Love v. Summit County
| Decision Date | 08 November 1985 |
| Docket Number | No. 83-1010,83-1010 |
| Citation | 776 F.2d 908 |
| Parties | Kevin J. LOVE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SUMMIT COUNTY, a government entity, Ron R. Robinson, Sheriff of Summit County, Ralph William Wallin, Jr., Summit County Commissioner, Gerald E. Young, Summit County Commissioner, and Carl T. Ovard, Summit County Commissioner, Defendants- Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
Brian M. Barnard, Salt Lake City, Utah (Jim Bradshaw, Salt Lake City, Utah, was also on the brief), for plaintiff-appellant.
Jody K. Burnett, Snow, Christensen & Martineau, Salt Lake City, Utah, for defendants-appellees.
Before HOLLOWAY, Chief Judge, and McWILLIAMS and LOGAN, Circuit Judges.
Plaintiff-appellant Love brought this action under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 seeking declaratory relief, an injunction and damages against the County of Summit, Utah, Ron Robinson, the Summit County Sheriff, and the Summit County Commissioners for alleged violation of his constitutional right of access to the courts. Plaintiff claims defendants violated this right when they refused to grant him access to a law library so that he could research various claims he said he wanted to bring contesting the conditions at the Summit County jail, or alternative assistance.
After a magistrate made a preliminary report and recommendation against dismissal, the district court heard defendants' motion to dismiss plaintiff's complaint. 1 The court considered matters both parties had submitted outside the pleadings, and granted judgment for defendants. Plaintiff appeals that disposition. We affirm.
Viewing the facts most favorably to the plaintiff, as we must at this juncture, United States v. Diebold, 369 U.S. 654, 655, 82 S.Ct. 993, 994, 8 L.Ed.2d 176 (1962), defendants incarcerated plaintiff, an indigent, in the Summit County Jail at Coalville, Utah from approximately January 12, 1982 until August 16, 1982 because plaintiff could not post bail while awaiting trial on various criminal charges. I R. 48, 79. The Utah state court appointed an attorney to represent him in the criminal trial scheduled for March 4, 1982. At a hearing on March 1 plaintiff told the court he no longer wanted the court-appointed attorney to represent him and that he could obtain private counsel. On March 4, a private Salt Lake City criminal attorney appeared for plaintiff. Because of the change in counsel, the state court moved the trial date to June 8. On June 4 the court again continued the trial so that plaintiff's new attorney could obtain a psychological evaluation of the plaintiff and look for witnesses. On August 12 plaintiff pleaded guilty to charges of burglary and theft and on August 16, 1982, the court sentenced him and he was transferred to the Utah State Prison. I R. 56.
Plaintiff had a number of complaints concerning his treatment and the conditions of his confinement while he was incarcerated in the Summit County Jail. He sought access to a law library orally in late March or early April 1982, and in writing on April 22, 1982 to pursue these claims, but defendants denied his request. Sheriff Robinson told plaintiff that the Summit County Jail does not allow inmates access to a law library because the jail does not have enough staff to supervise inmates while they are in the library and because "what they [the inmates] wanted to do was turn around and sue him and sue Summit County jail staff and Summit County officers ..." I R. 77. 2
The record shows that the Summit County Jail, a small facility, 3 does provide some opportunity for inmates to have access to legal representation and the courts, but the jail itself does not have a law library. Although the County has a small law library in the same building and on the same floor as the jail, plaintiff contends the law library is inadequate. Moreover, the library is used by the judges and the County Attorney's staff and the jail has no rules permitting the jail inmates to have access to that or any other law library. However, the jail does allow inmates access to attorneys and the courts upon request. The jail makes a telephone available to the inmates and notaries public are available for those who need them.
If an inmate is indigent, the county will appoint counsel for him in criminal matters and will provide free postage, envelopes and stationery so that an indigent may communicate with the courts. The record contains no evidence that Summit County provides free attorneys, paralegals or other persons trained in the law to indigent jail inmates who need help preparing habeas corpus petitions or civil rights claims. Plaintiff and two others who asked for access to a law library at the time of plaintiff's request were the first inmates to request such access while incarcerated at the Summit County Jail. I R. 20, 63-67, 70-72.
Plaintiff had no legal representation for the claims he wanted to file, although he did have representation in his criminal action. When plaintiff asked his attorney in the criminal case about filing his civil rights claims, that attorney refused to represent plaintiff but referred him to the attorney who eventually agreed to represent him in the instant case. That civil attorney likewise declined to represent him in his anticipated civil rights litigation over jail conditions, but did provide him prepared forms from the federal court clerk's office for pro se complaints under Sec. 1983. This civil counsel gave plaintiff some "limited instructions" on completion of the forms and encouraged plaintiff to file his civil rights claims on his own concerning the conditions of confinement. III R. 18-19. He also told plaintiff that other attorneys might be available and willing to take his case on a contingency basis and that he could assist him to find someone; plaintiff did not ask him to do so. III R. 9-10. Sheriff Robinson claims that he did not know plaintiff's representation was limited and that had he known, his office and the jail staff "would have handled the situation differently." I R. 80.
At the hearing before the district court, plaintiff's counsel stated plaintiff had suffered no prejudice when that attorney had declined to represent plaintiff on his civil rights claims; and that plaintiff still had the right to pursue his claims of lack of recreation and medical attention at the jail. III R. 6-7; Appellant's Brief, 19. Nevertheless, plaintiff seeks damages and declaratory relief for harm allegedly resulting from defendants' failure to allow him access to a law library while he was incarcerated in the jail from January 12 until August 16, 1982. 4
A hearing and oral argument took place before the magistrate, who entered a Preliminary Report and Recommendation on August 20, 1982. The magistrate found that the court should deny the motion for a preliminary injunction as moot, the plaintiff having been transferred to the Utah State Prison following sentencing. The magistrate found that at the time of the hearing the plaintiff was and since January 12, 1982, had been a pretrial detainee at the Summit County Jail. Plaintiff was given appointed legal counsel to represent him in the criminal proceedings against him, and his civil counsel was representing him in the instant civil rights action. During his seven months' incarceration at the jail, the plaintiff had made multiple complaints to jail officials about allegedly unconstitutional conditions of confinement, and he desired to file one or more actions challenging these conditions. Plaintiff had sought use of a law library for that purpose, but his requests were denied. The magistrate found further that the basis of the defendants' motion to dismiss was that plaintiff had counsel representing him in the criminal proceedings and counsel assisting in the civil rights action and therefore had no need for law library facilities. Although plaintiff's civil counsel was assisting plaintiff in the civil rights action, that attorney had declined to assist him in preparing complaints challenging other allegedly unconstitutional jail conditions.
The magistrate said that the states must provide inmates with an adequate library or other means to assist them in securing access to the courts on constitutional complaints and that the obligation extends to county jail inmates, although not to short-term jail detainees. The magistrate found the plaintiff was not a short-term detainee and recommended that the motion to dismiss be denied. The magistrate did not recommend that the court grant plaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment at that time, because the magistrate saw no immediate need to grant the motion and the parties had requested further discovery.
On December 12, 1982 the district judge entered an order denying the plaintiff's motion for summary judgment and granting the defendants' motion to dismiss the plaintiff's complaint with prejudice, and the court entered judgment in favor of defendants. At the conclusion of the hearing on the motions, the district judge orally stated that he agreed with the distinction that defendants' counsel had suggested between a pretrial detainee represented by counsel, although for limited purposes, and a prisoner who seeks independently to assert a cause of action and whom the absence of access to a law library prejudices or precludes from bringing a habeas suit or a challenge to conditions of confinement. III R. 17. The judge stated that he did not know of anyone who more easily could have given assistance than plaintiff's counsel in the instant case, who was gifted in that area and could have seen that plaintiff received the help he needed without concern about the library facilities. The court orally and in its written order granted the motion to dismiss. II R. 22; I R. 83-84.
This circuit has long recognized that, like all persons, "inmates have a constitutional right to 'adequate, effective, and meaningful' access to the courts and that the states have 'affirmative...
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