Jones v. Coughlin

• Decision Date: 30 June 1987
• Docket Number: No. 86 Civ. 9888 (RWS).,86 Civ. 9888 (RWS).
• Citation: 665 F. Supp. 1040
• Parties: Michael JONES, Plaintiff, v. Thomas A. COUGHLIN, III, Commissioner, Department of Correctional Services, State of New York, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

665 F. Supp. 1040

Michael JONES, Plaintiff, v. Thomas A. COUGHLIN, III, Commissioner, Department of Correctional Services, State of New York, et al., Defendants.

No. 86 Civ. 9888 (RWS).

United States District Court, S.D. New York.

June 30, 1987.

The Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Firm, New York City, for plaintiff; Bonnie Reid Berkow, Betsy C. Manifold, of counsel.

Robert Abrams, Atty. Gen. of State of N.Y., New York City, for defendants; Douglas D. Aronin, Asst. Atty. Gen., of counsel.

SWEET, District Judge.

In this action to recover compensatory and punitive damages for injuries incurred as a result of violations of Jones' civil and constitutional rights, all defendants but Rivenburgh and Farrell move to dismiss the complaint pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6).¹

For the reasons set forth below, defendant's motion is granted in part and denied in part. With respect to those claims or parts of claims outside the applicable three-year statute of limitations, the motion is granted. Also, with respect to defendant Parole Board members Dean, Buchanan, and McNiff, the motion is granted. In all other respects, defendant's motion to dismiss is denied.

Facts

Plaintiff Michael Jones ("Jones"), a black male, brought this action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1988 and the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution against various administration officials, officers, and personnel of the New York State Department of Correctional Services ("DOCS") and the New York State Division of Parole ("Parole"). For the purposes of this motion, the facts as stated in the complaint must be taken as true. They are, in pertinent part, as follows.

Jones was incarcerated at Green Haven Correctional Facility ("Green Haven") between April, 1981 and May, 1984, and at Downstate Correctional Facility ("Downstate") from May, 1984 until his release on parole in July, 1985. While in prison, Jones studied law and became an activist for inmates' rights, working as an assistant in the prison law library, teaching a legal research class, and filing numerous grievances on behalf of himself and other inmates complaining of various due process violations.

In 1981, Jones became involved in an incident which led to his bringing a federal action against various Green Haven/DOCS personnel, in which he alleged violations of his civil and constitutional rights. The case went to trial in May, 1985, and the Honorable Kevin T. Duffy decided in Jones' favor, awarding him not only compensatory but also punitive damages.

This action stems from Jones' experience in the case before Judge Duffy. Jones alleges that DOCS employees retaliated and conspired to retaliate against him in order to harass him into dropping his lawsuit, and that such retaliation is part of de facto DOCS policy of punishing black and activist prisoners. Specifically, Jones has alleged the following actions as part of the retaliatory conspiracy.

On May 9, 1982, Jones was written up on a misbehavior report. According to Jones, the report used outdated code numbers only, with no other description of what Jones had done. He alleges that he received no meaningful notice of his offense, and that a hearing officer on the committee convened to rule on the charges was unfairly biased against him because she was at that time a defendant in the federal action before Judge Duffy. The officer refused to allow Jones to call witnesses in his behalf and he had no opportunity to face his accuser; Jones withstood two searches in connection with the hearing, the second of which he says was not standard but conducted to harass him. The hearing officer found Jones guilty and as a result he suffered five days "keep-lock" in his cell. Jones never received a copy of evidence used to find him guilty and in an attempt to have it reviewed never gained more than a perfunctory concurrence in the decision given.

On May 27, 1982, Jones was removed from the list of those eligible for new visiting room privileges for an unprecedented six months, ostensibly as a result of the described disciplinary action in combination with another keep-lock punishment, which Judge Duffy ultimately found to be a violation of Jones' due process rights. After a long, drawn-out attempt by Jones to acquire information on new visiting room guidelines and procedures (begun with a request dated June 29, 1982, on August 5, 1982), Jones received notice that no such guidelines yet existed. His grievances with regard to the matter were denied at the facility level, but the Green Haven administration ignored a Central Office Review Committee decision dated September 16, 1981 that abolished any policy allowing the new visiting room committee to remove inmate privileges.

Green Haven officials consistently denied all grievances which Jones filed over the course of his three years at the facility regarding the prison law library. Jones' grievances included denial of access to the library, insufficient assistance to inmates, delays in photocopying materials, lack of an on-going legal research class, lack of regular notary services, and hampering of communications between inmate legal assistants and inmates requiring aid with legal matters.

On September 8, 1983 Jones was confined in his cell in keep-lock status on the basis of charges that were later dismissed as false. Jones, however, had remained locked in his cell for five days before the dismissal. Jones began harassment proceedings as a result of the incident, which were dismissed.

On or about May 1, 1984, upon Jones' transfer to Downstate, approximately $100 worth of his property was confiscated. Also upon transfer to Downstate, Jones received assignment to pot washing, despite prior assurances of assignment to a law clerk position. Other alleged harassing, intimidating, and retaliatory activity included bringing Jones before an Adjustment Committee more than twenty-four hours after the alleged infraction in violation of mandated procedures, allowing an untrained official to function as a hearing officer who then withdrew Jones' commissary and package privileges for thirty days, simultaneously refusing Jones access to stamps in his personal property thus interfering with his legal correspondence.

After Jones became eligible for work release in November, 1983, he applied for and received Temporary Release Committee approval for furlough and work release on December 22, 1983. Green Haven's superintendent vetoed the approval and DOCS' commissioner concurred in the veto. A second application submitted on or about May 13, 1984 for furlough and work release was denied, with instructions to reapply after September 1, 1984. Jones' third application of September 4, 1984 was again denied with instructions to reapply after his next parole board appearance. Given that the parole board had met on September 5, 1984, Jones, in effect, could not reapply for temporary release until September, 1985. Jones had appeared before the parole board on September 5, 1984 and had his application denied in spite of his being in excess of the eligibility range of 40-50 months (Jones had served 70 months as of September, 1984), his good institutional educational record and letters of reference, and his employment offers. The decision also made reference to non-existent alcohol therapy. Jones' appeals and grievances requesting investigation yielded non-conclusive results; the hearing committee consisted of the very officers complained of, and Jones declined the hearing. Jones obtained work release in January, 1985 and parole on July 31, 1985.

According to Jones, these acts are manifestations of the prison personnel's retaliation against him for seeking to vindicate his rights in court, and that as a result of the acts detailed, he has suffered deprivations of liberty, property and privileges, was falsely arrested and illegally detained, was denied access to the courts, and denied counsel. Jones also says that these acts infringed his right to fair and impartial hearings, imposed cruel and unusual punishment, denied him equal protection of the laws, and caused grievous mental suffering.

Discussion

I. Statute of Limitations

The defendants maintain that many of the acts of which Jones complains fall outside the statute of limitations. Jones, however, argues that because some of the acts that he has alleged fall inside the statute of limitations, all the rest are properly allowed.

In Okure v. Owens, 816 F.2d 45, 49 (2d Cir.1987), the Second Circuit held that the single New York statute most analogous to the broad range of possible 1983 claims is N.Y.C.P.L.R. 214(5), which provides a three-year statute of limitations for general personal injuries sounding in tort. The state has not maintained that a different statute of limitations applies to 42 U.S.C. § 1985 actions so the three-year limit will be applied to those claims as well. This result is reinforced by the common purpose and close relationship between the two sections. Congress enacted the precursor of § 1983 on April 20, 1871 as the Civil Rights Act of 1871, 17 Stat. 13, the "Ku Klux Klan Act." As initially submitted, the bill contained two parts — the first of which constituted what is in effect today 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and the second of which composed substantially what is now § 1985. Although the parts evolved into separate sections, their common origin indicates the close relationship of both their purposes and the federal concerns which inspired them.

As the Second Circuit noted in Okure, "the Supreme Court instructs us to look beyond the nature of the section 1983 claim to the federal interest in ensuring that the borrowed period of limitations not discriminate against the federal claim." 816 F.2d at 48. Victims of civil rights violations deserve adequate time "to reflect and probe" matters which may not be immediately recognizable as valid federal claims. Id. at 49. Thus, as the Okure Court concludes, ...