Pembroke v. Wood County, Tex.

• Decision Date: 20 January 1993
• Docket Number: Nos. 92-4079,92-4250,s. 92-4079
• Citation: 981 F.2d 225
• Parties: Larry PEMBROKE, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. WOOD COUNTY, TEXAS, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 225

981 F.2d 225

Larry PEMBROKE, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. WOOD COUNTY, TEXAS, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

Nos. 92-4079, 92-4250.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

Jan. 20, 1993.

Timothy B. Garrigan, Stuckey & Garrigan, Nacogdoches, TX, for plaintiffs-appellants.

Rickey L. Faulkner and Charles Homer Clark, Tyler, TX, for defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court For the Eastern District of Texas.

Before POLITZ, Chief Judge, and WISDOM and WIENER, Circuit Judges.

WISDOM, Circuit Judge:

Two prisoners filed an action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging denial of access to the courts, improper classification of prisoners, punitive isolation without due process, improper restriction of reading materials, inadequate medical care, and additional generally unacceptable prison conditions. The district court certified a class of all present and future inmates. The individual prisoners' claims were tried to a jury while the class claims were simultaneously tried to the court. After the jury rendered a verdict for the state denying the individual prisoners any recovery, the court denied the class claims as well. The plaintiff class appealed this decision and in an unpublished opinion this Court vacated the district court's decision and remanded the case for entry of findings of fact and conclusions of law. ¹ Upon remand the court entered its findings and again denied the class claims. In a later proceeding, the court denied the plaintiff's request for prevailing party status and reasonable attorney's fees and costs. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand with instructions to award reasonable attorney's fees and costs to the plaintiffs.

I

This suit was originally instituted by Wood County Jail prisoners Dennis McKeever and Trent Commander. The suit was filed in December 1985 under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging that the conditions at the prison violated their constitutional rights. ² The plaintiffs sought damages individually and sought declaratory and injunctive relief on behalf of the entire class of inmates. The district court certified a class of all present and future inmates confined and to be confined in the Wood County Jail. The class waived its damages claim and proceeded to trial seeking only declaratory and injunctive relief.

The conditions at the Wood County Jail at the time suit was filed in 1985 were indeed substandard. According to the district court's factual findings, the classification system was not properly implemented. As a result, pretrial detainees were not separated from convicted felons. In addition, the court found that "reading materials" consisted of one bible and class members were denied access to the county law library for a period of seven months. Finally the court found that one of the named plaintiffs had been placed in isolation for punitive purposes without due process protections.

These were not the only problems at the jail. The facility was in a general state of disarray. Administration of the facility had been delegated to untrained staff members; repeated state standards violations were never recorded or addressed; medical attention was erratic; and the plumbing was in a constant state of disrepair resulting in raw sewage overflowing the showers and toilets for months at a time. The jail was always in semi-darkness in violation of state lighting standards. Visitation privileges were arbitrarily restricted. The prisoners were sometimes sprayed with mace as a form of punishment.

By the time the case came to trial in February 1988, most if not all of the complained of conditions had been remedied. A prison administrator, hired in January 1987 two years after the suit was filed, instituted a total reform of the facility. The prisoners were properly classified, given access to the county law library and reading materials, proper procedural safeguards were instituted regarding the use of punitive isolation, and the other conditions complained of were corrected. In addition, the county began the construction of a new prison facility. The prisoners were moved to this facility and the old jail was closed in 1988 after the trial. Of the two original individual plaintiffs, only McKeever showed up for trial. McKeever's claims were tried to a jury while the class claims were tried simultaneously to the court. The court submitted McKeever's individual claims to the jury by a general charge, keeping the class claims for declaratory relief under advisement pending the jury's verdict.

The court instructed the jury to find for McKeever only if it determined that, under the totality of the circumstances, the plaintiff had been unconstitutionally confined in the jail. After the charge was made, and during the time allotted for counsel to object to the charge, the trial judge clarified his charge to facilitate review by this Court. He stated in his charge to the jury that "[t]he court has found on the points concerning the legal material, concerning the matter of reason for the single cell isolation ... [a]nd concerning classification ... reasonable minds could not differ that under the facts of this case, the facts constituted a violation of minimum constitutional standards". ³ In spite of these instructions, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendants. This verdict is not the subject of this appeal, because the individual claims were abandoned by McKeever, who is now deceased. Mr. Pembroke was substituted as the class representative.

In the light of the jury's verdict, the court decided the class claims in favor of the defendants without stating any factual findings or conclusions of law. The plaintiffs ⁴ appealed this decision. In an unpublished opinion, this Court vacated and remanded for entry of findings of fact and conclusions of law. ⁵ Upon remand, the court issued its factual findings and conclusions of law and once again denied the class claims. The court then dismissed the case with prejudice and ordered that the class be decertified. The plaintiffs appeal this decision. In addition, in a later proceeding, the court denied the plaintiffs' request for prevailing party status, thus denying their request for reasonable attorney's fees and costs. The plaintiffs appeal this decision as well. The two appeals were consolidated and this appeal followed.

II

We review a district court's refusal to grant declaratory relief for abuse of discretion. ⁶ In Hollis v. Itawamba County Loans, we stated that "[t]he issue of whether to grant a declaratory judgment is left to the district court's sound discretion to ensure that subsequent events have not ... made declaratory relief inappropriate". ⁷

The district court denied declaratory relief based on its finding that the case was moot. The court found that because the jail conditions complained of by the plaintiff were remedied before the case came to trial they did not pose a continuing threat of harm to the class members. Further, based on what it characterized as "good attitudes" on the part of the defendants, the court also concluded that there was no threat that these types of conditions would arise in the future. Relying on Golden v. Zwickler, ⁸ and United States v. W.T. Grant Co., ⁹ the court reasoned that because the problem was remedied before trial, some danger that the harm would be repeated must exist in order to warrant declaratory relief. In the absence of any such danger, the case is moot. We agree.

The plaintiffs argue that they are entitled to some relief upon the finding of any constitutional violation whether or not these conditions existed on the trial date or threaten to recur in the future. They rely on Green v. Ferrell, ¹⁰ where the Court remanded and suggested that declaratory relief would be an appropriate remedy for unconstitutional prison conditions. This case does not support their argument. In Green, the complained of conditions were still in existence when the case came to trial. ¹¹ In addition, the plaintiffs also rely on Morrow v. Harwell, ¹² arguing that even where the defendants demonstrate a willingness to comply with constitutional standards in the future, declaratory relief is still proper. This case is distinguishable from the present case for the same reason we distinguished Green. Although the County changed some of its unconstitutional practices before the appeal was heard, they were still in existence when the case reached the magistrate. ¹³ The Court noted that declaratory relief would have been proper even had the conditions been remedied before the case was tried, yet it by no means held that such relief is required. Such a determination is left to the discretion of the trial court.

The proper standard for review is abuse of discretion. The record does not support a finding of abuse. The plaintiffs do not contend that any of the complained of conditions existed at the time the case came to trial. The plaintiffs argue that the defendants could easily return to their unconstitutional practices in the future. Yet, they offer no evidence to support this allegation. The district court described the defendants as having "good attitudes" and found no danger of the poor conditions recurring in the future. The fact finder is in the best position to judge the credibility of witnesses and we will reverse its finding only if it is clearly erroneous. The court's findings on this point are adequately supported by the record and are not clearly erroneous. We therefore affirm its determination that the case was moot and we agree with its decision to deny declaratory relief.

Although we do not find error in the court's decision to deny declaratory relief we cannot turn a blind eye to the conditions at the Wood County Jail as they existed prior to the trial date. The district court found that McKeever was placed in isolation for five days for the purpose of punishment, without due process protections. The court made no finding that this was a...