Wycoff v. Nichols

• Decision Date: 29 October 1996
• Docket Number: No. 95-1117,95-1117
• Parties: Steven R. WYCOFF, Appellant, v. Debbie NICHOLS, Roger Lawson, Charles Harper, Lt. Rewis, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 1187

94 F.3d 1187

Steven R. WYCOFF, Appellant, v. Debbie NICHOLS, Roger Lawson, Charles Harper, Lt. Rewis, Appellees.

No. 95-1117.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Oct. 19, 1995.

Decided Sept. 5, 1996.

Rehearing and Suggestion for Rehearing

En Banc Denied Oct. 29, 1996.

Philip B. Mears, argued, Iowa City, Iowa, for appellant.

William A. Hill, Assistant Attorney General, argued, Des Moines, Iowa, for appellees.

Before BOWMAN, HEANEY, and WOLLMAN, Circuit Judges.

BOWMAN, Circuit Judge.

Steven Wycoff, an inmate at the Iowa State Penitentiary (ISP) appeals the adverse grant of summary judgment by the District Court ¹ in his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1994) action against ISP officials. We affirm.

This is a prison discipline case. While serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder, ISP inmate Wycoff was disciplined for conduct relating to his handling of a jar of peanut butter. In March 1993, a prison official observed Wycoff carry a paper bag into the cell of Sherman White, an ISP inmate. The bag contained a six-pound jar of peanut butter, which Wycoff left in White's cell. The same day Wycoff received notice that he had been charged with violating a number of ISP rules against bartering, complicity, disobeying an order, disruptive conduct, theft, unauthorized possession, and unauthorized presence.

Wycoff's case was forwarded to the ISP disciplinary committee, headed by an administrative law judge (ALJ). Wycoff explained that he had found the jar of peanut butter while on duty collecting garbage and sweeping the cellhouse. He stated that he went to visit White to ask him what he should do with his find. The ALJ accepted Wycoff's explanation, and the disciplinary committee found that Wycoff had violated Rule 27 of the ISP disciplinary rules. Wycoff was found not guilty of all of the other charges. An inmate violates Rule 27(b) when the inmate: "conducts [himself] in a manner which disrupts or interferes with the security, tranquility, or orderly running of the institution." Wycoff v. Nichols, No. 4-94-CV-80038, Order at 3 (S.D.Iowa Nov. 30, 1994) (quoting ISP rules). The disciplinary committee stated that its decision was based on the disruption caused when Wycoff decided to consult another inmate about the jar of peanut butter instead of contacting prison staff. The disciplinary committee sentenced Wycoff to ten days restriction in a maximum security cell and invoked Wycoff's suspended sentence from a previous infraction. Wycoff's suspended sentence was ten days disciplinary detention, loss of ninety days of good-time credit, and restriction in a maximum security cell for ninety days.

Wycoff filed an administrative appeal and supplemental appeal with the Warden. Both appeals were denied. Shortly after the Warden denied the appeals, Wycoff began serving his disciplinary sanction. Wycoff then appealed his disciplinary decision to the Iowa Department of Corrections (IDOC). Without stating the basis for its decision, the IDOC remanded the case to the ALJ. After remand, the ALJ determined that Rule 27 did not apply and dismissed Wycoff's case. Wycoff served forty-five days in administrative segregation before the case against him was dismissed. While Wycoff initially lost good-time credits for the ISP rule violation, after the ALJ's decision on remand all of Wycoff's good-time credits were restored.

Wycoff then brought this § 1983 action seeking damages against ISP officials, claiming that they violated his right to due process because (1) there was constitutionally insufficient evidence that Wycoff violated Rule 27, and (2) Rule 27 as applied to Wycoff was unconstitutionally vague. Defendants moved for summary judgment, arguing primarily that Wycoff had no due process claim because the administrative reversal of his ISP disciplinary report cured any alleged due process violations. Defendants later supplemented their previously filed motion for summary judgment, asserting that they were entitled to qualified immunity. Wycoff filed his own motion for summary judgment. The District Court granted summary judgment in favor of the prison officials. The District Court held that the prison officials did not violate Wycoff's due process rights and that, in any event, the administrative appeal, an integral part of the procedural protection afforded to Wycoff, resulted in a reversal that satisfied due process. The District Court did not address Wycoff's additional arguments regarding the application of Rule 27 to him or the prison officials' qualified immunity defense.

The District Court granted summary judgment in favor of defendants on the basis of Harper v. Lee, 938 F.2d 104 (8th Cir.1991) (per curiam). In Harper, a prison disciplinary committee had found Harper guilty of violating prison rules and sentenced him to a period of administrative segregation, a period of disciplinary detention, and a loss of good time. Harper brought a § 1983 damages action against the prison officials, arguing that the committee's refusal to allow him to put certain log books in evidence violated his right to due process. Prison officials subsequently remanded the case for rehearing to enable Harper to put the log books in evidence. At the rehearing, Harper introduced the log books, but the committee again found Harper guilty of violating prison rules. On appeal, we held that Harper had suffered no denial of due process because the remand and rehearing, as part of the due process protection to which he was entitled, rectified the initial denial of his right to put the log books in evidence. Id. at 105-06.

We review a grant of summary judgment de novo. Maitland v. University of Minn., 43 F.3d 357, 360 (8th Cir.1994). We will affirm the judgment if the record shows that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the prevailing party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Id.; see Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c).

We are satisfied that the District Court was correct in its use of Harper as the legal basis for its decision. Like the inmate in Harper, Wycoff was charged with violating a prison rule for which he was disciplined. After the warden denied his appeals, Wycoff appealed to the IDOC, and the IDOC remanded the case against Wycoff to the ALJ for rehearing. After remand, the ALJ dismissed the case against Wycoff, stating that the rule under which Wycoff was charged did not apply to his case. In these circumstances, we find that the ISP's reversal of the case against Wycoff constituted part of the due process Wycoff received, and it cured the alleged due process violation based on the ISP disciplinary committee's initial decision to sanction Wycoff.

In any event, this case is controlled by Sandin v. Conner, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 2293, 132 L.Ed.2d 418 (1995), ² which clearly bars Wycoff's claim that he is entitled to damages for time he spent in administrative segregation prior to the ISP's reversal of the case against him. In Sandin the Supreme Court held that an inmate has no protected liberty interest in remaining in the general prison population absent a showing of discipline in segregated confinement which amounts to atypical, significant deprivation. Id. at ----, 115 S.Ct. at 2301. Sandin fits this case and is an alternative basis upon which we deny Wycoff's claim for damages against the prison officials.

In Sandin, an inmate named Conner was convicted of numerous crimes, including murder, kidnapping, robbery, and burglary, for which he was serving an indeterminate sentence of thirty years to life in a Hawaiian prison. While being transported from his cell to the program area, Conner was...