Hearns v. Terhune

• Citation: 413 F.3d 1036
• Decision Date: 30 June 2005
• Docket Number: No. 02-56302.,02-56302.
• Parties: Clarence Leonard HEARNS, Jr., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Cal TERHUNE; Robert Powell, Correctional Officer; R. Nelson, Sergeant, Correctional Officer; Alan Kahn; F. Dymond, Correctional Captain at Calipatria State Prison; Sylvia Garcia, Chief Deputy Warden; Larry Small, Warden, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)

413 F.3d 1036

Clarence Leonard HEARNS, Jr., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Cal TERHUNE; Robert Powell, Correctional Officer; R. Nelson, Sergeant, Correctional Officer; Alan Kahn; F. Dymond, Correctional Captain at Calipatria State Prison; Sylvia Garcia, Chief Deputy Warden; Larry Small, Warden, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 02-56302.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted December 9, 2004.

Filed June 30, 2005.

Daniel L. Alexander, O'Melveny & Myers, Los Angeles, CA, for the plaintiff-appellant.

Barbara C. Spiegel, Deputy Attorney General, State of California, San Francisco, CA, for the defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of California; Jeffrey T. Miller, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-99-01461-JM.

Before HUG, PREGERSON, and BERZON, Circuit Judges.

PREGERSON, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff-Appellant Clarence Leonard Hearns, Jr., is a Muslim inmate at Calipatria State Prison. In June 1999, Hearns filed a pro se complaint alleging violations of his civil rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Specifically, Hearns alleged that several Calipatria State Prison officials violated his Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment when they failed to protect him from being attacked by fellow Muslim inmates. Hearns also claimed that he was subjected to inhumane conditions when he was later placed in protective confinement for nine months in Calipatria's disciplinary segregation unit.

In February 2002, the district court sua sponte dismissed Hearns's original complaint for failing to state a claim, but granted him leave to amend. After Hearns filed his first amended complaint, the prison officials moved to dismiss that complaint under Federal Civil Procedure Rule 12(b)(6). In July 2002, the district court granted the motion to dismiss, ruled that Hearns's amended complaint failed to state a claim, and dismissed the complaint and the § 1983 action with prejudice. Hearns now appeals. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we reverse and remand.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY¹

In May 1997, an inmate at Calipatria State Prison sent a memorandum to Defendant Chief Deputy Warden Sylvia Garcia explaining that the "ruling" Muslim inmates were trying to force other Muslim inmates to share their prayer oil. This memorandum was later forwarded to all prison administrators and to Defendant Alan Kahn, the prison's Islamic Chaplain. Shortly afterwards, prison officials and Chaplain Kahn received another letter that detailed secret boxing matches and beatings carried out by Muslim inmates in the prison chapels. As a result, beginning in July 1997, no Muslim inmate was allowed in the prison chapels unsupervised.

In August 1997, correctional officers discovered that Muslim inmates in Facility B of the prison were planning to beat a Muslim inmate in the Facility B chapel for questioning the authority of the ruling Muslim inmate group. News of the plan was reported to Defendant F. Dymond (a facility Captain) and relayed to Defendants Robert Powell (a correctional officer) and Chaplain Kahn. After the inmates' plan was discovered, the intended victim was moved from Facility B to Facility A.

Chaplain Kahn issued a memorandum in October 1997 addressing the continuing friction and violence between the Muslim inmates. In the memo, Chaplain Kahn threatened to suspend all Islamic services unless the safety of Muslim inmates and visitors attending services could be assured. The services, however, were never suspended.

In March 1998, another Muslim inmate housed in Facility B was targeted for attack by inmates from the ruling Muslims for disputing the ruling Muslims' authority. This inmate was relocated to Facility A. Nonetheless, he was stabbed approximately one year later in Facility A, allegedly at the request of the ruling Muslims in Facility B.

In April 1998, members of the ruling Muslim group stole prayer oil from Ware, a Muslim inmate. Hearns reported the incident to Chaplain Kahn. Hearns suggested that Ware's next shipment of prayer oil be delivered to Hearns instead of to Ware. Hearns would then secretly deliver the prayer oil to Ware. Chaplain Kahn agreed. Concerned that the ruling Muslim inmates would be upset, Hearns asked Chaplain Kahn not to tell the other inmates of this prayer oil delivery arrangement.

When the prayer oil arrived, Hearns delivered it to Ware. On that same day, other Muslim inmates learned of the secret delivery, either directly or indirectly, from Chaplain Kahn. The inmates were angry with Hearns and confronted him in a prison chapel. At that time, Hearns suffered no physical abuse. But two days later, Hearns was attacked by Muslim inmate Rushing in the chapel. Rushing was acting at the direction of Tubbs, Hankins, and Irby, inmates belonging to the ruling Muslim group. Following an investigation into the attack, Hearns was moved from Facility A to Facility B because of concerns for his safety.

After Hearns was moved to Facility B, Chaplain Kahn gave Hearns the authority to teach Arabic classes in the chapel to fellow Muslim inmates. Chaplain Kahn also allegedly reported to several Muslim inmates, including Lino and Nichols, that Hearns believed there was a "messenger" after Muhammad and that Hearns did not follow the sunnah.² According to Hearns holding such beliefs required him to be killed under the teachings of Islam.

The violence between Muslim inmates at Calipatria continued to escalate. In June 1998, Hearns told Correctional Officer Powell of ongoing disputes between the ruling group and Muslim inmates. These disputes centered around the ruling group's control over other Muslim inmates and which inmates would teach classes and give sermons. Correctional Officer Powell allegedly told Hearns that there was no need to worry and that he would relay Hearns's concerns to Chaplain Kahn and Captain Dymond.

Later that afternoon, Correctional Officer Powell announced to a group of Muslim inmates gathered in the Facility B chapel that Chaplain Kahn would come by the next day to help settle the disputes among the Muslim inmates. After the announcement, Lino (an inmate who allegedly learned from Chaplain Kahn that Hearns held impious beliefs) ordered Hearns to be beaten and stabbed.

The next day, Hearns arrived at the Facility B chapel to teach the morning Arabic class. Correctional Officer Powell greeted him at the door, checked his name off the list of attendees, and searched him for weapons. Soon after Hearns entered the chapel, several inmates filed in after him. These inmates turned off the chapel lights, attacked Hearns from behind, and stabbed him numerous times. Even though Muslim inmates were not allowed in the chapel unsupervised, no correctional officers were present when Hearns was attacked. After being stabbed and beaten, Hearns saw Lino letting the attackers out of the chapel. Hearns grabbed Lino and held him until Correctional Officer Powell and several other correctional officers arrived. Hearns was then taken to the prison's central treatment center where he was treated for head lacerations, body cuts, and bruises.

Following release from the central treatment center three days later, Hearns was transferred from Facility B to Calipatria's disciplinary segregation unit. This transfer was done for his safety. Approximately two months later, Hearns informed the prison officials of various "health hazards" in the disciplinary segregation yard. Specifically, Hearns complained that the disciplinary segregation yard had "no working toilets, rusted and insect filled sinks, [and] stagnant pools of water infested with dead insects." Hearns also claimed that cold water, which was supplied to the prison's general population yards, was not available in the disciplinary segregation yard, despite the fact that the segregation yard's temperature regularly exceeded one hundred degrees. According to Hearns, these hazardous conditions forced him to avoid the prison yard "for fear of serious health concerns."

Hearns attempted to have these conditions corrected through the prison's administrative grievance process but failed. Once he exhausted the administrative grievance process, Hearns filed a pro se complaint in district court in June 1999, for violations of his civil rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. In addition to alleging that the prison officials had failed to protect him from being stabbed in the chapel, Hearns claimed that the officials subjected him to inhumane conditions while he was confined in disciplinary segregation.

In February 2002, the district court sua sponte dismissed, with leave to amend, Hearns's original complaint for failing to state a claim. Approximately one month later, Hearns filed an amended complaint. Shortly after that, several of the Defendants filed a motion to dismiss Hearns's amended complaint pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

The district court dismissed Hearns's amended complaint and action with prejudice on July 1, 2002. The district court ruled that Hearns's "failure-to-protect" allegations (related to the stabbing) did not satisfy the Eighth Amendment's subjective component because he did not allege deliberate indifference on the part of the prison officials. The court also ruled that Hearns's "conditions-of-confinement" allegations (related to the disciplinary segregation yard) were not sufficiently serious to meet the Eighth Amendment's objective component.

Hearns timely appealed the district court's dismissal order on July 25, 2002. A two-judge motions panel of our court issued an order directing Defendants to show cause why summary reversal of the district court's decision was inappropriate based on Hearns raising a colorable claim. Defendants filed a response to the order to show cause, and the panel's order was discharged on February 4, 2004. On April 15, 2004, we appointed pro bono counsel to represent Hearns. Hearns...