Spruytte v. Walters

• Decision Date: 28 January 1985
• Docket Number: No. 82-1676,82-1676
• Citation: 753 F.2d 498
• Parties: Floyd SPRUYTTE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Richard WALTERS and Ronald Schink, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 498

753 F.2d 498

Floyd SPRUYTTE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Richard WALTERS and Ronald Schink, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 82-1676.

United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.

Submitted Oct. 16, 1984.

Decided Jan. 28, 1985.

Meri Anne Stowe, Lansing, Mich. (court-appointed), for plaintiff-appellant.

Frank J. Kelley, Atty. Gen. of Mich., Thomas C. Nelson, Asst. Atty. Gen., Corrections Div., Criminal Appeals Section, Lansing, Mich., for defendants-appellees.

Before MARTIN and JONES, Circuit Judges, and WEICK, Senior Circuit Judge.

BOYCE F. MARTIN, Jr., Circuit Judge.

Floyd Spruytte, an inmate at the Michigan Intensive Program Center, Marquette, appeals the district court's sua sponte dismissal of his in forma pauperis complaint under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. We reverse and remand the case to the district court.

In Tingler v. Marshall, 716 F.2d 1109 (6th Cir.1983), we held that a district court may not sua sponte dismiss a complaint without allowing service of the complaint on the defendant and permitting the plaintiff to amend the complaint or respond to the court's notice of intent to dismiss. Id. at 1112. The Tingler rule does not apply to dismissals of in forma pauperis claims as frivolous under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1915(d). The district court's dismissal, therefore, must meet the requirements of section 1915(d). In Malone v. Colyer, 710 F.2d 258 (6th Cir.1983), we held that a complaint may be dismissed under section 1915(d) "if it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts which would entitle him to relief." Id. at 261.

Rather than a summary remand, we feel it appropriate to review the record as a whole to determine if in fact the complaint was "frivolous." Many of the issues in this case are affected by facts that are a matter of public record, and the brief for the prison officials contains several significant admissions.

Spruytte's pro se complaint, which seeks declaratory and injunctive relief as well as money damages against two prison hearing officers in their individual and official capacities, alleges that prison officials refused to give him a paperback dictionary that his mother had mailed to him. Spruytte requested an administrative hearing and a staff assistant to aid him. Spruytte asked the assistant to obtain a copy of an opinion by the Marquette Circuit Court which he claimed entitled him to receive the book.

Without notifying Spruytte of the date or time of his hearing, prison officials called Spruytte to the office for a hearing. At that time, Spruytte's "assistant" told Spruytte that it was his responsibility to obtain the state court opinion, so no copy was available. Spruytte requested an adjournment of the hearing so that he could obtain a copy of the decision. This request was denied. The hearing officers found that Spruytte was not entitled to receive the dictionary, and they ordered that it be returned to his mother at his expense. Spruytte then filed this pro se action against the hearing officers.

Spruytte's complaint, liberally construed, Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 92 S.Ct. 594, 30 L.Ed.2d 652 (1972) (per curiam), is that the officials' actions deprived him of a property interest without due process of law under the fourteenth amendment. Specifically, Spruytte claims that state law confers on him a property interest in receiving books that do not threaten the security of the prison. He claims that the officials' refusal to give the dictionary to him was based on a Department of Corrections policy that is invalid under Michigan law and that application of that policy to defeat his constitutionally protected property interest was a denial of due process.

The state-law source of the property interest claimed by Spruytte is a prison regulation found in Michigan's administrative code. Rule 791.6603(3) states in part:

A resident may receive any book, periodical, or other publication which does not present a threat to the order or security of the institution or to resident rehabilitation.

At the administrative hearing, prison officials did not contend that the dictionary sent by Spruytte's mother was "a threat to the order or security of the institution." Instead, the officials claimed that the dictionary was properly withheld pursuant to a "publisher-only" rule contained in a policy directive of the Department of Corrections. This Policy Directive, PD-BCF-63.03, provides: "Prisoners shall have access to all books, periodicals and other publications except ... material received from sources other than directly from authorized vendors or publishers." The text of the hearing officers' decision states:

REASON FOR DISPOSITION:

Rejection of above material upon: the MDOC Mailing Regulations Concerning Books and Magazines for Resident Reading which indicates that "books and magazines must be ordered through your counselor." Policy Directive PD-BCF-63.03 which exempts written "material received from sources other than directly from authorized vendors or publishers"; and Admin.Rules and Statutes R791.6603(3) from which above 2 Departmental guidelines are derived. This decision is based upon these DOC policies and directives since they constitute the source of hearings decisions, as court orders and decisions cannot be included in the hearings process until implementation by the DOC takes place. A postponement of this hearing is denied as the responsibility for obtaining the aforementioned court order lies with resident, such liability for obtaining materials not being the hearing officer's and hence not a legitimate reason for delaying this decision.

In the context of this case, the question whether state law creates a property interest in Spruytte's receipt of non-threatening publications requires us to make a two-step inquiry. As a first step, we must determine whether, as a matter of state law, Spruytte is entitled to receive the dictionary. This requires us to decide whether, as Spruytte claims, the Department of Corrections' Policy Directive PD-BCF-63.03 conflicts with Michigan's Administrative Rule 791.6603(3). ¹ If Spruytte is entitled to receive the dictionary as a matter of state law, we must determine whether, as a matter of federal law, Spruytte's state-law entitlement rises to the level of a federally protected property interest.

We are not the first court to consider whether Michigan law entitles prisoners to receive non-threatening publications. Spruytte's complaint states that he had asked a staff assistant to obtain a copy of a state court decision which Spruytte claimed entitled him to receive the dictionary. The case that Spruytte sought, Marsh v. Michigan Department of Corrections, No. 11531 (Marquette Cir.Ct. March 3, 1981), squarely holds that, as a matter of state law, the Department's publisher-only rule conflicts with Administrative Rule 791.6603. The Marquette Circuit Court subsequently has reiterated the position it took in Marsh. In Mithrandir v. Michigan Department of Corrections, No. 11531 (Marquette Cir.Ct. Feb. 11, 1983), a prisoner at the Michigan Intensive Program Center was sent a package of ten paperback books from a bookstore. Authorities at the prison mail center rejected the package and officials at the subsequent administrative hearing upheld the rejection based on the publisher-only rule contained in the Policy Directive. Mithrandir then sought relief in state court, claiming that the Policy Directive is invalid as a matter of state law. Marquette Circuit Judge Edward A. Quinnell agreed:

Defendant concedes that the present 10 paperback books do not contain contraband nor is their content such that they would be rejected under the [administrative] rule. However, defendant maintains that the receipt of any used book presents "... a threat to the order or security of the institution ..." in that used books may conceal currency, razor blades, or may contain drugs absorbed by the paper.

I cannot agree with that interpretation of the rule. The rule clearly provides that a resident is to receive any book, not just new books, provided that they do not threaten the institution.

Mithrandir v. Michigan Department of Corrections, slip op. at 2-3. Judge Quinnell concluded, "I find, as I have previously found, that the Policy Directive is incompatible with the Administrative Code provisions...." Id. at 2. On at least three occasions Judge Quinnell has found the Department in contempt of the Marquette Circuit Court for preferring its Policy Directive to the controlling Michigan Administrative Rule. See Mithrandir v. Michigan Department of Corrections, No. 11531, slip op. at 4 (Marquette Cir.Ct. Feb. 11, 1983); Mithrandir v. Michigan Department of Corrections, No. 11531 (Marquette Cir.Ct. Nov. 5, 1981); Marsh v. Michigan Department of Corrections, No. 11531, slip op. at 4 (Marquette Cir.Ct. March 30, 1981); see also Marsh v. Michigan Department of Corrections, No. 80-11531-CZ (Marquette Cir.Ct. Aug. 19, 1980).

A section 1983 claim adjudicated in federal court may be the only means of conclusively determining the correct interpretation of the Administrative Rule and the Policy Directive. The course of the litigation in the Marquette Circuit Court indicates that the Department of Corrections may be committed to a policy of preventing state appellate court adjudication of the controversy. The Department's strategy apparently has been to enforce its Policy Directive despite court orders from the Marquette Circuit Court. Thus, a prisoner must litigate every time he wants to receive a book from a source other than a publisher.

The Marquette Circuit Court's contempt citations have been directed at the Department of Corrections rather than individual officers. The court has been reluctant to cite the individual officers because they are operating under the Department's Policy Directive. Of course, the court cannot incarcerate the Department of Corrections and a fine is ineffective because the result would be mere transfer of funds...