Wilson v. Lohman
| Decision Date | 19 September 2008 |
| Docket Number | Civ. Action No. 06-053-JJF. |
| Citation | 578 F.Supp.2d 672 |
| Parties | James A. WILSON, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Helen LOHMAN, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Delaware |
James A. Wilson, Smyrna, DE, Pro se Plaintiff.
Lisa Ann Barchi, Esquire, Deputy Attorney General, Delaware Department of Justice, for Defendants.
Presently before the Court is Defendants' Motion To Dismiss and supporting Memorandum and Plaintiff James A. Wilson's ("Plaintiff")1 Response thereto. (D.I. 69, 70, 71.) Also before the Court is Defendants' Response to Plaintiffs Amendment that incorporates Defendants' previously filed Motion To Dismiss. (D.I. 76.) The Response contains supporting affidavits and, therefore, an Order was entered giving the parties notice that it was converting the Response to a Motion For Summary Judgment as it submitted evidence beyond the pleadings. (D.I. 79.) The parties were given additional time to submit additional evidence, but nothing further was provided by the parties. For the reasons set forth below, the Court will grant in part and deny in part Defendants' Motion To Dismiss (D.I. 69), will deny Defendants' Motion For Summary Judgment (D.I. 76), and will give Plaintiffs leave to amend the complaint.
At the time Plaintiffs filed their Complaint they all were housed at the Sussex Correctional Institution ("SCI"), Georgetown, Delaware. Plaintiff has since been transferred to the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center ("JVCC"), formerly the Delaware Correctional Center ("DCC"), Smyrna, Delaware. Plaintiffs allege that Defendants are misappropriating the inmates' commissary trust fund and, as a result, they are being deprived of their property rights in the funds without due process of law in violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. For example, Plaintiffs allege that Defendants give away commissary products, make wrongful charges and expenditures to the inmate commissary account, and refuse to buy items for the inmates using the commissary account funds. They allege that Defendants make expenditures of prison commissary proceeds for items that do not benefit the inmates as a whole. They also allege that there is no commissary committee to express their concerns, and that commissary prices are rising. On August 18, 2006, the Court granted Plaintiff's Motion To Amend the Complaint to add a retaliation count for the exercise of his First Amendment Rights. (D.I. 72.) The Amendment was filed on September 1, 2006. (D.I. 75.)
Rule 12(b)(6) permits a party to move to dismiss a complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). The Court must accept all factual allegations in a complaint as true and take them in the light most favorable to Plaintiff. Erickson v. Pardus, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 2197, 2200, 167 L.Ed.2d 1081 (2007); Christopher v. Harbury, 536 U.S. 403, 406, 122 S.Ct. 2179, 153 L.Ed.2d 413 (2002). A complaint must contain "`a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief,' in order to `give the defendant fair notice of what the ... claim is and the grounds upon which it rests'." Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 1964, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007). A complaint does not need detailed factual allegations, although, "a plaintiffs obligation to provide the `grounds' of his `entitlement to relief requires more than labels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do." Id. at 1965 (citations omitted). The "[f]actual allegations must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level on the assumption that all of the complaint's allegations in the complaint are true (even if doubtful in fact)." Id. (citations omitted). Because Plaintiffs proceed pro se, their pleading is liberally construed and their Complaint, "however inartfully pleaded, must be held to less stringent standards than formal pleadings drafted by lawyers." Erickson v. Pardus, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 2197, 2200, 167 L.Ed.2d 1081 (2007) (citations omitted).
Defendants move for dismissal on the grounds that the Complaint fails to state a claim upon which relief may be granted because Plaintiffs (1) have no protected property interest in the inmate commissary trust fund, (2) fail the three-prong test for standing, and (3) fail to demonstrate any articulable basis for their attempt to proceed as a class action. Defendants also contend that they are entitled to qualified immunity.
Defendants argue that Plaintiffs do not have a constitutionally protected property interest in the prison commissary trust fund and, therefore, there is no violation of their right to due process pursuant to the Fourteenth Amendment. (D.I. 70.) Plaintiff responds that because Plaintiffs are the beneficiaries of interest earned from the prison trust account, they have a property interest and constitutional protection under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. (D.I. 71.) Plaintiff also argues that inmates have a state created property interest in the education and recreation fund.
The United States Constitution does not create a protected interest in property but, rather, protected property interests "stem from an independent source such as state law-rules or understandings that secure certain benefits and that support claims of entitlement to those benefits." Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 577, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972). "Inmates have a property interest in funds held in prison accounts." Reynolds v. Wagner, 128 F.3d 166, 179 (3d Cir.1997) (citations omitted). Therefore, inmates are entitled to due process with respect to any deprivation of that money. Id. (citations omitted). Apparently interest accrues on prison trust accounts, and taking the interest from an inmate's account can be considered a violation of the Takings Clause. See Schneider v. California Dep't of Corr., 151 F.3d 1194, 1201 (9th Cir.1998); but see Washlefske v. Winston, 234 F.3d 179, 186 (4th Cir.2000) (); Hatfield v. Scott, 306 F.3d 223 (5th Cir.2002).
The Court has reviewed several Delaware statutes and found no law demonstrating a property interest in the inmate commissary trust fund. The Court, however, is aware that the Delaware Department of Correction ("DOC") has promulgated its own administrative procedures and policies which are unavailable to the public. Liberally construing the Complaint as the Court must, and keeping in mind the broad scope of authority that prison authorities have over inmates, it is not impossible to assume that prison authorities control the inmate commissary trust fund which could be considered a form of taking. Moreover, without the ability to review DOC policies, the Court cannot rule out the possibility that they may create a property interest in the inmate commissary trust fund.
For the foregoing reasons, the Court will deny Defendants' Motion To Dismiss on the basis that Plaintiffs do not have a protected property interest in the inmate commissary trust fund.
Defendants also seek dismissal on the grounds that Plaintiffs do not have standing to bring this suit. "The `core component'" of the requirement that a litigant have standing to invoke the authority of a federal court "is an essential and unchanging part of the case-or-controversy requirement of Article III." DaimlerChrysler Corp. v. Cuno, 547 U.S. 332, 342, 126 S.Ct. 1854, 164 L.Ed.2d 589 (2006) (citations omitted). Standing contains three elements: injury in fact, causation, and redressability. Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992). The party invoking federal jurisdiction bears the burden of proving standing. Id. at 561, 112 S.Ct. 2130. Defendants argue that Plaintiffs fail each prong of the test for standing.
The first prong of standing requires an injury in fact. Plaintiffs must show that they "personally ha[ve] suffered some actual or threatened injury as a result of the putatively illegal conduct of [ ] Defendant [and][t]he injury must be concrete and capable of being redressed by the court should [] Plaintiff[s] prevail on the merits.'" Taliaferro v. Darby Twp. Zoning Bd., 458 F.3d 181, 188-89 (3d Cir. 2006) (quoting Wheeler v. Travelers Ins. Co., 22 F.3d 534, 537-38 (3d Cir.1994)).
The allegations fail to show an injury in fact. More particularly, Plaintiffs allege the fund is used to show old and repeated movies, the fund is not used to purchase a wood floor for the gymnasium, there is no commissary inmate committee, items are purchased with inmate commissary funds that do not benefit inmates as a whole, commissary products are given to the recreational staff, and the commissary sells outdated products. Indeed, Plaintiffs allege injury to "inmates as a whole"—not to each Plaintiff individually.
Although unlikely, it is not entirely impossible that Plaintiffs have a generalized interest in vindicating their rights. Nonetheless, Plaintiffs have attacked Defendants' alleged actions without specifying each Plaintiffs personal injury, something the standing doctrine is intended to prevent. Accordingly, Defendants' Motion To Dismiss will be granted on this ground, and the Complaint will be dismissed with leave to amend to remedy the deficiency.
In its prayer for relief, the Complaint requests issuance of an Order certifying the action to proceed as a class pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 23. Defendants argue that the matter may not proceed as a class action.
Plaintiff is the only individual actively engaged in this litigation and he is no longer housed at the SCI. A class action can only be maintained if the class representative "will fairly and adequately represent...
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