Dissenting Opinion
from the denial of rehearing en banc:
I believe the issue in this case merits en banc сonsideration. While in prison, Napier filed a § 1983 suit against two deputies based on activities which occurred months before the events leading to his present confinement. Thus his lawsuit has nothing to do with the circumstances of his present incarceration. The Napier panel interpreted 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(e), a provision of the 1995 Prison Litigation Reform Act, Pub.L. No. 104-134, 110 Stat. 1321 (1996) (“PLRA”), to bar Napier’s claim, holding that when § 1997e(e) states that “[n]o Federal civil action may be brought by a prisoner confined in a jail, prison, or other correctional facility, for mental or emotional injury suffered while in custody without a prior showing of physical injury,” the word “custody” refers to any instance of “Miranda custody,” including prior, unrelated arrests. See Napier v. Preslicka,
I. The Panel’s Holding Finds Little Support in the Language, Structure, or History of the PLRA
The starting point for statutory interpretation is the language of the statute itself. United States v. DBB, Inc.,
The Napier panel’s interpretation of 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(e) runs counter to these well-established principles. Section 1997e(е) states that:
No Federal civil action may be brought by a prisoner confined in a jail, prison, or other correctional facility, for mental or emotional injury suffered while in custody without a prior showing of physical injury.
Relying on “the plain language” of § 1997e(e), the Napier panel oрts for the former, vastly more expansive interpretation, holding that the word “custody” in § 1997e(e) encompasses all of a prisoner’s prior arrests, whether or not they are related his current confinement “in a jail, prison, or other correctional facility.” Napier,
The panel’s decision invоlves two steps. First, the panel presumes that Congress used “custody” in § 1997e(e) “in the settled sense” to mean “Miranda custody” or any “ ‘formal arrest or restraint on freedom of movement.’ ” Id. at 532-33 (quoting Minnesota v. Murphy,
The panel’s reasoning is unsupported and unpersuasive. As the panel implicitly concedes, “custody” as it occurs in § 1997e(e) is plainly ambiguous.
Moreover, the panel’s reliance on “the settled legal meaning” of “custody” is misplaced.
Rather than invoke the plain meaning doctrine where it does not apply, thereby expanding the scope of a statute Congress may have meant to apply more narrowly, this Court should candidly acknowledgе that § 1997e(e) as written is open to several different interpretations, only some of which would preclude Napier’s lawsuit. It should then apply a different interpretive canon to determine which of those competing interpretations is most plausible. This case is a textbook example of the principle that the meaning of an ambiguous word is known by its companions — the doctrine of noscitur a sociis. Both the Supreme Court and this Court have frequently relied on this commonsense principle to ascertain the meaning of ambiguous statutory provisions “in order to avoid the giving of unintended breadth to the Acts of Congress.” Jarecki v. G.D. Searle & Co.,
In his dissent to the panel’s decision, Judge Propst reviewed each of the major provisions of § 1997e and found that, viewed as a whole, they suggest that Congress intended “in custody” in § 1997e(e) to mean at least “prison custody,” if not “prison custody related to the present incarceration.” Napier,
II. The Panel’s Holding Conflicts with This Court’s Previous Interpretations of § 1997e(e)
As indicated, the panel’s holding that the “plain meaning” of § 1997e(e) precludes equating “custody” with “prison custody” or treating “suffered while in custody” as synonymous with “suffered while incarcerated” or “suffered while confined in a jail, prison, or other correctional facility” conflicts with this Court’s previous interpretations of § 1997e(e). See Mitchell v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp.,
In Mitchell, a federal prisoner sued cigarette manufacturers in state court on state law claims. After defendants removed to federal court, the district court dismissed the suit because the prisoner did not allege a physical injury as required by § 1997e(e). The Eleventh Circuit reversed, holding that “ § 1997e(e) does not apply to prisoner lawsuits unrelated to prison conditions filed in state court based solely оn state law and removed by defendants to federal court based on diversity jurisdiction.” Mitchell,
Mitchell raises several challenges to the district court’s application of § 1997e(e) to this matter. Thе only contention that is dispositive, however, is his argument that § 1997e(e) does not apply to actions that were removed from state court. We agree, insofar as the action filed in state court by Mitchell solely alleged state-law claims unrelated to prison conditions.
Id. at 1315 (emphasis added).
After Mitchell, a defendant sued in state court on state law claims related to prison conditions who removes to federal court is not automatically precluded from moving to dismiss. For example, a government contractor responsible for providing prisoner meals who is sued for mental injury allegedly caused by serving tasteless or rotten food is not necessarily barred by Mitchell from removing to federal court and moving to dismiss, since the alleged injury relates to prison conditions. Hence the qualification “unrelated to prison conditions,” which Mitchell uses on three separate occasions, see id. at 1312, 1315, 1317, is properly considered part of that case’s holding, which does in turn conflict with Napier.
III. The Panel’s Holding Has Troubling Implications That Beach Far Beyond the Specific Facts of This Case
In Jones v. Cunningham,
As a result of these decisions, the Napier panel’s already expansive interpretation of § 1997e(e) has troubling implications that reach far beyond the narrow confines of this case. In particular, as Judge Propst warns in his dissenting opinion, the panel’s holding implies thаt prisoners could be precluded from enforcing violations of their civil rights that occurred while they were released on probation, parole, or bail. For example, a prisoner would be unable to sue her employer in federal court for mental injury associated with sexual harassment or racial discrimination, if the alleged injury occurred while she was “in custody” by virtue of an unexрired term of probation or parole, or while she was released on bail. Napier,
This is just one of many such examples. If the panel is correct, then prisoners could be prevented from pursuing an indefinite number of legal claims, against both public and private actors, having absolutely nothing to do with the conditions of their current incarceration. For example, they would be precluded from seeking recovery for mental injury stemming from humiliating, torturous, or otherwise illegal pre-detention searches and interrogations, as well as from, inter alia, false imprisonment, defamation, invasion of privacy, in
IV. This Issue is Exceptionally Important and Warrants En Banc Review
According to Rule 35 of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, en banc review is warranted if such a hearing “is necessary to secure or maintain uniformity of the court’s decisions” or “involves a question of exceptional importance.” F.R.A.P. 35. Eleventh Circuit Rule 35-3, our companion to F.R.A.P. 35, likewise desсribes en banc consideration as a procedure intended to alert the entire court to “a precedent-setting error of exceptional importance” or “a panel opinion that is allegedly in direct conflict with precedent . of the Supreme Court or of this circuit.” 11th Cir. R. 35-3. In my judgment, Napier involves exactly the type of errors these rules are intended to address.
For the forgoing reasons, I respectfully dissent from the Court’s denial of rehearing en banc in this case.
Notes
. As the panel majority acknowledges, "custody” as it occurs in § 1997e(e) could refer to any formal arrest or restraint on freedom of movement related to a prisoner's current incarceration (first interpretation), or it could refer to any such arrest or restraint related or unrelated to his current incarceration (second interpretation). Napier,
. See tape of oral argument in Napier v. Preslicka, No. 00-13064, 9/11/02.
. See, e.g., Mitchell v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp.,
. The panel attempts to defend its conclusion that § 1997e(e) unambiguously precludes lawsuits by prisoners for injuries suffered during arrests unrelated to their present confinement by reasoning that had Congress intended otherwise, it could have drafted § 1997e(e) more clearly:
One could аrgue that the phrase “in custody” is meant to refer to the present custody, that custody for which the prisoner is in fact currently a prisoner, or that the phrase "in custody” is meant to refer, without reference to the other parts of the statute, to past or present instances of custody. The first interpretation might reflect a narrow purpose of the PLRA to reduce frivolous prison condition litigation, those suits brought by prisoners to challenge what they view as unacceptable or, indeed, unconstitutional circumstances of their present confinement. However, the first interpretation is not supported by the plain language of the statute.... Congress could have drafted the statute to say "while thus imprisoned” or "while in that custody” or "during the aforementioned confinement” to specifically tie the clause in question to the antecedent in order to ensure that the first interpretation was followed. Even more simply, Congress could have used "while imprisoned” as it uses "prisoner” earlier in the statute if its intent was to limit the claims subject to the PLRA to those arising from harm accrued only in that limited venue.
Napier,
. "Congress is presumed to know the settled legal meaning of the terms it uses in enacted statutes and to use those terms in the settled sense.” Napier,
. Compare, for example, Minnesota v. Murphy,
. The PLRA was introduced in May 1995 by Senators Dole and Kyi as Senate Resolution 866. In his remarks, Senator Dole made clear that the target of the proposed legislation was frivolous lawsuits involving prison conditions. See 141 Cong. Rec. S7498-01, S7524 (daily ed. May 25, 1995) (Statement of Senator Dole) ("Prisoners have filed lawsuits claiming such grievances as insufficient storage locker space, being prohibited from attending a wedding anniversary party, and yes, being served creamy peanut butter instead of the chunky variety they had ordered.”). Senator Kyi reiterated this limitation in his remarks by relying on a Justice Deрartment report on § 1983 litigation entitled "Challenging the Conditions of Prisons and Jails.” See 141 Cong. Rec. S7498-01, S7527 (daily ed.
In Harris, this Court observed that “[b]ecause Congress enacted [the] PLRA as a rider to an appropriations bill, floor debate is more indicative of legislative intent than it otherwise would be.”
Lead Opinion
ON PETITION FOR REHEARING EN BANC
The Court having been polled at the request of one of the members of the Court and a majority of the Circuit Judges who are in regular active service not having voted in favor of it (Rule 35, Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure; Eleventh Circuit Rule 35-5), the Petition for Rehearing En Banc is DENIED.
