Jackson v. Carey

• Decision Date: 24 December 2003
• Docket Number: No. 01-17126.,01-17126.
• Citation: 353 F.3d 750
• Parties: Charles R. JACKSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Tom L. CAREY; R. Papac, Lt.; J. Marshall; A. Davis; E. Padilla; Burton; R. Lieberman, Doctor, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

353 F.3d 750

Charles R. JACKSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Tom L. CAREY; R. Papac, Lt.; J. Marshall; A. Davis; E. Padilla; Burton; R. Lieberman, Doctor, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 01-17126.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted October 9, 2003 — San Francisco, California.

Filed December 24, 2003.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Gail Johnson (argued) and Daniel H. Bookin, O'Melveny & Myers LLP, San Francisco, California, for the plaintiff-appellant.

Song Hill, Deputy Attorney General (argued), Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Paul D. Gifford, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Allen R. Crown, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, San Francisco, California, for the defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, Anthony W. Ishii, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-98-05723-AWI(LJO).

Before Harry PREGERSON, C. Arlen BEAM,^* and Richard A. PAEZ, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

BEAM, Circuit Judge.

Inmate Charles Jackson filed a complaint in federal district court, claiming that defendants Carey, Papac, Marshall, Davis, and Padilla (collectively "the prison officials") violated his constitutional rights when they allowed his transfer to Corcoran-Security Housing Unit (Corcoran-SHU) after his successful appeal, which ordered the reissue and rehearing of the rule violation report at issue in this case. Jackson appeals the district court's dismissal of his second amended complaint for failure to state a claim. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6).

Construing Jackson's pro se pleadings liberally, as we must, we find that Jackson alleges facts that, if true, entitle him to relief. Thompson v. Davis, 295 F.3d 890, 895 (9th Cir.2002), cert. denied, 538 U.S. 921, 123 S.Ct. 1570, 155 L.Ed.2d 311 (2003). We therefore reverse, in part, the district court order. Because we reverse the district court's dismissal of Jackson's complaint, we also reverse the court's dismissal of Jackson's claims against the prison officials in their individual capacities and remand the issue of qualified immunity to the district court. We affirm the district court's dismissal of the claims against the prison officials in their official capacities.

I. BACKGROUND

We recite and evaluate the facts as Jackson alleged them in his second amended complaint. Id. ("The district court's dismissal of the complaint under Rule 12(b)(6) is reviewed de novo ... [and a]ll allegations of material fact are taken as true and construed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party.").

On December 16, 1997, prison officials removed Jackson from the general population at the California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi (CCI-Tehachapi) and placed him in administrative segregation pending a disciplinary hearing to address a rule violation report issued by prison personnel. The rule violation report alleged that Jackson had committed a battery by pushing a doctor's hand away as the doctor attempted to place a stethoscope on Jackson's chest. Lieutenant Papac conducted a disciplinary hearing concerning that report on January 20, 1998. Papac did not allow Jackson to call witnesses at the hearing and found Jackson guilty of the rule violation, referring his finding of guilt to the Classification Committee for review.

On February 15, 1998, Jackson filed an inmate appeal challenging the finding. On February 24, 1998, before Jackson's appeal was heard, Marshall, a member of the Classification Committee, met with Jackson and recommended to the Committee that Jackson be assessed a one-year Security Housing Unit (SHU) term. The Committee adopted Marshall's recommendation. Jackson was not transferred to Corcoran-SHU at that time, however, and remained in administrative segregation.

On March 14, 1998, Lieutenant Canady interviewed Jackson regarding his appeal. As a result of that interview, an Appeal Response issued, granting Jackson's appeal and ordering that the December 16 rule violation report be "reissued and reheard." The Appeal Response stated that if Papac "denied reasonable requests [to present evidence] he prejudiced [Jackson's] defense." Associate Warden T.E. Vaughn signed the Appeal Response on March 31, 1998, and Chief Deputy Warden W.J. Sullivan signed it on April 1, 1998.

Also on April 1, 1998, Officer Schroder, a staff member in administrative segregation where Jackson was housed, informed Jackson that Jackson's name was on a transfer list to Corcoran-SHU. Because the Appeal Response vacated the transfer order, Jackson asked Schroder to call Marshall to see why the transfer had not been cancelled. Marshall told Schroder that Jackson would not be transferred but Marshall never acted to stop the transfer.

Jackson then tried to stop the transfer by filing another inmate appeal on April 1, 1998, addressing it directly to Warden Carey. Padilla, a prison appeals coordinator, responded to this appeal on April 28, 1998, requesting more documentation, but prison officials had already transferred Jackson to Corcoran-SHU on April 8, 1998.

According to California Department of Corrections Operations Manual § 54100.18.3, attached as an exhibit to Jackson's complaint, "[a] decision to order the rehearing of a disciplinary charge acts to void all prior dispositions concerning the CDC Form 115 being appealed." Thus, Jackson alleges that as of April 1, 1998, the date the Appeal Response was signed, the Classification Committee's assessment of a one-year term at Corcoran-SHU was void and Jackson should not have been transferred. Jackson also argues that according to the California prison regulations, for those inmates not already incarcerated in the SHU, a determinate period of SHU confinement is available only for inmates found guilty of a serious offense specifically listed in the regulations. At the time of Jackson's transfer he had not been found guilty of the December 16 rule violation report because a rehearing had been ordered.

Jackson further alleges that neither Marshall nor Padilla took the required steps to stop the illegal transfer to Corcoran-SHU. Additionally, on April 6, 1998, two days before his transfer, Davis interviewed Jackson regarding an unrelated appeal. During that interview, Jackson raised concerns about the pending transfer but Davis refused to address that concern, as it was not the topic of that scheduled interview.

On April 8, 1998, the date of Jackson's transfer, Davis explained that the transfer was taking place because the prison needed room and the rule violation report was not ready for reissue. Davis stated that once the reissue was ready it would be sent to Corcoran-SHU where it would be reheard. As a result of Davis's involvement, Jackson alleges that Davis knowingly allowed the illegal transfer.

Jackson's rule violation report was not reissued at Corcoran-SHU during the five months Jackson spent there. In fact, Jackson was transferred back to administrative segregation on September 8, 1998 (five months after his transfer and eight days before his Corcoran-SHU term was to expire) and the rule violation report was reissued upon his arrival. But, the rule violation report was never reheard and was dismissed entirely on September 17, 1998.

Jackson claims that the prison officials transferred him to Corcoran-SHU for punitive reasons and that the transfer disrupted his prison life and privileges, causing him significant hardships. For example, Jackson's federal habeas petition was dismissed because he lost legal materials and he suffered instability as a result of the improper transfer. Several of his personal items were confiscated or damaged while in Corcoran-SHU, he was denied medical treatment, suffered discrimination and harassment, and was unable to visit with friends and family. Jackson alleges that such acts and losses violated his due process rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 as well as his liberty interests guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.

Adopting the magistrate judge's report and recommendation, the district court dismissed Jackson's second amended complaint under Rule 12(b)(6) for failure to make a threshold showing that a federal liberty interest was implicated under Sandin v. Conner, 515 U.S. 472, 115 S.Ct. 2293, 132 L.Ed.2d 418 (1995). The district court also dismissed Jackson's claims against the prison officials in their official capacities, dismissed Jackson's claim for emotional distress under 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(e) because he failed to allege a physical injury, and held that because the prison officials' conduct did not violate a constitutional right no further inquiry was required under the qualified immunity analysis.

II. DISCUSSION

We review Rule 12(b)(6) dismissals de novo. The "complaint should not be dismissed unless it appears beyond doubt that [Jackson] can prove no set of facts in support of the claim that would entitle [Jackson] to relief." Thompson, 295 F.3d at 895. "The issue is not whether a plaintiff will ultimately prevail but whether the claimant is entitled to offer evidence to support the claims. Indeed it may appear on the face of the pleadings that a recovery is very remote and unlikely but that is not the test." Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. 232, 236, 94 S.Ct. 1683, 40 L.Ed.2d 90 (1974).

A. Dismissal of Jackson's Second Amended Complaint

"It is well-established that'[t]he requirements of procedural due process apply only to the deprivation of interests encompassed by the Fourteenth Amendment's protection of liberty and property.'" Burnsworth v. Gunderson, 179 F.3d 771, 774 (9th Cir.1999) (alteration in original) (quoting Bd. of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 569, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972)). "Under Sandin [v. Conner], a prisoner possesses a liberty interest under the federal constitution when a change occurs in confinement that imposes an `atypical and significant hardship ... in relation to the ordinary incidents of prison life.'" Resnick v. Hayes,...