Wilson v. Seiter

• Decision Date: 16 January 1990
• Docket Number: No. 88-3194,88-3194
• Citation: 893 F.2d 861
• Parties: Pearly WILSON, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Richard SEITER, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 861

893 F.2d 861

Pearly WILSON, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Richard SEITER, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 88-3194.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Submitted Sept. 25, 1989.

Decided Jan. 16, 1990.

Pearly L. Wilson, Nelsonville, Ohio, for plaintiff-appellant Pearly L. wilson.

Everett Hunt, Jr., Nelsonville, Ohio, Richard A. Chesley, Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, Columbus, Ohio, for plaintiff-appellant Everett Hunt, Jr.

Frederick C. Schoch, Asst. Atty. Gen., Office of the Atty. Gen. of Ohio, Columbus, Ohio, for defendants-appellees.

Before KRUPANSKY and WELLFORD, Circuit Judges, and HARVEY, Senior District Judge. ^*

JAMES HARVEY, Senior District Judge.

Appellants are inmates at Hocking Correctional Facility (HCF), a medium security prison located in Nelsonville, Ohio. On August 28, 1986, appellants filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, claiming violations of the cruel and unusual punishments clause of the eighth amendment of the United States Constitution. The claimed violations arose from allegedly unfit confinement conditions; specifically overcrowding, excessive noise, inadequate storage, inadequate heating and cooling, unclean lavatories, improper classification of prisoners, and unsanitary eating conditions.

On cross-motions for summary judgment, appellants and appellees filed affidavits in support of their respective positions. Appellants' affidavits, and those of five additional inmates, essentially recite the alleged conditions of confinement as depriving them of their eighth amendment rights. Moreover, the affidavits of inmates Bock, Wilson, and Hunt contend that they contacted prison officials regarding the pertinent conditions, but that the officials took no action in response thereto.

Appellees' affidavits, filed both in response to appellants' summary judgment motion and in support of their own summary judgment motion, basically disclose efforts taken by prison personnel regarding physical and medical conditions within HCF, and partially refute the appellants' specific claims concerning conditions at the prison. Additionally, appellees filed the affidavit of the staff counsel for the Ohio Judicial Conference, containing an article recounting his observations following a tour of the facility, respecting conditions at HCF.

In granting appellees' motion, the district court initially found that the eighth amendment requires states to furnish inmates with reasonably adequate food, clothing, shelter, sanitation, medical care and personal safety. Next, the district court noted that appellants, in order to prove an eighth amendment violation arising from conditions of confinement, must demonstrate "obduracy and wantonness, not inadvertence or error in good faith" on the part of the prison officials. Whitley v. Albers, 475 U.S. 312, 319, 106 S.Ct. 1078, 1084, 89 L.Ed.2d 251 (1986).

Reviewing all of the affidavits in light of these standards, the district court concluded that appellants failed to establish a genuine issue of material fact, and that judgment should properly enter in appellees' favor as a matter of law. Briefly, the trial court concluded that the complained-of conditions exhibited no obduracy or wantonness on the appellees' parts. Furthermore, the district court examined each complained-of condition discretely, and in several instances found appellants' claims meritless given appellees' affidavits. Particularly, the district court dismissed averments in appellants' supporting affidavits concerning confinement with physically-ill inmates, cleanliness of lavatories, noise levels, heating and cooling, ventilation, eating conditions, and general sanitation on the strength of contrary information contained in appellees' affidavits.

Appellants now contend that the district court improperly granted the appellees' summary judgment motion, in that genuine issues of material fact exist concerning confinement conditions, and that therefore the district court could not, as a matter of law, enter judgment.

I.

District courts may enter summary judgment in a movant's favor upon a showing that "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). "[A] party seeking summary judgment always bears the initial responsibility of informing the district court of the basis for its motion, and identifying those portions of 'the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any,' which it believes demonstrate the absence of a genuine issue of material fact." Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2553, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). The movant need not, however, "support its motion with affidavits or other similar materials negating the opponent's claim." Id. (emphasis in original).

"As to materiality, the substantive law will identify which facts are material." Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). Once materiality of a fact is established, district courts must determine whether a genuine issue regarding that fact exists in the record. In order to demonstrate the genuineness of any issue of material fact, the nonmoving party "must do more than simply show that there is some metaphysical doubt as to [that] material fact[ ]." Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 586, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 1356, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986). Thus, "[i]f the evidence [regarding existence of a genuine issue of material fact] is merely colorable, ..., or is not significantly probative, ..., summary judgment may be granted." Anderson, 477 U.S. at 249-50, 106 S.Ct. at 2510-11. Finally, "[o]n summary judgment the inferences to be drawn from the underlying facts ... must be viewed in the light most favorable to the party opposing the motion." Matsushita, 475 U.S. at 587, 106 S.Ct. at 1356, quoting United States v. Diebold, Inc., 369 U.S. 654, 655, 82 S.Ct. 993, 994, 8 L.Ed.2d 176 (1962).

II.

Appellants argue that genuine issues of material fact remain regarding confinement conditions at HFC, urging that the district court improperly weighed the affidavits of appellees against those of appellants in concluding that the confinement conditions did not violate appellants' eighth amendment rights. Clearly, confinement conditions are material given the substantive law surrounding eighth amendment prisoner claims. See Rhodes v. Chapman, 452 U.S. 337, 347, 101 S.Ct. 2392, 2399, 69 L.Ed.2d 59 (1982). Moreover, appellants' affidavits are more than colorable, and obviously place the conditions surrounding confinement in issue. Several circuits have found eighth amendment violations arising from conditions similar to those alleged by the appellants. See, e.g., French v. Owens, 777 F.2d 1250 (7th Cir.1985), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 817, 107 S.Ct. 77, 93 L.Ed.2d 32 (1986); Cody v. Hillard, 799 F.2d 447, Reh'g granted (en banc), 804 F.2d 440 (8th Cir.1986); Hoptowit v. Spellman, 753 F.2d 779 (9th Cir.1985). To the extent, therefore, that the district court adopted the findings in appellees' affidavits in concluding that the HFC's confinement conditions did not deprive appellants of their eighth amendment rights, the district court committed error. As stated in Anderson, "the judge's function is not himself to weigh the evidence and determine the truth of the matter but to determine whether there is a genuine issue for trial." 477 U.S. at 249, 106 S.Ct. at 2511.

III.

Nevertheless, the appellants' affidavits, even if unopposed, may be insufficient to support a claimed eighth amendment violation. We are able to identify eight specific conditions that appellants assert amount to infliction of cruel and unusual punishment: (1) unsanitary eating conditions; (2) inadequate heating and cooling; (3) housing with mentally ill inmates; (4) housing with physically ill inmates; (5) inadequate ventilation; (6) excessive noise; (7) insect infestation; and (8) overcrowding. Since appellees' affidavits refute, to some degree, appellants' claims concerning these conditions, genuine issues of fact exist regarding same. Our task, then, is to determine whether these issues are material, requiring an examination of the substantive law regarding eighth amendment confinement conditions claims.

Rhodes, supra, sets forth a flexible standard for ascertaining whether prison conditions amount to cruel and unusual punishment. In evaluating prison conditions, we recognize that the eighth amendment "draw[s] its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society." Id. 452 U.S. at 346, 101 S.Ct. at 2399, (quoting Trop v. Dulles, 356 U.S. 86, 101, 78 S.Ct. 590, 598, 2 L.Ed.2d 630 (1958) (plurality opinion)). Thus, "[c]onditions must not involve the wanton and unnecessary infliction of pain, nor may they be grossly disproportionate to the severity of the crime warranting imprisonment." Id. 452 U.S. at 347, 101 S.Ct. at 2399. Yet, "conditions that cannot be said to be cruel and unusual under contemporary standards are not unconstitutional," and "[t]o the extent that such conditions are restrictive and even harsh, they are part of the penalty that criminal offenders pay for their offenses against society." Id.

Subsequent to Rhodes, this circuit has interpreted its language as requiring an examination of "all the prison's conditions and circumstances, rather than isolated conditions and events, when addressing eighth amendment claims." Walker v. Mintzes, 771 F.2d 920, 925 (6th Cir.1985). Moreover, "[i]n certain extreme circumstances the totality itself may amount to an eighth amendment violation, but there still must exist a specific condition on which to base the eighth amendment claim." Id. Specific conditions found to violate the eighth amendment include the denial of adequate access to shower facilities, ...