Abdul Yasin SALAHUDDIN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Thomas A. COUGHLIN, III, Commissioner; Harold J. Smith, Superintendent of Attica; Richard R. Reynolds; Gerald R. Elmore; G. Calderon; D.E. Beitz, Officer; A. Lippold, Lt.; and All Employees of Attica Correctional Facility, Defendants-Appellees.
No. 339, Docket 85-2058.
United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.
Argued Oct. 25, 1985. Decided Jan. 8, 1986.
781 F.2d 24
Before OAKES, NEWMAN and MINER, Circuit Judges.
Martin A. Hotvet, Asst. Atty. Gen., Albany, N.Y. (Robert Abrams, Atty. Gen., Robert Hermann, Sol. Gen., William J. Kogan, Asst. Sol. Gen., Albany, N.Y., on brief), for defendants-appellees.
JON O. NEWMAN, Circuit Judge.
This appeal primarily concerns the availability of good-faith immunity to a civil rights action in a somewhat unusual context. Abdul Salahuddin appeals from a judgment of the District Court for the Western District of New York (John T. Curtin, Chief Judge) dismissing, on motion for summary judgment, his complaint, which sought relief under
Background
Salahuddin was an inmate at the Attica Correctional Facility. He was charged with disciplinary violations and, following a Superintendent‘s proceeding, was ordered confined to an SHU for 60 days. Salahuddin brought an article 78 proceeding, see
The judgment was served, and Salahuddin was released from the SHU on May 16, 1980. On June 13, 1980, the state court defendants filed a notice of appeal from the Supreme Court judgment. Under New York law, filing a notice of appeal automatically stays enforcement of an article 78 judgment, see
Defendants moved for summary judgment. In papers filed February 23, 1983, they contended that Salahuddin had no federally protected right to a transfer to a prison near his family. The motion papers also set forth facts endeavoring to refute Salahuddin‘s claim that his 60-day sentence to the SHU was imposed without due process of law. On September 28, 1983, Salahuddin filed an affidavit in opposition to the motion for summary judgment. This affidavit seems to focus on the eight-day confinement claim. It makes no reference to any claim concerning a retaliatory denial of transfer or unsanitary conditions in the SHU. Defendants supplemented their summary judgment papers on November 9, 1983, with a submission directed to the eight-day confinement claim. Defendants made it clear that they were seeking dismissal of the entire action.
On March 26, 1984, Chief Judge Curtin, understandably uncertain as to what claims Salahuddin was pressing, ordered him to file an affidavit in opposition to the summary judgment motion by June 1, 1984. After that deadline passed without a response from Salahuddin, Chief Judge Curtin ruled that the claim for a transfer to a facility near the inmate‘s family was insufficient as a matter of law. Then, focusing on what he evidently thought was the only other claim being pursued, the District Judge ordered Salahuddin to file by December 27, 1984, an affidavit in response to the defendants’ November 9, 1983, submission, which had urged a good-faith immunity to the eight-day confinement claim. Again Salahuddin failed to submit papers as directed.
Thereafter, the District Court granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment and dismissed the entire action. The Court rejected the eight-day confinement claim on the ground that defendants had established their good-faith immunity to this claim. The Court relied on Johnson v. Glick, 481 F.2d 1028 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 1033, 94 S.Ct. 462, 38 L.Ed.2d 324 (1973), for the proposition that neither the actions nor the knowledge of an employee or agent can be imputed to a superior to impose liability under section 1983. Therefore, the District Judge reasoned, the knowledge of the lawyer for the state court defendants that the Article 78 proceeding had been converted to a habeas corpus proceeding could not be imputed to his clients (now the federal court defendants). Since, in the District Judge‘s view, the defendants were entitled to think that the state court judgment ordering release from the SHU had been stayed, he ruled that they were immune from liability for returning Salahuddin to the SHU for the eight-day interval that ended when they acquired actual knowledge that the state court judgment had not been stayed.
On appeal, Salahuddin, now represented by appointed counsel, challenges the ruling on the eight-day confinement claim and also asserts that there remain in the case unadjudicated “claims” concerning unsanitary conditions in the SHU and a retaliatory denial of a transfer.
1. The Eight-Day Claim. Defendants do not deny that they returned Salahuddin to the SHU on June 17, 1980, without legal justification and thereby deprived him of a protected liberty interest without due process of law.4 Rather, they claim good-faith immunity on two grounds: It was reasonable for defendants to believe that the notice of appeal stayed the state court judgment, and the oral order converting the state court suit into a habeas corpus proceeding was of questionable efficacy.
As noted, the District Court held that defendants were not charged with their attorney‘s knowledge and therefore acted in the reasonable belief that filing a notice of appeal stayed the state court judgment. Though Johnson v. Glick, supra, in keeping with numerous authorities, rejects the doctrine of respondeat superior in section 1983 cases, we do not believe that non-liability of a state official for the constitutional torts of his subordinates insulates him from the constructive knowledge every client is deemed to have of matters known to his attorney when acting on his behalf in litigation. Litigants are normally “considered to have ‘notice of all facts, notice of which can be charged upon the[ir] attorney.’ ” Link v. Wabash Railroad Co., 370 U.S. 626, 634, 82 S.Ct. 1386, 1390, 8 L.Ed.2d 734 (1962) (quoting Smith v. Ayer, 101 U.S. 320, 326, 25 L.Ed. 955 (1880)); see also Prate v. Freedman, 583 F.2d 42, 48 (2d Cir.1978); United States v. Cirami, 535 F.2d 736, 740 (2d Cir.1976). Litigants are also normally charged with knowledge of all court orders in proceedings to which they are parties. See, e.g., Harriman v. Household Finance Corp., 608 S.W.2d 117, 118 (Mo.Ct.App.1980); Mayad v. Rizk, 554 S.W.2d 835, 839 (Tex.Civ.App.1977).
The nature of the objective good-faith defense mandates that these customary rules apply in section 1983 cases. The pertinent test in applying that defense is whether the federal law violated was clearly established, see Davis v. Scherer, supra, 104 S.Ct. at 3021; Harlow v. Fitzgerald, supra, 457 U.S. at 818, 102 S.Ct. at 2738, not whether a reasonable person would have known of the law. Officials are held to have constructive knowledge of established law. See Procunier v. Navarette, 434 U.S. 555, 562, 98 S.Ct. 855, 859, 55 L.Ed.2d 24 (1978); Wood v. Strickland, 420 U.S. 308, 322, 95 S.Ct. 992, 1000, 43 L.Ed.2d 214 (1975); McCann v. Coughlin, 698 F.2d 112, 124 (2d Cir.1983). In this context there is no reason to distinguish statutory and common law from law of the case. Therefore, we hold that defendants are charged with their attorney‘s knowledge of the state court judge‘s oral order converting the state action into a habeas corpus proceeding.
However, there is serious question as to the efficacy of the oral order. Defendants initially claim that the Supreme Court‘s order was ineffective because it was never reduced to writing.
An order determining a motion ... shall be in writing .... An order determining a motion made upon supporting papers shall be signed with the judge‘s signature or initials by the judge who made it, state the court of which he is a judge and the place and date of the signature, recite the papers used on the motion, and give the determination or direction in such detail as seems proper.
Defendants rely on Carter v. Castle Electric Contracting Co., 23 A.D.2d 768, 258 N.Y.S.2d 564 (1965); Kinner v. Kuroczka, 12 A.D.2d 383, 212 N.Y.S.2d 479 (1961); LeGlaire v. New York Life Insurance Co., 5 A.D.2d 171, 170 N.Y.S.2d 763 (1958); Parsons v. Parsons, 82 Misc.2d 454, 368 N.Y.S.2d 988 (Fam.Ct.1975); and Masters v. Masters, 55 Misc.2d 466, 285 N.Y.S.2d 815 (Fam.Ct.1967), in which section 2219(a) was applied to invalidate oral orders. However, the motions in these cases were either made on formal papers or were finally dispositive of the case. As contemplated by the last sentence of section 2219(a), the rule applies only to such formal motions and does not apply to the multitude of oral motions made during the course of a trial. See Katz v. Katz, 68 A.D.2d 536, 418 N.Y.S.2d 99 (1979); Siegel, “Practice Commentaries,”
Thus, if the state court judgment had been silent with regard to the nature of the proceeding, defendants would be bound by the court‘s oral conversion of the proceeding into one for habeas corpus. However, the judgment was not silent. As drafted by plaintiff‘s counsel, it affirmatively represented that the proceeding was “For Relief Pursuant to Article 78 CPLR.” Although a New York court‘s written decision controls when in conflict with a subsequent written order specifying relief, see Rowlee v. Dietrich, 88 A.D.2d 751, 451 N.Y.S.2d 467 (1982); Siegel, “Practice Commentaries,”
In this case, Chief Judge Curtin, proceeding with care, afforded Salahuddin two opportunities to respond to the defendants’ motion for summary judgment in order to “make an informed decision” without “speculating as to the nature of the claim.” See Anderson v. Coughlin, 700 F.2d 37, 41 (2d Cir.1983). Salahuddin‘s failure to respond when twice directed to do so left the District Court no choice but to adjudicate whatever seemed likely to be the claims asserted. Chief Judge Curtin focused initially on the claim originally pleaded concerning a right to a transfer near the plaintiff‘s family. He correctly ruled that claim insufficient, see Olim v. Wakinekona, 461 U.S. 238, 103 S.Ct. 1741, 75 L.Ed.2d 813 (1983), a ruling not challenged on appeal. He pretermitted any ruling on the lawfulness of the original 60-day confinement, apparently concluding that the state court ruling in the habeas corpus proceeding satisfied that grievance. The appeal alleges no error in this regard. The District Judge then adjudicated the eight-day confinement claim and upheld the defense of qualified immunity, a ruling we have affirmed on slightly different grounds. Appellant now complains that no ruling was made on what he asserts were remaining claims concerning a retaliatory denial of transfer and unsanitary conditions in the SHU. We cannot fault the District Judge for not considering these matters to be “claims” in this lawsuit. They were not pleaded as such in the complaint, and, more significantly, they were not called to the Court‘s attention when Salahuddin was twice ordered to respond to the defendants’ motion for summary judgment. His earlier affidavit of September 28, 1983, made no mention of such “claims.” In these circumstances, the District Court did not err in granting summary judgment and dismissing the action.
The judgment of the District Court is affirmed.