96 0954 La.App. 1 Cir. 2/14/97, Blackwell v. Louisiana Dept. of Public Safety and Corrections

• Decision Date: 14 February 1997
• Citation: 690 So.2d 137
• Parties: 96 0954 La.App. 1 Cir
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US

Page 137

690 So.2d 137

96 0954 La.App. 1 Cir. 2/14/97

Rodney O. BLACKWELL v. LOUISIANA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY AND CORRECTIONS Richard L. Stalder, Secretary and John P. Whitley Warden, Louisiana State Penitentiary, Angola.

Nos. 96 CA 0954, 96 CA 0955.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

Feb. 14, 1997.

Christopher J. Fransen, New Orleans, for Appellant Plaintiff Rodney O. Blackwell.

Rose Polito Wooden, Baton Rouge, for Appellee Defendant Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, et al.

Before LOTTINGER, C.J., and FOIL and FOGG, JJ.

[96 0954 La.App. 1 Cir. 2] FOIL, Judge.

At issue in this appeal is whether the Corrections Administrative Remedy Procedure Act, which requires an inmate to submit a tort claim for pre-suit administrative review, offends the Louisiana constitution. We find no constitutional infirmity in the act, and we hold that the act's peremptive time period for seeking judicial review of an adverse administrative decision may be applied to an inmate's tort claim filed in state district court.

PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On March 4, 1994, Rodney Blackwell, a prisoner at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, filed this tort suit in the Nineteenth Judicial District Court against the State of Louisiana, Department of Public Safety and Corrections (Department), the Secretary of the Department and Angola's warden. Plaintiff alleged that on September 23, 1993, he was injured while operating an incinerator at Angola. Specifically, plaintiff averred that while he was raking ash inside the incinerator, an explosion occurred, causing a burning object to propel through the door. The burning object struck plaintiff, resulting in burns on his face, neck, chest and arms.

The record reflects that on the day of the accident, the prison's safety director investigated the accident and concluded that plaintiff failed to wear the protective safety gear he was instructed to wear while working around the incinerator. The report concluded that, had plaintiff been wearing the face shield and safety jacket issued to him, he could not have been burned in the incident. On October 2, 1993, plaintiff filed a formal request for an administrative remedy procedure, specifically requesting monetary damages for his injuries. At the first step review phase, plaintiff's request for monetary relief was denied on the basis that he had been assigned to the incinerator for a number of years, knew the dangers involved in operating it, yet chose on the day in question not to wear his safety gear.

Plaintiff's request for second step review was denied by Angola's warden. His third step review request was denied by the Department of Corrections on January 3, 1994. The response form bears the signature "Venetia T. Michael [96 0954 La.App. 1 Cir. 3] for the Secretary." On January 11, 1994, plaintiff received the third step response denying his request for relief.

In his initial lawsuit, plaintiff averred that he exhausted his administrative remedy as required under the Corrections Administrative Remedy Procedure Act. La.R.S. 15:1177 of that Act provides that an inmate who is aggrieved by an adverse decision of the Department rendered pursuant to the administrative procedure may seek judicial review of that determination in the Nineteenth Judicial District Court within 30 days after receipt of the decision. On the basis of the 30 day time limitation provided for in La.R.S. 15:1177, defendants filed a peremptory exception urging that plaintiff failed to timely seek judicial review of the final agency decision.

Thereafter, plaintiff filed a second suit in the Nineteenth Judicial District Court, which was identical in substance to the initial suit, with the exception that plaintiff did not allege that he exhausted his administrative remedies prior to instituting the suit. Defendants filed an exception of lis pendens. In connection with the second suit, plaintiff filed a supplemental and amending petition in which he challenged the constitutionality of the Administrative Remedy Procedure Act on numerous grounds. First, plaintiff alleged that the act's requirement that he resort to the prison grievance process prior to filing a tort suit against the state violates La. Const. art. 5 § 16, which vests original jurisdiction over civil matters and exclusive original jurisdiction in cases where the state is a party, in district courts. He also urged that the application of the act to his tort claim violated his constitutional rights of due process; equal protection; individual dignity; assembly and petition; and access to the courts.

In addition to the constitutional claims, plaintiff averred that the provisions of the Administrative Remedy Procedure Act should not apply to him because the act fails to provide an adequate remedy for an inmate tort claim. He also claimed that the administrative procedure utilized on his claim was fatally flawed because the third step review response did not contain the signature of the Secretary of the Department of Corrections, but was instead signed by an individual on behalf of the Secretary.

[96 0954 La.App. 1 Cir. 4] Plaintiff's suits were consolidated in the trial court for the purpose of hearing the exceptions. The trial court rejected all of plaintiff's challenges to the validity of the Administrative Remedy Procedure Act, and dismissed the petition for judicial review on the basis that it was not timely filed in accordance with La.R.S. 15:1177. This appeal followed.

DISCUSSION

It is undisputed that plaintiff filed this tort suit outside the 30 day time limitation established by La.R.S. 15:1177 for seeking judicial review of a decision rendered pursuant to the Administrative Remedy Procedure Act. In Carter v. Lynn, 93-1583 (La.App. 1 Cir. 5/20/94), 637 So.2d 690, this court held that La.R.S. 15:1177 applied to inmate tort suits filed in state court after the inmate invoked the administrative review process. This court ruled that the 30 day time limitation in La.R.S. 15:1177 is peremptive in nature and cannot be suspended or interrupted.

Even though plaintiff chose to invoke the administrative remedies available to him, he urges that the Administrative Remedy Procedure Act as it applies to inmate tort claims is unconstitutional, and therefore, he is entitled to bring his tort suit directly in state court. Plaintiff contends that because the act may not be constitutionally applied to his tort claim, La.R.S. 15:1177's 30 day time limitation does not apply to his tort suit. He urges that the one year prescriptive period applicable to tort actions governs the issue of the timeliness of his suit, and since he filed the suit within one year of the date of the accident, the suit is timely.

In determining the validity of plaintiff's constitutional claims, we begin with the well settled principle of statutory construction in constitutional law which holds that all statutory enactments are presumed to be constitutional. Polk v. Edwards, 626 So.2d 1128, 1132 (La.1993). The provisions of the Louisiana Constitution serve as limitations on the otherwise plenary power exercised by the legislature, which may enact any legislation not prohibited by the constitution. The party challenging the constitutionality of a statute bears the burden of proving that the constitution clearly prohibits the legislative [96 0954 La.App. 1 Cir. 5] action. Moore v. Roemer, 567 So.2d 75, 78 (La.1990). When a court can do so, it must construe a statute so as to preserve its constitutionality, and any doubt must be resolved in favor of constitutionality. Id. Because of these rules of construction, the party attacking the act must establish clearly and convincingly that the constitutional aim was to deny the legislature the power to enact the legislation. Polk v. Edwards, 626 So.2d at 1132.

With these concepts in mind, we turn to the history of the challenged act. Originally enacted in 1985, the Corrections Administrative Remedy Procedure Act authorizes the state's prison authorities to adopt, in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act, administrative remedy procedures for disposing of "any and all" complaints and grievances by offenders against the State, the Department of Corrections and its employees. La.R.S. 15:1171. In Mack v. State of Louisiana, 529 So.2d 446 (La.App. 1st Cir.), writ denied, 533 So.2d 359 (La.1988), this court held that the term "any and all" complaints and grievances did not encompass inmate tort claims. This court held that the language of the Act made it clear that the legislature intended to provide a formal review procedure for inmate grievances arising from prison administration. Thereafter, relying on the Mack decision, this court held in Magee v. State, Department of Public Safety and Corrections, 555 So.2d 6 (La.App. 1st Cir.1989); writ denied, 559 So.2d 138 (La.1990) that the Administrative Remedy Procedure Act's 30 day time limitation for seeking judicial review of an adverse administrative decision did not apply to prisoner tort suits.

The Mack and Magee decisions involved cases arising prior to the 1989 amendments to the Administrative Remedy Procedure Act, in which the legislature specifically gave prison officials the authority to include all prisoner claims for monetary relief, including claims for personal injury, within the scope of the act. The act set forth that upon approval of the administrative remedy procedure by a federal court, and implementation of the procedure within the correctional facility, that procedure "shall constitute the administrative remedies available to offenders for the purpose of preserving any [96 0954 La.App. 1 Cir. 6] cause of action they may claim to have against the State of Louisiana, the Department of Public Safety and Corrections or its employees." La.R.S. 15:1172.

The amended provisions received federal court approval on August 17, 1990. See Wright v. Lynn, 618 So.2d 979 (La.App. 1st Cir 1993). On January 20, 1991,...