Rodziewicz v. Beyer

• Decision Date: 22 September 1992
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 92-1277 (GEB).
• Parties: Allen RODZIEWICZ, Plaintiff, v. Howard BEYER, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of New Jersey

809 F. Supp. 1164

Allen RODZIEWICZ, Plaintiff, v. Howard BEYER, et al., Defendants.

Civ. No. 92-1277 (GEB).

United States District Court, D. New Jersey.

September 22, 1992.

Allen Rodziewicz, pro se.

Robert J. Del Tufo, Atty. Gen. of NJ, Daniel A. DiLella, Deputy Atty. Gen., Trenton, NJ, for defendants.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

GARRETT E. BROWN, Jr., District Judge.

Before the Court is defendants' motion for summary judgment. The motion raises the question whether an inmate is precluded from litigating in federal court constitutional issues that were decided against him by the state court on appeal from a prison disciplinary hearing. For the reasons set forth in this Memorandum and Order, issued without oral argument pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 78, the Court concludes that the inmate is precluded from relitigating his claims. Accordingly, the Court will grant the motion.

BACKGROUND

Plaintiff pro se Allen Rodziewicz, currently incarcerated at New Jersey State Prison ("NJSP"), claims that on May 21, 1990, he was found guilty at an NJSP disciplinary hearing of possession of gambling paraphernalia in violation of N.J.Admin.Code tit. 10A, § 4-4.1(a)(603). The disciplinary action was initiated after a strip search revealed betting slips on or near plaintiff's person. Plaintiff received sanctions of 15 days lockup, 60 days administrative segregation, and 60 days loss of commutation time.

In late May 1990, after his administrative appeal¹ was denied, he sought review of the disciplinary finding in the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division, pursuant to N.J.Ct.R. 2:2-3(a)(2).² Plaintiff named the New Jersey Department of Corrections ("DOC") as the respondent. He summarized his legal argument in the state court in the following manner:

Appellant has numerous substantial issues to present on this appeal. All implicate federally required due process guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. They include valid objections to the investigatory process, the failure to afford a timely hearing, the unconstitutional strip search absent a reasonable suspicion, the level of evidence relied on to enter a finding of guilt, and the failure to adhere to agency regulations in disposing of the administrative appeal.

Brief in Support of Motion for Leave to Proceed In Forma Pauperis and for an Emergent Stay 4 (Unnumbered Attachment to Halloran Certif. in Support of Defs.' Motion). On August 7, 1990, the Appellate Division (i) granted plaintiff's motion to proceed in forma pauperis, (ii) denied his motion for a stay, (iii) granted DOC's cross-motion for summary disposition of the appeal, and (iv) affirmed the disciplinary order and sanctions. The New Jersey Supreme Court denied plaintiff's petition for certification and dismissed his notice of appeal pursuant to N.J.Ct.R. 2:12-9.

On March 23, 1992, plaintiff filed the present action in this Court pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1988), naming as defendants various individuals connected in some way to the disciplinary proceeding.³ He sought a judgment declaring that the disciplinary proceedings violated his constitutional rights, an order enjoining random strip searches, compensatory damages for the time he spent in a more restrictive environment as a result of the sanctions, and punitive damages. Defendants now move for summary judgment, raising principles of preclusion.

DISCUSSION

A. Standards for Summary Judgment

Summary judgment may be granted only if there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed. R.Civ.P. 56; Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2552, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). It is appropriate for the Court to resolve a defense of claim or issue preclusion on motion for summary judgment, for the issues raised are purely legal in nature. See Delaware Valley Transplant Program v. Coye, 722 F.Supp. 1188, 1192 (D.N.J.1989).

B. Preclusion Principles

Plaintiff elected, as was his right, to appeal from the prison disciplinary proceeding to the state appellate court. He was not successful. This Court must give to the appellate court's judgment "the same preclusive effect as would be given that judgment under the law of the State in which the judgment was entered." Migra v. Warren City School Dist. Bd. of Educ., 465 U.S. 75, 81, 104 S.Ct. 892, 896, 79 L.Ed.2d 56 (1984); see 28 U.S.C. § 1738 (1988).

New Jersey courts follow the preclusion principles found in the Restatement (Second) of Judgments (1982) (hereafter "Restatement"). Under the Restatement, "A valid and final personal judgment rendered in favor of the defendant bars another action by the plaintiff on the same claim." Restatement § 19; see, e.g., Culver v. Insurance Co. of N. Am., 115 N.J. 451, 460, 559 A.2d 400, 404 (1989) ("Where the second action is no more than a repetition of the first, the first lawsuit stands as a barrier to the second."). This is the general rule of bar, which, together with the rule of merger, comprises the doctrine of res judicata in the narrow sense, or claim preclusion.⁴

1. Claim Preclusion

For defendants to prevail on grounds of claim preclusion, there must be an earlier valid and final judgment in an action involving "substantially similar or identical causes of action and issues, parties, and relief sought." Culver, 115 N.J. at 460, 559 A.2d at 405; see United States v. Athlone Indus., Inc., 746 F.2d 977, 983 (3d Cir.1984) (essentially same elements under federal law). There is no doubt that the appellate court's ruling was a valid and final judgment. In determining whether the causes of action are substantially similar, the Court considers

(1) whether the acts complained of and the demand for relief are the same (that is, whether the wrong for which redress is sought is the same in both actions) ...; (2) whether the theory of recovery is the same; (3) whether the witness and documents necessary at trial are the same (that is, whether the same evidence necessary to maintain the second action would have been sufficient to support the first) ...; and (4) whether the material facts alleged are the same.

Culver, 115 N.J. at 461-62, 559 A.2d at 405 (quoting Athlone Indus., 746 F.2d at 984) (internal citations omitted).

These factors all weigh heavily in favor of the conclusion that the causes of action are substantially similar, if not identical. The same wrong is complained of, the same material facts are alleged, and the evidence is identical. Indeed, the documents supporting plaintiff's appellate brief are the kind typically dispositive in § 1983 actions challenging disciplinary proceedings, i.e., the DOC form disciplinary report, the form adjudication sheet, the administrative appeal (together with a supporting brief), and the appeal disposition sheet. Plaintiff's theory of recovery also is indistinguishable, for his entire argument on appeal was that his constitutional rights were violated. See pages 2-3 above. Therefore, the Court concludes that the appeal and the present action are substantially similar.

Plaintiff named DOC as respondent in his appeal. DOC is not a defendant here, but its employees are. The Court is satisfied that there is sufficient identity of parties to support a finding of preclusion. In Wheeler v. Nieves, 762 F.Supp. 617 (D.N.J.1991), this Court held that a § 1983 litigant was barred from relitigating issues decided adversely to him in a criminal proceeding. The Court found sufficient privity between the State of New Jersey, the party to the criminal proceeding, and the arresting police officers, the defendants in the § 1983 action. The State prosecuted its action through those officers, with whom it had an identity of functions and interests, therefore the relationship between them was "close enough to include the officers within the res judicata." Id. at 625 (quoting E.E.O.C. v. United States Steel Corp., 921 F.2d 489, 493 (3d Cir.1990)). Similarly, in this case the DOC employees are close enough to the DOC to invoke the preclusive effect of the earlier judgment.

The final element is whether the relief sought in the two actions is substantially similar. Plaintiff argues that the appellate ruling does not preclude this action because he seeks a form of relief here, money damages, that was not available on the appeal. He relies on the Restatement, which provides for an exception to claim preclusion when

the plaintiff was unable to rely on a certain theory of the case or to seek a certain remedy or form of relief in the first action because of the limitations on the subject matter jurisdiction of the courts or restrictions on their authority to entertain multiple theories or demands for relief in a single action, and the plaintiff desires in the second action to rely on that theory or to seek that remedy or form of relief.

Restatement § 26(1)(c). There is authority for plaintiff's position. The Second Circuit has held that a state prisoner is not precluded from pursuing a § 1983 claim by an earlier adverse ruling in a summary proceeding under Article 78 of the New York Civil Practice Law and Rules, principally because a party may not assert a claim for damages in an Article 78 proceeding. See Davidson v. Capuano, 792 F.2d 275, 278-80 (2d Cir.1986).⁵ One district court outside the Second Circuit has reached the same conclusion, albeit with little discussion. See Bates v. Department of Corrections, 774 F.Supp. 536, 539 (E.D.Wis.1991).

Another district court has concluded that an inmate may be precluded from relitigating in a § 1983 action matters that were upheld on state appellate review of a disciplinary proceeding, although it is not clear if the court was relying on issue preclusion or on claim preclusion. See Chambers v. Koehler, 635 F.Supp. 884, 889 (W.D.Mich. 1984). The most direct analysis of the type of argument made here is found in James v. Kincheloe, No. C-88-463-JBH, 1991 WL 243309 (E.D.Wash. Nov. 6, 1991). Plaintiff James first...