Goney v. Clark
| Decision Date | 01 October 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. 83-5861,83-5861 |
| Citation | 749 F.2d 5 |
| Parties | Alvin E. GONEY, Appellant, v. James E. CLARK, Jr., Warden, Fayette County Jail. . Submitted Under Third Circuit Rule 12(6) |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit |
James D. Crawford, Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis, Philadelphia, Pa., for appellant.
Phillip T. Warman, County Sol., Fayette County, Uniontown, Pa., for appellee.
Before ALDISERT, Chief Judge, HUNTER and WEIS, Circuit Judges.
The major issue in this appeal brought by a prisoner in a civil rights action against a warden is whether, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Sec. 636(b)(1), the district court should have engaged in a de novo review of the magistrate's report by reading a transcript or listening to a tape recording of the entire hearing before the magistrate. Section 636(b)(1) requires that a plaintiff must file both timely and specific objections to the report to trigger de novo review. The appellant argues that his objections were timely and that because they involved the whole report, a review of a transcript or tape recording was mandated. Because this issue implicates the interpretation and application of legal precepts, our review is plenary. Universal Minerals, Inc. v. C.A. Hughes & Co., 669 F.2d 98, 102-03 (3d Cir.1981).
We conclude that in this action brought under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983, the district court did not err by adopting the magistrate's recommendation and report without reviewing a transcript or tape recording of the hearing before the magistrate.
Plaintiff-appellant Alvin Goney, a prisoner in the Fayette County Jail, filed this Sec. 1983 action against the Fayette County, Pennsylvania, warden, James Clark, alleging that the warden had unlawfully transferred him to solitary confinement without a hearing. The case was tried to a magistrate pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Sec. 636(b)(1)(B). The magistrate submitted her report and recommendation to the district court, and recommended ruling against plaintiff. Goney subsequently filed a pro se "Motion for Notification of Appeal," which the district court treated as objections to the magistrate's report. In its review of that report, the district court relied only on the pleadings, documents, and a summary of the testimony, and did not review either a transcript or a taperecording of the hearing. Appellant argues on appeal that the district court should have engaged in a word-for-word review of the entire proceeding before the magistrate. We disagree.
To obtain de novo determination of a magistrate's findings by a district court, 28 U.S.C. Sec. 636(b)(1) requires both timely and specific objections to the report. For the purpose of our analysis we are assuming that timely objections were made. 1 The district court is to "make a de novo determination of those portions of the report or specified proposed findings or recommendations to which objection is made." 28 U.S.C. Sec. 636(b)(1) (emphasis added). Obviously, therefore, a de novo determination is not always required. Courts have held that a district court need not conduct a de novo determination if objections are not timely, United States v. Schronce, 727 F.2d 91, 94 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S ----, 104 S.Ct. 2395, 81 L.Ed.2d 352 (1984), or not specific. Nettles v. Wainwright, 677 F.2d 404, 410 n. 8 (5th Cir.1982) (in banc). Because these cases seem to vindicate the congressional mandate, we adopt those portions of those opinions...
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