Huguenin v. Ponte
| Decision Date | 24 November 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. 96-048ML.,No. CA 96-026ML.,No. 96-037ML.,CA 96-026ML.,96-037ML.,96-048ML. |
| Citation | 29 F.Supp.2d 57 |
| Parties | Robert HUGUENIN, et al., Edward Manning, Jr., James O'Neil, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Joseph PONTE and Cornell Corrections, Inc., a/k/a Cornell Cox Management Rhode Island, Inc., d/b/a Cornell Corrections, as Operators of the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility, Central Falls, Rhode Island, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Rhode Island |
Thomas G. Briody, Providence, RI, for plaintiffs.
Philip M. Weinstein, Amelia Edwards, Providence, RI, for defendants.
This case is before the Court for decision pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 56. Defendants filed a motion for summary judgment on September 30, 1996; Plaintiffs filed separate objections and cross motions for summary judgment on October 4, 1996. On April 9, 1997, separate Reports and Recommendations issued from the United States Magistrate Judge. The parties objected to the Magistrate's findings. At the request of this Court, the parties supplemented their filings in support of their respective motions for summary judgment.
The parties have consolidated their claims for purposes of summary judgment, and the matter is now in order for decision. For the reasons stated herein, the Court denies the parties' motions for summary judgment.
Plaintiffs Edward Manning, Jr., and James O'Neil are attorneys licensed to practice law in the State of Rhode Island. At all times relevant to this action, Plaintiffs Patrick Meade and Robert Huguenin were inmates at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility ("Wyatt") in Central Falls, Rhode Island. The remaining plaintiffs were the recipients of phone calls that either Meade or Huguenin made while detained at Wyatt. Defendant Joseph Ponte was the Director of Wyatt at all times relevant to this action; Defendant Cornell Corrections, Inc. ("Cornell"), was the private corporation that operated Wyatt during the relevant time period.
Plaintiffs' complaints allege that during 1993 and 1994, Defendants intercepted various telephone calls that had originated from the Inmate Telephone System at Wyatt.1 Plaintiffs claim that these interceptions violated 18 U.S.C. §§ 2510-2520 (1994 & Supp. II 1996) ("the Act"), which prohibits the interception of certain electronic, oral, or wire communications. Plaintiffs also assert that Defendants' conduct violated R.I.Gen.Laws §§ 12-5.1-1 to 12-5.1-13 (1994 Reenactment), the Act's state law counterpart.2
Defendants deny the allegations, and assert that the Act provides two exceptions which shield them from liability. The first exception, contained at 18 U.S.C. § 2510(5)(a)(ii), relieves from liability an "investigative or law enforcement officer" who intercepts communications while acting "in the ordinary course of his duties." The second exception on which Defendants rely provides that an individual may intercept a communication where one of the parties to the communication has given prior consent to the interception. See 18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(d). Finally, Defendants argue that Plaintiffs Robert Huguenin and Patrick Meade failed to exhaust administrative remedies set forth in the Federal Bureau of Prisons regulations.
The Court will address each of these claims in due course, but before undertaking any further analysis it is necessary to provide a complete picture of Wyatt, its management, and operation.
As previously stated, the Wyatt Detention Facility is located in Central Falls, Rhode Island. Cornell has managed and operated Wyatt since 1993 pursuant to a contract with the Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation ("CFDFC"). The CFDFC is a creature of Rhode Island statute.
Chapter 54, title 45 of the General Laws of Rhode Island provided for the creation of a municipal detention facility corporation in each city and town of the state.3 See generally R.I.Gen.Laws §§ 45-54-1 to 45-54-28 (1991 Reenactment). The statute was intended to promote the construction of a detention facility in Rhode Island and to augment economic development within the state. See R.I.Gen.Laws § 45-54-2. The CFDFC created Wyatt in compliance with this statute. The CFDFC owns the facility.
Pursuant to its statutory authority, see R.I.Gen.Laws § 45-54-6(n), the CFDFC entered a contract with Cornell in July, 1992. Pursuant to that contract, Cornell was to operate the facility for a period of five years from the date that it received its first inmate. Cornell's employees provided the security services at Wyatt during all times relevant to this complaint.4
Wyatt received its inmates pursuant to two contracts that the CFDFC entered. The signatories to the first contract, or Intergovernmental Service Agreement (IGA), were the CFDFC and the United States Marshals Service. Pursuant to this agreement, Wyatt would house approximately 290 federal prisoners.5 The second contract was binding upon the State of North Carolina and the CFDFC. Under this contract the CFDFC agreed to house certain inmates that the State of North Carolina delivered to Wyatt.6 The latter contract is of little moment to the dispute in this case.
Subject to the supervision of the United States Marshals Service and the CFDFC's "Contract Monitor,"7 Cornell has housed federal prisoners since the fall of 1993.
With this foundation in place, the Court now proceeds to analyze the parties' contentions in light of the standard of review and the law that governs the facts of this case.
In deciding a motion for summary judgment, a court must consider whether the "pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). As the Supreme Court of the United States has explained, "the burden on the moving party may be discharged by `showing' — that is, pointing out to the district court — that there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party's case." Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 325, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). Generally, the movant must demonstrate that "no genuine issue of material fact exists." National Amusements, Inc. v. Town of Dedham, 43 F.3d 731, 735 (1st Cir.1995).
Once the movant has satisfied this burden, the burden shifts to the non-movant who must "point[] to specific facts demonstrating that there is, indeed, a trialworthy issue." See id. An issue is "genuine" if it is "sufficiently open-ended to permit a rational fact-finder to resolve the issue in favor of either side." Id. A fact is "material" if it might "sway the outcome of the litigation under the applicable law." Id. Cross motions for summary judgment do not affect the basic application of these rules; they simply require a court to determine whether either party "deserves judgment as a matter of law on facts that are not disputed." See Wightman v. Springfield Terminal Ry. Co., 100 F.3d 228, 230 (1st Cir.1996).
Section 2520 of the Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2510-2520 (1994 & Supp. II 1996), creates a federal cause of action in favor of any person whose oral communication is intercepted in violation of the Act.8 Section 2511(1)(b) provides that any person who intentionally uses any "electronic, mechanical, or other device" to intercept an oral communication has violated the Act. Defendants propose two theories to explain why they are not liable for damages under the Act.
Pursuant to § 2510(5)(a)(ii), the definition of "electronic, mechanical, or other device," as used in § 2511, does not include "any telephone or telegraph instrument, equipment or facility, or any component thereof ... being used ... by an investigative or law enforcement officer in the ordinary course of his duties."9 Defendants argue that this language removes them from the group of persons that is subject to suit for intercepting oral, wire, or electronic communications.
Defendants also proffer another theory for the Court's consideration. They contend that the Act's consent exception relieves them from liability for any interception that might otherwise violate the terms of the statute. See 18 U.S.C. § 2511(2). Essentially, this exception relieves from liability one who intercepts a communication where one of the parties to that communication has consented to the interception. Defendants contend that the inmates impliedly consented to such interceptions because they had received notice upon entering Wyatt that conversations on the Inmate Telephone System might be monitored. If this contention proves true, Defendants have a complete defense to Plaintiffs claims.
The Act defines "[i]nvestigative or law enforcement officer" to be "any officer of the United States or of a State or political subdivision thereof, who is empowered by law to conduct investigations of or to make arrests for offenses enumerated in this chapter." 18 U.S.C. § 2510(7) (emphasis added). Plaintiffs argue that Defendants do not meet the definition of investigative or law enforcement officers under § 2510(7); Defendants argue that they are included in that definition because Wyatt is owned and supervised by the city of Central Falls through the CFDFC.
This matter presents a question of statutory construction. In Estate of Cowart v. Nicklos Drilling Co., 505 U.S. 469, 475, 112 S.Ct. 2589, 120 L.Ed.2d 379 (1992), the Supreme Court of the United States admonished that in statutory construction cases, "the beginning point must be the language of the statute, and when a statute speaks with clarity to an issue judicial inquiry into the statute's meaning, in all but the most extraordinary circumstance, is finished." Moreover, courts should construe a statute's language consistent with its clear and...
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