Rodriguez v. HolmesRodriguez v. Holmes
Eugenio L. Rodriguez appeals from the district court‘s dismissal under
I. FACTS AND PRIOR PROCEEDINGS
In November 1986, Rodriguez, an inmate at the Texas Department of Corrections, filed a civil rights action under
Throughout the course of his many procedural filings, Rodriguez has presented a litany of claims: (1) brutality and/or unnecessary use of excessive force and battery; (2) false arrest; (3) false imprisonment; (4) malicious prosecution; (5) denial of counsel; (6) corruption and/or gross negligence and/or abuse of state seal and office; (7) denial of medical attention; and (8) kidnapping and/or illegal extradition from one state into another. On this appeal, Rodriguez has refined his claims to place emphasis on false arrest, false imprisonment, and malicious prosecution. He asserts violations of the Fourth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments.2 We recognize that these are the allegations of a pro se complaint so they “must be read in a liberal fashion,” and ” ‘however inartfully pleaded’ must be held to ‘less stringent standards than formal pleadings drafted by lawyers.’ ” Richardson v. Fleming, 651 F.2d 366, 368 (5th Cir. Unit A 1981) (quoting Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 106, 97 S.Ct. 285, 292, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976)).
On July 31, 1987, the district court concluded that the basis of Rodriguez’ section 1983 claim went to the constitutionality of the state-court conviction and dismissed the complaint without
Our inquiry has produced the following pivotal procedural events following our December 29, 1987, affirmance.4 This pro se litigant first began the legal maze by following our 1987 mandate and filing a post-conviction application for writ of habeas corpus with the Judicial District Court of Ector County, Texas, the convicting court. On September 21, 1987, the state court denied the application without written order. On January 6, 1988, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals also denied Rodriguez’ habeas application without written order. On May 6, 1988, Rodriguez then applied for federal habeas corpus. On January 5, 1989, the federal district court denied his petition for relief, finding that Rodriguez had presented no basis for overcoming the strong presumption that his guilty plea was made knowingly and voluntarily.
Also, in December 1988, Rodriguez had sought permission to “refile” his section 1983 action based on “new discoveries” and to have counsel appointed. On February 21, 1989, the district court denied his motion. It found that Rodriguez’ claims were not sufficiently related to the previous civil suit which was in the nature of a suit for habeas relief. The court also denied his request for counsel. The district court, nonetheless, stated that Rodriguez was free to proceed under a new civil rights suit
At about the same time of these federal court actions, on January 23, 1989, the convicting state court apparently sua sponte held an evidentiary hearing with regard to newly discovered evidence in the murder to which Rodriguez had confessed. The evidence was that another person, Juan Balderrama, had confessed to the same murder. At the conclusion of the hearing, the court issued its finding that a new trial should be granted based on the new evidence. On May 3, 1989, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, however, denied the trial court‘s recommendation without written order. Still seeking relief, Rodriguez returned to the federal district court and filed another federal habeas corpus application asserting three central claims: (1) Ector County Sheriff‘s Department threatened and forced Rodriguez into making false statements admitting his guilt and entering a plea of guilty; (2) newly discovered evidence established that he did not commit the offense; and (3) counsel ineffectively assisted Rodriguez when counsel allowed him to plead guilty to an offense based on a poorly investigated confession.
On October 16, 1989, the district court found that Rodriguez had exhausted his potential state remedies. Further, the court concluded that reviewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the prosecution, a rational trier of fact could have found that a new trial was necessary in the interests of justice. The district court remanded the case to the convicting court for retrial of Rodriguez’ Ector County murder conviction or dismissal of the indictment.5
The state trial court dismissed the prosecution on November 30, 1989. The state averred that
On November 26, 1990, appellees filed a motion under
On February 1, 1991, the district court, agreeing with the appellees’ contention that the requisite statute of limitations period had expired, dismissed the action as time-barred. The court held that to be timely, the complaint would have had to have been filed within two years of September 1, 1987, the date on which Texas abrogated the rule tolling limitations for imprisoned persons. Although the court relied on its prior admonition to Rodriguez in February 1989 that he could file a new section 1983 action, it did not mention that it had not granted Rodriguez habeas relief relative to his murder conviction until October 16, 1989. On January 7, 1991, Rodriguez, pro se and in forma pauperis, appealed.
II. DISCUSSION
Because no specified federal statute of limitations exists for section 1983 suits, federal courts
Although state law controls the limitations period for section 1983 claims, federal law determines when a cause of action accrues. Brummett v. Camble, 946 F.2d 1178, 1184 (5th Cir.1991), petition for cert. filed, 60 U.S.L.W. 3689 — U.S. —, — S.Ct. —, — L.Ed.2d — (U.S. Mar. 19, 1992) (No. 91–1515). The federal standard provides that “the statute of limitations begins to run from the moment the plaintiff becomes aware that he has suffered an injury or has sufficient information to know that he has been injured.” Helton v. Clements, 832 F.2d 332, 335 (5th Cir.1987) (footnote omitted).
Rodriguez’ seminal argument on appeal is that the statute of limitations should be tolled in his case pursuant to
The appellees assert that the district court‘s holding was correct. Since imprisonment no longer operated to toll the statute of limitations, the limitations period began to run against Rodriguez at the latest on September 1, 1987. Further, since Rodriguez was specially informed by the district court in February 1989, prior to the expiration of the limitations period, that he could file a new civil right suit, Rodriguez had full knowledge of his available remedies and should have acted upon them.
These contentions, however, overlook the fact that Rodriguez was a pro se litigant trying to get his case heard but being thwarted by substantive and procedural objections at every turn. Rodriguez’ predicament is an aberration because the state court sua sponte reconsidered his case for the best of reasons—someone else confessed to the crime. We do have precedent for equitably addressing similar, though not analogous, scenarios. We have considered the quandary of a pro se litigant who timely files a civil rights complaint, but because his claim sounds in habeas, is directed to pursue and exhaust his state law remedies. Then when he finally returns to federal court he may find to his dismay that the statute of limitations has run. In Mills v. Criminal District Court No. 3, 837 F.2d 677, 680 (5th Cir.1988), we noted that because the litigant “may be entitled to amend his
More recently, in Jackson v. Johnson, 950 F.2d 263 (5th Cir.1992) (per curiam), we reinforced the importance of dismissal without prejudice rather than holding the case in abeyance. We said that “holding in abeyance a federal complaint by a Texas litigant to avoid limitations problems while state remedies are exhausted harbors potential difficulties.” Id. at 266. An impediment is the Texas development of the “rule of habeas abstention” which forbids the state to consider a habeas motion while a similar motion is “pending” in federal court.7 Under this doctrine, “a federal district court might hold a case in abeyance to avoid the passage of the limitations period, and instruct the litigant to return to Texas state court to exhaust state remedies, only to have the litigant find that he cannot proceed in state court because of the federal case held in abeyance.” Id. See May v. Collins, 948 F.2d 162, 169 (5th Cir.1991) (citing to the rule, finding it most prudent to dismiss without prejudice the writ of habeas corpus and allow unencumbered pursuit of action at the state trial court), cert. denied, — U.S. —, 112 S.Ct. 907, 116 L.Ed.2d 808 (1992), and cert. denied, — U.S. —, 112 S.Ct. 1925, — L.Ed.2d — (1992).
Consequently, the Jackson Court reasoned that a resolution should lie elsewhere. It found another Texas rule most relevant. “[W]here a person is prevented from exercising his legal remedy
Applying the Jackson case to the case before us, we find that Rodriguez’ present civil rights action was timely filed. As we set out above, the state convicting court was intimately connected with Rodriguez’ case, with only a brief respite in 1988, until November 30, 1989, when it dismissed the prosecution. Thus, we hold that the statute of limitations was tolled during the period between September 1987 and November 1989 because Rodriguez’ state suit was actually pending. Limitations began to run on December 1, 1989, coincidentally the date in which Rodriguez returned to federal court by filing this second civil rights action. We find that the district court erred in ruling that this pro se litigant‘s civil rights action was time-barred. As the Ninth Circuit has recently said: “it would hardly promote the goals of the Civil Rights Act of 1871 to twice deny prisoners a federal forum for section 1983 complaints, once for being too early and again for being too late.” Young v. Kenny, 907 F.2d 874, 878 (9th Cir.1989), cert. denied, — U.S. —, 111 S.Ct. 1090, 112 L.Ed.2d 1194 (1991).
Even if Texas did not provide a haven for equity, federal courts possess the power to use equitable principles to fashion their own tolling provisions in exceptional situations in which state statutes of limitations eradicate rights or frustrate policies created by federal law. See, e.g. Meyer v. Frank, 550 F.2d 726 (2d Cir. 1977)
We find that if ever circumstances warrant equitable tolling in a federal court in a case, it is this one. A pro se litigant who maintained his innocence throughout his labyrinthian course for relief finally found vindication in the state courts. But upon return to the federal courts to seek civil rights redress, he must not be told that his claim was time-barred by limitations. Not only would a holding otherwise thwart this litigant, it would in effect deny the state court the right to keep a criminal case pending to enable it later to correct its own error.
III. CONCLUSION
We find that Rodriguez as best he could as a pro se litigant diligently pursued his claims. He filed this civil rights action immediately after his exhaustion of state law remedies. By no means can this litigant be regarded as having “slept” on his rights. Burnett v. New York Central Railroad Co., 380 U.S. 424, 428, 85 S.Ct. 1050, 1054, 13 L.Ed.2d 941 (1965). Further, Rodriguez did not lull the defendants into believing that the section 1983 claim would never be raised; he has persisted in its assertion since 1986.
Without a recognition of tolling in this case, Rodriguez would have again suffered a dismissal, yet not on the merits but on a technicality (the repeal of imprisonment as a disability for tolling purposes) while his litigation was pending. We find that Rodriguez’ suit is timely filed under the Texas tolling rule as well as the power in the federal courts to toll limitations when a potentially valid
REVERSED AND REMANDED.