Hernandez v. Cambell

• Decision Date: 05 November 1999
• Docket Number: No. 98-56884,98-56884
• Citation: 204 F.3d 861
• Parties: (9th Cir. 2000) ANSELMO BERNAL HERNANDEZ, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. JOHN R. CAMPBELL, OPINION Defendant-Appellee
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 861

204 F.3d 861 (9th Cir. 2000)

ANSELMO BERNAL HERNANDEZ, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. JOHN R. CAMPBELL, OPINION Defendant-Appellee.

No. 98-56884

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

Submitted November 5, 1999^*

Filed February 8, 2000

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] COUNSEL: Anselmo Bernal Hernandez, Taft, California, plaintiff-appellant pro se.

Edward B. Moreton, Jr., Assistant United States Attorney, Los Angeles, California, for defendant-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California; J. Spencer Letts, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV 98-03688 JSL

Before: James R. Browning and A. Wallace Tashima, Circuit Judges, and Robert E. Jones, District Judge.^**

PER CURIAM:

Federal prisoner Anselmo Bernal Hernandez appeals the order of the District Court for the Central District of California ("Central District" or "sentencing court") denying his habeas corpus petition. Because the Central District failed to determine whether it had jurisdiction, we vacate its order dismissing the petition. We also remand with instructions for the Central District to determine whether the petition is styled properly as one brought under 28 U.S.C. S 2241, and, if so, to transfer the action back to the District Court for the Eastern District of California ("Eastern District" or "custodial court"). See Washington Local Lodge No. 104 v. International Bhd. of Boilermakers, 621 F.2d 1032, 1033-34 (9th Cir. 1980) (remanding to the district court with instructions to determine whether federal jurisdiction existed, and, if not, to remand to the state court).

I.

In March 1993, a jury in the Central District convicted Hernandez and two co-defendants, Santos Alvarez Felix and Adolpho Leon Gomez, of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and possession with intent to distribute cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. SS 846 & 841. The sentencing court sentenced Hernandez to 135 months in prison after determining that he was responsible for conspiracy to possess five kilograms of cocaine. The quantity of cocaine actually delivered was approximately 4.6 kilograms. See United States v. Felix, 87 F.3d 1057, 1059 (9th Cir. 1996). Hernandez is presently incarcerated at the Taft Correctional Institution, which is located in the Eastern District.

After an unsuccessful direct appeal, Hernandez filed a motion to vacate, set aside, and/or correct his sentence pursuant to 28 U.S.C. S 2255. The only ground for relief alleged in that motion, filed June 7, 1995, was that Hernandez's conviction and sentence were barred by the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment. The Central District denied the motion, and this court affirmed. See United States v. Hernandez, No. 95-56704,1997 WL 542069, 122 F.3d 1075 (9th Cir. Aug. 28, 1997) (Memo.).

While Hernandez's S 2255 motion was pending, three events occurred that form the basis of this appeal. First, Application Note 12 of United States Sentencing Guidelines S 2D1.1 was amended to clarify the quantity of drugs that district courts should consider when sentencing for a completed transaction. See Felix, 87 F.3d at 1059; see also U.S.S.G. S 2D1.1, Application Note 12 (1995). The amendment authorizes the sentencing court to sentence a defendant based on the actual amount of drugs delivered, rather than the amount negotiated, if that amount more accurately represents the scale of the offense. See id.

Second, this court reversed Hernandez's co-defendants' sentences and remanded for the district court to resentence Felix and Gomez based on the amount of cocaine actually delivered, in accord with the new amendment. See Felix, 87 F.3d at 1061. With this ruling, we held that the amendment applied retroactively to Felix and Gomez, as it was a clarification of the law, rather than a substantive change. See id. at 1060.

Third, Congress passed the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 ("AEDPA"), which precludes a prisoner from filing a second or successive S 2255 motion, except in very narrow circumstances and only after receiving authorization to file from the court of appeals. See 28 U.S.C. S 2244(b).¹ In December, 1997, Hernandez filed a request with this court for leave to file a second or successive S 2255 petition. He argued that he was entitled to resentencing based on the decision in Felix; however, because he did not meet S 2244(b)'s stringent requirements for filing a successive S 2255 motion, his request was denied.

On April 6, 1998, Hernandez filed the petition presently at issue, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. S 2241, in the Eastern District, the court with jurisdiction over the prison in which he is incarcerated.² In his petition, Hernandez argued that to avoid a miscarriage of justice he should be resentenced in light of the Felix decision. The Eastern District transferred the action to the Central District, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. S 1406(a). The Central District then dismissed the petition on its merits.³

II.

A.

Generally, motions to contest the legality of a sentence must be filed under S 2255 in the sentencing court, while petitions that challenge the manner, location, or conditions of a sentence's execution must be brought pursuant toS 2241 in the custodial court. See Doganiere v. United States, 914 F.2d 165, 169-70 (9th Cir. 1990); Brown v. United States, 610 F.2d 672, 677 (9th Cir. 1980).⁴

Under the savings clause of S 2255, however, a federal prisoner may file a habeas corpus petition pursuant to S 2241 to contest the legality of a sentence where his remedy under S 2255 is "inadequate or ineffective to test the legality of his detention." 28 U.S.C. S 2255; see Moore v. Reno, 185 F.3d 1054, 1055 (9th Cir. 1999). Hernandez argues that he is entitled to file a S 2241 petition pursuant to the savings clause given both his inability to file a successive S 2255 petition under the limitations of S 2244(b) and the subsequent change in the guidelines and Ninth Circuit law.

An inquiry into whether a S 2241 petition is proper under these circumstances is critical to the determination of district court jurisdiction, because the proper district for filing a habeas petition depends upon whether the petition is filed pursuant to S 2241 or S 2255. In particular, a habeas petition filed pursuant to S 2241 must be heard in the custodial court

Thus, in order to determine whether jurisdiction is proper, a court must first determine whether a habeas petition is filed pursuant to S 2241 or S 2255 before proceeding to any other issue. If Hernandez's petition falls under the savings clause so as to be a petition pursuant to S 2241, then only the Eastern District has jurisdiction. If the savings clause does not come into play, however, then Hernandez's petition must be construed as a petition under S 2255, such that jurisdiction lies only in the Central District.

B.

Neither the Central District nor the Eastern District considered whether Hernandez properly invoked the savings clause, thereby ignoring the decisive jurisdictional question. Federal courts are always "under an independent obligation to examine their own jurisdiction," FW/PBS, Inc. v. City of Dallas, 493 U.S. 215, 231 (1990), and a federal court may not entertain an action over which it has no jurisdiction. See Insurance Corp. of Ireland, Ltd. v. Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinee, 456 U.S. 694, 701 (1982); see also Magana v. Commonwealth of the N. Mariana Islands, 107 F.3d 1436, 1443 (9th Cir. 1997).

In its transfer order, the Eastern District expressly declined to construe Hernandez's motion as a S 2241 or S 2255 petition.⁵ In particular, the Eastern District did not address Hernandez's claim that he was entitled to bring a S 2241 petition in the custodial court (i.e., the Eastern District) pursuant to the savings clause. Thus, the Eastern District erred by transferring the action without first determining whether it, as the custodial court, had the exclusive jurisdiction to hear the claim. See Clark v. Busey, 959 F.2d 808, 812 (9th Cir. 1992) (holding that a court may not transfer a claim "where the transferee court lacks jurisdiction and thus could not have originally heard the suit").⁶

Moreover, by refusing to construe Hernandez's petition as either a S 2255 or S 2241 claim, the Eastern District also deprived Hernandez of a ruling on the merits of his claim that S 2255 was an "inadequate or ineffective " remedy. 28 U.S.C. S 2255. Although we have not defined precisely what renders the S 2255 remedy inadequate or ineffective, see United States v. Pirro, 104 F.3d 297, 299 (9th Cir. 1997), the statute specifically contemplates that such instances may arise. Where a petitioner claims that S 2255 provides an ineffective remedy, the district court in which the petition is brought is required initially to rule whether a S 2241 remedy is available under the savings clause. The Eastern District failed to engage in any analysis on this point before transferring the action.

C.

As the sentencing court, the Central District also erred by treating the petition as one under S 2241 and dismissing it on the merits. By simply ruling that a S 2241 petition is improper to challenge the legality of a sentence, ⁷ the Central District failed to address the initial jurisdictional question. Because Congress made a deliberate choice to give jurisdiction over S 2241 petitions and S 2255 motions to different courts, a district court is obligated to determine whether a petition falls under S 2241, pursuant to the savings clause, or under S 2255.

As the government acknowledges, the Central District did not have jurisdiction to entertain the pleading as a S 2241 petition. The government apparently requests that we construe the pleading as a S 2255 motion and affirm the Central District's dismissal of the action. We decline to do so.

Under the strict provisions of the recently-enacted AEDPA, prisoners may only file second or successive petitions in extremely narrow...