Pryer v. C.O. 3 Slavic

• Decision Date: 05 July 2001
• Docket Number: No. 00-3297,00-3297
• Citation: 251 F.3d 448
• Parties: (3rd Cir. 2001) RAYMOND T. PRYER v. C.O. 3 SLAVIC; C.O. 1 COOK; C.O. 1 PROROCK; C.O. 1 D. BURSEY, Appellants
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

Page 448

251 F.3d 448 (3rd Cir. 2001)

RAYMOND T. PRYER v. C.O. 3 SLAVIC; C.O. 1 COOK; C.O. 1 PROROCK; C.O. 1 D. BURSEY, Appellants

No. 00-3297

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT

Argued October 26, 2000,

Filed May 30, 2001,

Amended June 5, 2001 and July 5, 2001

D. Michael Fisher, Calvin R. Koons, John G. Knorr, III (argued), Office of Attorney General, Harrisburg, PA, ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLANTS.

Jere Krakoff, Pittsburgh, PA. Cathy Bissoon (argued), Reed, Smith, Shaw & McClay, LLP, Pittsburgh, PA, ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE.

Before: MANSMANN, ALITO, and FUENTES, Circuit Judges. MANSMANN, Circuit Judge, concurring in part, and dissenting in part

OPINION OF THE COURT

FUENTES, Circuit Judge:

Appellee, Raymond T. Pryer, a state prisoner, filed a civil rights action against a number of prison guards claiming that they had assaulted him in two separate incidents. A jury found that some of the guards had acted reasonably but found four others liable and awarded Pryer $ 1.00 in damages. Thereafter, the District Court, on its own motion, ordered a new trial, limiting its scope solely to the issue of damages. In the retrial, the court prevented the defendants from arguing that some of the guards no longer in the case had caused Pryer's injuries. In that second trial, the jury awarded Pryer $ 300,000. The guards appeal the District Court's rulings pertaining to the second trial.

We will affirm the District Court's order for a new trial. However, because the issues of liability and damages were so intertwined as to make a fair trial on damages alone impossible, we will reverse and remand for a new trial on all issues.

I.

Pryer brought this action under 42 U.S.C. 1983 alleging that he was subjected to excessive use of force on September 15 and 27, 1990, while imprisoned at the State Correctional Institution at Pittsburgh. In his complaint, Pryer named approximately forty defendants, including prison officials, medical personnel, and numerous correctional officers. Pryer sought compensatory and punitive damages for his injuries. The District Court dismissed the claims against the prison officials and the medical personnel, and the case proceeded to trial against nineteen guards: Gary Beck, Fred Bogonovich, Richard Bedilion, Douglas Cameron, Daniel Primm, Jacob Tokarski, Paul Trunick, Daniel Clarke, Robert Jefferson, Perry Ciesielski, Bernard Jacobs, William Balzer, John Weaver, Daniel Caponi, Richard Slavec,¹ David Cook, Gerald Prorock, Doyle Bursey, and Russell Wilson. Pryer appeared pro se in the three-day trial, which concerned both incidents and began February 22, 1999.

A.

The relevant facts established at trial are as follows. On September 15, 1990, the day of the first incident, Pryer was in the prison exercise yard when he began arguing and fighting with another inmate. Prison guards broke up the fight and handcuffed Pryer, then transferred him to the Restricted Housing Unit ("RHU") where he was placed in the custody of Officers Balzer, Caponi, Weaver, Bogonovich, and Beck.

According to Pryer, these officers began beating him in the hallway near the RHU while admitting him to the cellblock. Pryer testified that, without provocation and while in handcuffs, these five officers punched him with fists, struck him with nightsticks, kicked him repeatedly while he was lying on the ground, and eventually knocked him unconscious. Further, Pryer testified that, as a result of the incident, he suffered bruises, welts, and abrasions. In contrast, Balzer testified that, when Pryer was brought to the RHU, his handcuffs were removed as a preliminary step to a strip search. According to Balzer, Pryer then began screaming and punched Balzer in the face. Balzer testified that he, Weaver, and Caponi used force to subdue Pryer. He said that the officers eventually strip-searched Pryer and placed him in a cell.

The next incident took place on September 27, 1990 as Pryer was being searched before going outside for exercise. While being searched, Pryer complained that Officer Wilson, who was conducting the search, had improperly fondled his buttocks, so he requested that another guard complete the search. That request led to an exchange of words and, according to Pryer, Wilson punched him in the face. Officers Caponi and Bursey then began beating Pryer with their fists and batons and kicked him to the ground. Bursey called for help, and Officers Slavec, Primm, Prorock, and Trunick arrived in response.

At this point, according to Pryer, while he was on the floor, Slavec ordered his subordinates to stop hitting Pryer, and he handcuffed Pryer's hands behind his back. Shortly thereafter, all of the officers continued the beating. Pryer was then dragged outside the building, and led to an elevator that would take him to the third floor of the RHU. He claims that Officers Prorock, Bursey, Caponi, and Slavec subjected him to additional beatings inside the elevator and along the walkway on the third floor. He said that, at the entrance to the third floor cells, Officers Cameron, Tokarski, Jefferson, Ciesielski, Jacobs, and Cook met him with a barrage of nightstick blows and that Primm and Trunick also participated.

According to Pryer, Officers Slavec, Bursey, Cook, and other guards then led Pryer into an isolation cell where they continued the beatings. There, Slavec jammed a nightstick into his eye and ordered the others to break his hands and legs. The officers then held Pryer down to the cell floor, and struck his hands and legs with nightsticks. Cook also jumped from a cell bed onto Pryer's stomach, and Cameron and Jacobs used a stun gun on him.

Pryer introduced medical records to prove his injuries. He testified, without dispute, that two bones on his left hand and three on his right hand were broken; his lower left leg was fractured in two places; he was bleeding from the mouth; he urinated blood; his body was covered with bruises; and he had welts on his face, bumps on his head, a swollen eye, and split lips. Further, Pryer testified that, as a result of the incident, he received stitches to his head and lower left leg and his left leg was put in a cast.

Although not all of the officers testified during the trial, their version of the events differed markedly from Pryer's testimony. According to the officers, Pryer had initiated the second incident by punching Wilson in the face and Caponi in the head. Wilson testified that he had used his baton on Pryer five to ten times, aiming below Pryer's left knee. Bursey testified that Pryer struck him as well. According to the officers, Pryer was forcibly resisting a search and had to be subdued, ultimately by the use of mace, then stripped and searched by the guards.

At the close of evidence, the District Court, on its own motion, entered a directed verdict in favor of eleven officers: Beck, Bogonovich, Bedilion, Cameron, Primm, Tokarski, Clarke, Jefferson, Ciesielski, Jacobs, and Trunick. In so ruling, the court stated that Pryer had "failed even to mention some of [the guards during his testimony], and in other respects his evidence rose no higher than [that the guards] were simply present at the scene but were not identified as having caused him any harm in any way." Pryer objected to this ruling at trial, but does not raise it here on appeal. The trial judge's ruling left a total of eight officers for the jury's consideration.

The judge then instructed the jury on the principles governing Eighth Amendment prison excessive force claims. However, on the issue of damages, the court only informed the jury that Pryer would be entitled to compensation for all injuries that were proximately caused by the officers' conduct. The court did not instruct the jury as to what kinds of injuries were compensable under 1983, and did not inform the jury that it could award money damages for intangible harms, such as physical and emotional pain, humiliation and fear engendered by a beating. Finally, the court informed the jury that it must return an award of damages in the nominal amount of one dollar if Pryer failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that he suffered any actual injury or damages. Pryer, who was proceeding pro se, did not object to these instructions.

After deliberating for a little over five and a half hours, the jury found in favor of four guards (Balzer, Caponi, Weaver, and Wilson), but returned a general liability verdict against the other four (Slavec, Cook, Prorock, and Bursey).

The jury awarded $ 1.00 in nominal damages and no compensatory or punitive damages.

B.

On March 10, 1999, the District Court, on its own motion, vacated the damages award and ordered a new trial against Slavec, Cook, Prorock, and Bursey limited to the issue of damages. In its written decision, the court held that the jury's verdict on damages was against the weight of the evidence and that a new trial was "necessary to avoid a miscarriage of justice." Additionally, the court ruled that its instructions to the jury as to both compensatory and nominal damages were, respectively, inadequate and legally erroneous. Specifically, the court recognized that it had erred "by failing to instruct the jury that it could consider plaintiff's pain, suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life in affixing compensatory damages." The court also held that, given Pryer's undisputed proof of actual injury, an instruction on nominal damages was inappropriate. Notably, the judge did not state any reasons for limiting the second trial to the issue of damages.

C.

On February 22, 2000, after appointing counsel to represent Pryer, the court commenced the second trial.² This trial focused only on the damages caused by the second incident.³ The court began the trial by reading a stipulation of facts and a summary of the medical records describing Pryer's injuries. Pryer then testified at length against Slavec, Cook, Prorock, and Bursey, and he provided detailed testimony regarding the...