Torres-Viera v. Laboy-Alvarado

• Decision Date: 20 November 2002
• Docket Number: No. 01-2712.,01-2712.
• Citation: 311 F.3d 105
• Parties: Victor TORRES-VIERA, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. Zoe LABOY-ALVARADO, Administrator of Correction of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; Alfredo Murphy-Rivera, Bayamón Regional Director for the Administration of Correction; Wilson Morales, Bayamón Regional Director of Security for the Administration of Correction; Carlos Rodriguez-Delgado, Complex Director of the Bayamón Correctional Complex; Porfirio Green-Santiago, Director of Security at the Bayamón Correctional Complex; Rafael Lopez-Cintron, Warden/Superintendent at the Bayamón Correctional Institution; Lieutenant Jose A. Rodriguez-De-Leon, Warden/Superintendent at the Bayamón Correctional Institution; Lieutenant Eliezer Santiago, Commander of the Guards at the Bayamón Correctional Institution; John Doe 01CV1361, Commander of the Disturbance Control Unit; Richard Roes 1 Through 4 01CV1361, Supervisors at the Bayamón Correctional Institution; William Woe 01CV1361, Correctional Officer and/or Cadet employed by the Administration of Correction, Defendants, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

311 F.3d 105

Victor TORRES-VIERA, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. Zoe LABOY-ALVARADO, Administrator of Correction of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; Alfredo Murphy-Rivera, Bayamón Regional Director for the Administration of Correction; Wilson Morales, Bayamón Regional Director of Security for the Administration of Correction; Carlos Rodriguez-Delgado, Complex Director of the Bayamón Correctional Complex; Porfirio Green-Santiago, Director of Security at the Bayamón Correctional Complex; Rafael Lopez-Cintron, Warden/Superintendent at the Bayamón Correctional

Institution; Lieutenant Jose A. Rodriguez-De-Leon, Warden/Superintendent at the Bayamón Correctional Institution; Lieutenant Eliezer Santiago, Commander of the Guards at the Bayamón Correctional Institution; John Doe 01CV1361, Commander of the Disturbance Control Unit; Richard Roes 1 Through 4 01CV1361, Supervisors at the Bayamón Correctional Institution; William Woe 01CV1361, Correctional Officer and/or Cadet employed by the Administration of Correction, Defendants, Appellees.

No. 01-2712.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Submitted October 25, 2002.

Decided November 20, 2002.

José R. Olmo-Rodríquez for the Appellant.

Roberto J. Sánchez Ramos, Solicitor General, with whom Vanessa Lugo Flores, Deputy Solicitor General, and Irene S. Sorceta-Kodesh, Assistant Solicitor General, were on brief for the Appellees.

Before BOUDIN, Chief Judge, and LYNCH, HOWARD, Circuit Judges.

LYNCH, Circuit Judge.

In March 2000, Victor Torres-Viera was incarcerated at the Bayamón Correctional Institution, in the Bayamón region of Puerto Rico. He suffered serious injury while there from being hit by a tear gas cannister fired by a prison official during a disturbance. One year later, after his release, Torres-Viera brought a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (2000) claim for damages against prison officials, alleging violation of his rights under the Eighth Amendment. The district court judge ruled in favor of the prison officials on a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim. Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). Torres-Viera appeals. We affirm.

I.

The facts as described in Torres-Viera's complaint follow. On or about March 28, 2000, in the early afternoon, several dozen prison officials carried out a general search at the Bayamón Correctional Institution. During that search, many inmates were taken to a room, formerly used as a cafeteria, where they were locked in while the search continued. An altercation subsequently broke out between inmates and officials. In response, prison guards began firing tear gas indiscriminately at inmates, both those who were participating in the altercation and those who were not. Guards opened the door to the former cafeteria where inmates were being held. One officer fired a tear gas cannister directly into the room and into the back of Torres-Viera's head. Torres-Viera was knocked to the ground, stunned, and began bleeding profusely from his wound, which later required eight stitches. Since the incident, Torres-Viera has suffered from headaches and discomfort.

II.

The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment of prisoners. Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 832, 114 S.Ct. 1970, 128 L.Ed.2d 811 (1994). The Supreme Court has established a standard of deliberate indifference for assessing whether a constitutional claim is asserted that prison officials have a sufficiently culpable state of mind in tolerating threats to inmate health or safety. Id. at 834., 114 S.Ct. 1970

The standard is very different, however, when courts evaluate the behavior of prison officials during riots or other disturbances. The Supreme Court has held that a deliberate indifference standard does not apply in these situations. Whitley v. Albers, 475 U.S. 312, 320, 106 S.Ct. 1078, 89 L.Ed.2d 251 (1986). Instead, the standard is whether unnecessary and wanton pain and suffering were inflicted, with that question ultimately turning on "whether force was applied in a good faith effort to maintain or restore discipline or maliciously and sadistically for the very purpose of causing harm." Id. at 320-21, 106 S.Ct. 1078 (quoting Johnson v. Glick, 481 F.2d 1028, 1033 (2d Cir.1973)). Central to our inquiry is the directive that:

Our review of a district court's dismissal of a complaint for failure to state a claim¹ under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) is de novo. Chute v. Walker, 281 F.3d 314, 318 (1st Cir.2002). We accept as true all well-pleaded facts alleged by the plaintiff in his complaint, drawing in his favor all reasonable inferences fitting his stated theory of liability. Calderón-Ortiz v. Laboy-Alvarado, 300 F.3d 60, 63 (1st Cir.2002); Rogan v. Menino, 175 F.3d 75, 77 (1st Cir.1999).

It is obduracy and wantonness, not inadvertence or error in good faith, that characterize the conduct prohibited by the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause.... The infliction of pain in the course of a prison security measure, therefore, does not amount to cruel and unusual punishment simply because it may appear in retrospect that the degree of force authorized or applied for security purposes was unreasonable, and hence unnecessary in the strict sense.

Id. at 319, 106 S.Ct. 1078.

"[A] court may dismiss a complaint only if it is clear that no relief could be granted under any set of facts that could be proved consistent with the allegations." Swierkiewicz v. Sorema N.A., 534 U.S. 506, 514, 122 S.Ct. 992, 152 L.Ed.2d 1 (2002) (quoting Hishon v. King & Spalding, 467 U.S. 69, 73, 104 S.Ct. 2229, 81 L.Ed.2d 59 (1984)). But even working within this generous framework, Torres-Viera's complaint falls short. The facts consistent with...