Patterson v. Coughlin, 904

• Decision Date: 09 May 1985
• Docket Number: D,No. 904,904
• Citation: 761 F.2d 886
• Parties: Emmanuel D. PATTERSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Thomas A. COUGHLIN, III, Charles P. Hernandez (sic Charles P. Hermanderz), Harold J. Smith, N. DeSantos, Defendants-Appellees. ocket 84-2266.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Page 886

761 F.2d 886

Emmanuel D. PATTERSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Thomas A. COUGHLIN, III, Charles P. Hernandez (sic Charles P. Hermanderz), Harold J. Smith, N. DeSantos Defendants-Appellees.

No. 904, Docket 84-2266.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued March 12, 1985.

Decided May 9, 1985.

Robert B. Calihan, New York City, for plaintiff-appellant.

Martin A. Hotvet, Asst. Atty. Gen., Albany, N.Y. (Robert Abrams, Atty. Gen., and Robert Hermann, Sol. Gen., Albany, N.Y., on the brief), for defendants-appellees.

Before TIMBERS, CARDAMONE and PIERCE, Circuit Judges.

TIMBERS, Circuit Judge:

This appeal is from a judgment entered December 5, 1983 in the Western District of New York, Michael A. Telesca, District Judge, dismissing a pro se complaint pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. The appeal presents the question of whether a claim is stated under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 (1982) when the complaint alleges that a state prisoner was placed in isolation by state officials in violation of state law and without being afforded a prior hearing that conforms to the due process requirements enunciated in Wolff v. McDonald, 418 U.S. 539 (1974). The district court held that Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527 (1981), required dismissal of the complaint because the state provides an adequate postdeprivation remedy. We disagree. We reverse and remand.

I.

For purposes of this appeal we accept as true the allegations set forth in the complaint. We summarize only those facts and prior proceedings believed necessary to an understanding of our rulings on the legal issues raised on appeal.

Appellant Emmanuel D. Patterson is, and at all times relevant to this action was, an inmate of the Attica Correctional Facility at Attica, New York. Appellees are Thomas A. Coughlin III, the Commissioner of the New York State Department of Correctional Services; Harold J. Smith, the Commissioner of the Attica Correctional Facility; Charles P. Hernandez, Director of the Special Housing Review Board; and N. DeSantos, a Captain at Attica.

On April 9, 1982, a fight broke out between two other inmates at Attica. Appellant, who asserts that he was not involved in the altercation, was placed in the facility's Special Housing Unit (SHU). On April 12, appellant appeared before the Prison Adjustment Committee and was charged with "Assault 1.5 and Interference with an employee 1.75". A Superintendent's Hearing was convened on April 16 to consider the charges but was adjourned until April 20.

Appellee DeSantos was the hearing officer at the April 20 hearing. The only witness who testified was the guard who claimed to be the subject of appellant's alleged assault. Appellant was not permitted to call any witnesses in his defense nor did DeSantos interview any such witnesses. Appellant was found guilty of both charges. He was sentenced to confinement in the SHU for sixty days and loss of sixty days "good time". Appellant appealed the decision at the Superintendent's Hearing to appellees Smith and Coughlin. On July 21, 1982, that decision was affirmed by the Housing Review Board.

In the meanwhile, appellant filed an Article 78 proceeding in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Wyoming, in which he sought immediate release from the SHU and restoration of the sixty days good time. Just prior to his scheduled appearance in the Supreme Court, and shortly before his sixty-day sentence had been served, ¹ he was released from the SHU. A hearing was held in the Supreme Court on June 10, 1982. Appellees at that hearing were ordered to produce the record of the Superintendent's Hearing. That record was never produced. A second hearing was held in the Supreme Court on February 25, 1983.

On March 4, 1983, the Supreme Court entered an Order of Stipulation dismissing appellant's petition with prejudice but ordering that appellees "through their agents or employees not hold the [appellant] in confinement in Attica'[s] Special Housing Unit because of the disposition issued at [appellant's] Superintendent's Proceeding of April 20, 1982 at the Attica Correctional Facility." The order specifically provided that appellees had stipulated to restore appellant's good time and to expunge any reference to the disciplinary proceeding from appellant's file.

On or about April 6, 1983, appellant filed his pro se complaint, on a form used by prisoners who are not represented by counsel, in the District Court for the Western District of New York. At the same time, he moved for leave to proceed in forma pauperis and for appointment of counsel; on May 10, 1983, Judge Telesca granted the former, but denied the latter. ²

On August 15, 1983, appellees moved, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted, or, in the alternative, for summary judgment pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 56. Apparently no documentary evidence ever was produced, despite the district court's order of August 1, 1983 requiring production of the record of the Superintendent's Hearing. ³ The district court, treating the motion as one under Rule 12(b)(6), dismissed the complaint in a Memorandum Decision and Order dated December 5, 1983 which in relevant part states:

"In the present case, plaintiff alleges that defendants failed to strictly comply with the procedures established in New York's Code of Rules and Regulations for Confinement in a Special Housing Unit. Because the procedures existed, but were allegedly not followed, no meaningful predeprivation hearing was possible.... Plaintiff did seek redress pursuant to New York Civil Practice Law and Rules Article 78 to force defendants to comply with the established procedures and thus, was given an opportunity to be heard at a meaningful time and in a meaningful manner."

As indicated above, we reverse and remand, for the reasons stated below.

II.

Recovery under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 (1982) is premised upon a showing, first, that the defendant has denied the plaintiff a constitutional or federal statutory right and, second, that such denial was effected under color of state law. Adickes v. S.H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144, 150 (1970). Appellant here alleges a deprivation of his liberty interest and a denial of the procedural safeguards guaranteed by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. That the liberty interest at issue here is of constitutional dimension is not contested. E.g., Hewitt v. Helms, 459 U.S. 460, 472 (1983); Sher v. Coughlin, 739 F.2d 77, 81 (2 Cir.1984). Moreover, it is not claimed that the officials' conduct did not amount to "state action", which is a prerequisite to finding a constitutional violation, or that it did not occur under color of state law. The only issue presented for our decision, therefore, is whether, upon the facts alleged in the complaint, there has been a denial of constitutionally-mandated procedures.

In its simplest formulation, due process requires an opportunity to be heard "at a meaningful time and in a meaningful manner." Armstrong v. Manzo, 380 U.S. 545, 552 (1965); Giglio v. Dunn, 732 F.2d 1133, 1135 (2 Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 105 S.Ct. 328 (1984). Determining precisely the process that is due, however, is more complicated than this simple statement might suggest. The level of procedural safeguards that must be afforded before the government may deprive an individual of a protected interest is determined by reference to (1) the private interest at stake, (2) the risk of error inherent in the use of one form of procedure over another, and (3) the interest of the government. Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 335 (1976). See also Cleveland Board of Education v. Loudermill, --- U.S. ----, ----, 105 S.Ct. 1487, 1494 (1985), Hewitt v. Helms, supra, 459 U.S. at 473. Thus, a tenured public employee is guaranteed notice of the charges against him, an explanation of the evidence in the employer's favor and an opportunity to present "his side of the story" before his employment is terminated. Loudermill, supra, --- U.S. at ----, 105 S.Ct. at 1495. Moreover, a formal postdeprivation evidentiary hearing must be provided before the employee's loss may become final. Id., --- U.S. at ----, 105 S.Ct. at 1496.

The procedural safeguards that are required when an individual's liberty is at stake must at least equal those required before he may be deprived of his property, even when the individual's liberty already is curtailed by the fact of being incarcerated in a correctional facility. Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 558 (1974). Thus, an inmate who is facing prison disciplinary charges that could result in punitive segregation is entitled, at a minimum, to advance written notice of the charges against him and of the evidence available to the factfinder. He must be permitted to marshal the facts and prepare his defense. A written record of the proceedings must be kept. The inmate must be allowed to call witnesses and present documentary evidence in his defense. Id. at 564-66; McCann v. Coughlin, 698 F.2d 112, 120-21 (2 Cir.1983).

In Hewitt v. Helms, supra, the Supreme Court held that administrative segregation of a prison inmate--where the inmate posed a threat to the safety of other inmates and prison employees and where an investigation into the charges against the inmate was continuing--required only "an informal, non-adversary review of the information supporting respondent's administrative confinement, including whatever statement respondent wished to submit, within a reasonable time after confining him to administrative segregation." Id. at 472. Where, as here, the state can show no such compelling interest, and the sole purpose of the confinement is punishment, the Mathews balancing test tips in favor of the inmate's liberty interest. The state, therefore, is required to provide the procedures required by Wolff.

In the instant case, ap...