Martinez Rodriguez v. Jimenez, No. 76-1166

• Decision Date: 03 June 1976
• Docket Number: No. 76-1166
• Citation: 537 F.2d 1
• Parties: Roberto MARTINEZ RODRIGUEZ et al., Plaintiffs, v. Irving JIMENEZ and Pedro J. Rodriguez Fortier, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 1

537 F.2d 1

Roberto MARTINEZ RODRIGUEZ et al., Plaintiffs, v. Irving JIMENEZ and Pedro J. Rodriguez Fortier, Defendants.

No. 76-1166.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Submitted May 27, 1976.

Decided June 3, 1976.

Miriam Naveira de Rodon, Sol. Gen., and Candita R. Orlandi, Asst. Sol. Gen., San Juan, P. R., on application for stay pending appeal.

Francisco Lopez Romo, Santurce, P. R., Rafael Perez-Bachs, Roberto Buso Aboy, and Stanley L. Feldstein, San Juan, P. R., on memorandum in opposition thereto.

Before COFFIN, Chief Judge, McENTEE and CAMPBELL, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM.

The defendant appellants in this action have requested a stay of portions of a district court order concerning the administration of the San Juan District Jail, also known as "La Princesa". Plaintiffs-appellees, the class of inmates at the institution, brought suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico alleging that La Princesa was operated in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. After a hearing on the merits, the district court entered a twenty paragraph order concerning the administration of La Princesa, and further ordered that the defendants cease using the Jail as a correctional institution from and after August 1, 1976. Defendant appellants have petitioned this court for a stay of nine paragraphs of the twenty paragraph order. ¹

The applicable standards for a party seeking a stay of an injunctive order pending appeal are (1) a strong showing that he is likely to succeed on the merits of the appeal; (2) a showing that unless a stay is granted he will suffer irreparable injury; (3) a showing that no substantial harm will come to other interested parties, and (4) a showing that a stay will do no harm to the public interest. Reserve Mining Co. v. United States, 498 F.2d 1073, 1076-77 (8th Cir. 1974). Virginia Petroleum Jobbers Ass'n. v. FPC, 104 U.S.App.D.C. 106, 259 F.2d 921 (1958). The district court considered these four criteria in denying the stay below, and we see no reason to disturb its judgment.

We have no difficulty in finding that the appellants have failed to show a probability of success on the merits as to liability. ² The case law amply supports the district court's conclusion that the conditions at La Princesa constituted violations of the Fourteenth Amendment. See, e. g., Inmates of Suffolk County Jail v. Eisenstadt, 360 F.Supp. 676 (D.Mass.1973).

The other ground of attack on the merits is whether the order was within the district court's discretion in remedying a violation of the Constitution. In the absence of clear, countervailing appellate court precedent, or statutory proscription, a showing of probability of success on the part of the appellants is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. They have not done so here. Although some of the contested paragraphs impose rigid requirements upon the administration of the prison, we cannot say that the district court, with its superior knowledge of local conditions, has clearly abused its discretion in formulating its remedy.

Passing beyond the merits of the parties on appeal, we agree with the district court that the defendants have failed to demonstrate irreparable harm during the pendency of this appeal that would substantially outweigh the injury to the plaintiffs. The Commonwealth essentially relies upon two broad claims of injury: (1) disruption of the prison system and (2) the limited nature of the government's financial resources. We will address the circumstances of each paragraph of the order separately.

Paragraph 4 of the district court's order limits the population of La Princesa to 250 inmates. The government claims that the reduction in population had to be achieved in a hasty and unscientific manner and has caused disruption in the other penal institutions in the Commonwealth. They further claim that an emergency capacity level should be set so as to accommodate sharp increases in prisoner population following large scale police raids. These claims of injury, however, were unaccompanied by any factual information except one generalized reference to a riot at the Young Adult Institution at Miramar upon which this court could evaluate the need for increased capacity at La Princesa on either an ongoing or temporary basis. These conclusory allegations of harm then are insufficient to outweigh the need to reduce population to improve the conditions of confinement at La Princesa.

Paragraphs 1 through 3 order that no youth between the ages of 18 and 21, no drug addict, and no person who is mentally deranged be confined at La Princesa. The government's claim of injury is directed at the difficulty of ascertaining which prisoners presented for admission, fall within those categories. It also contends that the Commonwealth courts would hold prison officials in contempt for failure to admit those committed there by the courts. The claims of injury are supported by statements that the prison officials must rely on the information volunteered by the individual prisoner, and that, in some unknown number of cases, this information was erroneous. The district court's statement...