Cortes Quinones v. Jimenez Nettleship

• Decision Date: 13 September 1985
• Docket Number: No. 84-2014,84-2014
• Citation: 773 F.2d 10
• Parties: Guillermina CORTES QUINONES and Alberto Almodovar Medina, Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. Charles JIMENEZ NETTLESHIP, et al., Defendants, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 10

773 F.2d 10

Guillermina CORTES QUINONES and Alberto Almodovar Medina, Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. Charles JIMENEZ NETTLESHIP, et al., Defendants, Appellees.

No. 84-2014.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Argued May 9, 1985.

Decided Sept. 13, 1985.

Jose E. Fernandez-Sein, Santurce, P.R., with whom Law Offices of Nachman & Fernandez-Sein, Santurce, P.R., was on brief for appellants.

Americo Serra, Acting Sol. Gen., and Reina Colon De Rodriguez, Asst. Sol. Gen., San Juan, P.R., was on brief for appellees.

Before CAMPBELL, Chief Judge, BOWNES, Circuit Judge, and VAN DUSEN, ^* Senior Circuit Judge.

PER CURIAM.

Decedent, William Arena Cortes, an inmate at the Arecibo District Jail in Puerto Rico, was killed by other inmates of the jail on January 8, 1982. The plaintiffs in the action are Guillermina Cortes Quinones, the mother of the decedent, and Alberto Almodovar Medina, her husband. Plaintiffs brought this action under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 against three defendants, each of whom is an official in the Puerto Rico prison system: Charles Jimenez Nettleship, Administrator of Corrections; Felipe Torres Torregrosa, Director of the Program of Penal Institutions of the Administration of Corrections; and Jose A. Candelaria Alonso, Superintendent of the Arecibo District Jail. Plaintiffs allege that defendants' actions and failures to act resulted in decedent's death at the hands of his fellow inmates.

Plaintiffs now appeal from the district court's grant of summary judgment to defendants. Since plaintiffs failed to file any timely opposition to defendants' motion for summary judgment, we are confronted with the rather technical question of whether defendants' moving papers were sufficient to entitle them to summary judgment.

We look to plaintiffs' complaint to determine the theory of liability set out therein to which defendants, as the parties moving for summary judgment, were required to respond. In material part, the complaint alleged as follows:

"26. On or before January 8, 1982 [the date decedent was killed], there was, at the penal institutions in Puerto Rico, a long history of attacks and murders by inmates upon other inmates. In most cases rival gangs were blamed for these killings. This condition got progressively worse during the year 1981 and the beginning of 1982. The general public was informed of the situation by the local press and news stations.... The Correction Administration and the defendants in particular were called upon by the news agencies and by the Senate of Puerto Rico to put an end to this situation which was characterized as a crisis.

"27. After conducting an in-depth study and investigation ..., the Senate Judiciary Committee of the Legislature of Puerto Rico found that the violence and the 'state of war' that exists within the penal institutions goes beyond the existence of rival gangs and is due to the problems that exist in the penal system such as: overcrowding, drug addiction, lack of programs for the rehabilitation, idleness, lack of medical and psychological services and lack of a competent system of classification ...

"31. On and before January 8, 1982, it was known to defendants ... that a veritable war existed between rival gangs at the penal institutions and that 'trials' were being conducted by inmates on other inmates, resulting in the executions of those inmates so 'tried'.

"32. On and before January 8, 1983, there was a chronic condition in the Arecibo District Jail, as well as in other jails in Puerto Rico, of a lack of sufficient prison guards, a condition closely related to the occurrence of attacks and murders in institutions.

"33. On and before January 8, 1982, the defendant, Jose Candelaria, superintendent of the Arecibo District Jail, knew he was physically incapable of providing the protection to the life of the inmates in the institution that he was required to provide for all these prisoners under his custody.

"34. On and before January 8, 1982, the defendants, Charles Jimenez Nettleship, Felipe Torres Torregrosa, knew of the fact that Superintendent Jose Candelaria ... did not have sufficient penal guards to maintain and provide protection to the inmates.

"35. On January 8, 1982, plaintiff's decedent ... was executed by other inmates and was cut to pieces and stuffed in a trash can at the Arecibo District Jail....

"36. On January 8, 1982, there were no penal guards providing custody in the interior of the decedent's overcrowded cell block."

Shortly before defendants filed their motion for summary judgment, this court, in Pinto v. Nettleship, 737 F.2d 130 (1st Cir.1984), upheld the granting of summary judgment in favor of Victor Maldonado, a defendant jail superintendent, in another Sec. 1983 action seeking damages for the death of a prison inmate. In Pinto, a pretrial detainee housed at Bayamon Regional Jail had been killed on the second day of his detention. The pertinent allegations were that "there was an extreme condition of overcrowding, lack of vigilance and protection of inmates due to lack of sufficient prison guards" and that the defendant jail superintendent had been physically incapable of protecting any inmate's life. Id. at 131. The jail superintendent moved for summary judgment stating he had had no personal knowledge that decedent had any special need for protection. Plaintiffs did not contest that point, but rather claimed that the extreme overcrowding and lack of vigilence and protection due to insufficient guards had resulted in decedent's death and that defendant, as superintendent, was responsible for these prison conditions. The record before us, however, indicated that defendant did not control the number of guards, could not refuse to admit inmates, and had done what he could to obtain more guards and to alleviate the crowding. As plaintiffs offered nothing to suggest the superintendent could have done more than he had, and as a jail official in a Sec. 1983 action cannot be held liable in damages for conditions beyond his control, we concluded that the district court had correctly granted summary judgment on the record before it.

In moving for summary judgment in the present case, defendants filed three short affidavits seeking to bring themselves within the contours of Pinto. Defendant Candelaria, the superintendent of the Arecibo jail where the deceased was housed, stated that he had neither been notified that decedent's life was in danger nor requested to provide special protection and, in any event, was not responsible for the jail conditions because he had been on sick leave from October 19, 1981 to January 24, 1983 and hence relieved of his duties. Defendant Torres, the Director of the Program of Penal Institutions of the Administration of Corrections, stated that he was in charge of security, that he had held his position less than five months previous to decedent's death, that he had not been notified decedent's life was in danger or that decedent needed protection, that he had no knowledge of nor control over the incidents alleged in the complaint, and that while he could recommend hiring or transfer of guards, the Administrator of Corrections might or might not adopt the recommendations. Torres did not state whether or not he had recommended more guards for Arecibo jail. Defendant Jimenez Nettleship, the Administrator of Corrections, stated that he had been the Administrator for less than six months prior to decedent's death, that he had inherited his predecessor's budget and an overcrowded prison system, that he had increased the number of guards at Arecibo Jail by five in December 1981, and that he had not been notified decedent's life had been in danger.

Relying on the Pinto case and noting plaintiff's failure to oppose defendants' motions for summary judgment, the district court granted defendants' motions.

Defendants contend Pinto controls the present case. They point out that, like the defendant in Pinto, the present defendants here all stated that neither decedent nor anyone else notified them that decedent's life was in danger and that plaintiffs failed timely to controvert defendants' assertions. Apparently defendants believe that knowledge of a particular threat to a particular inmate--in contrast to knowledge that prison conditions constitute a threat to inmates generally--is always a prerequisite to liability for the death of an inmate.

We did not go that far in Pinto, nor did we mean to foreclose the possibility that knowledge of certain aggravated conditions may be tantamont to knowledge of a "pervasive risk of harm" to inmates. See, e.g., Withers v. Levine, 615 F.2d 158 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 849, 101 S.Ct. 136, 66 L.Ed.2d 59 (1980). Rather, what was dispositive in Pinto was the showing that defendant had made in response to the theory of liability underlying plaintiffs' complaint. The theory of liability in Pinto was that overcrowding and lack of sufficient guards had resulted in decedent's death. Defendant superintendent contended these conditions were beyond his control and submitted materials in support thereof, plaintiffs failed to controvert the defendant's showing, and hence summary judgment was appropriate.

In the present case, in contrast, plaintiffs' complaint referred to more than overcrowding and insufficient guards, conditions which may be beyond one or more defendants' control. Among other things, plaintiffs complained of an...