White v. Fauver

Decision Date29 September 1998
Docket NumberCiv.A. No. 97-5127.
Citation19 F.Supp.2d 305
PartiesLaverna WHITE, et al., On Behalf of Themselves and Others Similarly Situated, Plaintiffs, v. William H. FAUVER, et al., Defendants.
CourtU.S. District Court — District of New Jersey

Jaime M. Kaigh, Rodney D. Ray, Kaigh & Ray, P.C., Cherry Hill, NJ, Paul J. Hirsh, Whipple, Ross & Hirsh, P.A., Parsippany, NJ, Justin T. Loughry, Tomar, Simonoff, Adourian, O'Brien, Kaplan, Jacoby & Graziano, P.C., Cherry Hill, NJ, Audrey J. Bomse, Picataway, NJ, for Plaintiffs.

Peter Verniero, Attorney General of New Jersey, Ronald L. Bollheimer, Gregory Spellmeyer, Deputy Attorneys General, Trenton, NJ, for Defendants, William Fauver, Scott Faunce, Robert Ziegler, Edward Delbow, Luther Weldin, and Lance Meehan.

OPINION

ORLOFSKY, District Judge.

Plaintiffs have filed this civil rights class action1 on behalf of all inmates at Bayside State Correctional Facility ("Bayside"), located in Leesburg, New Jersey, alleging that prison officials and guards engaged in a pattern of physical abuse, threats, and subjected plaintiffs to a series of unconstitutional living conditions, in retaliation for the July, 1997, murder of a prison guard allegedly committed by an inmate. Six of the defendants, William Fauver, Scott Faunce, Robert Ziegler, Edward Delbow, Luther Weldin, and Lance Meehan ("Moving Defendants"), have moved to partially dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). Moving Defendants' motion to dismiss also serves as an answer to Plaintiffs Delbueno and Scullions' use of excessive force allegations as they pertain to Defendants, Peachy, Keiser, Mitchell, and Veach, Jr., although Defendants, Peachy, Keiser, Mitchell, and Veach, Jr. already filed an answer, on January 15, 1998. Plaintiffs have cross-moved for leave to file a second amended complaint. Defendants have also moved to strike Plaintiffs' brief in opposition to Defendants' motion to dismiss. Because Plaintiffs' claims arise under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983, 1985, 1988, and the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution, this Court has jurisdiction to hear this matter pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1343.

This case presents a novel legal question of first impression in this Circuit, requiring this Court to divine the meaning of the exhaustion requirement embodied in the recently adopted Prison Litigation Reform Act ("PLRA"), specifically, 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a).2 Section 1997e(a) mandates that prisoners exhaust their available administrative remedies before they may file claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, or any other federal law. In particular, I must determine what Congress intended when it limited the scope of the exhaustion requirement to those civil actions "with respect to prison conditions," and required the exhaustion of only "such administrative remedies as are available."

For the reasons set forth below, I will grant Plaintiffs' cross-motion for leave to file a second amended complaint, except with respect to proposed Count V. In addition, I will grant in part and deny in part the Moving Defendants' motion to partially dismiss the First and Second Amended Complaints for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Specifically, I will grant Moving Defendants' motion as to the allegations of unconstitutional prison conditions, contained in Count I of the First and Second Amended Complaints, and all of Count III of the First and Second Amended Complaints, except with respect to Plaintiff, Phillips. I will deny Moving Defendants' motion to dismiss as to all other Counts and allegations. I will also deny Defendants' motion to strike Plaintiffs' brief in opposition to Defendants' motion to dismiss.

I. BACKGROUND

For the purposes of a motion to dismiss, I must accept as true the facts alleged by Plaintiffs and draw all reasonable inferences in their favor. See Oshiver v. Levin, Fishbein, Sedran & Berman, 38 F.3d 1380, 1391 (3d Cir.1994). Unless otherwise noted, I look to the proposed Second Amended Complaint for the factual allegations relevant to these motions. See infra Part II.

On July 30, 1997, Officer Fred Baker, a prison guard at Bayside, was murdered and a Bayside inmate was charged with the crime. See Second Am. Comp. at ¶¶ 98-100. Plaintiffs contend that, in response to, or in retaliation for that murder, Bayside guards and officials allegedly engaged in a pattern of conduct, which included threats, violence, and mistreatment directed against Plaintiffs and the class they seek to represent.

On October 17, 1997, several inmates filed this action seeking damages and injunctive relief pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1983, 1985, 1988, and, in addition, sought an emergency temporary restraining order. On that same day, I held a telephonic hearing, during which I denied the request for a temporary restraining order, but, with the consent of the defendants, I allowed Plaintiffs to conduct limited discovery, permitting plaintiffs' counsel to interview inmates at Bayside.

A case management conference was held on October 27, 1997, at which certain deadlines were established, including an October 31, 1997, deadline for Plaintiffs to file an amended complaint. After Plaintiffs' counsel completed the initial series of inmate interviews at Bayside, Plaintiffs filed their First Amended Complaint on October 31, 1997. On October 31, 1997, this Court held another telephone conference call, during which I permitted the Plaintiffs to conduct another week of inmate interviews. I also set December 15, 1997 as the date of the next conference call with counsel.

During the December 15, conference call, I established January 15, 1998, as the deadline by which the defendants had to answer or otherwise move in response to the amended complaint. Consequently, on January 15, 1998, the Moving Defendants filed a motion to partially dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted and Defendants, Kaiser, Mitchell, Peachy, and Veach, filed an answer. Subsequently, Plaintiffs filed a brief in opposition to the motion to partially dismiss and cross-moved for leave to file a second amended complaint.

In Plaintiffs' proposed Second Amended Complaint, various inmates allege that Bayside guards and officials, without any provocation, physically assaulted prisoners with black jacks, or by pushing the inmates' heads into walls or the ground. See, e.g., id. ¶¶ 6-7, 11, 15, 20-22, 25-30, 36, 42, 45, 49, 56, 62-63, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76-77. Some of these inmates were allegedly handcuffed and naked while they were assaulted. See, e.g., id. ¶¶ 7, 11, 14, 20-22, 63, 70. According to Plaintiffs, the guards then attempted to cover up these physical attacks by threatening inmates with further harm if they disclosed the details of the assaults to the prison medical staff. See, e.g., id. ¶¶ 74, 75, 77. In addition, the guards allegedly filed false disciplinary charges against the victims of the beatings to conceal the physical assaults, by implying that these inmates had instigated the violence. See, e.g., id. ¶¶ 9, 29, 39, 49, 59, 66. Inmates often received disciplinary sanctions as a result of the filing of these allegedly false disciplinary charges. See e.g., id. ¶¶ 9, 29.

The Second Amended Complaint further alleges that Bayside guards and officials imposed intolerable, unconstitutional conditions upon Plaintiffs, such as serving rancid food and depriving inmates of showers, bedding, mattresses, and clothing. See id. ¶ 106.

Plaintiffs claim that Bayside guards and officials conspired "to maintain [an] atmosphere of terror and intimidation" by this campaign of violence and deprivation of basic human necessities. Id. ¶ 123. The conspiracy allegedly "deprived plaintiff inmates of equal protection of the laws and equal privileges and immunities of the laws, by depriving them of the right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment, [and] the right to adequate medical care." Id. ¶ 124.

Plaintiffs also allege that in response to the filing of this law suit, Bayside guards and officials "communicated [further] threats of physical harm to members of the inmate population who have met with plaintiffs' counsel." Id. ¶ 129. Plaintiffs contend that the Bayside guards and officials made such threats to dissuade the inmates from seeking access to the courts to redress their grievances. See id. ¶¶ 130-31.

The named class plaintiffs in this action, Laverna White, Tony Bacon, Andrew Gordon, Jeffrey Nosal, James Delbueno, Kenneth Scullion, Mark Green, Jason Phillips, John Wilson, Tom Branigan, Frederick Brown, Adrian Torres, Alfonse Torres, Sergio Perez, Vermonie Pierce, Michael Shontz, James Golden III, Samuel Gomez, Daniel Blaze, and Carlos Martinez,3 were all inmates at Bayside on July 30, 1997, and during the relevant time period following the murder of Officer Baker. See Second Am. Comp. at ¶ 4. Among others, the Second Amended Complaint names William H. Fauver, Scott Faunce, Robert Ziegler, Edward Delbow, Luther Weldin and Lance Meehan as defendants in this action. These six defendants moved to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.4 Defendants, Kaiser, Mitchell, Peachy, and Veach, do not join in this motion to partially dismiss, because they filed an answer, on January 15, 1998. Because these defendants have already filed an answer, Moving Defendants' have filed a motion for partial dismissal.

In response to Moving Defendants' motion to partially dismiss, Plaintiffs cross-moved for leave to file their Second Amended Complaint and relied, in part, upon that pleading to oppose the motion to dismiss. Moving Defendants oppose the filing of the Second Amended Complaint substantively and further object to Plaintiffs' reliance upon the Second Amended Complaint in opposition to...

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