Ryan v. Hayes

• Decision Date: 22 March 2002
• Parties: Sue RYAN and Willard Ryan v. Jim HAYES et al. Karl Franklin Smith, individually and as next friend of William Frank Smith III, a minor v. Jim Hayes et al. Michael Peden and Harold Peden v. Jim Hayes et al.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

831 So.2d 21

Sue RYAN and Willard Ryan v. Jim HAYES et al.

Karl Franklin Smith, individually and as next friend of William Frank Smith III, a minor v. Jim Hayes et al.

Michael Peden and Harold Peden v. Jim Hayes et al.

1001578, 1031.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

March 22, 2002.

Randall S. Haynes and Larry W. Morris of Morris, Haynes & Hornsby, Alexander City, for appellants Sue Ryan and Willard Ryan.

Nat Bryan and Thomas M. Powell of Marsh, Rickard & Bryan, P.C., Birmingham, for appellants Karl Franklin Smith, Michael Peden, and Harold Peden.

Winston V. Legge, Jr., of Patton, Latham, Legge & Cole, Athens, for appellee Jim Hayes.

Andrew W. Redd, asst. atty. gen., and general counsel; and William F. Addison, asst. atty. gen., and asst. general counsel, Department of Corrections, for appellees Ralph Hooks and David Wise. Barnes F. Lovelace, Jr., of Harris, Caddell & Shanks, P.C., Decatur, for appellee Jim Yarbrough.

John Percy Oliver II of Oliver & Sims, Dadeville, for amici curiae Alabama Coalition Against Rape (ACAR) and Victims of Crime and Leniency (VOCAL).

HARWOOD, Justice.

The three above-captioned cases, consolidated on appeal, were brought in the Circuit Court of Limestone County by the victims of a post-escape rampage by Scourterrious Lofton ("Lofton"), an inmate at the Limestone Correctional Facility ("Limestone"), located in Capshaw, who, along with another inmate, escaped from a disciplinary chain gang on June 25, 1997. The defendants in these actions were Jim Hayes, the classification-specialist supervisor at Limestone; Ralph Hooks, the warden of Limestone; David Wise, the deputy warden; and Jim Yarbrough, a correctional officer at Limestone. For purposes of this appeal, we are assuming the following facts to be undisputed.

After he escaped, Lofton stole a truck and drove to Tennessee where he encountered Karl Franklin Smith and his minor son William Franklin Smith III ("the Smiths") at a fireworks store; he robbed and assaulted the father and assaulted the son. Michael Peden and Harold Peden ("the Pedens") were also at the fireworks store, and Lofton assaulted Michael and stole a truck belonging to Harold. Later that same day, Lofton broke into the residence of Willard Ryan and Sue Ryan ("the Ryans") in Georgia and terrorized them by repeatedly raping Mrs. Ryan and beating Mr. Ryan. Lofton was eventually captured at the Ryans' residence.

The action subsequently instituted by the Ryans in the Circuit Court of Limestone County, as last amended, charged the defendants with various acts and omissions constituting negligence or wantonness. Shortly after the Ryans filed their action, the Smiths and the Pedens, represented by the same counsel, filed their respective actions. As last amended, those actions involved the same defendants, and the complaints charged them with essentially the same negligent or wanton acts and omissions. The Ryans, on one hand, and the Smiths and the Pedens, on the other, are represented by different counsel.

All of the defendants were sued only in their individual capacities. In addition to charging the defendants with negligent or wanton acts or omissions, the complaints in each case additionally charged that the defendants had acted fraudulently, in bad faith, beyond their authority, or under a mistaken interpretation of the law. No charges of intentional tortious conduct were made against any of the defendants. In each of the three actions, the warden and the deputy warden were represented by the attorney general, and Hayes and Yarbrough were represented by their respective separate counsel. Extensive discovery was conducted in the cases. Eventually the defendants filed motions for a summary judgment, each making the argument (1) that he was entitled to State-agent immunity under the rule articulated in Ex parte Cranman, 792 So.2d 392 (Ala. 2000), and (2) that this Court's holding in Donahoo v. State, 479 So.2d 1188 (Ala. 1985), established that none of the defendants had a duty to protect any of the plaintiffs from Lofton. The plaintiffs' responses in opposition to those summary-judgment motions addressed the defendants' arguments based on Cranman and Donahoo. Accordingly, no argument was presented to the trial court concerning the plaintiffs' allegations that the defendants' actions were fraudulent, in bad faith, beyond their authority, or committed under a mistaken interpretation of the law. On April 27, 2001, following several rounds of briefing and oral arguments, the trial court issued nearly identical written orders in each case entering summary judgments in favor of the defendants.

It is undisputed for purposes of this appeal that Lofton's escape from the chain gang was the result of a tragic succession of errors on the part of the defendants. Lofton had been convicted on December 15, 1995, of rape in the first degree, robbery in the first degree, and burglary in the first degree, all rising out of incidents that occurred during a one-day sequence of events. He received three life sentences, to be served consecutively. Lofton's arrest record began in 1989, and included a history of an escape from a youth center in 1993, an escape from jail in Mobile in 1995, and a second escape from a Mobile incarceration facility later that same year. Following his 1995 convictions and sentences, he was initially imprisoned at Draper Correctional Facility and was classified as a medium-security inmate. After difficulties in that institution, he was transferred to Limestone, also a medium-security prison, in May 1996.

At Limestone, Lofton was regarded as a "troublemaker," and, on December 27, 1996, he was put on the disciplinary chain gang for rules violations; he remained assigned to that chain gang continuously until his escape six months later. On April 18, 1997, after Lofton had been involved in a serious physical altercation with two correctional officers at the facility, in the course of which he had taken a baton from one of the officers, a reclassification hearing was held by the local prison board to determine if he should be reclassified to a higher level of security. The local board recommended that he be reclassified to maximum security; that recommendation was forwarded to the central review board in Montgomery for final determination. On May 14, 1997, the central review board concurred and classified Lofton as a maximum-security prisoner, ordering that he be transferred to Donaldson Correctional Facility in Jefferson County.

Notification of that reclassification was received by mail at Limestone on May 30, 1997. Under normal procedure, the reclassification notice should have been brought to the personal attention of Hayes, and it would then have become his official responsibility to notify all appropriate prison personnel of the change in Lofton's status. Apparently because of a secretarial vacancy in the classification unit, the envelope containing the reclassification notification was opened by a classification specialist in the unit, date-stamped as having been received, and then placed in Hayes's "filings," described as a stack of papers accumulated on a bookcase shelf in the secretarial area to await Hayes's attention. As a matter of established procedure, the reclassification notification should have been brought directly to Hayes's attention, either by placing it in his "mail box" or by delivering it to him personally. Apparently preoccupied with other demands of his job, Hayes did not check his "filings" at any time before Lofton's escape. Accordingly, Lofton was not transferred from Limestone to Donaldson, nor was he removed from the chain gang, which was allowed to work outside of the institution.

Evidence was presented showing that proper institutional procedure required that Lofton be presumptively reclassified to "close" supervision immediately following the recommendation by the local prison board, while awaiting a decision from the central review board. That was the understanding of Deputy Warden Wise, but it was Hayes's understanding that Lofton would remain in his existing classification while awaiting a decision of the central review board. An interim reclassification to "close" supervision would have removed Lofton from the chain gang. Hayes understood that a reclassification decision from the central review board could take as long as 12 weeks and that it usually took 6 to 8 weeks. Hayes acknowledged that, when prison personnel checked "the computer" immediately after they became aware of Lofton's escape, they found that a separate notification by the central review board of Lofton's reclassification to "maximum custody" had been transmitted. Because of the "snafu" whereby notification of Lofton's reclassification by the central review board was not acted upon before his escape, and because of the failure to presumptively reclassify him while awaiting that notification, Lofton was once again allowed to leave the prison premises on June 25, 1997, as a member of the chain gang.

He and the other 36 inmates composing the chain gang that day were restrained in "leg irons" (also referred to in the record as "leg shackles" or "leg cuffs"), but the particular brand of leg irons used were notoriously ineffective. The prison armorer testified by deposition that the leg irons "could be easily picked" using a handcuff key, and that "handcuff keys were readily available. Anybody could get hold of a handcuff key." According to the armorer, the leg irons were also "loose," because of excessive "play within the ratchet and the frame of the equipment." The armorer also testified that he communicated his concerns about the ineffectiveness of the leg irons to Warden Hooks "and kept reinforming him." Deputy Warden Wise also testified that he was aware of numerous problems with the leg irons. He acknowledged that complaints he had heard concerning them included that the leg irons were easy to shake off or take off, that prisoners could unlock them...