Yount v. Pennsylvania Dept. of Corrections

• Decision Date: 17 November 2005
• Citation: 886 A.2d 1163
• Parties: Jon E. YOUNT, Petitioner v. PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS and James L. Grace, Superintendent of SCI-Huntingdon, in his official capacity, Respondents.
• Court: Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court

886 A.2d 1163

Jon E. YOUNT, Petitioner v. PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS and James L. Grace, Superintendent of SCI-Huntingdon, in his official capacity, Respondents.

Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted on Briefs September 30, 2005.

Decided November 17, 2005.

Jon E. Yount, petitioner, pro se.

Michael J. McGovern, Asst. Counsel, Camp Hill, respondent.

BEFORE: FRIEDMAN, Judge, and LEADBETTER, Judge, and McCLOSKEY, Senior Judge.

OPINION BY Senior Judge McCLOSKEY.

Before this Court are the preliminary objections in the form of a demurrer filed by Respondents Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) and James L. Grace, Superintendent of the State Correctional Institution (SCI) at Huntingdon (the Superintendent), in his official capacity, (collectively referred to as Respondents), to the pro se amended petition for review filed under this Court's original jurisdiction by inmate Jon E. Yount (Petitioner), seeking injunctive relief in connection with a claim for retaliation by prison officials. We now overrule, in part, and sustain, in part.

From 1988 until November 30, 2004, Petitioner was incarcerated at SCI-Huntingdon. He is currently incarcerated at the SCI-Greene.

In March, 2004, Petitioner and twenty-two (22) other inmates incarcerated at SCI-Huntingdon filed a complaint (the Yount Complaint) with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC), as a result of their dissatisfaction with the telephone system supplied by T-Netix, Inc. (T-Netix), to DOC institutions.¹ Thereafter, approximately a dozen other inmates, including inmate Preston Pfeifly, filed a similar complaint (the Pfeifly Complaint) with the PUC.

On September 28, 2004, an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) from the PUC conducted a hearing by telephonic/video conference as part of the proceedings in the Yount Complaint, at which time a number of the complainants testified. The hearing was scheduled to resume at a later date, at which time the remaining complainants were to testify. A hearing relating to the Pfeifly Complaint was scheduled for sometime in October, 2004. In early October, DOC personnel informed complainants in both the Yount Complaint and Pfeifly Complaint that T-Netix intended to offer a settlement proposal and that further hearings had been postponed pending a possible settlement. On November 1, 2004, the complainants in the Yount Complaint submitted a settlement proposal to T-Netix.

On November 30, 2004, Petitioner was transferred to SCI-Greene. Inmate Pfeifly was transferred to State Correctional Institution-Rockview (SCI-Rockview).² As of January 16, 2005, having not received a settlement offer from T-Netix, Petitioner filed a motion to renew the PUC proceedings. Because of his transfer and separation from co-complainants, Petitioner acted without consulting his co-complainants. Petitioner then filed a grievance with DOC on the basis that his transfer made it impossible for him to coordinate with his co-complainants. He alleged that his transfer was in retaliation for his participation in the complaint against T-Netix and had resulted in the denial of his constitutionally protected right to access the courts.

On January 31, 2005, the Grievance Coordinator at SCI-Huntingdon dismissed Petitioner's grievance based upon Petitioner's failure to file the grievance within fifteen (15) working days of his transfer to SCI-Greene. Petitioner appealed that decision on February 3, 2005. On March 21, 2005, the Superintendent affirmed the Grievance Coordinator's decision. Petitioner also appealed the decision to the Chief Grievance Coordinator, who also affirmed the decision. Thereafter, Petitioner filed a petition for review in this Court's original jurisdiction.

Petitioner alleges that his administrative appeal was timely and that his transfer was in retaliation for his initiation and maintenance of the coordinated challenge by inmates relating to the T-Netix telephone system in light of DOC's pecuniary interest in the operation, which Petitioner asserts is $7 million annually in rebates. Petitioner alleges that he and Pfeifly, the lead complainants, were both involuntarily transferred from SCI-Huntingdon, thereby separating them from their co-complainants, the effect of which was to deny them access to the requisite input and acquiescence of the co-complainants regarding disposition of the PUC complaints, including subsequent appeals. Therefore, DOC's actions interfered with and denied him access to the courts by separating him from his co-complainants. He also asserts that his transfer imposes familial hardships inasmuch as he is no longer housed in his "home area," denies him the ability to have contact with volunteers the Huntingdon chapter of the Pennsylvania Prison Society (PPS) regarding prison reform activities, and denies him the privilege of continuing his long-standing tenure with the Pennsylvania Lifers Association (PLA), a DOC-authorized inmate organization at SCI-Huntingdon that pursues improvements in conditions for prisoners. Petitioner alleges that neither he nor Pfeifly, both of whom he contends have excellent prison conduct records, were transferred pursuant to "misconduct" proceedings or other hearings. Moreover, DOC did not provide any legitimate penological objective to be attained by the transfer. Petitioner asserts that he was verbally informed by someone at SCI-Greene that his transfer was a result of an inappropriate relationship with a volunteer at SCI-Huntingdon, which Petitioner denies. Finally, Petitioner alleges that the Superintendent failed to respond to his administrative appeal within the time period required by DOC policy, thereby resulting in a violation of his due process rights.

In his request for relief, Petitioner requests an order declaring a wide variety of matters, including, but not limited to, declarations that his grievance was timely, that the transfer was retaliatory in nature and interfered with his access to courts, that the transfer imposed a familial hardship upon him, and that the transfer denied him the ability to have contact with PPS volunteers and that it denied him the ability to participate in the PLA organization. Petitioner requests that he be transferred to SCI-Huntingdon for at least the remainder of the PUC matter and that Respondents be prohibited from engaging in further retaliatory acts, and he requested any other relief the Court deems just, including an award of the costs of litigation.

Respondents filed preliminarily objections to Petitioner's petition for review. First, Respondents argue that any cause of action related to an alleged denial of access to courts must fail because Petitioner did not identify any specific instance wherein he has actually been denied access to a court. Second, Respondents also argue that any cause of action related to free speech on the basis that Petitioner is being denied an ability to communicate with a prison volunteer of PPS or that it is now more difficult for his family to visit him must fail because inmates have no constitutional right to visitation. Third, Respondents argue that any cause of action related to Petitioner's allegation that his transfer has denied him the privilege of continuing his "long-standing tenure" with PLA must fail because inmates have no right to membership in the PLA. Finally, Respondents argue that any cause of action related to a violation of due process on the basis that the Superintendent failed to respond to the grievance appeal within the time period provided must fail because the Respondents' directives do not create liberty interests in inmates.³ Respondents state that they will address issues relating to retaliation in future pleadings. In response, Petitioner states that Respondents are strategically seeking to have the Court disassociate the underlying and controlling claim of retaliation from the other aspects of the action. Petitioner states that he clearly has a protected and absolute liberty interest in access to the courts and to petition the government to redress grievances. Petitioner acknowledges that he does not claim to have a free-standing liberty interest in visitation, prison-reform interaction with representatives of the PPS or membership in a supportive inmate organization. However, although Petitioner does not assert a liberty interest in those "privileges," he does claim that the degree of constitutionally protected liberty interest attached to each of those "privileges" is sufficient to guarantee protection against loss of those privileges because of Respondents' retaliation. In other words, Petitioner argues that government actions which, standing alone, do not violate the constitution may otherwise do so if motivated in substantial part by a desire to punish for exercise of a constitutional right.

"To prevail in an action for injunction, a party must establish that his right to relief is clear, that an injunction is necessary to avoid an injury that cannot be compensated by damages, and that greater injury will result from refusing rather than granting the relief requested." Harding v. Stickman, 823 A.2d 1110, 1111 (Pa. Cmwlth.2003). The Court may not grant relief where there exists an adequate remedy at law. See Harding.

"In order to prevail on preliminary objections in the nature of a demurrer to a claim for injunctive relief, a court must find that the petition is clearly insufficient to establish a right to injunctive relief, and any doubt must be resolved in favor of overruling the demurrer." Harding, 823 A.2d at 1111. This Court has stated the following well-settled principle concerning its consideration of preliminary objections:

When ruling upon preliminary objections in the nature of a demurrer, the Court must accept as true all well-pleaded allegations of material fact as well as all reasonable inferences

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