Owens v. Evans

• Decision Date: 13 December 2017
• Docket Number: No. 16-1645,16-1645
• Parties: James OWENS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John EVANS, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

878 F.3d 559

James OWENS, Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.John EVANS, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 16-1645

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Submitted December 6, 2017

Decided December 13, 2017

Opinion Issued December 28, 2017^*

James Owens, Pro se.

Katelin B. Buell, Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General, Civil Appeals Division, Chicago, IL, for Defendant–Appellee.

Before Kanne, Sykes, and Hamilton, Circuit Judges.

Per curiam.

James Owens, an Illinois prisoner, brought this lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging that 43 prison employees and the Illinois Department of Corrections obstructed his access to courts in violation of the First Amendment. Owens alleges that at four different correctional facilities, he had insufficient access to the law library and his excess legal storage boxes, was unable to send mail required to prosecute his cases, and was denied supplies. The district judge dismissed several claims and defendants, and later entered summary judgment for the remaining defendants. Because Owens’s strongest claim for relief was untimely and the rest were correctly dismissed or decided in the defendants' favor, we affirm.

Before proceeding, we note that Owens—no stranger to the courts in this circuit—again filed an omnibus complaint against unrelated defendants and with claims arising from alleged conduct at four different prisons. As we have told him before, this scattershot strategy is unacceptable under Rule 20(a)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Prison Litigation Reform Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b), (g). See Owens v. Hinsley , 635 F.3d 950, 952 (7th Cir. 2011) ; George v. Smith , 507 F.3d 605, 607 (7th Cir. 2007). And, more practically, grouping his grievances obscures his allegations against specific defendants. We have repeatedly "urge[d] the district courts to be alert to this problem." Owens v. Godinez , 860 F.3d 434, 436 (7th Cir. 2017). For that matter, so should defendants.

I. Background

Owens’s allegations span seven years, four prisons, and 44 defendants. He lists his theories of relief in six counts—obstructing his right to access the courts and conspiring to do so, retaliating against him for filing grievances and lawsuits, hindering various lawsuits by enforcing unconstitutional Illinois Administrative Code provisions governing legal mail, "confiscating" his trust account earnings to recover litigation costs advanced by prison business offices, and failing to investigate and respond to grievances. Owens does not specify which defendants are named for which counts. For the sake of clarity, we summarize prison by prison, as best we can, the allegations in the complaint and the evidence presented during the summary-judgment proceedings.

A. Hill Correctional Center (2006–2008)

Owens alleges violations that first arose in 2007 while he was held at Hill Correctional Center and litigated a lawsuit in Knox County Circuit Court. Because his prisoner trust fund account was significantly overdrawn, Owens asked the prison mailroom to advance him money for postage after the court ordered him to serve the defendants with his pleadings. But the mailroom refused, stating that prisons must advance fees only for legal mail, which under Illinois law does not include legal documents sent to other parties. ILL. ADMIN. CODE tit. 20, § 525.130(a), .110(h). Owens’s lawsuit went nowhere anyway because the Knox County court assessed a $4.78 filing fee that he could not pay, so the case was dismissed.

Owens also says that defendants at Hill unlawfully limited his access to the library to four hours per month and applied any amount of money deposited in his trust account (like his $10-per-month state pay) to previous litigation costs that the office had advanced. He also asserts that he was not given adequate access to the boxes containing legal materials not kept in his cell to the detriment of his ability to litigate effectively.

B. Big Muddy River Correctional Center (2008–2010)

In 2008 Owens was transferred to Big Muddy River Correctional Center. He asserts that 11 employees at that prison impeded his ability to prosecute two lawsuits. He says they closed the library when the librarian was on vacation and thus denied him sufficient access, confiscated materials from his legal storage boxes, failed to provide him with pens, and did not advance him funds for sending summonses to defendants in one of his state-court suits. One case seems to have stopped after the Sangamon County Circuit Court denied him in forma pauperis status and required him to pay a $193 filing fee. In the other case, a Jefferson County judge granted a motion to dismiss, and Owens’s appeal was dismissed for want of prosecution because he could not pay the fee to get a record on appeal. Owens also alleges that a librarian’s refusal to make copies caused him to miss an unspecified legal deadline in an unspecified case.

C. Pinckneyville Correctional Center (2010–2012)

Owens was transferred to Pinckneyville Correctional Center in 2010. He continued to have difficulty litigating (although it is unclear which cases he had pending at the time). He alleges that he was denied access to the library when he had a statute-of-limitations deadline approaching and was unable to get access to his legal storage boxes. He also asserts that prison officials confiscated other unspecified legal materials. And he complains that the quantity of supplies he was given pursuant to prison policy—two envelopes, ten sheets of paper, and one pen per month—was insufficient. At summary judgment the defendants produced an affidavit from a law library paralegal stating that Owens received additional supplies from the library when requested. Last, Owens alleged that his access to the library, his storage boxes, and necessary supplies was even more diminished when he was placed in protective custody.

D. Lawrence Correctional Center (2012–2013)

In 2012 Owens was transferred to Lawrence Correctional Center. He asserts that the law librarian, the warden, and a grievance counselor denied him access to his excess legal storage boxes. Some of these boxes had not arrived from his previous facility, and some may have been lost.

II. Procedural History

At screening, see 28 U.S.C. § 1915A, the judge dismissed several claims, starting with the one accusing defendants of confiscating Owens’s trust account funds, because the money was taken to repay advances, which can be recouped under Illinois law and our precedent. § 525.130(a) ; Gaines v. Lane , 790 F.2d 1299, 1308 (7th Cir. 1986). Citing Antonelli v. Sheahan , 81 F.3d 1422, 1430 (7th Cir. 1996), the judge next dismissed the claim that the prison officials failed to investigate or respond to grievances because there is no federal constitutional right to enforce a state’s inmate grievance process. The judge also dismissed the defendants who could not be held liable for the complained-of events because their roles were simply to review and decide grievances. Sanville v. McCaughtry , 266 F.3d 724, 740 (7th Cir. 2001). (Those dismissed from the suit were IDOC Directors Godinez, Taylor, Randle, and Walker; Administrative Review Board members Allen, Anderson, Benton, Fairchild, and Miller; IDOC Program Committee Chairs Childers and Valdez; and Grievance Officers Deen, Pampel, Schisler, Sanders, and Winsor.) Finally, the judge dismissed IDOC because it is not a person suable under § 1983. Will v. Mich. Dep't of State Police , 491 U.S. 58, 71, 109 S.Ct. 2304, 105 L.Ed.2d 45 (1989).

The remaining Hill and Big Muddy defendants (except for John Evans, a warden at Big Muddy) then jointly moved to dismiss because, they argued, Owens’s claims in his 2013 complaint, which arose from incidents that took place from 2006 to early 2010, were barred by the two-year statute of limitations. The judge granted the motion except as it related to three grievances (all related to postage issues). Owens never received responses to these grievances, so the judge determined that the claims could not be dismissed under the statute of limitations until it was clear when Owens had exhausted his administrative remedies. The judge also dismissed defendants who lacked personal involvement with the mailrooms: Winick, Schisler, Acevedo, Wright, Asbury, Butler, Cotton, Tasky, John Doe #2, Gaddis, Robinson, and Russell. This left Wayne Robke (the business manager from Hill), John Evans, and the remaining defendants from Pinckneyville and Lawrence, who did not move to dismiss. The judge later entered summary judgment in favor of the remaining defendants.

On appeal Owens challenges the judge’s entry of summary judgment as well as the dismissal of several of his claims and named defendants. He principally argues that he adequately alleged actual injury from the defendants' actions and raised a genuine issue of material fact on that question. He also argues that the judge abused his discretion by denying his three motions for recruited counsel and was biased against him.

III. Analysis

A. Claims Dismissed at Screening or Pursuant to Motion

The judge appropriately dismissed Owens’s claim that the prison unlawfully confiscated his trust account funds to recover litigation expenses that had been loaned to Owens; we have already upheld the provision requiring this. See Gaines , 790 F.2d at 1308 ; see Eason v. Nicholas , 847 F.Supp. 109, 113 (C.D. Ill. 1994) ("The deferred deduction of legal costs [as provided by Illinois statute] advanced by the state does not violate the Constitution.").

Owens also challenges the judge’s decision to dismiss his claims against IDOC and employees at Hill and Big Muddy who were involved only in the grievance process, but this argument has no merit. IDOC was properly dismissed because it is not a person subject to suit under § 1983. Will , 491 U.S. at 64–66, 109 S.Ct. 2304 ; Thomas v. Illinois, 697 F.3d 612, 613 (7th Cir. 2012). Prison officials who simply processed or reviewed inmate grievances lack personal involvement in the...