Lucas v. Hodges

• Citation: 730 F.2d 1493
• Decision Date: 23 March 1984
• Docket Number: No. 83-1099,83-1099
• Parties: Gregory A. LUCAS, Appellant, v. Benny O. HODGES, Administrator, Lorton Reformatory, et al.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (District of Columbia)

Page 1493

730 F.2d 1493

235 U.S.App.D.C. 63

Gregory A. LUCAS, Appellant, v. Benny O. HODGES, Administrator, Lorton Reformatory, et al.

No. 83-1099.

United States Court of Appeals,

District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued Dec. 13, 1983.

Decided March 23, 1984.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (Civil Action No. 82-01184).

Daniel R. Ohlbaum, Washington, D.C. (appointed by this Court), for appellant.

Michele Giuliani, Asst. Corp. Counsel, with whom Judith W. Rogers, Corp. Counsel (at time brief was filed), and Charles L. Reischel, Deputy Corp. Counsel, Washington, D.C., were on brief, for appellees.

Before WALD and STARR, Circuit Judges, and McGOWAN, Senior Circuit judge.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge WALD.

Opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part filed by Circuit Judge STARR.

WALD, Circuit Judge:

This is an appeal from the dismissal of a pro se prisoner's civil rights complaint against federal prison officials in Marion, Illinois, and local officials in the District of Columbia. Gregory Lucas alleged in his complaint that the D.C. officials deprived him of various constitutional rights when they classified him as a prisoner requiring "Special Handling" on the basis of an allegedly false report that he attempted to escape while confined at the Marion federal prison. He asked for injunctive relief and damages. The district court dismissed the complaint against the Marion officials without prejudice to refiling in the Southern District of Illinois. The court dismissed the claims against the D.C. officials on the ground that those officials were entitled to rely on the report of officials at the Marion federal prison or, in any event, on a 1978 escape attempt at Lorton which, according to the court, the plaintiff does not contest. Lucas appealed from the dismissal of his complaint. ¹

We believe that the district court acted too hastily in dismissing this complaint. With respect to his procedural due process claim against the D.C. officials, we cannot say "beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief." Hughes v. Rowe, 449 U.S. 5, 10, 101 S.Ct. 173, 176, 66 L.Ed.2d 163 (1980) (per curiam). We therefore reverse the decision of the district court insofar as it dismissed the procedural due process claim against D.C. officials, and remand for further consideration of this issue.

I. BACKGROUND

Gregory A. Lucas was sentenced in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia on August 1, 1978, to a term of five to fifteen years. He was transferred from the D.C. Detention Facility to Lorton--first to the Maximum Security Facility and then to a general population cellblock. On November 19, 1978, Lucas was apprehended in an apparent escape attempt and placed in the Adjustment Unit at Lorton.

As a result of the apparent escape attempt, Lucas was transferred on October 5, 1979, first to the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, and later to the prison in Marion, Illinois. He brought suit in the Southern District of Illinois successfully challenging the legality of this transfer, which was effected without giving Lucas a notice of reasons as required by Order 4810.1 of the D.C. Department of Corrections. ² He was transferred back on February 24, 1982, to the D.C. Corrections System, where he was placed on Special Handling status. Special Handling is an administrative classification imposing certain restrictions on prisoners who present special security problems. ³ According to government counsel at oral argument, Lucas was confined on his return at the D.C. Detention Facility for about four weeks and then transferred to Lorton, where he was confined in the Maximum Security Facility until his parole on December 22, 1983. ⁴ He was in Special Handling status at both facilities.

On March 6, 1982, while at the D.C. Detention Facility, Lucas filed a Request for Administrative Remedy, stating as follows:

I have been unlawfully placed on Special Handling without any sufficient reasons and I am being denied the same privileges as that of other inmates. The Adjustment Board placed me on Special Handling in related [sic] to my past record in which I have been punish [sic], and in which I am being subject to the same punishment again upon my transfer to the D.C. Jail, from Marion. I was not informed as no Special Handling Case. I am being subject to the same treatment and/or punishment as that of a prisoner on Disciplinary Segregation. I am being punished and restricted to the same privileges as that of other inmates, without any Disciplinary Report. [I would like to request for the same privileges as that of other inmates, and to be taken off Special Handling].

In response, he received the following explanation from E.P. Slothouber, Director of the D.C. Detention Facility: "You were placed on Special Handling based on information from Marion, Ill. You will remain in your present situation and be reviewed periodically." The following notation appears on the transfer order pursuant to which Lucas was transferred from Marion: "Lucas involved in recent escape attempt from USP-Marion; information received his life may be in danger--take all necessary precautions in transit." We cannot determine from the record whether or not Lucas was given a copy of this document.

Lucas filed a complaint in federal district court ⁵ on April 23, 1982, after his transfer to Lorton, against the Administrators of Lorton and of the D.C. Detention Facility, the Director and Assistant Director of the D.C. Department of Corrections and the Warden of the United States Penitentiary at Marion. He alleged that the report of his escape attempt from Marion was false, and, repeating the claims made in his administrative complaint, that he was subject to severe restrictions equivalent to those associated with disciplinary segregation without an opportunity to defend himself against the escape charges. ⁶ Lucas requested declaratory and injunctive relief and damages for the violation of his constitutional rights under the eighth amendment, the due process clause, and the equal protection clause, naming 42 U.S.C. Secs. 1981, 1985, and 1986 as the bases for his claims. ⁷

Defendant Hodges, Administrator at Lorton, moved to dismiss on the grounds that the allegations stated no claim under the designated statutory sections and that the court lacked personal jurisdiction over him. ⁸ The district court dismissed the complaint against all D.C. officials, stating first that the D.C. officials were entitled to rely on the report of the Marion officials that Lucas was involved in an escape attempt, and that any complaint based on the alleged falsity of the escape charge rests only against the Marion officials. The court stated further that even if there had been no escape attempt at Marion, the D.C. officials were authorized to place Lucas in Special Handling status solely on the basis of the 1978 Lorton escape attempt that, according to the court, Lucas did not contest. The court also dismissed claims against the Marion officials without prejudice to a subsequent filing in the Southern District of Illinois, reasoning that "[T]his claim centers on conduct that occurred in a federal prison in Illinois and ... any alleged procedural flaws in preparing the report of plaintiff's escape attempt would have to be remedied by the Marion correctional facility." This appeal followed.

We have been informed by the government that Lucas was released from Lorton on parole on December 22, 1983, less than two weeks after oral argument. ⁹ He is to remain in the Washington metropolitan area and comply with various other conditions of parole. We must thus decide, among other issues, the effect of his release on this action.

II. THRESHOLD ISSUES

We conclude first that the district court acted properly in dismissing without prejudice Lucas' complaint against the Marion officials. Apart from any problems of personal jurisdiction, the claim for damages against the prison warden in his personal capacity cannot properly be heard in this district under the applicable venue provision, 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1391(e). See Stafford v. Briggs, 444 U.S. 527, 100 S.Ct. 774, 63 L.Ed.2d 1 (1980). Although Lucas' complaint clearly requests injunctive relief as well, we cannot determine what form of injunctive relief he requests or even whether that request extends to officials at Marion, from which Lucas was transferred two months before he filed his complaint. In the event that he decides to pursue his claims against the Marion officials in the Southern District of Illinois, he should have the opportunity to clarify the form of relief requested.

The district court also dismissed the claims against officials at the D.C. Detention Facility and at Lorton for failure to state a cause of action. Lucas' release on parole, however, requires us to determine the extent to which those claims are now moot. We conclude that his claims for injunctive relief became moot upon his release on parole. ¹⁰

Only the claims for damages against officials at the D.C. Detention Facility and Lorton, which the district court dismissed on the merits, remain. As to those we are plagued in this case by both a less than entirely lucid complaint and a murky factual record. The Supreme Court, however, has left no doubt as to the standard by which a pro se prisoner's complaint should be viewed on a motion to dismiss. In Hughes v. Rowe, 449 U.S. 5, 10, 101 S.Ct. 173, 176, 66 L.Ed.2d 163 (1980) (per curiam), the Court was faced with the dismissal of a pro se prisoner's complaint that he had been placed and kept in a segregation cell without due process of law. Taking note that pro se complaints are held "to less stringent standards than formal pleadings by lawyers," id. at 9, 101 S.Ct. at 176 (quoting Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 520, 92 S.Ct. 594, 595, 30 L.Ed.2d 652 (1972)), the Court declared that "[s...