Taylor v. Michigan Dept. of Corrections

• Decision Date: 26 October 1995
• Docket Number: No. 94-1479,94-1479
• Citation: 69 F.3d 76
• Parties: Timothy TAYLOR, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 76

69 F.3d 76

Timothy TAYLOR, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 94-1479.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Oct. 26, 1995.

Timothy Taylor, Jackson, MI, pro se.

Daniel E. Manville, Ann Arbor, MI, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Thomas E. McClear, Donald L. Allen, Office of the Attorney General, Corrections Division, Lansing, MI, for Defendant-Appellee.

Before: MERRITT, Chief Judge; KEITH and WELLFORD, Circuit Judges.

MERRITT, C.J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which KEITH, J., joined. WELLFORD, J. (pp. 84-88), delivered a separate dissenting opinion.

MERRITT, Chief Judge.

Plaintiff appeals the grant of summary judgment in this Sec. 1983 action in favor of the remaining defendant, Dale Foltz, the former Warden of the state prison of southern Michigan. The heart of plaintiff's Eighth Amendment claim is that Warden Foltz knew about the risk of sexual assault in the camp program to small, vulnerable-looking prisoners such as plaintiff and neither had a policy to identify and screen out those potential transferees who would not be safe in the camp nor created guidelines for prison staff to follow when screening inmates for transfer. The record shows that the prisoner has introduced sufficient evidence to present a jury question about (1) whether Warden Foltz knew that conditions throughout the Michigan prison system and particularly at Camp Pugsley posed a substantial risk of serious harm to prisoners like plaintiff; (2) whether he knew that there was effectively no procedure in place to protect vulnerable inmates from being transferred to dangerous conditions; and (3) whether in the face of this knowledge he acted with deliberate indifference--that is, disregarded a risk of harm of which he was aware--by failing to adopt reasonable policies to protect inmates like Taylor. The prisoner has, therefore, introduced sufficient evidence to defeat a motion for summary judgment on his Eighth Amendment claim. We reverse the grant of summary judgment and remand the case for further proceedings. Furthermore, we hold that the district court erred by refusing the report of the court appointed expert before ruling on the motion for summary judgment. Upon remand, we instruct the district court to order the preparation of this report.

I. Background

The plaintiff in this case, Timothy Taylor, is a prisoner within the Michigan Department of Corrections. He is five foot tall, 120 pounds, is mildly mentally retarded with an IQ of 66, has youthful looking features, and has a seizure disorder. Taylor was imprisoned for larceny. The plaintiff's presentence report contained the following admonition:

It is strongly recommended that prison personnel read the attached evaluation from the Social Security Administration, get a copy of the Forensic Center examination if possible, and very carefully read the medical information provided by the nurse from the Kalamazoo County Jail.

Note: Also, this offender has attempted suicide in the past, by slitting his wrists and drinking bleach. (emphasis in original)

In addition to the presentence report, a psychological evaluation of the plaintiff was conducted by a prison clinician at the Michigan Department of Correction's Reception and Guidance Center. The report characterized Taylor as "a rather peculiar and quite impoverished individual who could be easily disorganized under stress conditions." The psychologist believed that Taylor "has problems in the psychosexual area as well as cognitively and affectively...." The psychologist concluded that Taylor

is a rather unstable individual with serious problems in a number of areas, and there is a high likelihood he will become a serious management problem while institutionalized. Simply, the stress of entering the institution may be enough to result in acting out and causing a deterioration in his already limited defenses and coping skills.

Taylor argues that these reports and evaluations, contained in his prisoner file, indicate that he belonged to a class of prisoners likely to be a target of sexual pressure in prison and that he could easily be in danger if placed in the general prison population.

Beginning in September 1984, Taylor resided in the Trustee Division of Jackson Prison, a minimum security facility that provides inmates with their own individual cells. On June 12, 1985 the plaintiff was transferred to Camp Pugsley by an order that was drafted, approved, and carried out in one day with no advance warning to the plaintiff. The written comments in the transfer order state that plaintiff volunteered for the transfer; however, the code at the top of the order reflects that the reason for transfer was "program needs." Plaintiff maintains that his transfer was motivated by an acute need for bedspace due to overcrowding and new arrivals, and that the transfer was taken in deliberate disregard of plaintiff's safety. ¹ Camp Pugsley is also a minimum security facility, but the conditions of confinement are markedly different than those at the Trustee Division. The Camp houses prisoners in a dormitory style barracks, with approximately 60 inmates to a room, rather than private cells. At Camp Pugsley, plaintiff was given a bunk in a converted gymnasium. Soon after his transfer, Taylor was raped by another inmate. Plaintiff argues that the Warden's failure to establish a policy or implement a procedure that would protect vulnerable inmates from transfers to unsafe prisons amounted to deliberate indifference. See Farmer v. Brennan, --- U.S. ----, ----, 114 S.Ct. 1970, 1981, 128 L.Ed.2d 811 (1994) (For an Eighth Amendment claim, "it is enough that the official acted or failed to act despite his knowledge of a substantial risk of serious harm.").

This is the second time this case has come before us. In Taylor v. Michigan Dept. of Corrections, the panel held that "[a]lthough there was no binding Supreme Court or Sixth Circuit precedent in 1985 to the effect that it was unlawful to transfer small, vulnerable-looking prisoners to unstructured prison camps, the unlawfulness of such an action was apparent in light of pre-existing precedent." 14 F.3d 602, 1993 WL 533470, at * 3 (6th Cir. December 22, 1993) (Wellford, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part). The panel, however, declined to address Foltz's contention that even if the unlawfulness of such a transfer was clearly established in 1985, he still was entitled to qualified immunity. Foltz argued that qualified immunity was appropriate because he had no personal involvement in the decision to transfer Taylor, having properly delegated that authority to his subordinates. The panel explained that this contention really went to the merits of plaintiff's Eighth Amendment claim and concerned whether Foltz was deliberately indifferent to plaintiff's constitutional rights. In a footnote, the panel opined that the recent decision in Gibson v. Foltz, 963 F.2d 851, 854 (6th Cir.1992), "may be determinative of plaintiff's Eighth Amendment claim against defendant Foltz." Taylor, at * 4 n.3. Gibson was a case brought by the widow of an inmate. The inmate had been stabbed and killed while in prison. The widow sued Warden Foltz, among other prison officials, claiming that Foltz was deliberately indifferent to inmate safety because he failed to update prison policies intended to protect inmates and staff members and because he failed to follow recommendations in studies showing that a threat of violence existed at the state prison of southern Michigan. The Gibson panel held that "[a]lthough Foltz and the other defendants were in a position to monitor the conditions at the prison, the defendants' alleged failure to lessen the threat of violence within the prison does not rise to the level of wantonness that is required to find an Eighth Amendment violation." Gibson, 963 F.2d at 854. The panel explained:

There was no evidence that the defendants knew that Gibson was in danger or that any specific dangerous condition existed on 4 Block East. Failure to supervise adequately, especially without a showing that the defendants were aware that subordinates had failed to carry out prison policies, does not constitute a wanton infliction of pain.

Id.

When the instant case was remanded, the district court entertained a second motion for summary judgment. Citing Gibson v. Foltz, the court held that "there was an established prison policy directive that dictated a review of files by counselors and deputy wardens before issuance of a transfer order." See J.A. at 291 n.5. Moreover, the district court held that "[t]here is no evidence that Foltz was aware that his subordinates were not properly reviewing transfer orders generally or that plaintiff's file in particular had been inadequately reviewed." See J.A. at 290. The court concluded that if there were any deliberate indifference in this case, it was on the part of Foltz's subordinate and a claim would have to be pursued against that person. The subordinate in question, however, had been dismissed from the case earlier for lack of service.

II. Standard of Review

We review the district court's grant of summary judgment de novo, using the same standard as that used by the district court. See Moore v. Philip Morris Cos., 8 F.3d 335, 339 (6th Cir.1993). When deciding a motion for summary judgment, a district court should view the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party and draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the nonmoving party. See United States v. Diebold, Inc., 369 U.S. 654, 655, 82 S.Ct. 993, 994, 8 L.Ed.2d 176 (1962).

The most recent Supreme Court pronouncement on Eighth Amendment claims arising from unconstitutional conditions of confinement is Farmer v. Brennan, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 1970, 128 L.Ed.2d 811 (1994). That case also involved the rape of an inmate. The plaintiff in that case, a preoperative transsexual, was transferred from a Federal...