Roberts v. Williams, GC 6635-K.

• Decision Date: 30 July 1969
• Docket Number: No. GC 6635-K.,GC 6635-K.
• Parties: Arthur ROBERTS, by his Father and Guardian, Eddie W. Roberts, Plaintiff, v. Columbus WILLIAMS, individually and as Trusty at the Leflore County Farm, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Mississippi

302 F. Supp. 972

Arthur ROBERTS, by his Father and Guardian, Eddie W. Roberts, Plaintiff, v. Columbus WILLIAMS, individually and as Trusty at the Leflore County Farm, et al., Defendants.

No. GC 6635-K.

United States District Court N. D. Mississippi, Greenville Division.

July 30, 1969.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Donald R. Wilson, John J. Haugh, Pozzi, Wilson & Atchison, Portland, Or.; Martha M. Wood, Lawrence A. Aschenbrenner, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Jackson, Miss., for plaintiff.

Stanny Sanders, R. C. McBee, Norman Brewer, Porter Peteet, Greenwood, Miss., for defendants.

OPINION

KEADY, Chief Judge.

In this § 1983 action, plaintiff, Arthur Roberts, a 14 year old Negro suitor, sues for monetary damages upon four causes of action set forth in his complaint.¹ The first cause of action, here detailed to state plaintiff's basic claim, may be summarized as follows: On April 15, 1965, defendant Gray Evans, who held office as prosecutor for the City of Greenwood, Mississippi, but in this instance acting specially as Municipal Judge, heard a charge of petty larceny against plaintiff, convicted him of the offense, and gave him a 90 day jail sentence, prior to entry of an order of the Youth Court Division of the Leflore County court or notice to his parents, and in violation of his federal constitutional rights. On April 19, 1965, defendant Charles Pollard, Youth Court Judge, allegedly conducted a hearing at which plaintiff's parents were present, but not plaintiff, and upon recommendation of defendant Charles Deaton, the Court's Youth Counsellor, ratified the conviction and sentence imposed by defendant Evans, knowing same to have been violative of the Youth Court Act.² On June 28, 1965, while serving his sentence at the Leflore County Farm to which he had been transferred from the city jail, plaintiff was injured from a shotgun blast into his face, which gun he charges was intentionally or negligently discharged by Columbus Williams, a Negro and also an inmate of the county farm, who was serving as an armed trusty.³ Also sued as defendants were John Arterbury, Superintendent of the Leflore County Farm, the members of the Board of Supervisors of Leflore County,⁴ County Sheriff George W. Smith, and Fidelity and Deposit Company, Sheriff's official surety. Arterbury is specifically alleged to have appointed Williams to the position of trusty at the County Farm, knowing of his reputation for violence, and the Supervisors are allegedly charged under Mississippi law with responsibility for the supervision and management of the Leflore County Farm. These acts are jointly and severally charged to have violated plaintiff's rights under the laws and Constitution of the United States.

The aforementioned allegations are also incorporated into a second cause of action charging common law assault and battery, into a third cause of action charging negligence of all defendants other than the official surety, and into a fourth cause of action charging false imprisonment. Although these claims standing alone would not be cognizable here for lack of diversity of citizenship between all plaintiffs and all defendants, they so closely relate to the § 1983 action that they are within the ancillary or pendent jurisdiction of this court. See Hurn v. Oursler, 289 U.S. 238, 53 S.Ct. 586, 77 L.Ed. 1148 (1933); 28 U.S.C. § 1338(b).

On March 31, 1967, Circuit Judge Claude F. Clayton, then District Judge, granted summary judgment in favor of Pollard and Deaton on the ground of judicial immunity and they were dismissed from the suit.⁵ Motion for summary judgment was overruled as to the defendant Evans. The court overruled Arterbury's motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim on the first three causes of action but said motion was sustained as to the fourth.⁶ Defendant Smith, the County Sheriff, and his official surety were also granted motion for summary judgment, which was not opposed by plaintiff. A motion to dismiss filed by the members of the Board of Supervisors was deferred until trial.

A three-day trial on the merits commenced February 18, 1969, and developed the following facts: On the afternoon of April 14, 1965, plaintiff was arrested on a charge of petty larceny and was taken to the Greenwood City Jail, where he remained overnight awaiting trial. The next morning he was taken before Charles Pollard, Judge of the Youth Court, who conducted a hearing in the presence of plaintiff and his father, Eddie Roberts, and determined that plaintiff, having been in Youth Court on a prior occasion and transferred for ordinary criminal prosecution, should be tried for misdemeanor in city court. In accordance with custom, city court officials were at once notified by telephone of the action taken by the Youth Court.⁷ That afternoon at the city court trial, which was also attended by Eddie Roberts, plaintiff entered a plea of guilty before Gray Evans, Acting City Judge.⁸ The court accepted plaintiff's guilty plea and sentenced him to 90 days' imprisonment. Pursuant to city-county agreement, plaintiff was shortly thereafter transferred from city jail to the Leflore County Farm for serving his sentence. At the time of this transfer, a detention warrant, advising nature of the conviction and sentence imposed but giving no other information, was delivered to the farm superintendent.

The Leflore County Farm, maintained by the County Board of Supervisors, pursuant to statute, consisted of certain farm acreage and a dormitory styled building called the "cage", which usually housed about 25 to 30 county convicts serving prison sentences. The administration of the farm was under defendant Arterbury, an experienced law enforcement officer, who had had at the time of the incident more than 18 years of service as either superintendent or assistant superintendent. In accordance with their practice, the Supervisors had rehired Arterbury from year to year as he had performed his work satisfactorily and was regarded as a competent administrator and a person of good judgment. The inmates at the county farm work out their sentences on the farm or, as may be determined by the Board of Supervisors, on the public roads or other public works in the county. For a period of many years, the Supervisors had, if not by formal order, acquiesced in and approved the use of the farm prisoners as road gangs performing work on the county roads, bridges and public cemeteries, which was alternated weekly among the five Supervisors' districts and carried out under the direct supervision of a road foreman. During that period of time there had developed, with the Board's knowledge and approval, a trusty system by which certain inmates, selected by Arterbury, were accorded special privileges and responsibilities and some of whom were used as armed guards or "shooters", carrying loaded guns when guarding prisoners out "on the line" doing road work away from the farm. In some instances Arterbury, receiving authority from the Board, hired outside personnel as armed guards. Columbus Williams, a 23 year old Negro with a 4th grade education, serving time for conviction of the offenses of assault and battery with intent to kill and petty larceny, had been chosen by defendant Arterbury as an armed guard. For this purpose, Williams had been daily furnished a 12 gauge pump shotgun and a quantity of shells containing 7½ shot. On June 28, 1965, plaintiff was detailed as a member of a work crew in Beat 5 near Minter City, and Williams was guarding the prisoners. Shortly before noon, the road foreman departed the work site, leaving Williams in charge, and the work crew stopped for lunch at a county-owned barn. As the plaintiff, after lunch, was resting on the ground not more than 50 feet from the barn entrance where Williams stood guard, and in his plain view, Williams, then having the shotgun cradled under his right arm, caused it to discharge directly into plaintiff's face, causing his blindness in both eyes, brain damage and other injuries resulting in total and permanent disability.⁹ Admittedly, at the time of the shooting Williams had the shotgun loaded with 5 shells, one of which was in the firing chamber, ready to shoot in accordance with his instructions, and the safety was off. The shotgun could not have been discharged with the safety on, as it was in good working order. There is no evidence that Williams stumbled or dropped the gun or suddenly knocked the safety off. Williams was unable to give a satisfactory explanation of why the gun discharged and he failed to check the safety mechanism after its discharge. Although plaintiff suggests that the shooting was deliberate and done to satisfy a grudge, no witness actually saw Williams in the act of pulling the trigger and all present observed his apparent shock and grief over the shooting. Necessarily, however, Williams was grossly negligent in the handling of the loaded weapon, knowing that it was ready for instant firing with a shell in the chamber and nonetheless pointing it in the direction of plaintiff who was in full view, without making certain that the safety was on, or without examining the gun to determine whether the safety might have become disengaged through previous handling. Arterbury had selected Williams as a shooter because "he was obedient, did his work right and never gave me any trouble." This occurred several months after Williams had arrived at the farm as an inmate, and Arterbury was familiar with the fact that Williams had been a sheriff's trusty while at the county jail. He ascertained, on casual inquiry, whether Williams knew how to handle and use a shotgun, and he relied upon Williams' telling him that his father had taught him how to use a gun as he had often hunted as a child. Arterbury gave Williams only the briefest instructions concerning the use of the gun, telling him "to be careful". There were no meaningful demonstrations by Arterbury or his assistants to teach Williams...