Kincaid v. Vail

• Decision Date: 06 August 1992
• Docket Number: No. 90-3510,90-3510
• Citation: 969 F.2d 594
• Parties: Darrell KINCAID and Donald R. Sceifers, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Kendall I. VAIL, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 594

969 F.2d 594

Darrell KINCAID and Donald R. Sceifers, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Kendall I. VAIL, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 90-3510.

United States Court of Appeals,

Seventh Circuit.

Argued Jan. 10, 1992.

Decided Aug. 6, 1992.

Roslyn C. Lieb, Chicago Lawyers' Committee, James C. Schroeder (argued), Mayer, Brown & Platt, Chicago, for plaintiffs-appellants.

Shaw R. Friedman (argued), Bokland, Yandt & Friedman, LaPorte, Ind., for defendant-appellee.

Before BAUER, Chief Judge, and CUMMINGS and RIPPLE, Circuit Judges.

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge.

When Darrell Kincaid and Donald Sceifers, inmates at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, attempted to file a civil suit against Superintendent Jack R. Duckworth in the LaPorte Superior Court, the court clerks refused their filings, first on the ground that the fee they sent was not the required amount, and then on the ground that the suit belonged in the small claims court. Mr. Kincaid and Mr. Sceifers subsequently brought an action in federal court under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that, by refusing to file their complaint, the clerks had deprived them of their constitutional right of access to the courts. They named as defendant Kendall I. Vail, the Clerk of the LaPorte Circuit Court. The district court granted summary judgment to the defendant, and we affirm.

I BACKGROUND

A. Facts

Darryl Kincaid and Donald Sceifers are inmates in the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. The two wished to sue Jack R. Duckworth, then superintendent of the prison, for reimbursement from the prison recreation fund of tuition and fees paid for correspondence courses they took through Indiana State University. According to their complaint in the district court, they first sent a check for filing fees, a cover letter, and a complaint to the LaPorte Superior Court No. 1 on March 14, 1983. Their check for $23 was returned to them with a letter, dated March 29, stating, "We are returning your check this date, as we do not have any filings or know what account you would like this to be placed." R.110. This letter bore the typed signature Kendall I. Vail, Clerk, LaPorte Superior Court.

The plaintiffs' next letter to the LaPorte Court is dated April 12, 1983. The plaintiffs sent it before receiving the clerk's letter of March 29, ¹ and in it they inquired whether Mr. Vail had gotten their complaint and check. The following response was typed on the bottom of the plaintiffs' April 12 letter and sent to them: "As of this date nothing has been filed in our office. The next Court date will be June the 23rd, 1983, 10:00 A.M." Tr. at 11. This response was dated April 14, 1983.

In May, further exchanges of letters took place. The next letter contained in the record, from the plaintiffs to the defendant, informs Mr. Vail that, although they believe that Indiana law requires them to pay only $13 if they mail the summons themselves, they are nonetheless sending $23. It also states that, under Indiana law, they are entitled to file "in ANY superior or circuit court in the State, or if desired (and we do not) in Small Claims Court." ² R.127. Typed in the bottom margin of this Mr. Kincaid and Mr. Sceifers then submitted their complaint for filing in small claims court. In their cover letter, they noted: "[W]e filed this in Small Claims Court under protest as such denies plaintiffs guarantee of jury trial in civil case as provided by Indiana constitution, Article 1 Section 20 and for other reasons which will not be raised in this proceeding." ⁴ The complaint was entered on the docket of the small claims court on June 28, 1983, and a hearing was scheduled for September 29, 1983. At the small claims court hearing, the plaintiffs "requested that [the case] be dismissed because we didn't think it had jurisdiction anyway." ⁵ Tr. at 27. The notation on the small claims docket sheet states that the "court finds it lacks jurisdiction. Cause dismissed."

                letter is the reply:  "Per our Court Rules, this must be filed in County Court Small Claims:  Superior Courts do not handle anything under $3,000.00."   Id.  The plaintiffs tried twice more to file in Superior Court, and were refused. 3  The clerks wrote to the plaintiffs that, according to Judge Martin and Judge Keppen, claims under a certain amount could be filed only in small claims court.   The clerks also sent the plaintiffs forms and instructions for filing in small claims court
                

In the pre-trial conference, the plaintiffs stated that they asked the judge of the small claims court to transfer their case to the superior court. In early October, the plaintiffs wrote to the clerks saying that they did not have a copy of the docket sheet and asking that the case be transferred from small claims court to superior court. There was no court order that this be done, nor did the plaintiffs submit another filing fee. The clerks did not transfer the case, but merely sent the plaintiffs a copy of the small claims court docket sheet.

B. District Court Proceedings

A preliminary pre-trial conference was held at the state prison in Michigan City before Magistrate Judge Gene Lee. The purpose of this conference was to "afford[ ] the Court an opportunity to become more familiar with the facts and issues in the case." The parties were not sworn. Magistrate Judge Lee questioned the plaintiffs and the defendant (present through his attorney) about the case, and took from the plaintiffs copies of letters and other documents, which he marked as exhibits. Magistrate Judge Lee gave the defendant 30 days in which to file a motion for summary judgment and reminded the plaintiffs that they would have 15 days afterward to respond to the motion.

The motion for summary judgment was made; the defendant asserted two grounds for summary judgment: (1) that he was not personally involved in the actions complained of and under section 1983 could not be held liable under a theory of respondeat superior; and (2) that, in any case, he was entitled to qualified immunity.

The plaintiffs responded to the motion for summary judgment, but did not include affidavits with their response. In their response, they asked the district court to "consider said evidence and exhibits submitted during the pre-trial hearing held on the 11th day of May, 1988, along with all other material submitted in this cause of action." R.105. Although the plaintiffs asserted that the statement of facts presented by the defendant in his motion for summary judgment was "directly refuted by the evidence and exhibits already included in the record of this Court which are included within the record of the pre-trial hearing held on the 11th day of May 1988," id., they did not identify what specific factual allegations they were controverting or direct the court's attention to particular facts in the record. Although the plaintiffs did not include affidavits, they did attach to their response a copy of Mr. Vail's March 29 letter, returning their check for $23 because the clerks did not "have any filings or know what account you would like this to be placed." R.110.

The district court granted the defendant's motion for summary judgment. ⁶ Because the defendants had not submitted affidavits or otherwise set forth specific facts showing that there was a genuine issue for trial, the district court accepted as undisputed the evidence gathered from Mr. Vail's answers to the plaintiffs' interrogatories and an affidavit by Ms. Betty Tylisz, a deputy clerk in Mr. Vail's office. It refused to consider the statements made by plaintiffs and the exhibits submitted by them during the pretrial conference; according to the court, because those statements were unsworn, they did not constitute admissible evidence. Based on Mr. Vail's answers to the interrogatories and Ms. Tylisz' affidavit, the court found the following facts:

In the early summer of 1983, the LaPorte County Clerk's Office received a complaint from Darrell Kincaid and Donald Sceifers along with a request that it be filed in LaPorte Superior Court No. 1. The complaint, which included a claim against Jack R. Duckworth, the superintendent of the ISP, contained a request for damages in the amount of $207.60. Tendered with the complaint was a check in the amount of $12.00 for the filing fee. According to Ms. Tylisz's affidavit, the $12.00 check submitted by the plaintiffs was insufficient to cover the filing fee in Superior Court No. 1. As a result, Ms. Tylisz contacted Judge Donald Martin of Superior Court No. 1 for instructions. Judge Martin directed that the complaint be returned to the plaintiffs and that they be informed that they should file their claim in the Small Claims Division of the LaPorte County Court, since the amount in controversy was only $207.60. Ms. Tylisz states that she thereafter returned the complaint and check to Darrell Kincaid and Donald Sceifers with an indication that the filing fee was insufficient and that the claim should be filed in the Small Claims Division of County Court. The plaintiffs subsequently resubmitted the complaint, again requesting it be filed in Superior Court No. 1. Ms. Tylisz states that she again consulted with Judge Martin, who indicated that the complaint should be returned to the plaintiffs with instructions that they should file it in the Small Claims Division of County Court. Ms. Tylisz thereupon returned the complaint to Mr. Kincaid and Mr. Sceifers, indicating that the fee tendered was insufficient for filing in Superior Court and that the claim should be filed in the Small Claims Division of the LaPorte County Court.

On June 28, 1983, according to Ms. Tylisz, the Clerk's Office received a letter Memorandum and Order, at 4-6 (R.113) (Oct. 11, 1990). The district court concluded that the plaintiffs had failed to demonstrate that they were denied access to the courts by any wrongful action of Vail's, because, based on the defendant's uncontradicted evidence, the plaintiffs had never tendered the correct filing fee...