Jama v. U.S. I.N.S.

• Decision Date: 28 September 2004
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 98-1282(DRD).,Civ. No. 97-3093(DRD).
• Citation: 334 F.Supp.2d 662
• Parties: Hawa Abdi JAMA, et al., Plaintiffs, v. UNITED STATES IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION SERVICE, et al., Defendants. Samson Brown, et al., Plaintiff, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, v. Esmor Correctional Services, Inc., et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of New Jersey

334 F.Supp.2d 662

Hawa Abdi JAMA, et al., Plaintiffs, v. UNITED STATES IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION SERVICE, et al., Defendants.

Samson Brown, et al., Plaintiff, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, v. Esmor Correctional Services, Inc., et al., Defendants.

Civ. No. 97-3093(DRD).

Civ. No. 98-1282(DRD).

United States District Court, D. New Jersey.

September 9, 2004.

As Amended September 28, 2004.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Frank Askin, Esq., Penny M. Venetis, Esq., Rutgers Constitutional Litigation Clinic, Rutgers Law School, Newark, NJ, Sean Mack, Esq., Debevoise & Plimpton, New York City, for Plaintiffs, Hawa Abdi Jama et al.

Bruce J. Ressler, Esq., Ellen R. Werther, Esq., Ressler & Ressler, New York City, for Plaintiffs, Samson Brown et al.

Steven D. Weinstein, Esq., J. Llewellyn Mathews, Esq., Blank Rome LLP, Cherry Hill, NJ, Larry S. Reich, Esq., Blank Rome LLP, New York City, Frank R. Volpe, Esq., Ryan D. Nelson, Esq., Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, LLP, Washington, DC, for Defendants Esmor Correctional Services, Inc.; James F. Slattery; John Lima; Richard Staley; Aaron Speisman.

Edward R. Murphy. Esq., Elizabeth Dalberth, Esq., Murphy and O'Connor, Cherry Hill, NJ, Marvin C. Moos, Ebanks, Smith & Carlson, L.L.P., Houston, TX, for Defendants Michael D. Rozos, Earline Boyer, Alan Friess, Norman Uzzle, and David McLean.

E. Carr Cornog, Esq., Rotolo > Midlige, Lebanon, NJ, for Defendants Willie O. Hunter and Michael Jackson.

Gloria Cherry, Esq., Braff, Harris & Sukoneck, Livingston, NJ, for Defendants Tommie Lee Brown, Robert Snead, Okay Nkenke, Phillip Johnson, and Kevin Brodie.

Jeffrey M. Kadish, Esq., Morgan, Melhuish, Monaghan, Arvidson, Abrutyn & Lisowski, Livingston, NJ, for Defendants Dorian Hunter, Michael Melendez, James Stratford, and Corey Stratford.

Gerald D. Siegel, Esq., Vidya Prasad, Esq., Siegel & Siegel, P.C., Plainsboro, NJ, for Defendant Irving Brown.

John B. Livelli, Esq., Robinson & Livelli, Newark, NJ, for Defendant Willard Stovall.

OPINION

DEBEVOISE, Senior District Judge.

Pending before the Court are numerous defense motions for summary judgment and for related relief in two actions instituted by undocumented aliens who were detained at a facility that the Immigration and Naturalization Service ("INS") maintained in Elizabeth, New Jersey pending a determination of their asylum status. Esmor Correctional Services, Inc. (now Correctional Services Corporation) ("Esmor") operated the facility under contract with the INS.

The first action, Brown v. Esmor Correctional Services, Inc., et al., Civil No. 98-1282, is a class action that was filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York on or about March 6, 1996. Defendants in the case removed it to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on April 10, 1996 based upon diversity and federal question jurisdiction. On March 11, 1998 that court transferred the action to this Court.

The second action is Jama v. United States Immigration and Natural Service, et al., Civil Action No. 97-3093, filed in this Court on September 23, 1997. In a first amended complaint twenty individual Plaintiffs named as Defendants the INS, Esmor, forty-four named individuals and John and Jane Does 1-50.¹

The following opinion directly addresses Defendant Esmor's motion for summary judgment in Brown. It also addresses some but not all of the pending motions in Jama, including defense motions to dismiss for failure to prosecute and a motion by a group of professors of international law to file a brief as amicus curiae. Because, as the following discussions detail, Jama is a far more complicated case than Brown, the summary judgment motions by Defendants in Jama will be addressed at a later date.

BACKGROUND

A. Procedural Background

The Plaintiffs in the Brown and Jama actions are foreign nationals and refugees who sought political asylum in the United States. They were taken into custody by the INS and incarcerated at the facility that Esmor operated in Elizabeth (the "Facility"). Esmor manages and operates for-profit corrections and detention facilities for federal, state and local corrections and other agencies.

The Facility was in operation from approximately August 1994 to July 1995. On June 18, 1995 the detainees rioted, and the Facility was shut down shortly thereafter. The detainees were transferred elsewhere in the United States or were deported.

In both the Brown and Jama actions the Plaintiffs allege that while they were detainees at the Facility they were tortured, beaten, harassed, and otherwise mistreated by Esmor guards, and that they were subjected to abysmal living conditions including inadequate sanitation, exercise, and medical treatment. A summary of the legal claims and of the procedural history of each case follows.

1. The Brown Action

The Brown action as it now stands is a model of simplicity. It names a number of class Plaintiffs (reduced in number since the original complaint was filed) who sue on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated. On April 24, 1998 the Court certified a class — namely, all detainees who were incarcerated at the Facility during its operation from August 1994 to July 1995.

In the Brown action Plaintiffs named as defendants not only Esmor but also certain affiliated corporations and two of Esmor's officers, James Slattery and Aaron Speisman. The Amended Complaint filed June 19, 1998 alleged seven causes of action: (i) Esmor negligently failed to properly screen, hire, train and otherwise manage its employees; (ii) Esmor knowingly, recklessly and intentionally failed to properly screen, hire, train and otherwise manage its employees; (iii) Esmor's employees, acting within the scope of their employment, negligently caused Plaintiffs' injuries, rendering Esmor liable; (iv) Esmor's employees, acting within the scope of their employment, maliciously, recklessly and intentionally caused Plaintiffs' injuries, rendering Esmor liable; (v) Plaintiffs are the intended beneficiaries of the contract between the INS and Esmor, and Plaintiffs' injuries were caused by Esmor's breach of that contract; (vi) all the Defendants, acting under color of federal law, violated Plaintiffs' rights protected by the First, Fourth, Fifth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution, 8 U.S.C. § 1362, and/or other federal law; and vii) Defendants Slattery and Speisman had knowledge of, supervised and participated in and acquiesced in the wrongful acts and are personally liable to Plaintiffs.

Discovery proceeded. By order dated October 27, 2003 the claims against all the corporate entities other than Esmor, the claims against James Slattery and Aaron Spiesman as well as Count 7 were dismissed with prejudice. Thus Esmor is the sole remaining Defendant in the Brown action.

In view of the Supreme Court decision in Correctional Services Corporation v. Malesko, 534 U.S. 61, 122 S.Ct. 515, 151 L.Ed.2d 456 (2001), which was decided after the Brown action was commenced, the Plaintiff class has acknowledged that its claims against Esmor arising under the United States Constitution are no longer viable. Further, the Plaintiff class has determined on the basis of developments in the law since commencement of the action to withdraw the claims based upon 8 U.S.C. § 1362.

As a result of these developments four claims remain in the Brown action: (i) a claim based on Esmor's knowing, reckless, and intentional failure to properly screen, hire, train, and supervise its employees; (ii) a claim based on Esmor's negligent hiring, training and supervision of the Esmor guards; (iii) a claim of Esmor's respondeat superior liability for the negligent and/or intentional acts of the Esmor guards whom it employed; and (iv) the claim of the Plaintiff class members against Esmor as third-party beneficiaries of the Esmor contract with the INS for damages suffered as a result of Esmor's breach of that contract. These are all state law claims.

2. The Jama Action

The Jama action presents a very different picture; it is the ultimate in complexity. The Complaint was filed in this Court on September 23, 1997.

The Defendants fall into various categories: (i) Esmor, (ii) Esmor officers ("Esmor Officers"), (iii) Esmor Guards ("Esmor Guards"), (iv) the INS and (v) INS officials ("INS Officials").

In the Jama action Plaintiffs asserted numerous claims against each of these categories of defendants. Counts 68-84 accused the Esmor Guards of violations of the First, Fifth, and Thirteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, numerous provisions of the New Jersey Constitution, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ("ICCPR"), customary international law, the Alien Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1350 ("ATCA"), the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000 bb, et seq. ("RFRA"), the Fair Labor Standards Act, and New Jersey law. With the exception of counts 80 (failure to compensate employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act) and 83 (failure to ensure the safety of Plaintiffs' confiscated property under New Jersey law), all these counts asserted active violations of detainees' rights by the guards themselves.

In counts 50-67 the Jama Plaintiffs made corresponding allegations against the Esmor Officers — predicating the officers' liability for the actions of the guards on "failing to curb" the pattern of abuse, or "deliberate indifference," and, in the case of the New Jersey tort law claims, on theories of respondeat superior and of negligent hiring, training, and supervision.

The claims against Esmor as a corporation (counts 31-49) were equivalent to those against the Esmor Officers, with the addition of a breach of contract claim (count 33) alleging that the Jama Plaintiffs were third-party beneficiaries of Esmor's contract with the INS and that they were harmed by Esmor's breach of that contract. The language of count 37 was a little different...