Burrell v. Loungo
| Decision Date | 01 March 2021 |
| Docket Number | Civil Action 3:14-cv-01891 |
| Parties | WILLIAM BURRELL JR., Plaintiff, v. PATRICK LOUNGO, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Middle District of Pennsylvania |
REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION
This action originally commenced upon filing of a pro se complaint by the lead plaintiff, William Burrell Jr., on September 29, 2014. (Doc. 1.) Burrell subsequently filed a pro se amended complaint. (Doc. 11.) That amended complaint was dismissed, and Burrell appealed, pro se. (Doc. 34; Doc. 44; Doc. 45; Doc. 50; Doc. 51; Doc 52.) On appeal, the Third Circuit affirmed this court's decision in part and vacated it in part, remanding the case for further proceedings. (Doc. 57.)[1]
On remand, newly represented by counsel, Burrell filed his second amended complaint on December 6, 2019. (Doc. 77.) This counseled pleading narrowed the field of named defendants to six: (1) the Lackawanna County Solid Waste Management Authority (the "Authority"), a Pennsylvania municipal authority; (2) Lackawanna County, a political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; (3) Thomas Staff, an administrator employed by Lackawanna County; (4) Lackawanna Recycling Center, Inc. ("LRCI"), a Pennsylvania business corporation; (5) Louis DeNaples president and co-owner of LRCI; and (6) Dominick DeNaples vice president and co-owner of LRCI. The counseled second amended complaint also joined two newly added plaintiffs- Joshua Huzzard and Dampsey Stuckey-and sought certification of a class action under Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
The six defendants have filed four separate motions to dismiss. (Doc. 99 (Lackawanna County & Staff); Doc. 101 (LRCI); Doc. 102 (Louis & Dominick DeNaples); Doc. 103 (Authority).) These motions are fully briefed and ripe for decision. (See Doc. 104; Doc. 105; Doc. 107; Doc. 109; Doc. 115; Doc. 116; Doc. 117; Doc. 118.)
Since at least March 31, 2005, the Authority and LRCI have been parties to a contract (the "Operating Agreement") regarding the operations of the Lackawanna County Recycling Center (the "Center"), a recycling center owned by the Authority.[2] Under the terms of the Operating Agreement, LRCI assumed responsibility for operation and management of the Center, including the hiring, supervision, training, and payment of personnel to staff the Center. Besides these employees of LRCI, however, the Operation Agreement also provided that the Authority would continue to "provide the same number of Prisoners from the Lackawanna County Prison that have historically worked at the Center as part of their work release program as security requirements dictate."
In accordance with this last provision, county personnel-specifically, prison guards--transport prisoners to the Center to work there. Prison guards remain on site at the Center to supervise the prisoners, maintain security, and discipline prisoners. Some number of the prisoners supplied by the Authority to work at the Center are child support debtors sentenced to terms of incarceration following civil contempt proceedings for failure to pay child support.
William Burrell is the father of three children. Burrell had been paying child support for his two younger children until he sustained an injury in early 2014 and missed three weeks of work. As a result of his injury and inability to work, Burrell fell behind on his child support payments. On May 14, 2014, Burrell was arrested for failure to pay child support.
On May 16, 2014, following a contempt hearing, a state family court judge, Judge Richard Saxton, found that Burrell had the ability to pay and sentenced him to serve two consecutive six-month terms at the Lackawanna County Prison, with each sentence subject to a purge provision: Burrell could be released earlier upon payment of his total arrearage of $7, 033 in overdue child support.3 The two family court orders also directed that Burrell be placed on work release immediately, if he qualified.
Shortly after his arrival at Lackawanna County Prison, Burrell was told by unidentified prison staff that to qualify for work release, he would first need to work at the Center for six months, during which time he would be paid $5 per day for his work there. Burrell was told that it was the prison's policy that child support prisoners work for half of their sentence at the Center and the other half on work release, unless they "purged out" earlier by paying the remainder of their child support arrears.
On May 22, 2014, Judge Saxton entered an order in Burrell's child support cases transferring him to the Lackawanna County Prison Community Service Program.[4] The order directed that Burrell be granted work release status on November 11, 2014, "contingent upon positive work ethics and successful completion of the Community Service Program."
Under the auspices of the community service program, Burrell began working at the Center on May 28, 2014, while continuing to reside at the county prison. Each workday morning, prison staff drove Burrell to the Center in a van, along with other prisoners working there. Burrell typically worked at the Center from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., five days per week. During the workday, he typically received one 15-mmute break and one 30-minute break. At the end of each workday, prison staff drove Burrell and the others back to the prison. Burrell was paid $5 for each day he worked at the Center, which was deposited into his prison commissary account.
For some of his time working at the Center, Burrell worked on the "soda line," along with other prisoners. In that role, he was required to remove recyclable glass from a line of fast-moving garbage moving on a conveyer belt. The rest of his time at the Center, Burrell worked in an "upper magnet" job, where he was responsible for removing metal from a stream of garbage that included glass, plastic, and other refuse.
Joshua Huzzard is the father of five children. On several occasions, Huzzard had fallen behind on his child support payments. On several occasions, Huzzard had received summonses for family court hearings. On several occasions, Huzzard had been held in contempt for failure to make child support payments and sent to prison, with each sentence subject to a purge provision.
During one of Huzzard's stints at the prison, in mid-2013, defendant Staff approached Huzzard and told him he was eligible to work at the Center. Staff told Huzzard that, in order to be eligible for work release, he would need to work half of his sentence at the Center. At around this same time, Huzzard petitioned the family court to be placed on work release.[5] The court denied his petition and told him that, to qualify for work release, he first needed to work at the Center.
Huzzard went to work at the Center. He worked there five days per week, from approximately 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. During the workday, he typically received one 10- to 15-minute break and one 30-minute break. Sometimes he received an additional 10- minute break in the afternoon. Huzzard was paid $5 for each day he worked at the Center, which was deposited into his prison commissary account.
At the Center, Huzzard stood with other prisoners at a conveyor belt, separating recyclable items from garbage. He sometimes worked on another conveyor belt, separating different types of glass. He also worked on the "upper magnet," tearing open bags of garbage and emptying their contents onto the conveyor belt.
Dampsey Stuckey is the father of four children. In 2017, Stuckey fell behind on his child support payments due to unspecified health issues. In March 2018, Stuckey was arrested. During his arrest, the arresting officer issued him a warrant for failure to pay child support. At a contempt hearing shortly after his arrest, Stuckey was sentenced to serve a term of six months at the prison, presumably subject to a purge provision.
Shortly after his arrival at Lackawanna County Prison, Stuckey spoke with Staff about the work release program. It was Stuckey's understanding that, in order to qualify for work release, he was required to first work at the Center.
Stuckey worked at the Center beginning in May or June 2018 and continuing until August 2018. He worked there five days per week, from approximately 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. During the workday, he typically received one 15-minute break and one 30-minute break. Stuckey was paid $5 for each day he worked at the Center, which was deposited into his prison commissary account.
At the Center, Stuckey stood with other prisoners at a conveyor belt, separating recyclable items from garbage. He sometimes worked on the "upper magnet," tearing open bags of garbage and emptying their contents onto the conveyor belt. He also worked on the "glass chute," separating clear, green, and brown glass.
Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure authorizes a defendant to move to dismiss for "failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted." Fed.R.Civ.P 12(b)(6). "Under Rule 12(b)(6), a motion to dismiss may be granted only if, accepting all well-pleaded allegations in the complaint as true and viewing them in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, a court finds the plaintiffs' claims lack facial plausibility." Warren Gen. Hosp. v. Amgen Inc., 643 F.3d 77, 84 (3d Cir. 2011) (citing Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555-56 (2007)). In deciding the motion, the Court may consider the facts alleged on the face of the complaint, as well as "documents incorporated into the complaint by reference, and matters of which a court may take judicial notice." ...
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