Evans v. Fenty, Civil Action No. 76-293(ESH).

• Decision Date: 30 March 2007
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 76-293(ESH).
• Citation: 480 F.Supp.2d 280
• Parties: Joy EVANS, et al., Plaintiffs, and United States of America, Plaintiff-Intervenor, v. Adrian M. FENTY, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

Page 280

480 F.Supp.2d 280

Joy EVANS, et al., Plaintiffs, and United States of America, Plaintiff-Intervenor, v. Adrian M. FENTY, et al., Defendants.

Civil Action No. 76-293(ESH).

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

March 30, 2007.

Cathy E. Costanzo, Northampton, MA, Stephen Forney Hanlon, Paul J. Kiernan, Holland & Knight, LLP, Sandra J. Bernstein, University Legal Services, Inc., Washington, DC, for Plaintiffs.

John A. Henderson, Richard James Farano, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for Plaintiff-Intervenor.

Ellen A. Efros, Robert C. Utiger, John D. Dodge, Office of the Attorney General, Maria-Claudia T. Amato, Martha J. Mullen, Corporation Counsel for the District of Columbia, Washington, DC, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

HUVELLE, District Judge.

This case was filed more than thirty years ago in an effort to remedy the constitutionally deficient level of care, treatment, education, and training being provided to residents of Forest Haven, the District of Columbia's institution for persons with developmental disabilities, which was closed as a result of this litigation in 1991. Plaintiffs are a class of over 650 former residents of Forest Haven. Defendants are the District of Columbia ("the District") and the Honorable Adrian Fenty, the City's Mayor.¹ The United States is also a party, having been permitted to intervene as a plaintiff in January 1977.²

As described in greater detail below, this litigation has resulted in a series of consent orders and remedial plans in which defendants have admitted that class members' constitutional rights have been violated and have agreed to take actions necessary to remedy these constitutional violations. Because these measures have been unsuccessful in achieving desired outcomes for class members in many critical areas, the litigation has also resulted in a series of efforts by plaintiffs and plaintiff-intervenor to force compliance with the Court's orders through motions for contempt and other relief. Before the Court is the latest such effort. Plaintiffs have moved for an order finding defendants in noncompliance with the prior Court orders and placing the District's Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Administration ("MRDDA") into receivership.³ At a July 20, 2006, status conference, the Court bifurcated proceedings on the motion into a liability and a remedy phase and directed the parties to submit proposed findings of fact on the liability question, i.e., whether there has been substantial noncompliance with Court orders. (July 20, 2006 Hr'g Tr. at 6, 9-10.)⁴ This Memorandum Opinion sets forth the Court's factual findings on that issue.

BACKGROUND

This case began in February 1976, when a group of individual plaintiffs filed suit alleging that they and other residents of Forest Haven were not receiving "a constitutionally minimal level of habilitation" (Compl. ¶ 1) and seeking declaratory and injunctive relief.⁵ The Honorable John H. Pratt, who presided over this case until his death in August 1995, certified a plaintiff class consisting of present, former, and future residents of Forest Haven in June 1976. Following a period of discovery, plaintiffs moved for partial summary judgment on the issue of liability in November 1977. Plaintiffs urged the Court to require defendants to "undertake a phased Court supervised planning process for remedying the statutory and constitutional violations." (Mem. of Law in Support of Pls.' Mot. for Partial S.J. at 52.) Although defendants objected to plaintiffs' characterization of the conditions at Forest Haven, noting that changes had been implemented following the filing of plaintiffs' lawsuit, defendants acknowledged that "the level of care and habilitation at Forest Haven has never been that which any of the parties to this action desire." (Defs.' Opp'n to Pls.' Mot. for Partial S.J. at 2.) Defendants urged the Court to deny the motion and instead to direct counsel for the parties to enter into discussions as to "what further actions can and should be done ... to better provide for the mentally retarded at Forest Haven." (Id. at 1, 4.)

I. The 1978 Consent Order

On June 14, 1978, Judge Pratt entered a "Final Judgment and Order" (the "1978 Consent Order" or the "1978 Order"), which was consented to by defendants. Evans v. Washington, 459 F.Supp. 483 (D.D.C.1978). The Court found that plaintiffs have a federal constitutional right to habilitative care and treatment, to be free from harm, and to receive habilitative care and treatment in the alternative least restrictive of individual liberty and to be kept free from harm. Id. at 484.⁶ The Court went on to find that violations of these constitutional rights had occurred and ordered extensive permanent injunctive relief, requiring defendants to deinstitutionalize class members and imposing a series of requirements governing virtually all aspects of the District's interim operation of Forest Haven. Id. at 484-90.

With respect to deinstitutionalization, the Court prohibited any further admissions to Forest Haven and ordered defendants to provide all class members with suitable community living arrangements and with the community-based day programs and services necessary to provide them with minimally adequate habilitation in the most integrated and least restrictive community settings. Id. at 484-85, 488.⁷ The Court also ordered defendants, inter alia, to provide each class member with a written individualized habilitation plan and an individualized habilitation program designed in accordance with the plan; to retain a full-time "Developmental Disabilities professional" (later referred to as the "Court Monitor") to assist defendants and the Court in implementing the Consent Order, including reporting to the Court at ninety-day intervals regarding the status and progress of defendants' efforts to do so; and, in conjunction with the Court Monitor, to develop and submit for court approval a detailed implementation plan for the provision of community living arrangements, programs, and services. Id. at 484-87.

With respect to Forest Haven, the Court ordered defendants, again in conjunction with the Court Monitor, to prepare a plan for the interim operation of the facility pending the placement of class members in community living arrangements and set out a series of requirements for the facility's continued operation. Id. at 488-89. Among other things, the Court prohibited all "[a]cts of physical or psychological abuse, neglect or mistreatment of any Forest Haven resident," required the prompt investigation of all such incidents, and required "[a] program of medical, dental and health related services for class members which provides accessibility, quality and continuity of care for physical illness or injury." Id.

II. The 1981 and 1983 Consent Orders

In January 1981, plaintiff and plaintiff-intervenor filed motions for contempt and for enforcement of the Court's June 1978 Consent Order. The motions were ultimately withdrawn, and the Court entered a further Consent Order on June 25, 1981 (the "1981 Consent Order" or the "1981 Order"), setting forth a list of agreed-upon measures "necessary to the implementation of this Court's Order of June 14, 1978." Evans v. Barry, No. 76-293, Consent Order at 1 (D.D.C. June 25, 1981).⁸ The 1981 Consent Order reaffirmed defendants' obligations under the 1978 Order and imposed a series of further requirements with respect to staffing and staff training at Forest Haven; the provision of individualized assessments and habilitation plans to all class members, including the identification of all services required by class members regardless of the current availability of those services; procurement of necessary supplies and performance of routine maintenance and repairs required for class members' health, safety, and sanitation; outplacement of class members from Forest Haven with appropriate day programs and living arrangements and with adequate case management support; funding for class members; and the timely processing of contracts. See generally id.

Plaintiff and plaintiff-intervenor again filed contempt motions in June 1982 that resulted in the entry of a further Consent Order on February 8, 1983 (the "1983 Consent Order" or the "1983 Order"). See Evans, Consent Order at 14 (Feb. 8, 1983). The 1983 Order again affirmed defendants' obligations under the earlier Consent Orders and required defendants to take certain additional steps to implement those Orders. See generally id. The 1983 Order required defendants to ensure that periodic assessments were conducted and that individual habilitation plans were developed for all class members; to prepare an assessment of services required by class members; to address certain budget and staffing issues, including maintenance of the appropriate case manager to class member ratio;⁹ and to properly maintain the facilities at Forest Haven. Id. at 2-9. The Order also imposed requirements with respect to the reporting of "unusual incidents" involving class members; safekeeping of class members' funds; programming; and outplacement of class members, including the requirement that all residents of Forest Haven be placed in community settings by the end of Fiscal Year 1988. Id. at 8-14.

III. Closure of Forest Haven

When defendants failed to meet the 1983 Consent Order's September 30, 1988 deadline for the outplacement of all class members, plaintiffs and plaintiff-intervenor again initiated contempt proceedings in July 1989. The Court did not immediately grant the motion to show cause but instead continued the matter for 120 days to give the parties time to agree to a further consent decree. (Sept. 29, 1989 Hr'g Tr. at 2.) The parties did not agree, however, and after a January 1990 hearing, the Court issued an Order holding the District in civil contempt, observing that it had "no alternative except to find that the District of Columbia has been in...