Groseclose v. Dutton, 86-5448

• Decision Date: 03 November 1987
• Docket Number: No. 86-5448,86-5448
• Citation: 829 F.2d 581
• Parties: William GROSECLOSE, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Michael DUTTON, et al., Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 581

829 F.2d 581

William GROSECLOSE, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Michael DUTTON, et al., Defendants-Appellants.

No. 86-5448.

United States Court of Appeals,

Sixth Circuit.

Argued Aug. 12, 1986.

Decided Sept. 18, 1987.

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied Nov. 3, 1987.

W.J. Michael Cody, Atty. Gen. of Tennessee, Nashville, Tenn., J. Andrew Hoyal, II, Wayne E. Uhl (argued), for defendants-appellants.

Larry D. Woods (argued), Nashville, Tenn., for plaintiffs-appellees.

Hal D. Hardin, Nashville, Tenn., for R. Harries.

Before KRUPANSKY, NELSON and RYAN, Circuit Judges.

DAVID A. NELSON, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal by prison officials of the State of Tennessee from a district court judgment holding that conditions on Tennessee's death row violate the Eighth Amendment. The defendants contest the merits of that holding, and urge that the case should not have gone forward as an independent case in any event, but should have been consolidated with a pending class action that involves the constitutionality of conditions throughout the Tennessee prison system. We agree that the proceedings ought to have been consolidated. In addition, we observe that the district court, not having had the benefit of this court's opinion in Walker v. Mintzes, 771 F.2d 920 (6th Cir.1985), applied an incorrect legal standard in deciding the Eighth Amendment issue. We shall vacate the judgment so that the district judge to whom this case will now be assigned can consider the Eighth Amendment issue under the proper legal standard.

* * *

As we explained in a decision dismissing an earlier appeal in this case, 788 F.2d 356 (6th Cir.1986), this action began as a habeas corpus proceeding filed on behalf of death row inmate Ronald Harries by fellow inmate William Groseclose and others, purporting to act as Mr. Harries' next friends. Respondents were the Warden of the Tennessee State Prison and the Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Corrections. The petitioners did not have the permission of Mr. Harries to act on his behalf, but they maintained that Mr. Harries was being given drugs that affected his ability to act for himself.

On June 6, 1984, the respondents moved to dismiss the petition. They were supported by Mr. Harries, participating as amicus curiae. The district court declined to dismiss the petition. On June 22, 1984, Mr. Harries sought to join the action as a plaintiff under Fed.R.Civ.P. 20, challenging the constitutionality of his conditions of confinement on death row. The district court granted the motion to join Mr. Harries and ordered that an evidentiary hearing be held to determine his competence. On July 10, 1984, the prison officials moved for reconsideration, offering to include Mr. Harries' allegations in a pending class action concerning the constitutionality of conditions throughout the Tennessee prison system. A district court opinion in that case, which is styled Grubbs v. Bradley, is reported at 552 F.Supp. 1052 (M.D.Tenn.1982). (Grubbs was previously on the docket of District Judge L. Clure Morton, and is now on the docket of District Judge Thomas Higgins; the instant case was on the docket of District Judge John Nixon.) On August 17, 1984, in a decision reported as Groseclose v. Dutton, 594 F.Supp. 949 (M.D.Tenn.1984), Judge Nixon ruled that the habeas corpus action could proceed, that the absence of Mr. Harries in the next-friend petition was due to mental incompetence, and that any waiver of Mr. Harries' post-conviction remedies was involuntary.

On October 10, 1984, Mr. Groseclose moved for certification of a class action as to the death row prison conditions. This motion was granted on November 13, 1984. On December 28, 1984, the defendant prison officials moved for judgment on the pleadings, contending that the findings of the court in Grubbs were dispositive of the merits of the instant case. The district court overruled the motion.

In a decision rendered after an evidentiary hearing and reported at 609 F.Supp. 1432 (M.D.Tenn.1985), the district court declared the prison conditions on death row to be unconstitutional and ordered the defendants to submit a remedial plan for consideration by a special master. The defendants filed a notice of appeal. The district court declined to make findings that would have permitted an interlocutory appeal under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1292(b), and in the decision reported at 788 F.2d 356 we dismissed the appeal on jurisdictional grounds.

On July 1, 1985, the district court appointed Mr. Patrick McManus as a special master to oversee the remedial proceedings. Mr. McManus is also serving as the special master in Grubbs v. Bradley. A remedial plan was ultimately accepted by the district court in the instant case, and the special master was instructed to monitor its implementation. The defendant prison officials then perfected the present appeal.

Three issues are presented on appeal. First, it is argued that a class action already being prosecuted on behalf of "all" inmates in the Tennessee prison system, Grubbs v. Bradley, foreclosed relief in the present case. The prison officials assert that the evidence presented to the district court in this case ought to have been presented to the Grubbs court, and they point out that the special master in Grubbs is still available to handle the complaints of the death row inmates. Second, it is argued that the trial court erred in finding that living conditions of the death-sentenced inmates violate the Eighth Amendment. Finally it is argued that the trial court improperly delegated authority to the special master to modify the remedial plan approved by the court.

* * *

The prison officials point to language in the Grubbs class-certification order that defines the Grubbs class as "[a]ll persons who are presently or who will in the future be committed as adults to the custody of the Tennessee Department of Corrections and housed in the Tennessee prison system [including the Tennessee State Penitentiary]."

Judge Nixon was aware of Grubbs, of course, and in at least two places he explained his reasons for proceeding with the instant case notwithstanding Grubbs. In Groseclose ex. rel Harries v. Dutton, 594 F.Supp. 949, 958 n. 5 (M.D.Tenn.1984) (Groseclose I ), Judge Nixon stated that the proposed relief in Grubbs, as he read it, did not seem to contemplate any correction of the conditions in Unit VI, the unit where inmates sentenced to death are housed, except for double-celling and food service. ¹ The issue presented in Groseclose I involved Mr. Harries' habeas petition, and Judge Nixon held that Grubbs did not foreclose a decision that prison conditions had led to an involuntary waiver of Mr. Harries' right to habeas review.

Groseclose v. Dutton, 609 F.Supp. 1432, 1440-41 (M.D.Tenn.1985) (Groseclose II ), is the decision from which the present appeal was taken. There Judge Nixon stated that his court would

"not relitigate the issues raised in Grubbs, but it will examine the impact of the changes in the conditions and policies of Unit VI since the findings of fact in Grubbs in 1982 for the following reasons. First, many of the conditions raised in this action were not addressed by the Court in Grubbs. See Groseclose [I ], 594 F.Supp. at 958-59 n. 5. Second, when the Court made its findings in Grubbs,...