Villanueva v. Leininger, 82-1747

• Decision Date: 03 June 1983
• Docket Number: No. 82-1747,82-1747
• Citation: 707 F.2d 1007
• Parties: 13 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 966 Robert VILLANUEVA, Appellant, v. Gerald F. LEININGER, Chief Correctional Officer, David Aumend, Correctional Officer, Philip Nicholas Buttice, Correctional Officer and St. Louis County, Missouri, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 1007

707 F.2d 1007

13 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 966

Robert VILLANUEVA, Appellant, v. Gerald F. LEININGER, Chief Correctional Officer, David Aumend, Correctional Officer, Philip Nicholas Buttice, Correctional Officer and St Louis County, Missouri, Appellees.

No. 82-1747.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

Submitted May 26, 1983.

Decided June 3, 1983.

Clyde C. Farris, Jr., Clayton, Mo., for appellant.

Eugene K. Buckley, Evans & Dixon, St. Louis, Mo., for appellees.

Before BRIGHT, ROSS and JOHN R. GIBSON, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM.

Robert Villanueva brought this action for civil damages under 42 U.S.C. Secs. 1983 and 1985, alleging that five correctional officers had deprived him of his civil rights when he was a pretrial detainee at the St. Louis County Adult Correctional Institution (Gumbo). At the close of plaintiff's evidence, the district court ¹ granted the defendants' motions for directed verdict on the grounds that there was no evidence that defendants had violated Villanueva's civil or constitutional rights and that there was no evidence that he had sustained damage as a result of the defendants' actions. We initially affirmed as to all defendants. 632 F.2d 707. On rehearing en banc we reversed as to the chief correctional officer Leininger, and correctional officers, Almond and Buttice and remanded the matter to the district court for further proceedings. We affirmed that portion of the district court's judgment directing verdicts for defendants Shannon and George. Villanueva v. George, 659 F.2d 851 (8th Cir.1981) (en banc). The case was tried before a jury on June 7, 8 and 9, 1982. The jury returned a verdict against Villanueva and in favor of all defendants and the court entered judgment. Villanueva now appeals the jury verdict, contending that the district court erred: (1) in refusing plaintiff's compensatory damages instruction, and (2) in admitting irrelevant and prejudicial evidence.

Background.

Villanueva was indicted in St. Louis County, Missouri, for forcible rape, sodomy, and assault with intent to do great bodily harm. Unable to post bond, Villanueva was detained while awaiting trial at the St. Louis County Jail in Clayton, Missouri. While there, he was interviewed by a social worker and classified as a maximum security detainee. In making such a classification decision, the social worker would consider such factors as: the nature of the crime charged, with particular consideration on whether it was an aggressive, violent crime; the prisoner's desire to remain in custody status; and the psychological state of the individual. Because of renovation work being performed at the Clayton Jail, after approximately five months there Villanueva was transferred to Gumbo, where he was detained on a temporary basis from June 23 to July 19, 1978.

At the time Villanueva was transferred from Clayton to Gumbo, Clayton authorities advised that he was on maximum custody status and recommended that no reclassification be considered. Villanueva was interviewed by a social worker at Gumbo, (who was not a defendant in this suit) who recommended maximum custody.

At Gumbo, Villanueva was housed in the facilities reserved for detainees on maximum security status. Each maximum security area consists of sixteen individual one-person cells, approximately six feet by six feet. Detainees in the maximum security area eat their meals in their cells. They are permitted out of their cells for approximately fifteen minutes each day, when possible, for a shower and walk, for visits with social workers, and for medical reasons. Testimony established, however, that the guards were not able to get to each detainee every day for his shower and walk.

Villanueva testified that on his last day at Gumbo, when he was leaving for court, he indicated that he wanted to return to his cell to get some deposition notes he had left there, that he was told by defendant Shannon that the transportation officer would get the papers to Villanueva in court, but that the papers did not arrive. The transportation officer was not a defendant. Villanueva alleged that there was a one-month delay in transferring his clothing to Clayton from Gumbo after his temporary stay at Gumbo, and that one pair of shoes never arrived.

Discussion.

A. Jury Instruction.

Villanueva requested that the district court give the following instruction dealing with compensatory damages:

If you find that the Plaintiff has been deprived of a constitutional right, you may award damages to compensate for the deprivation. Damages for this type of injury are more difficult to measure than damages for a physical injury or injury to one's property. There are no medical bills or other expenses by which you can judge how much compensation is appropriate. In one sense, no monetary value we place upon constitutional rights can measure their importance in our society or compensate a citizen adequately for their deprivation. However, just because these rights are not capable of precise evaluation does not mean that an appropriate monetary amount should not be awarded.

The precise value you place upon any constitutional right which you find was denied to plaintiff is within your discretion. You may wish to consider the importance of the right in our system of government, the role which this right has played in the history of our republic, the significance of the right in the context of the activities which the Plaintiff was engaged in at the time of the violation of the right.

Specifying such damages will always be difficult, but they must at least be an amount which will assure the victim that personal rights will not be lightly regarded by state officials or federal courts.

The district court refused to give this instruction as submitted, but instead gave an abbreviated version of the same instruction:

If you find that the plaintiff has been deprived of a constitutional right, you may award damages to compensate for the deprivation.

The damages you award plaintiff for denial of any constitutional right is within your discretion. You may wish to consider the importance of the right in our system of government, the role which this right has played in the history of our republic, the significance of the right in the context of the activities which plaintiff was engaged in at the time of the violation of the right.

Villanueva contends that the language omitted from his requested instruction could have helped the jury to better understand the nature of the injury claimed. It is not necessary for the district court to recite a requested instruction verbatim in order to avoid error, so long as the instructions given are accurate and fair to both parties. Roberts v. Hollocher, 664 F.2d 200, 203 (8th Cir.1981); Leathers v. United States, 471 F.2d 856, 863 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 412 U.S. 932, 93 S.Ct. 2754, 37 L.Ed.2d 161 (1973). Where a portion of a jury instruction is assigned as error, or where, as here, the deletion of part of a requested instruction is assigned as such, the reviewing court must look to the instructions as a whole. See Roberts v. Hollocher, supra, 664 F.2d at 203; Fields v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Ry., 532 F.2d 1211, 1213 (8th Cir.1976). Here, we find that the court thoroughly apprised the jury of Villanueva's constitutional rights in several other instructions. No prejudicial error resulted, because the court adequately covered the subject area in other language. Putman v. Gerloff, 639 F.2d 415 (8th Cir.1981).

Assuming arguendo that the court erroneously gave the abbreviated version of the instruction, the error could not have been prejudicial in this case because the jury specifically found the...