct and then grant such a motion on appeal when there is no indication in the record that prior to summary judgment the court or the opposing party believed that the damages claim was frivolous.

Nor does our own examination of the record reveal that the claim for damages is frivolous. McKinnon has alleged conditions that, if true, would entitle him to damages. Moreover, the defendants have admitted the truth of some of the plaintiff's allegations. We cannot, therefore, hold on the record before us that plaintiff's claim for damages is frivolous.

III.

McKinnon has also argued that his claim for declaratory and injunctive relief was improperly dismissed as moot. The general rule is that a prisoner's transfer or release from a jail moots his individual claim for declaratory and injunctive relief. Holland v. Purdy, 5 Cir.1972, 457 F.2d 802. If the class has not yet been certified, it also justifies dismissal of the entire action. Board of School Commissioners v. Jacobs, 1975, 420 U.S. 128, 95 S.Ct. 848, 43 L.Ed.2d 74; Dudley v. Stewart, 11 Cir.1984, 724 F.2d 1493, 1494. The plaintiff argues that despite this general rule, his claim is not moot because there is no assurance that he will not be returned to the jail or that the conditions of which he complains will be ameliorated. This court, however, has held in a similar situation that a prisoner's transfer to a state penitentiary mooted a claim against county jailers:

"Since Dudley is no longer in the custody of county jail officials, the most that can be said for his standing is that if he is released from prison, is convicted of another crime and is incarcerated in the Daugherty County Jail, he might again be subject to [constitutional deprivations]."

Dudley, 724 F.2d at 1494 (emphasis in original).

McKinnon argues that the defendants should not be permitted unilateral determination over the mootness of his case: Because he had no control over his transfer, he should not be penalized with dismissal. The cases to which the plaintiff refers concern the voluntary cessation of illegal conduct rather than the removal of the plaintiff from the power of defendants. E.g., United States v. W.T. Grant Co., 1953, 345 U.S. 629, 632, 73 S.Ct. 894, 897, 97 L.Ed. 1303, 1309; Meltzer v. Board of Public Instruction, 5 Cir.1977, 548 F.2d 559. And while this court might entertain jurisdiction over McKinnon's claim if there were evidence of efforts on the part of the defendants to evade the jurisdiction of the court, Meltzer, 548 F.2d at 567 n. 13, the defendants have shown that there was no such subterfuge here.

The plaintiff's reliance on Hardwick v. Brinson, 5 Cir.1975, 523 F.2d 798, is misplaced. In Hardwick, the plaintiff had brought separate actions in Georgia's three federal districts, all relating to improper censorship of mail throughout the state's prison system. The Hardwick court held that the plaintiff was entitled to have his claim considered on the merits, but only in the district in which he was then incarcerated. In the instant case, by contrast, there is only one filing that alleges unconstitutional conditions in a single jail where McKinnon is no longer incarcerated. Our holding is governed instead by Dudley and Holland, which are more apposite to the facts at hand.

IV.

McKinnon has argued that the district court erred in dismissing his suit for a lack of "vigorous prosecution". In its memorandum opinion, the district court said: "In deciding to grant the motion [for summary judgment], the court is also considering the lack of aggressive prosecution by the named plaintiff and his selected counsel as reflected below." The court then mentioned the plaintiff's year-long delay in serving the state defendants; the plaintiff's failure to substitute for defendant Gallops after he left the Talladega County Commission and...