Morgan v. Ward

• Decision Date: 07 November 1988
• Docket Number: No. 75-CV-342.,75-CV-342.
• Citation: 699 F. Supp. 1025
• Parties: Zachary MORGAN, Mark Frasier, Born-Allah, Charles Fwilo, Phillip Goggins, and Victor Ortiz, Plaintiffs, v. Benjamin J. WARD and Peter Preiser, Commissioner and former Commissioner of New York State Department of Correctional Services; J. Edwin LaVallee, Superintendent of Clinton Correctional Facility; R. Fuller, Lieutenant at Clinton Correctional Facility; S. Dobbs, G. King, and one Ryan, Sergeants at Clinton Correctional Facility; and J. O'Brien, A. Bruso, G. Revette, R. Duprey, L. Velie, C. Martin, M. Martin, B. Huckeba, D. Barber, B. Kennedy, F. Woodward, L. Brooks, S. Rabideau, P. Conley, and one Scavenger, Correctional Officers at Clinton Correctional Facility, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of New York

699 F. Supp. 1025

Zachary MORGAN, Mark Frasier, Born-Allah, Charles Fwilo, Phillip Goggins, and Victor Ortiz, Plaintiffs, v. Benjamin J. WARD and Peter Preiser, Commissioner and former Commissioner of New York State Department of Correctional Services; J. Edwin LaVallee, Superintendent of Clinton Correctional Facility; R. Fuller, Lieutenant at Clinton Correctional Facility; S. Dobbs, G. King, and one Ryan, Sergeants at Clinton Correctional Facility; and J. O'Brien, A. Bruso, G. Revette, R. Duprey, L. Velie, C. Martin, M. Martin, B. Huckeba, D. Barber, B. Kennedy, F. Woodward, L. Brooks, S. Rabideau, P. Conley, and one Scavenger, Correctional Officers at Clinton Correctional Facility, Defendants.

No. 75-CV-342.

United States District Court, N.D. New York.

November 7, 1988.

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Richard G. Ashworth, New York City, for plaintiffs Morgan, Born-Allah, and Goggins.

Robert Abrams, Atty. Gen. of State of N.Y., Albany, N.Y., for defendants; David B. Roberts and Providence Baker, Asst. Attys. Gen., of counsel.

MEMORANDUM-DECISION AND ORDER

MUNSON, District Judge.

This action was commenced under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 by six inmates who were incarcerated at Clinton Correctional Facility ("Clinton") in Dannemora, New York in 1974 and 1975. It is alleged that during this period, plaintiffs were held in Clinton's Special Housing Unit 14 ("SHU" or "Unit 14"),¹ a unit in which inmates were separated from the institution's general population for punitive purposes, as a result of findings made at Adjustment Committee Proceedings which were conducted in violation of their procedural due process rights. Plaintiffs also claim that they were subjected to the use of excessive force by prison guards in the years in question, that prison officials routinely conducted body cavity searches of plaintiffs in violation of their constitutional rights, and that the conditions within Unit 14 violated the eighth amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments. Compensatory and punitive damages are sought. Plaintiffs have also requested declaratory relief, but because plaintiffs are no longer housed in Unit 14 and because the policies of 1974 and 1975 that are challenged here are no longer in effect, such relief is unavailable in this case. See Socialist Labor Party v. Gilligan, 406 U.S. 583, 585, 92 S.Ct. 1716, 1717, 32 L.Ed.2d 317 (1972). Three of the plaintiffs named in the caption have discontinued their claims with prejudice. A nonjury trial of the claims of the remaining three plaintiffs — Zachary Morgan, Born-Allah, and Phillip Goggins — was conducted July 13-15, 1987. The following constitutes the court's findings of fact and conclusions of law in accordance with the mandate of Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a).

I. BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs were confined in Unit 14 during a period of serious unrest in the New York prison system in the wake of the 1971 uprising at the State's Attica Correctional Facility ("Attica"). Each of the plaintiffs were placed in SHU after Superintendent's Proceedings that the parties agree comported with the requirements of due process. Plaintiff Zachary Morgan had been transferred from Attica to Clinton on February 1, 1974 to serve 45 days in Unit 14; plaintiff Born-Allah was initially sentenced to 60 days in SHU for the failure to obey an order and was placed in Unit 14 on April 2, 1974; plaintiff Phillip Goggins was ordered confined to SHU for seven days commencing January 27, 1974 after he had become embroiled in a dispute with another inmate and a Clinton correctional officer. Morgan would remain confined in SHU until his transfer to the Green Meadow Correctional Facility on September 7, 1975, a total of 584 days, only 225 of which are attributable to findings made at Superintendent's Proceedings. Born-Allah was housed in Unit 14 for 357 days, only 60 of which are traceable to a Superintendent's Proceeding. Goggins was held in SHU for 213 days, only the initial seven of which were mandated by a determination made after a Superintendent's Proceeding.

Plaintiffs maintain that they were retained in Unit 14 beyond the periods established in Superintendent's Proceedings in violation of their due process rights protected by the fourteenth amendment. Plaintiffs argue that they were falsely accused of violating prison rules in some instances and were written up for frivolous infractions in others by the defendant correctional officers. These disciplinary reports were referred to Clinton's Adjustment Committees, which conducted less formal factual inquiries than were made in Superintendent's Proceedings. Plaintiffs claim they were not given advance notice of the charges made by correctional officers before plaintiffs were required to appear before the Adjustment Committees, that they were not given an adequate opportunity to present evidence concerning the charges levelled against them, and that the Adjustment Committee Proceedings were conducted in a summary manner. As a result of these proceedings, plaintiffs were commonly sanctioned for their alleged misdeeds by having their period of confinement in SHU extended for as many as fourteen days (so-called "keeplock" confinement).² In 1974 and 1975, the Adjustment Committees had the discretionary power to extend keeplock for successive fourteen day periods.

Plaintiffs Morgan and Born-Allah also testified that during the time they were housed in SHU they were subjected to abusive and demeaning treatment by the correctional officers named as defendants in this case. For example, plaintiff Morgan attested that prison guards would not allow him to shower unless he "barked like a dog;" Morgan and Born-Allah both stated that the correctional officers would place tags with the names of animals on them over the inmates' cells, implying that the prisoners were akin to animals in a zoo; plaintiffs testified that they were forcibly subjected to unnecessary strip searches; and plaintiffs allege that Clinton's correctional officers commonly sprayed tear gas into their faces under circumstances not warranting the use of tear gas. In addition, each of the plaintiffs complain of separate incidents where excessive force was allegedly applied to them by Clinton's guards. This action was commenced on July 15, 1975.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Eleventh Amendment Immunity

Initially, the court must address defendants' contention that plaintiffs' claims for damages relating to the alleged procedural deficiencies of Clinton's Adjustment Committee Proceedings are barred by the eleventh amendment.³ The eleventh amendment provides that "the Judicial Power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State or Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State." U.S. Const. amend. XI. The Supreme Court has found that the amendment's "greater significance lies in its affirmation that the fundamental principle of sovereign immunity limits the grant of judicial authority" in Article III of the Constitution. Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman, 465 U.S. 89, 98, 104 S.Ct. 900, 906, 79 L.Ed.2d 67 (1984) ("Pennhurst II"). Consequently, the amendment's prohibition has been broadened to cover suits against a state by one of its own citizens, Hans v. Louisiana, 134 U.S. 1, 15, 10 S.Ct. 504, 507, 33 L.Ed. 842 (1890), as well as suits in which a state is not named but "is the party in fact." Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. 232, 237, 94 S.Ct. 1683, 1687, 40 L.Ed.2d 90 (1974); see also Pennhurst II, 465 U.S. at 101, 104 S.Ct. at 908.⁴ For example, an action for damages cannot be maintained against a state official in his official capacity, since a judgment in such an action would "impose liability on the entity that the official represents...." Kentucky v. Graham, 473 U.S. 159, 169, 105 S.Ct. 3099, 3107, 87 L.Ed.2d 114 (1985) (quotation omitted).

On the other hand, the eleventh amendment does not preclude damage claims against a state official accused of depriving another of a federal right under the color of state law notwithstanding the fact that the official holds public office, so long as the money sought is to come out of the official's own pocket. Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. at 237-38, 94 S.Ct. at 1686-87; Farid v. Smith, 850 F.2d 917, 921 (2d Cir. 1988). Consequently, when a state official is named as a defendant in a lawsuit, the court must determine whether the claim is made against that official in his personal capacity or his official capacity. See Kentucky v. Graham, 473 U.S. at 165-68, 105 S.Ct. at 3104-06; Shabazz v. Coughlin, 852 F.2d 697, 700 (2d Cir.1988). The caption of the complaint in this action does not indicate in what capacity defendants are being sued. The court finds that defendants have been sued in their personal capacity. The complaint's demand for money damages, as well as defendants' assertion of qualified immunity to liability under § 1983, which is a personal immunity defense, is evidence that defendants were aware that plaintiffs sought to impose personal liability upon them for the constitutional violations with which they are accused.⁵ See Shabazz v. Coughlin, 852 F.2d at 700.

With regard to the procedural due process claims, defendants argue that they were carrying out the policies of the State of New York, and thus (it is implied) this action must be deemed an official-capacity suit. Support for this contention is found in Jones v. Smith, 784 F.2d 149, 152 (2d Cir.1986). In the more recent case of Farid v. Smith, however, the Second Circuit rejected any suggestion that might be contained in Jones to the effect that a state official was immune from personal liability for carrying out a state policy that violated federal law. 850 F.2d at 923. In Farid, Judge Pierce examined the history of the Supreme Court's interpretation of a state's sovereign immunity and...