Lopez v. Robinson

Citation914 F.2d 486
Decision Date17 September 1990
Docket NumberNo. 89-7724,89-7724
PartiesDavid LOPEZ; Steven Eugene Smith; Gary Waverly Wooten; Floyd Tucker; Jerry Holloway, (Named Plaintiffs) and on behalf of all inmates confined in the Eastern Correctional Institution, a facility of the Maryland Division of Corrections, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Bishop L. ROBINSON, Secretary of Public Safety; Fred E. Jordan, Jr., Commissioner, Division of Corrections; Arnold J. Hopkins, Former Commissioner, Division of Corrections; Elmanus Herndon, Deputy Commissioner, Division of Corrections; Wayne B. Winebrenner, Former Warden; Kathleen S. Green, Assistant Warden, Defendants-Appellants, and William Donald Schaefer, Governor, Defendant.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (4th Circuit)

Richard M. Kastendieck, Asst. Atty. Gen., Baltimore, Md. (J. Joseph Curran, Jr. Atty. Gen., Ronald M. Levitan, Asst. Atty. Gen., Baltimore, Md., on brief), for defendants-appellants.

Irwin Raphael Kramer, Weinberg and Green, Baltimore, Md. (William W. Cahill, Jr., Weinberg and Green, Baltimore, Md., on brief), for plaintiffs-appellees.

Before PHILLIPS and MURNAGHAN, Circuit Judges, and BUTZNER, Senior Circuit Judge.

PHILLIPS, Circuit Judge:

Six Maryland prison officials 1 appeal the district court's interlocutory order denying their motion for summary judgment in which they claimed that they were entitled to qualified immunity from liability in damages for various constitutional claims asserted by a class of Maryland prisoners under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. We reverse the district court's interlocutory order 2 and remand for entry of judgment in favor the defendant prison officials on the monetary damages claims.

I

In the summer of 1988, a number of inmates at Maryland's newly constructed Eastern Correctional Institution (ECI) filed similar pro se complaints under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983, alleging unconstitutional conditions at the facility and seeking injunctive relief and damages from numerous state officials. ECI, a modern $95 million, 1500-bed prison, opened in late 1987 and was the largest non-transportation capital project ever undertaken by the state of Maryland. Though it began receiving inmates in late 1987, ECI was not fully occupied until the summer of 1988, the time during which the complaints herein were filed.

The district court consolidated the pro se cases, appointed counsel, and, soon thereafter, granted plaintiff inmates' motion for class certification. By the spring of 1989, the inmate class had filed its second amended complaint, and the defendant prison officials had filed a renewed motion to dismiss or for summary judgment, claiming inter alia, as in earlier motions, that they were entitled to qualified immunity from the Sec. 1983 damages claims. The district court granted the defendants' motion in part and denied it in part. From among the myriad claims of unconstitutional conditions and policies asserted against an array of state officials, eight claims against six officials survived summary judgment. Four claims alleged violations of the eighth amendment's cruel and unusual punishment clause from inadequate heating, inadequate ventilation, inadequate hot water for showers, and double celling. Another eighth amendment claim sought damages for allegedly unconstitutional conditions during July 30-31, 1988, after lightning had struck power lines and caused a short-term water shortage in the prison. Another claim alleged a due process violation arising from the prison's policy of requiring an assistant warden to approve an inmate's request that he be physically transported to a state district court to press criminal charges against other inmates or members of the prison staff. The class also alleged several constitutional violations arising from the absence of soundproofing material in the attorney-client visiting room and the prison's policy of stationing a prison guard in the room to observe from a distance prisoners' meetings with their lawyers. Finally, the class challenged the constitutionality of an administrative remedy process whereby a housing unit lieutenant preliminarily screened grievance slips addressed to the warden.

The six officials who were denied summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds now appeal. After a brief review of the nature of the qualified immunity defense, and the inquiry required when it is asserted in a summary judgment motion, we address the individual claims of constitutional violation. Although our analysis of each claim varies in some particulars, our conclusion as to each is either that a reasonable official would not have known that the alleged actions would violate clearly established law or that the summary judgment record discloses no genuine issue of material fact respecting the claimed constitutional violation. These six officials are therefore entitled to summary judgment on grounds of qualified immunity.

II

When a defendant moves for summary judgment on the ground that he enjoys qualified immunity from a claim under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983, a court must first ask the legal question whether the plaintiffs have alleged a violation of clearly established law of which a reasonable official would have known; summary judgment must be granted if they have not. Turner v. Dammon, 848 F.2d 440 (4th Cir.1988). If the plaintiffs have sufficiently alleged a violation, the court--trial or appellate--must review the entire summary judgment record to determine whether there exists a triable issue of fact as to whether the defendants committed the alleged acts and, if so, whether their conduct did violate a clearly established substantive right of which a reasonable official would have been aware. Id. at 443-44.

In deciding the legal question of whether a reasonable official would have known that the alleged actions violate "clearly established" law, a court must determine whether the actions would infringe "particularized" rights claimed by the plaintiff. Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 640, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 3039, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987). While it is not necessary for the right asserted to have been previously recognized in the same factual context, "[t]he contours of the right must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right." Id. The unlawfulness of the action must be apparent when assessed from the perspective of an objectively reasonable official charged with knowledge of established law, id.; the defendant's subjective motives are irrelevant to the qualified immunity inquiry. Id. at 641, 107 S.Ct. at 3039. The Supreme Court has opined that these standards serve the public interest that governmental action not implicating clear rights be taken " 'with independence and without fear of consequences.' " Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 819, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2739, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982) (quoting Pierson v. Ray, 386 U.S. 547, 554, 87 S.Ct. 1213, 1218, 18 L.Ed.2d 288 (1967)). The qualified immunity defense from Sec. 1983 damages claims is more than merely a defense from liability; it is an "entitlement not to stand trial or face the other burdens of litigation" that would be "effectively lost if a case is erroneously permitted to go to trial." Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 526, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 2815, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985). Qualified immunity is therefore structured to "reflect[ ] the concern that civil damages awards against public officials for every judicially determined violation of constitutional rights would prove too expensive to the public, discourage public service employment and impair governmental decisionmaking." Tarantino v. Baker, 825 F.2d 772, 774 (4th Cir.1987); see also Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 341, 106 S.Ct. 1092, 1096, 89 L.Ed.2d 271 (1986) (qualified immunity gives "ample protection to all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law.").

III

We address first the applicability of the qualified immunity defense to the inmates' various claims that the prison officials subjected them to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the eighth amendment. Before describing the particulars of these claims, we briefly review clearly established standards for finding eighth amendment violations in prison conditions. Each of the inmates' five claims is fatally deficient, either because no eighth amendment violation has been alleged or because the summary judgment record discloses no genuine issue of material fact under these standards.

A

In Rhodes v. Chapman, 452 U.S. 337, 101 S.Ct. 2392, 69 L.Ed.2d 59 (1981), the Supreme Court provided standards to guide lower courts adjudicating whether prison conditions violate the eighth amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. Prison conditions are unconstitutional if they constitute an "unnecessary and wanton" infliction of pain and are "totally without penological justification." Id. at 346, 101 S.Ct. at 2399. The existence of merely "harsh" or "restrictive" prison conditions does not implicate the eighth amendment, as such conditions could be thought part of the penalty that criminals must pay, so courts must consider whether the deprivations alleged are of constitutional magnitude. Id. at 347, 101 S.Ct. at 2399. Applying Rhodes, we have held that "before pain of a constitutional magnitude can be said to exist, there must be evidence of a serious medical and emotional deterioration attributable to" the challenged condition. Shrader v. White, 761 F.2d 975, 979 (4th Cir.1985); see Sweet v. South Carolina Dep't of Corrections, 529 F.2d 854 (4th Cir.1975). Moreover, prison officials' "deliberate indifference" to conditions must cause the constitutionally cognizable harm; negligence or good faith error causing such harm will not establish a constitutional claim. Whitley v. Albers, 475 U.S. 312, 319, 106 S.Ct. 1078, 184, 89 L.Ed.2d 251 (1986) ("It is obduracy and wantonness, not inadvertence or error in good faith, that characterizes...

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