Morgan v. Morgensen

• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit
• Writing for the Court: Clifton
• Citation: Morgan v. Morgensen, 465 F.3d 1041 (9th Cir. 2006)
• Decision Date: 06 October 2006
• Docket Number: No. 04-35608.,04-35608.
• Parties: Steven M. MORGAN, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Eric MORGENSEN, Defendant, and Tom Canady, Defendant-Appellant.

465 F.3d 1041

Steven M. MORGAN, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Eric MORGENSEN, Defendant, and Tom Canady, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 04-35608.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted May 3, 2006.

Filed October 6, 2006.

As Amended on Denial of Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc November 30, 2006.

Christine O. Gregoire, Attorney General; John C. Dittman (argued), Assistant Attorney General, Olympia, WA, for the appellant.

Timothy K. Ford (argued), Katrin E. Frank, Cristobal Joshua Alex, Seattle, WA, for the appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington; Robert S. Lasnik, District Judge, Presiding, D.C. No. CV-03-00132-RSL.

Before REINHARDT, McKEOWN, and CLIFTON, Circuit Judges.

CLIFTON, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff Steven Morgan, a Washington prisoner, was injured by a defective printing press while working at a prison job for which he had voluntarily applied. Morgan alleges that he told his supervisor, Defendant Tom Canady, about the problem, but that Canady forced Morgan to keep working. Morgan brought a complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that the requirement to continue working under those circumstances violated his Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Canady moved for summary judgment, asserting a defense of qualified immunity, which the district court denied. He appeals that decision, and we affirm. In so doing, we hold that under certain circumstances, dangerous prison working conditions can give rise to an Eighth Amendment claim, not-withstanding the fact that the prisoner initially obtained his specific employment assignment through a voluntary application process within the prison system. We further hold that a prison official is not entitled to qualified immunity when he orders a prisoner to continue operating prison work equipment that the official has been warned and has reason to believe is unnecessarily dangerous.

I. Background

Because this case comes to us at the stage of defendant's motion for summary judgment, where the underlying facts are disputed, we "assum[e] that the version of events offered by the non-moving party is correct" when determining whether the defendant should nonetheless be entitled to qualified immunity. Wilkins v. City of Oakland, 350 F.3d 949, 951 (9th Cir.2003). We thus recount the facts, where disputed, based upon the evidence and inferences supporting Morgan's position, recognizing that a trier of fact may make different determinations. See Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 528, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985).

At the time of the events giving rise to this litigation, Morgan was an inmate in the Monroe Correctional Complex in the State of Washington. He was employed in the prison print shop, where Canady was his immediate supervisor. Print shop work is a Class II Tax Reduction Industry under Washington state law, meaning that prisoners within these industries produce goods for sale to public agencies or nonprofit organizations. See REV. CODE WASH. 72.09.100(2). Among prisoners, such employment is desirable, because it requires specialized skill and pays more than ordinary prison labor. Prisoners desiring such work must apply; employment within the Class II industries is "at [the prisoner's] own choice. . . ." See id. at (2)(e). It is not the prisoner's choice whether he will or will not work, though. Prisoners who fail to secure Class II work may instead be assigned to work elsewhere, usually within the prison's Class III Institutional Support Industries. See id. at (3). Morgan was one of the few prisoners who was selected for Class II employment within the Monroe Correctional Complex prison print shop. As part of his employment, he operated an AB Dick 9800 printing press.

According to Morgan, he and other prison print shop employees noticed that his press was dangerously defective. Loose chains caused the press to buck and shake. Morgan contends that, at some point after he first noticed that his press was malfunctioning, the press bucked and almost tore off two of his fingers while he was operating it. Morgan claims that when he alerted Canady to the problem and asked that it be fixed, Canady pointed to a pile of paper and told Morgan that they had an urgent printing project and that there was no time to stop the press for repairs. Canady told Morgan to continue working and to "just be very careful."

Morgan was subsequently injured when the press caught his hand and tore off his right thumb. Morgan filed a § 1983 action against Canady and other prison officials.¹ He alleged that they subjected him to cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the Eighth Amendment, and deprived him of liberty without due process, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, by compelling him to work under dangerous conditions, resulting in his injury. Defendants brought a motion for summary judgment on the ground of qualified immunity. Morgan conceded that the claims against the other defendants should be dismissed but opposed the motion as to Canady. The district court granted summary judgment on Morgan's complaints as to the other defendants but denied the motion for summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity as to Canady.

II. Discussion

Ordinarily, a district court's interlocutory order denying a motion for summary judgment is not immediately appealable, but there is an exception for a defendant's motion for summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity. Such an order is immediately appealable. See Mitchell, 472 U.S. at 530, 105 S.Ct. 2806. Not every issue is open to appellate review at this time, though. In these circumstances, appellate review is generally limited to issues of law and "does not extend to claims in which the determination of qualified immunity depends on disputed issues of material fact." Wilkins, 350 F.3d at 951 (quoting Jeffers v. Gomez, 267 F.3d 895, 903 (9th Cir.2001) (per curiam)). This court's review is de novo. See Osolinski v. Kane, 92 F.3d 934, 936 (9th Cir.1996).

The doctrine of qualified immunity protects government officials who perform discretionary functions from civil liability, as long as "their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). In analyzing whether a government official is entitled to qualified immunity, we address two questions, in a specific sequence. First, "[t]aken in the light most favorable to the party asserting the injury, do the facts alleged show the officer's conduct violated a constitutional right?" Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 201, 121 S.Ct. 2151, 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001). Second, is the right clearly established such that a reasonable government official would know that "his conduct was unlawful in the situation he confronted[?]" See id. at 202, 121 S.Ct. 2151. We address each of these issues in turn.

A. Violation of a Constitutional Right

The Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment protects prisoners not only from inhumane methods of punishment but also from inhumane conditions of confinement. See Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 832, 114 S.Ct. 1970, 128 L.Ed.2d 811 (1994); see also Rhodes v. Chapman, 452 U.S. 337, 347, 101 S.Ct. 2392, 69 L.Ed.2d 59 (1981). Incarceration itself renders prisoners dependent upon their keepers and "strip[s] them of virtually every means of self-protection." Farmer, 511 U.S. at 833, 114 S.Ct. 1970. Thus, while conditions of confinement may be, and often are, restrictive and harsh, they "must not involve the wanton and unnecessary infliction of pain." Rhodes, 452 U.S. at 347, 101 S.Ct. 2392. In other words, they must not be devoid of legitimate penological purpose, see Hudson v. Palmer, 468 U.S. 517, 548, 104 S.Ct. 3194, 82 L.Ed.2d 393 (1984), or contrary to "evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society." Trop v. Dulles, 356 U.S. 86, 101, 78 S.Ct. 590, 2 L.Ed.2d 630 (1958).

A prisoner's labor can constitute a condition of confinement, where the prisoner has no choice but to work in some capacity within the prison. That is the case here, since Washington law provides that "[e]very prisoner in a state correctional facility shall be required to work." REV. CODE WASH. 72.64.030. The prison officials supervising him have a constitutional obligation to take reasonable measures to guarantee his safety. See Osolinski, 92 F.3d at 937.

Not every injury that a prisoner sustains while in prison represents a constitutional violation. A prisoner claiming an Eighth Amendment violation must show (1) that the deprivation he suffered was "objectively, sufficiently serious;" and (2) that prison officials were deliberately indifferent to his safety in allowing the deprivation to take place. Farmer, 511 U.S. at 834, 114 S.Ct. 1970. More specifically, the Eighth Amendment is implicated in the prison work context only when a prisoner employee alleges that a prison official compelled him to "perform physical labor which [was] beyond [his] strength, endanger[ed his life] or health, or cause[d] undue pain." Berry v. Bunnell, 39 F.3d 1056, 1057 (9th Cir.1994) (per curiam); see also Wallis v. Baldwin, 70 F.3d 1074 (9th Cir. 1995) (analyzing under the Eighth Amendment a prisoner's claim that his health was endangered when he was forced to remove asbestos without protective gear).

Canady argues that, as a matter of law, Morgan cannot make out a constitutional violation because Morgan worked at the print shop, a Class II industry, "at [his] own choice," REV. CODE WASH. 72.09.100(2)(e), and therefore could not have been "compelled" to perform physical labor that endangered life and limb. Morgan, on the other hand, argues that the fact that he chose to work in a Class II industry does not transform the statutorily mandated labor he performed into a voluntary act.

We agree with Morgan....