Smith v. Massachusetts Dept. of Correction

• Decision Date: 25 June 1991
• Docket Number: No. 90-1908,90-1908
• Parties: Guy L. SMITH, Jr., Plaintiff, Appellant, v. MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION, et al., Defendants, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 1390

936 F.2d 1390

20 Fed.R.Serv.3d 564

Guy L. SMITH, Jr., Plaintiff, Appellant, v. MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION, et al., Defendants, Appellees.

No. 90-1908.

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

Submitted Feb. 5, 1991.

Decided June 25, 1991.

Guy L. Smith, Jr., on brief pro se.

Nancy Ankers White, Special Asst. Atty. Gen., and Sondra M. Korman, Counsel, Massachusetts Dept. of Correction, on brief for defendants, appellees.

Before BREYER, Chief Judge, SELYA and CYR, Circuit Judges.

SELYA, Circuit Judge.

Guy Smith, a black male presently serving a lengthy sentence for armed robbery, appeals pro se from the dismissal of his civil rights complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief might be granted. The complaint named as defendants the Massachusetts Department of Corrections (DOC), former DOC Commissioner Michael Fair, seven employees of the North Central Correctional Institution (NCCI) at Gardner (Superintendent Bender, disciplinary officer Geoffrey, internal security officers Jones and Dean, and three members of a prison disciplinary board), ¹ and Massachusetts Correctional Institution (MCI) Cedar Junction Superintendent Michael Maloney. Smith sued the defendants in their individual and official capacities, claiming violations of his constitutional rights under 42 U.S.C. Secs. 1983, 1985, and also asserting a variety of pendent state-law claims. Smith sought monetary damages, along with declaratory and injunctive relief.

Background

The complaint alleged, essentially, that while incarcerated at NCCI Gardner, Smith was "set up" by Jones and Dean, who allegedly coerced another inmate, one Paul Cloutier, falsely to accuse Smith of rape. As a result, on February 6, 1986, Smith was transferred from Gardner, a medium security facility, to maximum security at MCI Cedar Junction and placed on awaiting action status. One month later, a disciplinary report issued which charged Smith with engaging in unauthorized sexual acts anent Cloutier. ² After disciplinary proceedings Smith was found guilty. The board recommended that he be placed in isolation for fifteen days and reclassified to a stricter category of custody. Smith's appeal and request for reconsideration were both denied. On April 9 he appeared before a classification board and was reclassified to maximum security for one year. ³ Smith was also forced to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

The complaint further alleged that Cloutier was threatened and coerced by the officers into swearing out a criminal complaint that charged Smith with six counts of rape. Smith was arraigned on these charges on March 21, 1986. On August 22, when Smith appeared in Gardner District Court on the rape charges, Cloutier invoked his fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination and refused to testify. On the same day, Cloutier signed an affidavit which stated that officers Jones and Dean offered to have him transferred anywhere he wanted to go if he would charge Smith with rape, while at the same time threatening to return him to the general prison population at NCCI Gardner (where he was a known informant) if he did not assist in prosecuting Smith. Cloutier swore that Smith never raped him. The criminal charges were dismissed.

Smith alleged that Jones, Dean and Superintendent Bender conspired to prosecute him maliciously on false rape charges. He also claimed that his initial transfer to Cedar Junction, the disciplinary proceedings which followed, and his criminal prosecution violated his constitutional rights.

The defendants filed a motion to dismiss or for summary judgment, supported by the affidavit of William Coalter, Acting Superintendent at NCCI Gardner, and by records of Smith's prior disciplinary infractions at Gardner. ⁴ On August 14, 1989, the district court entered a memorandum and order dismissing the complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. Smith, who was by that time represented by eminent counsel, moved for partial reconsideration of the order of dismissal and argued that the court had failed to address his malicious prosecution claim. The court endorsed the motion "denied" on August 19, 1990 and issued a memorandum and order on August 23, 1990, rejecting Smith's malicious prosecution claim under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). Smith filed a notice of appeal within thirty days of the court's last order.

Appellate Jurisdiction

We must first determine what, if anything, is properly before this court on appeal. The defendants argue that appellate jurisdiction is wholly lacking because the district court failed to enter judgment on a separate document as required by Fed.R.Civ.P. 58; or alternatively, that appellate review should be limited to the dismissal of Smith's malicious prosecution claim, because Smith's motion for reconsideration was not timely, hence, the time for filing a notice of appeal from the district court's August 14, 1989 dismissal order had expired. Therefore, the argument goes, Smith's notice of appeal should not be read to embrace an appeal from the court's August 14, 1989 order.

The record discloses that the district court failed to enter judgment on a separate document after issuing either of the two orders in question. As the August 14, 1989 dismissal order was not followed by the entry of a judgment on a separate document, it did not become final at that time. See Willhauck v. Halpin, 919 F.2d 788, 793 (1st Cir.1990). Ergo, the time for filing a postjudgment motion or notice of appeal from that order did not expire; indeed, it did not begin to run.

The district court also failed to enter judgment on a separate document after issuing its second order in August 1990. Yet, unlike the district court's first memorandum and order, which did not discuss Smith's malicious prosecution claim at all, the August 23, 1990 memorandum reiterated the court's dismissal of the complaint while making specific reference to Smith's malicious prosecution claim. At that point, it was obvious that nothing further needed to be done by the lower court to end the matter, save for entering judgment in accordance with Fed.R.Civ.P. 58.

The requirements of Fed.R.Civ.P. 58 are to be applied mechanically unless both parties waive the requirement and neither party would be prejudiced by the lack of a separate document. See Wang Laboratories, Inc. v. Applied Computer Sciences, Inc., 926 F.2d 92, 96 (1st Cir.1991). Neither party objected to the absence of a separate document below, and neither has been prejudiced by the absence of a judgment on a separate document. Both the Supreme Court and this court have repeatedly stressed that Rule 58's separate document requirement "should always be interpreted 'to prevent loss of the right to appeal, not to facilitate loss.' " Willhauck, 919 F.2d at 792, quoting Bankers Trust Co. v. Mallis, 435 U.S. 381, 386, 98 S.Ct. 1117, 1121, 55 L.Ed.2d 357 (1978). Where it is clear that the court's August 23, 1990 order represented the final decision in the case, the order was entered on the docket, and neither party seasonably objected to the absence of judgment on a separate document below, we deem the parties to have waived the requirements of Rule 58. Cf., e.g., Mallis, 435 U.S. at 388-89, 98 S.Ct. at 1121. We will not needlessly "force the parties round and round the mulberry bush," only to return another day. Jusino v. Zayas, 875 F.2d 986, 989-90 (1st Cir.1989). Accordingly, we deem our jurisdiction over all issues to have been established by the parties' waiver of the separate document requirement.

Standard of Review

We take the opportunity to note at this juncture that, while the district court's orders utilized the familiar vocabulary of Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), the motion before the court was cast in the alternative. The substance of the court's 1989 order indicates that it relied on the defendants' documentary submissions in resolving plaintiff's claim that his initial transfer to Cedar Junction violated his constitutional rights. Because the district court went beyond the complaint, we shall treat the motion as one for summary judgment. See Farley v. Henderson, 883 F.2d 709, 711 (9th Cir.1989) (per curiam). Moreover, because Smith's complaint was verified and supplemented by numerous exhibits, including an affidavit from Cloutier, we treat those materials, to the extent they recite facts shown to be consistent with Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e), as part of the summary judgment record. See Sheinkopf v. Stone, 927 F.2d 1259, 1262-63 (1st Cir.1991).

The Transfer

In 1984, while incarcerated at MCI Cedar Junction, Smith entered into a classification contract with DOC which provided for Smith's transfer to successively less inhibiting facilities upon his successful participation in a substance abuse program, job assignment and training, and group therapy. Smith was to be shunted to NCCI Gardner in 1984, to a minimum security facility in 1988, and to a pre-release center in 1992. The classification contract also provided that Smith was subject to random urinalysis and that the receipt of one positive screening "may result" in renegotiation of the contract, while two positive tests may result in its termination. The same stipulation governed Smith's receipt of major disciplinary reports. In addition the contract contained the following provisions:

h. Whenever, in the opinion of the Commissioner, an emergency exists which requires suspension of all or part of any contract, the Commissioner may authorize such suspension.

Standard Movement Chronology for Contract Renegotiation

In the event that an inmate escapes or is returned to higher custody, a renegotiation of the classification contract shall be required.

Following either of these incidents, the following tables shall be utilized to determine the contract consequences in terms of the minimum length of time required at the particular security level(s). ⁵

Pursuant to this contract, Smith was transferred from Cedar Junction...