Jemmott v. Coughlin
| Decision Date | 23 May 1996 |
| Docket Number | D,No. 540,540 |
| Parties | 70 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1745 David JEMMOTT, Jr., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Thomas COUGHLIN, as Commissioner of the New York State Department of Correctional Services; Joseph W. Kennedy, Individually and as Superintendent of the Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility; James Murphy, Individually and as Captain at Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility; Thomas Carpenter, Individually and as Lieutenant at Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility; Felix Perry, Individually and as Sergeant at Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility; William Schnorr, Individually and as Lieutenant at Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility; Richard Windel, Individually and as Lieutenant at Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility; Richard Little, Individually and as a Correction Officer at Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility; and Clyde Sanbourne, Individually and as Sergeant at Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility, Defendants-Appellants. ocket 95-7235. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Daniel Smirlock, Assistant Attorney General, Albany, NY (Dennis C. Vacco, Attorney General of the State of New York, Peter H. Schiff, Deputy Solicitor General, Nancy A. Spiegel, Assistant Attorney General, Albany, NY, of counsel), for Defendants-Appellants.
Lanny E. Walter, Albany, NY (Walter, Thayer, & Mishler, P.C., Albany, NY, of counsel), for Plaintiff-Appellee.
Before: VAN GRAAFEILAND, JACOBS and PARKER, Circuit Judges.
Defendants-appellants challenge a decision of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York, Thomas J. McAvoy, Judge, denying their motion for summary judgment. Plaintiff-appellee alleges that defendants subjected him to severe harassment on the job because of their animosity towards him as an African-American Correction Officer, in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1) ("Title VII"), and 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1983. The individual defendants ask this court to reverse the district court's denial of qualified immunity on the § 1983 claim. Because we find that, if proven, defendants' alleged conduct violated Jemmott's clearly established rights, and that it was not objectively reasonable for the defendants to believe otherwise, we affirm the order of the district court denying their motion for summary judgment.
Plaintiff David Jemmott is a Correction Officer at Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility in Saratoga County, New York. Mt. McGregor is a medium/minimum security prison that employs approximately 280 security officers. Of these 280 officers, two, including Jemmott, are African-American.
Jemmott commenced the present action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York on May 27, 1993. His complaint, as later amended, alleged that defendants had discriminated against him on the basis of his race in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1) ("Title VII"), 42 U.S.C. § 1981, and 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The complaint named as defendants nine employees of the New York State Department of Correctional Services ("DOCS"): Thomas Coughlin, DOCS Commissioner; Joseph W. Kennedy, Superintendent of Mt McGregor; James Murphy, Captain at Mt. McGregor; Thomas Carpenter, William Schnorr, and Richard Windel, Lieutenants at Mt. McGregor; Felix Perry and Clyde Sanbourne, Sergeants at Mt. McGregor; and Richard Little, Correction Officer at Mt. McGregor. All of the defendants are white, and all but Coughlin were sued in their individual as well as their official capacities. 1 Superintendent Kennedy and Captain Murphy have supervisory authority over Jemmott, and over the remaining defendants.
In support of his claim of racial discrimination, Jemmott's complaint describes incidents of harassment dating as far back as 1983. Incidents occurring prior to 1991, included in the complaint under the heading "Background Information," were not considered by the district court in denying the defendants' request for qualified immunity. 2 For the purpose of this appeal, we also confine our analysis to the harassing conduct alleged to have occurred in 1991. The eight incidents attributed to the defendants are described below.
In January 1991, Sergeant Perry accused Jemmott of failing to repossess civilian clothing that had been loaned to two prisoners for their work release. Prison officials subsequently discovered that Jemmott could not have been responsible for this security breach because he had not been working on the day it occurred. Jemmott alleges that Perry levelled this false accusation purposefully and knowingly in order to get Jemmott fired because Jemmott is an African-American who "will not ignore the racial bigotry that pervades Mt. McGregor." Captain Schnorr allegedly assisted Perry in making this false claim. Jemmott reported his suspicions to Superintendent Kennedy, who, to the best of Jemmott's knowledge, took no action.
During that same month, Sergeant Perry "arbitrarily" refused to give Jemmott keys to a storage area that he needed to do his job. Perry then referred to Jemmott as a "nigger." Jemmott reported this behavior to Superintendent Kennedy, who did not reprimand Perry. When Jemmott complained to Superintendent Kennedy, he referred the complaint to the Affirmative Action Office, but took no further action.
In March of 1991, Jemmott was again accused of allowing an inmate to keep civilian clothing in his cell, this time by Lieutenant Carpenter. The clothing, which the inmate had worn to court on December 28, was discovered in his cell on March 27. Jemmott admits that he worked on December 28, but claims that he took custody of the civilian clothes and returned them to the State shop as he was required to do. He alleges that Lieutenant Carpenter, at the direction of Captain Murphy and with the cooperation of Superintendent Kennedy and Lieutenant Schnorr, planted the clothing in the prisoner's cell in order to cause Jemmott to be fired or to resign. In support of this claim, Jemmott points out that the prisoner's cell had been searched twice between December 28 and March 27. No civilian clothing had been found. In addition, the clothing was not held as contraband as Department regulations require, but was returned to storage and mixed with the rest of the civilian clothing wardrobe.
In May of that same year, Jemmott requested and was granted a shift change. With his change in shifts came a change in his regular days off. Although he arranged the shift change, Lieutenant Windel did not inform Jemmott of his new days off. Jemmott asked Correction Officer Little, the "responsible person," when he was scheduled to be off. Little told him May 27 and 28, and Jemmott did not appear for work on these days. He subsequently learned that his actual days off were May 27, June 1 and June 2. Jemmott was accused of being absent without authorization on May 28, and was denied one day's pay. He claims that Windel and Little conspired to cause him lost wages and aggravation because of their bias toward him as an African-American Correction Officer.
On June 11, Sergeant Perry was in charge of correction officer assignments. According to prison procedure, he was to give the available correction officers a choice of assignment based on seniority. Even though Jemmott had the most seniority among the available officers, Perry assigned him to an undesirable post in the infirmary. A less senior officer was assigned to the job Jemmott preferred. When Jemmott complained, Perry replied: Jemmott brought this treatment, which he claims stemmed form Perry's bias towards an African-American Correction Officer, to the attention of Commissioner Coughlin and Superintendent Perry. To the best of plaintiff's knowledge, no action was taken against Perry.
In July, Superintendent Kennedy revoked Jemmott's right to carry a firearm while off-duty after a citizen complained that Jemmott had used his handgun in an improper manner. Jemmott disputes the particulars of the incident and claims that white officers are not denied this privilege under similar circumstances.
On August 27, Jemmott made a routine request for backup support from other guards while working in the infirmary. He registered his request with Sanbourne, who denied the assistance after consulting with Carpenter. Plaintiff believes that white officers are routinely given assistance in similar circumstances and that the incident was designed to remind him "who's in charge."
Finally, also on August 27, Captain Murphy ordered that Jemmott be searched in the infirmary, in front of prisoners, after having received a report that Jemmott was carrying a pager in violation of prison policy. Routine policy dictates that an officer should be taken into a private area before being searched. Nothing improper was found during the search.
In October 1991, Jemmott initiated formal action against the defendants by filing a complaint with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission ("EEOC"). After obtaining a right to sue letter on April 8, 1993, Jemmott filed suit in district court.
Based in part on a claim of qualified immunity, the defendants moved for summary judgment on October 28, 1994. Holding that Jemmott's colorable allegations of harassing conduct undertaken with discriminatory animus precluded a finding of qualified immunity, the district court denied the motion. 3 This appeal followed.
Ordinarily, the federal courts of appeals may exercise jurisdiction only over "final decisions" of the district courts. 28 U.S.C. § 1291. Thus, interlocutory appeal is generally not available from a denial of summary judgment. Rivera v. Senkowski, 62 F.3d 80, 83 (2d Cir.1995). However, under the "collateral order" doctrine, a pre-trial order, such as a denial of summary judgment, may be appealable if the decision falls within "that...
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