David SAXNER and Alfred Cain, Jr., Plaintiffs-Appellees, Cross-Appellants, v. Charles BENSON, et al., Defendants-Appellants, Cross-Appellees.
Nos. 82-1799, 82-1816.
United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.
Argued June 3, 1983. Decided Feb. 13, 1984.
Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied June 8, 1984.
727 F.2d 669
I therefore respectfully dissent.
trial court that failure to admit the convictions would result in “the truth [being] distorted[,] for the picture presented will be that of a grey-haired, grandfatherly gentleman who has been himself victimized ....” Government‘s Memorandum In Support of Motion In Limine at 8.
I cannot help but believe that the potential for the jury to convict the defendant because of his propensity to engage in criminal activity is too great to allow these convictions to be introduced.
G. Flint Taylor, Hass, Hoffman, Schmiedel & Taylor, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiffs-appellees, cross-appellants.
Before WOOD and CUDAHY, Circuit Judges, and CELEBREZZE, Senior Circuit Judge.*
HARLINGTON WOOD, Jr., Circuit Judge.1
Originally the most important issue in this case was whether the members of the prison Institutional Disciplinary Committee were entitled to absolute immunity, not merely qualified immunity, from suits alleging the deprivation of a prisoner‘s constitutional rights. In the meantime, however, this court in Redding v. Fairman, 717 F.2d 1105, 1117 (7th Cir.1983), has resolved the immunity issue by adhereing to Chavis v. Rowe, 643 F.2d 1281, 1288 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 907, 102 S.Ct. 415, 70 L.Ed.2d 225 (1981), and Mary and Crystal v. Ramsden, 635 F.2d 590 (7th Cir.1980), in finding no basis or justification for absolute immunity.2
The only remaining issues are whether or not the compensatory damages awarded by the jury and approved by the trial court are excessive, and whether the trial court erred in denying plaintiff‘s request for attorneys’ fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act (
I.
The defendants are senior correctional officers at the federal correctional institution at Terre Haute, Indiana. The plaintiffs, David Saxner and Alfred Cain, Jr., are former inmates of the institution. In 1975, the Terre Haute prison had a staff of 350 people; it housed nearly 2,000 inmates in its main facility and approximately 300 in its farm camp. In January, 1975 a prisoner died in the prison hospital under circumstances which were not entirely clear; shortly thereafter the prisoners engaged in a two day work stoppage to protest the inmate‘s death. The plaintiffs apparently did not participate in the work stoppage. Instead, they endeavored to discover the circumstances surrounding the prisoner‘s death and to report their findings to interested members of the press and public. Their efforts were partly responsible for an investigation of the prison‘s hospital and the resignation of the prison‘s physician.
The plaintiffs, who had remained in segregation, appeared before the Institutional Disciplinary Committee (IDC) on February 21, 1975. On that day, the IDC was composed of Theodore Cleavinger, an associate warden, Marvin Marcadis, a correctional supervisor, and Tom Lockett, chief of case management.3
At the hearing before the IDC, Saxner was represented by a staff counselor of his choice. After reading the charge against Saxner, the incident report was introduced, as well as three documents written by Saxner; no guards or inmates were called to testify,4 but Saxner was permitted to introduce affidavits of several inmates, and to testify on his own behalf. At the close of evidence, the IDC found Saxner guilty of encouraging a work stoppage. The IDC also found Saxner guilty of two other offenses with which he had not been charged: possession of contraband and unauthorized use of the mail.5 The IDC ordered that Saxner be confined in administrative segregation for an indefinite period, and that he forfeit 84 days of good time; it also recommended that he be transferred to another institution.
Cain‘s hearing was held on the same day, before the same three correctional officers. Cain denied that he had encouraged others not to work and demanded an opportunity to examine his accuser. The IDC produced an incident report, which contained the particulars of the work stoppage charge, and two other documents which had been seized in an administrative search of his cell; no other evidence was produced. Cain was found guilty of the original work stoppage charge and of an additional charge of possession of contraband (the materials which had been seized in the search of his cell). The IDC ordered that Cain be confined in administrative segregation indefinitely, and that he forfeit 96 days of good time; the IDC also recommended that Cain be transferred to another institution.
Each plaintiff was informed of his right to appeal the IDC‘s decision, and both plaintiffs appealed the IDC‘s decision to the warden of the prison. The warden granted part of the relief sought by the plaintiffs on appeal: he restored the forfeited good time and ordered the plaintiffs’ release from administrative segregation; the warden refused, however, to expunge their records. Both plaintiffs appealed to the Regional Office of the Bureau of Prisons; based upon the Regional Office‘s recommendation, the records of both Cain and Saxner were expunged.
This action was commenced in March, 1975, while the plaintiffs were still in administrative segregation. The initial complaint was filed pro se. Subsequently, counsel was retained and the complaint was
Prior to trial, the defendants moved for judgment on the pleadings, asserting that they were entitled to absolute immunity from liability for actions taken in their capacity as IDC members. Although the district court granted the motion, it held, on reconsideration, that the defendants were entitled only to qualified immunity in light of this court‘s decision in Mary and Crystal v. Ramsden, 635 F.2d 590. The case was tried to a jury in April, 1981; the jury found, in response to special interrogatories, that all three of the IDC members had violated the plaintiffs’ fifth amendment right to due process. The jury awarded each plaintiff $4,500 as compensatory damages.6 In May, 1981 the defendants moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, arguing that the verdict was excessive; the motion was denied. The plaintiffs moved for an award of attorneys’ fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act,
II.
The jury award of compensable damages in the amount of $4,500 to each plaintiff was found by the trial court, in ruling on defendants’ motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, to be supported by sufficient evidence. The defendants find no fault with the jury instructions based on Carey v. Piphus, 435 U.S. 247, 262-64, 98 S.Ct. 1042, 1051-1052, 55 L.Ed.2d 252 (1978), claiming only that the amount was excessive.
Cain spent 35 days in segregation where he was confined almost 24 hours a day without access to the prison yard or other exercise facilities. He also lost various other privileges. Cain could not, while in segregation, earn good time, and his possible parole was affected. Saxner spent his first week in a windowless segregation cell in extremely unsanitary and repulsive conditions. He was not allowed out of that cell. For a few days he had no bedding, soap or adequate lighting. Later he was transferred to a different unit for two weeks.
The trial court credited plaintiffs’ testimony to establish mental and emotional distress injuries attributable to the due process violations. The trial court found that the “anguish and frustration which flowed from the patent unfairness of the hearings and the fear that such unfair treatment would continue in the future in their administrative review and appeals, at their parole hearings, and in their day to day existence in the segregation units unrelated to the issue of the length (35 days) of time served in segregation” contributed to their actual injuries. The trial judge noted that nominal damages are all that are due upon a showing of a denial of due process without proof of actual damage, as injury cannot be presumed from denial of due process. Carey v. Piphus, 435 U.S. at 258, 98 S.Ct. at 1049. However, being convinced that plaintiffs had established “the link between the due process violations and the actual injury consequences,” the trial judge allowed the awards to stand.
The awards may be somewhat excessive, but so are the defendants’ arguments which characterize plaintiffs’ damages as “little more than a litany of diminished creature comforts combined with generalized claims of anxiety.” In view of the general restrictions on appellate review of a jury‘s award of monetary damages, we will not substi-
III.
Plaintiffs, as prevailing parties, claim they are entitled to an allowance of attorneys’ fees under alternative theories.
During the time this suit was still pending in the district court on post-trial matters, the Equal Access to Justice Act,
We agree with the district court. Plaintiffs do not satisfy the statutory requisites for attorneys’ fees under the Act. The United States was not named, and the defendants were named only individually. In addition to the absence of any allegation that the defendants were acting in their official capacities, it is specifically alleged in paragraph 10 of the Third Amended Complaint, upon which the case was tried, that “All defendants are sued in their indi-
vidual capacities.” Plaintiffs would now have us remodel their complaint or give its allegations some subtle interpretation in variance with its plain language so as to qualify under the fees statute. The timing of this lawsuit and the enactment of the Equal Access to Justice Act may be unfortunate, but we cannot change those circumstances.
Plaintiffs alternatively claim to be entitled to an award of attorneys’ fees under section 2412(b) of the Act, although plaintiffs concede that section also requires that the action meet the “official capacity” requirement. Plaintiffs urge that we read section 2412(b), permitting an award of attorneys’ fees against the federal government to the same extent that fees may be awarded in cases involving “any other party,” as opening the way for attorneys’ fees through the Civil Rights Attorneys Fees Award Act,
Under the circumstances in this case we cannot send the government a judicial bill for plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees.
The parties shall bear their own costs.
AFFIRMED.
CUDAHY, Circuit Judge, concurring.
I believe that Redding v. Fairman, 717 F.2d 1105 (7th Cir.1983), is entirely sound in its resolution of the issue of absolute immunity for a prison disciplinary committee. I
The activities and procedures of these prison officers are so dissimilar in form and substance from those of judges granted absolute immunity that reliance on an all-encompassing similarity of quasi-judicial function will not wash. As Chief Judge Winter has pointed out, performance of “quasi-judicial” functions does not automatically trigger absolute immunity. Ward v. Johnson, 690 F.2d 1098, 1115 (4th Cir.1982) (Winter, C.J., dissenting). Thus, in Wood v. Strickland, 420 U.S. 308, 320-21, 95 S.Ct. 992, 1000, 43 L.Ed.2d 214 (1975), school board members, who were sued for due process violations in disciplinary proceedings, were afforded only qualified immunity.2 See Ward v. Johnson, 690 F.2d at 1115-16 (Winter, C.J., dissenting).3 The prison disciplinary proceedings at issue here are certainly much more akin to the school board meeting in Wood than to a hearing conducted by an ALJ under the Administrative Procedure Act.
In any event, a comparison of this case with Butz shows how extraordinarily short the case before us falls of the standards prescribed in Butz. Among the characteristics of administrative law proceedings which the Butz court deemed significant were (1) the impartiality of the decision-making process and the reliability of the information developed; (2) the importance of precedent in resolving controversies; (3) the adversary nature of the proceedings; and (4) the availability of review. Butz at 512-13, 98 S.Ct. at 2913-2914.
The Butz court relied on the Administrative Procedure Act and noted that “federal administrative law requires that agency adjudication contain many of the same safe-guards as found in the judicial process....” Id. at 513, 98 S.Ct. at 2914. These protections include notice, representation by a lawyer, a verbatim transcript of the proceedings, subpoena power, presentation of oral and documentary evidence, cross-examination of adverse witnesses under oath (limited only by considerations of relevancy and materiality), rebuttal evidence and prehearing discovery.
The disciplinary policy of the Bureau of Prisons provides few of the safeguards of the APA. The committee members are prison guards and supervisory employees who are in daily contact with the prisoners upon whom they sit in judgment. The committee members are supervisors and fellow employees of the guards who bring the charges and are in an unequal adversarial relationship with the prisoners. They are the keepers judging the kept rather than impartial adjudicators trained in law and presumably free of bias and prejudice. In addition, the information presented to the committee is frequently hearsay, self-serving and unreliable. See Bracy v. Herringa, 466 F.2d 702 (7th Cir.1972). Of course, the decisions of the committee are not based on precedent since there is no recorded precedent. And review is restricted to agencies of the Bureau of Prisons. To suggest that the committee functions in any real respect like the administrative law judge in Butz is to depart from reality.
The suggestion that members of the prison disciplinary committees are entitled to absolute immunity also ignores a major premise of the entire immunity doctrine--that absolute immunity is the rare exception to the rule granting qualified immunity to public officials performing discretionary functions. See Ward v. Johnson, 690 F.2d 1098, 1114 (4th Cir.1982) (Winter, C.J., dissenting). See also Nixon v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 731, 102 S.Ct. 2690, 73 L.Ed.2d 349 (1982) (most executive officials entitled only to qualified immunity); accord Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 814-15, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2736-2737, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). Thus in Wood v. Strickland, 420 U.S. 308, 95 S.Ct. 992, 43 L.Ed.2d 214 (1975), school board members who were clearly performing quasi-judicial functions (a factor heavily relied upon by the dissent with respect to IDC members) were granted only qualified immunity from damage suits arising out of disciplinary meetings. This circuit, by rejecting the majority position in Ward v. Johnson as not representing the “better view” (see Redding, 717 F.2d at 1117), has clearly decided not to create another exception to the qualified immunity rule.
The dissent, by attempting to apply, perhaps mechanistically, the four factor Butz test, loses sight of the overriding concern the Supreme Court expressed in Harlow and Butz, that grants of absolute immunity are appropriate only when the defendant official establishes that public policy so requires.4 Harlow, 457 U.S. at 808, 102 S.Ct. at 2734; Butz, 438 U.S. at 506, 98 S.Ct. at 2910-2911. We said, in evaluating parole board members’ claims to absolute immunity, that it should not be granted “absent compelling reasons.” United States ex rel. Powell v. Irving, 684 F.2d 494, 495 (7th Cir.1982). No such reasons exist, nor have any been argued, for granting absolute immunity to prison disciplinary committees.
The dissent does not even attempt to justify absolute immunity here on policy grounds. Instead, it relies on a quite inappropriate functional test and a loose (at best) comparison with the responsibilities of the administrative law judges in Butz. But Harlow made clear that if public policy does not require absolute immunity, an official‘s function becomes irrelevant. The dissent makes no effort to explain why public policy requires absolute immunity for adjudicatory disciplinary proceedings in prisons but not in schools. Certainly, education is as
It would be poor policy to extend absolute immunity to these defendants. The Supreme Court has recently charted a course which suggests a broadening of the protections of qualified immunity coupled with conferral of new grants of absolute immunity primarily upon defendants occupying a high place on the governmental ladder. Thus, in Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982), the Court made it more difficult for plaintiffs to prevail over a defense of qualified immunity by eliminating any requirement that the defendant show subjective good faith. Cf. Egger v. Phillips, 710 F.2d 292, 323 (7th Cir.1983) (en banc) (Cudahy, J., concurring). This makes it more likely that defendants will prevail on summary judgment, Harlow, 457 U.S. at 816, 102 S.Ct. at 2738, thus reducing the burden of, and the possible intimidation resulting from, litigation. And in Nixon v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 731, 102 S.Ct. 2690, 73 L.Ed.2d 349 (1982), by extending absolute immunity to the President because of his high office, the Court indicated that the position an official occupies in the federal system may be relevant to the determination of what sort of immunity applies.5 At least, the governmental rank of the official is relevant to the determination whether public policy requires absolute immunity. Here, of course, we are dealing with comparatively low-level officials whose duties are only quite incidentally “judicial” in any sense. And they are accorded adequate protection against harassment by the enlarged safeguards of qualified immunity as announced in Harlow.
Additionally, I note that the Supreme Court, in analyzing the issue of absolute immunity, has relied primarily upon the purposes of the post-Civil War amendments and of the Civil Rights Statutes. Thus, Briscoe v. LaHue, — U.S. —, 103 S.Ct. 1108, 75 L.Ed.2d 96 (1983), which confirmed the absolute immunity of police witnesses at trials, was based upon a searching analysis of the state common-law immunity immediately after the Civil War. Congress is presumed to have acted in the context of common law immunities. I doubt that such an inquiry into the purposes of the post-Civil War amendments and statutes, which the dissent does not attempt to undertake, could support absolute immunity for prison disciplinary committees since the 1871 Congress was greatly concerned about the proper functioning of the penal system.
I therefore concur fully in the majority opinion except for any possible implication of dissatisfaction with the refusal of this circuit to grant absolute immunity to prison institutional disciplinary committees.
CELEBREZZE, Senior Circuit Judge, dissenting.
The majority has failed to analyze the immunity issue presented by this case consistent with the Supreme Court‘s decision in Butz v. Economou, 438 U.S. 478, 98 S.Ct. 2894, 57 L.Ed.2d 895 (1978). Respectfully, I dissent.
The Supreme Court in Butz established clearly that in some circumstances executive officials performing judicial or quasi-judicial functions are absolutely immune
guards to lessen the “need for individual suits to correct constitutional error.” Id. at 512, 98 S.Ct. at 2914. Although several courts have applied the Butz analysis in a similar context, e.g. Reed v. Village of Shorewood, 704 F.2d 943, 951-52 (7th Cir.1983) (liquor control commissioner absolutely immune for quasi-judicial acts); United States v. Irving, 684 F.2d 494, 496-97 (7th Cir.1982) (parole board members absolutely immune for quasi-judicial acts); Segarra v. McDade, 706 F.2d 1301, 1305 (4th Cir.1983); Ward v. Johnson, 690 F.2d 1098 (4th Cir.
I believe that this circuit has failed to analyze fully immunity issues concerning the special functions doctrine. Without discussion, the majority holds that the federal correctional officers in this case are not entitled to absolute immunity; it believes that this court‘s decision in Redding v. Fairman, et al., 717 F.2d 1105 (7th Cir.1983) is dispositive. Without discussion, this court in Redding held that prison officials of the Illinois Department of Corrections were not entitled to absolute immunity; it believed that this court‘s decision in Mary and Crystal v. Ramsden, 635 F.2d 590 (7th Cir.1980) was dispositive. In Mary and Crystal, the primary issue was whether staff members at Goodland State Camp, a Wisconsin juvenile correctional institution, were entitled to absolute immunity. This court acknowledged that the threshold question was whether the staff members performed a function comparable to that of a judge; it concluded that the staff members of the juvenile center performed a function more akin to the function performed by school board members. Id. at 600. I do not believe that one can assert rationally that the function performed by the federal correctional officers in this case, who serve on a disciplinary committee in a federal penitentiary, is equivalent to the function performed by school board members.5 The experience in this circuit demonstrates the need to analyze carefully each of the factors established by Butz.6
Clearly, the appellants, as members of the IDC, are functionally comparable to judges. Indeed, IDC members are involved in the classic judicial function: they are required to determine whether an accused person is guilty or innocent of the charges brought against him. See Bureau of Prisons Policy Statement, 7400.5C (1974), Sec. 9(b). See also
The likelihood that an adverse decision would result in harassing or intimidating litigation is equally apparent. Ward v. Johnson, 690 F.2d 1098, 1108 (4th Cir.1982) (en banc). See United States v. Irving, 684 F.2d at 497 (danger that parole board members will be harassed by retaliatory suits). The ability of prisoners to generate litigation is substantial and well documented. See Ward v. Johnson, 690 F.2d at 1108. The burden of such prodigious litigation upon IDC members would be substantial in terms of time and money; these burdens are likely to affect the fashion in which IDC members discharge their quasi-judicial functions.
In my opinion, the final factor in Butz, whether the procedural safeguards are sufficiently formal to assure that constitutional error will not go uncorrected, is the crux of this dispute. See Butz v. Economou, 438 U.S. at 512, 98 S.Ct. at 2913-2914; Reed v. Village of Shorewood, 704 F.2d at 952. This factor is an expression of the inverse relationship between procedural regularity and the incremental deterrent effect of qualified immunity; if the formality of the procedure is sufficient to assure that constitutional error will be corrected, then qualified immunity will have only a marginal deterrent effect which, in turn, will not warrant exposing persons acting in a quasi-judicial function to the risk of personal liability and the expense of defending against the complaint of a disappointed liti-
rected depends on the particular procedures available. The procedural safeguards available to inmates who appear before the members of the IDC are not the same set of procedures available to juvenile inmates at a Wisconsin Juvenile Correctional Institution. Mary and Crystal v. Ramsden, 635 F.2d 590, 594 n. 1 (7th Cir.1980) (juvenile defendants were not permitted to have advocates at the hearing, were not permitted to question witnesses, and were not permitted to produce witnesses in their defense).
The procedures in effect at the time of the plaintiff‘s hearing before the IDC were fairly extensive.9 Under Policy Statement 7400.5C, which was in effect in 1975, no staff member having personal knowledge of the incident which is the subject matter of a hearing is permitted to serve on the IDC. Policy Statement, 7400.5C, Sec. 9(a). See
An inmate charged with misconduct is entitled to notice of all charges against him at least 24 hours before his hearing. Policy Statement, 7400.5C, Sec. 9(c)(1). See
The proceedings before the IDC are adversarial in nature and are sufficiently formal to assure that any constitutional error will either be corrected in the course of the proceeding, or avoided entirely. Inmates are represented by advocates, and are permitted to present evidence in their defense. The IDC is required to engage in principled
In sum, I believe that the IDC members act in a quasi-judicial fashion, that a substantial risk of retaliatory litigation exists, and that the procedural rules governing the conduct of disciplinary proceedings are sufficient to assure that constitutional error will not go uncorrected; consequently, I would hold that the appellants, all members of the IDC, are entitled to absolute immunity. Butz v. Economou, 438 U.S. at 511-512, 98 S.Ct. at 2913-2914.