Sanford v. Manternach

• Decision Date: 13 October 1999
• Docket Number: No. 97-1769.,97-1769.
• Citation: 601 N.W.2d 360
• Parties: Patrick SANFORD, Appellant, v. Jerome MANTERNACH, Larry Brimeyer, John Thalacker, John Sissel and State Of Iowa, Appellees.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

601 N.W.2d 360

Patrick SANFORD, Appellant, v. Jerome MANTERNACH, Larry Brimeyer, John Thalacker, John Sissel and State Of Iowa, Appellees.

No. 97-1769.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

October 13, 1999.

Philip B. Mears of Mears Law Office, Iowa City, for appellant.

Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, and William H. Hill, Assistant Attorney General, for appellees.

Considered by McGIVERIN, C.J., and LARSON, NEUMAN, SNELL, and TERNUS, JJ.

TERNUS, Justice.

The plaintiff, Patrick Sanford, was formerly an inmate of a minimum security facility in Iowa. He sued the State and prison officials, claiming damages from the imposition of excessive discipline for his violation of prison rules. The district court granted the State's motion to dismiss and entered summary judgment for the individual defendants. Upon Sanford's appeal, we affirm the dismissal of his claim against the State, but reverse the adverse summary judgment ruling and remand for further proceedings.

I. Background Facts and Proceedings.

The facts in this case are undisputed. In 1994, Sanford was an inmate of the Luster Heights minimum security facility in Anamosa, Iowa. Shortly before his scheduled release, he received two disciplinary reports for theft. The disciplinary committee found him guilty of both charges and sanctioned him with a total of twenty days of disciplinary detention, 360 days in disciplinary detention I, and a loss of 1000 days of good-conduct time.

Lacking success in his administrative challenges to these decisions, Sanford filed petitions for postconviction relief, which were consolidated for trial. He challenged his convictions for reasons not pertinent here, and also alleged that his sanctions were excessive, arbitrary, and capricious. The district court upheld Sanford's convictions, but ruled that the loss of 1000 days of good-conduct time was excessive. The district court remanded the cases to the Iowa Department of Corrections (IDOC) for review and imposition of new sanctions not inconsistent with the court's ruling. Upon its review, the IDOC reduced Sanford's loss of good-conduct time to 465 days. Sanford's record was credited accordingly.

The unusual circumstances giving rise to the present civil suit result from the timing of the disciplinary charges and postconviction relief actions as it relates to Sanford's discharge date. Prior to the thefts in 1994, Sanford was scheduled to be discharged on May 28, 1994. Due to the sanctions imposed for his rule violations, he was not discharged until October 6, 1995. The district court's ruling on his postconviction relief petitions was issued after Sanford was discharged. When prison authorities credited him with the good-conduct time they restored upon reconsideration of his sanctions, his official discharge date was changed to February 6, 1995.

Sanford filed this action to recover damages for the time he spent in prison between February 6, 1995, the date he claims he should have been discharged, and the date of his actual discharge, October 6, 1995. He has sued the prison officials who imposed and upheld his disciplinary sanctions: the administrative law judges, Jerome Manternach and Larry Brimeyer; the warden, John Thalacker; and the assistant warden, John Sissel. Sanford has alleged they deprived him of a constitutionally protected liberty interest by imposing excessive sanctions for his rule infractions. See 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Sanford has also sued the State, claiming the State breached a duty under Iowa Code section 903A.3(1) (1993) to have internal guidelines established for determining the loss of good-time credits.

The individual defendants filed a motion for summary judgment. In their motion, they asserted several reasons that Sanford's claim against them should be dismissed: (1) Sanford was not entitled to postconviction relief because his claims were moot due to his release from prison and, therefore, that relief should not be used as the basis for a damages claim; (2) any error in Sanford's discipline was remedied by the reconsideration and reduction of his sanctions; (3) Sanford is precluded from bringing a claim for damages because the underlying convictions and sanctions were not reversed or invalidated; (4) an inmate's interest in good-conduct time is not a liberty interest protected by the Fourteenth Amendment; and (5) the individual defendants are entitled to qualified immunity.

The district court specifically rejected the first two arguments alleging mootness and the prior remediation of any error. The court did, however, hold that a prisoner's claim under § 1983 was not cognizable unless the plaintiff could demonstrate that his conviction or sentence had been previously invalidated. See Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477, 486-87, 114 S.Ct. 2364, 2372, 129 L.Ed.2d 383, 394 (1994)

. Concluding that Sanford's disciplinary convictions and sanctions had not been reversed or invalidated, but merely remanded for reconsideration, the district court held that Sanford was precluded under Heck from bringing a claim pursuant to § 1983. The court did not consider the defendants' remaining arguments based on the absence of a liberty interest in good-conduct time and qualified immunity.

The State filed a motion to dismiss, alleging that it owed no duty to Sanford and that section 903A.3(1) did not create a private cause of action for the recovery of damages. Applying the four-factor test used in Marcus v. Young, 538 N.W.2d 285, 288 (Iowa 1995), the district court concluded that the legislature did not intend to create a private remedy under chapter 903A and, therefore, the plaintiff had failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted.

The plaintiff appealed the court's rulings. The arguments on appeal mirror those made in the district court with one exception. The individual defendants have not asserted on appeal that they are entitled to qualified immunity. We will discuss the remaining issues separately.

II. Standard of Review.

A. Summary judgment. Review of a ruling on a summary judgment motion is for correction of errors of law. See Continental Ins. Co. v. Bones, 596 N.W.2d 552, 555 (Iowa 1999)

. We determine whether there are any genuine disputes with respect to material facts and whether the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See Iowa R. Civ. P. 237(c). Because the facts pertinent to the issues raised in the summary judgment motion are undisputed, our only task on appeal is to decide whether the district court correctly applied the law when it granted the defendants' motion.

B. Motion to dismiss. The supreme court reviews the district court's granting of a motion to dismiss for errors of law. See Iowa Tel. Ass'n v. City of Hawarden, 589 N.W.2d 245, 250 (Iowa 1999)

. The ruling must rest on legal grounds. See id. The plaintiff's failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted is properly raised in a motion to dismiss. See Iowa R. Civ. P. 88(a) (1998). We view the petition in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, and will uphold dismissal only if the plaintiff's claim could not be sustained under any state of facts provable under the petition. See Below v. Skarr, 569 N.W.2d 510, 511 (Iowa 1997).

III. Summary Judgment Ruling— § 1983 Claim.

A. Is the plaintiff's claim moot? The defendants claim that Sanford's § 1983 claim for damages is moot because he was discharged prior to the adjudication of his postconviction relief actions. They argue that any relief Sanford received as a result of those actions was "erroneously granted" because Sanford had already been released. Therefore, the defendants assert, Sanford should not be allowed to use that relief as a basis for his claim for damages. Their authority for this conclusion is our decision in a prison disciplinary case, Wilson v. Farrier, 372 N.W.2d 499, 501 (Iowa 1985), wherein we held that a postconviction relief action is moot if an inmate has already been paroled or discharged.

Although the defendants state that the present action is moot, their argument and authority are directed to the mootness of Sanford's original postconviction relief actions. They claim that those actions were moot when they were decided and, therefore, the district court should not have entered a ruling in the postconviction relief cases. The fact is, however, that the district court did enter a ruling and the State did not appeal that ruling. Thus, the defendants' argument in this case is actually a collateral attack on that prior judgment. See Brown v. Tank, 230 Iowa 370, 375, 297 N.W. 801, 803 (1941) ("`[A] collateral attack upon a judgment is an attack made by or in an action or proceeding that has an independent purpose other than the impeaching or overturning of the judgment, although impeaching or overturning the judgment may be necessary to the success of the action ....'") (quoting 31 Am.Jur. Judgments § 611, at 205 (now found at 47 Am.Jur.2d Judgments § 906, at 377-78 (1995))).

Our prior case law is clear that a judgment is not subject to collateral attack except on jurisdictional grounds. See Fetters v. Degnan, 250 N.W.2d 25, 30 (Iowa 1977)

. The defendants here do not claim that the district court in the postconviction relief actions lacked subject matter jurisdiction or personal jurisdiction. They simply assert that the prior judgment was erroneous because Sanford's claims were moot. But mere error in a judgment is not reviewable in a collateral proceeding. See Marshfield Homes, Inc. v. Eichmeier, 176 N.W.2d 850, 851 (Iowa 1970); see also 46 Am.Jur.2d Judgments § 498, at 760 (1994) (stating an error in the judgment does not deprive the judgment of finality or conclusiveness). Accordingly, we agree with the district court that the defendants' mootness argument is without merit.

B. Does Sanford have a protected liberty interest in good-time credits? The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment provides that no State shall "deprive any person of life, liberty or property,...