Jones v. Coughlin
| Citation | 45 F.3d 677 |
| Decision Date | 23 January 1995 |
| Docket Number | D,No. 727,727 |
| Parties | Darnell JONES, also known as Lamont Miller, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Thomas A. COUGHLIN, Donald Selsky, Harry Durgan, Shane Muller, B. Armitage, John Mockry, and Daniel Senkowski, Defendants-Appellees. ocket 93-2625. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Mark D. Kotwick, New York City (Michael J. McNamara, Seward & Kissel, New York City, on the brief), for plaintiff-appellant.
Troy Oechsner, Asst. Atty. Gen. of the State of N.Y., Albany, NY , for defendants-appellees.
Before: KEARSE, McLAUGHLIN, and PARKER, Circuit Judges.
Plaintiff Darnell Jones, formerly a prisoner at the New York State ("State") Clinton Correctional Facility ("Clinton"), appeals from a final judgment of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York, Neal P. McCurn, Judge, dismissing his complaint filed under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 (1988) for damages in connection with his service of 120 days in punitive segregation at Clinton as a result of misconduct charges against him that were eventually dismissed. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of all defendants. Jones contends, in part on the basis of decisions of this Court filed after the district court's decision, that his claims against defendants Donald Selsky, Harry Durgan, Shane Muller, B. Armitage, and John Mockry were improperly dismissed. For the reasons that follow, we agree, and we vacate the judgment as to those defendants and remand for further proceedings.
According to the complaint and other submissions by Jones, on May 13, 1991, Jones filed a formal administrative complaint against Clinton correction officer R. Lavarnway for confiscating and destroying Jones's property; Jones asked that Lavarnway be disciplined. Armitage, Lavarnway's supervisor, allegedly threatened to retaliate against Jones on account of Jones's complaint. In mid-June, corrections officers Durgan and Muller, under the supervision of Armitage, searched the cells of Jones and the inmates housed on either side of him, Mario Wilder and J. Ward. Muller found a sharpened metal rod in Ward's cell, but Durgan, Muller, and Armitage conspired to state that it had been found in the cell of Jones. Durgan and Muller proceeded to file a false misbehavior report against Jones.
A disciplinary hearing was convened; Mockry was the presiding hearing officer. Jones pleaded not guilty and asked to call Wilder and Ward as witnesses; Ward was to testify that Armitage told him the weapon had been found in Ward's cell, and Wilder was to corroborate that the weapon had not been found in Jones's cell. Mockry refused to allow these witnesses to be called, and on June 25, he found Jones guilty on the weapon-possession charge. Jones was sentenced to 120 days' confinement in the special housing unit ("SHU") and the loss of four months' "good time."
Jones promptly appealed Mockry's decision to Selsky, the Department of Corrections official who was responsible for reviewing decisions of hearing officers. In August 1991, Selsky affirmed Mockry's decision. In late 1991, a legal assistant from Prisoners' Legal Services wrote Selsky, detailing procedural defects in, inter alia, the hearing conducted by Mockry and requesting reconsideration of Jones's appeal. On December 13, 1991, Selsky reversed his earlier decision and expunged the matter from Jones's record. Jones had completed serving his 120-day confinement in SHU on October 14.
Jones, then proceeding pro se, commenced the present action in 1992, seeking damages from, inter alios, Durgan, Muller, and Armitage for conspiring to file the false misbehavior report, Mockry for violating Jones's due process rights at the hearing, and Selsky for failing to reverse Mockry's decision upon Jones's initial appeal. Defendants moved to dismiss pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1) and (6); the court, after notifying the parties, converted the motion to one for summary judgment. Adopting the July 8, 1993 Report Recommendation of Magistrate Judge Gustave J. DiBianco ("Magistrate's Report"), to whom the matter had been referred, the district court granted summary judgment in favor of all defendants. To the extent pertinent here, the court ruled that the alleged due process defects in Mockry's conduct of the hearing were cured by Selsky's eventual reversal; that Selsky was absolutely immune from a suit for damages; and that the claim against Durgan, Muller, and Armitage for filing a false misbehavior report failed to state a claim on which relief can be granted. This appeal followed.
Subsequent to the district court's decision, this Court handed down its decision in Walker v. Bates, 23 F.3d 652 (2d Cir.1994) ("Walker "), petition for cert. filed, 63 U.S.L.W. 3092 (U.S. July 25, 1994), holding that if a prisoner was placed in punitive confinement as a result of a procedurally defective hearing, his eventual success in an administrative appeal does not bar his claim under Sec. 1983 for damages resulting from that confinement. Also subsequent to the district court's decision, this Court decided Young v. Selsky, 41 F.3d 47 (2d Cir.1994) ("Young "), ruling that Selsky, as an appellate hearing officer, was not entitled to absolute immunity, though he may be entitled to qualified immunity.
The State concedes that Walker is controlling with respect to Jones's claim against Mockry and that Young is controlling with respect to Jones's claim against Selsky, but it asks that we hold this appeal in abeyance pending decisions by the Supreme Court on the certiorari petition filed in Walker and a petition that the State anticipates filing in Young. We decline to do so. A decision of a panel of this...
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