Bennie STEWART, Jr., Individually and on behalf of all
others similarly situated, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
Morris L. THIGPEN, Commissioner, Mississippi Department of
Corrections, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
No. 83-4329.
United States Court of Appeals,
Fifth Circuit.
April 30, 1984.
Michael T. Shareef, N. MS Rural Legal Serv., Walterine Langford, Clarksdale, Miss., for plaintiff-appellant.
W.V. Westbrook, III, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, Miss., for defendants-appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.
Before POLITZ, RANDALL and JOLLY, Circuit Judges.
E. GRADY JOLLY, Circuit Judge:
Bennie Stewart, former inmate at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, brought this section 1983 action for damages against several officers and employees of the penitentiary who allеgedly deprived him of his constitutional rights by improperly processing a disciplinary incident in which he was involved in 1980. Stewart also alleged violations of state tort law. The district court granted the defendants' motion for directed verdict on Stewart's claims against the state commissioner of corrections, prison warden, deputy warden, and disciplinary committee. The jury found for the defendants on the remaining claims. Stewart appеals both the court's granting of a directed verdict and the jury's verdict, claiming neither is supported by substantial evidence. We hold that Stewart's failure to move for a directed verdict in his own behalf at trial precludes his pursuing his claims on appeal against all defendants except the ones which the court allowed to go to the jury. We also hold that for these defendants, sufficient evidence exists in the record to suppоrt the jury's verdict.
I.
Bennie Stewart, now free on parole, was a class C prisoner at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at the time the incidents giving rise to this lawsuit occurred. Penitentiary regulations require that class C prisoners be supervised at all times by prison personnel.
On the morning of November 26, 1980, while standing in the breakfast line, Stewart began to complain loudly and profanely about the constant presence of prison guards. Corrections Officer Larry Harris, present that morning, had warned Stewart several times previously that such disruptive behavior was unacceptable. Harris felt that on the morning of November 26, Stewart was trying to incite bad feelings among fellow inmates toward the corrections officers. Thus, Harris told Stewart to be quiet, and when Stewart continued to complain, Harris issued Stewart a formal reprimand. He removed Stewart from the community dining area to his cell, where Stewart remained for more than an hour.
Later that day, pursuant to prison rules and procedures approved in Gates v. Collier,
Harris then forwarded the report forms to the classifications officer, who was to classify the offense as "minor" or "serious." The court-approved prison rules allow a single disciplinary hearing officer to review minor offenses, and limit the amount and type of punishment that officer may impose. A full disciplinary committee reviews all serious offenses, and minor offenses as well if the prisoner requests in writing that it do so. As set forth in the prison handbook, the inmate has procedural protections before the committee that he does not have before a hearing officer, including the right to call witnesses, to have the matter investigated by a prison employee, and to present written evidence. The full committee, however, may impose any punishment the rules authorizе it to impose, regardless of the classification of the offense. The classification officer classified Stewart's November 26 offense as minor.
On December 4, Corrections Officer Jerry Upton called Stewart to his office to issue him a formal charge sheet as required by the prison rules. The charge sheet informs the inmate of the classification of his charge, of his right to have minor violations reviewed by a full committee, and of the prison rule requiring that he submit a written request for a full committee hearing if the classification officer classified the offense as minor. The charge sheet explicitly informs the inmate that a full committee reviewing a minor charge may impose any penalty it is authorized to impose, even if the offense is minor and one for which the prison rules circumscribe the punishment a single disciplinary officer may imposе. The charge sheet further informs the inmate that he may have a prison employee investigate the incident, but that he must request the investigation in writing. It provides a space for the inmate to sign indicating that he wants a prison employee to investigate the incident. Similarly, the form provides a space for the inmate to indicate by signing that he wishes to call witnesses to testify at the committee hearing. It provides a spacе for listing potential witnesses. Finally, the form has a space for the inmate to indicate by signature that he has read the charge sheet and received a copy of it. Stewart signed the charge sheet, indicating that he wanted the incident investigated, indicating that he intended to call four witnesses, whose names he inserted in the spaces provided, and indicating that he read and received a copy of the chargе sheet.
At the disciplinary hearing, Stewart's defense was that he had been falsely accused and that Harris and Upton brought the rules violation charges against him because of personal animosity towards him. Stewart requested that the prison log for November 26 be brought into evidence. All incidents occurring at the prison should be noted in the log, and Stewart wanted to support his false accusation defense by showing that the allegеd incident of misbehavior was not noted in the log. The committee, however, refused to consider the prison log because the issue before it was whether Stewart misbehaved, and not whether the incident had been properly noted in the log. Although Stewart's witnesses declined to appear on his behalf, as prison rules and regulations give them a right to do, one witness provided a written statement that corroborated Stewart's version of the facts. This statement and Stewart's own testimony comprised all the evidence supporting Stewart's case.
After considering the Rules Violation Report, the Incident Report, the testimony of Stewart and of Officer Harris, the written statement of Stewart's witness, and the fact that Stewart's witnesses declined to appear personally, the committee found that Stewart had violated the prison rule forbidding loud and boisterous conduct in the dining hall. It recommended a sentence of loss of sixty days earned time and ten days in isolation. This sentence is greater than allowed for a minor offense heard before a single disciplinary officer.
Section 47-5-104 of the Mississippi Code requires that a classification committee review all decisions of the disciplinary committee which subject an offender to demotion or deprivation of earned time. The classification committee, therefore, reviewed Stewart's sentence, and upheld the disciplinary committee's decision. As allowed by the approved prison rules, Stewart appealed the disciplinary committee's decision to the prison warden. The warden had the deputy warden review the hearing record, and on the deputy warden's recommendation, affirmed the disciplinary committee.
Stewart subsequently filed this section 1983 lawsuit in federal district court, requesting declaratory and injunctive relief, as well as compensatory and punitive damages, for alleged violations of his constitutional rights. The district court issued an order dismissing several of Stewart's claims before trial by adopting the recommendations of a federal magistrate. Stewart does not challenge this order. Stewart then was paroled, thereby mooting his claims for declaratory and injunctive relief. His remaining claims for damages were tried before a jury. The court granted the defendants' motion for directed verdicts against Stewart on most of his claims. The jury heard evidence on his remaining claims that Officer Harris falsely accused him, that Officer Upton failed to inform him of the consequences of requesting a full committee hearing, and that both officers harbored personal animosity toward him. It returned verdicts unfavorable to Stewart on all of them. Stewart appeals.
II.
We begin our analysis by noting that the role of the federal courts in reviewing prison proceedings is a narrow one. "The Supreme Court has articulated for the federal courts a policy of minimum intrusion into the affairs of state prison administration; state prison officials enjoy wide discretion in the operation of state penal institutions." Wоlff v. McDonnell,
Aware of our limited role in reviewing this case, we turn now to the merits.
III.
Stewart alleged that the warden and deputy warden violated his due process rights by failing to review thoroughly and objectively the disciplinary committee's actiоn, that the commissioner of corrections violated his rights by failing to take any action on his appeal, and that the disciplinary committee abridged his due process rights by failing to consider the prison log as evidence that the incident never occurred. Stewart also alleged that Upton, because he issued the formal charge sheet, should not have served on the committee.
The defendants moved for a directed verdict in favor of these defendants. The court granted the motion. It held that Stewart had no legal claim against the commissioner because the commissioner has no obligation either under state law or under the prison rules to review disciplinary committee action, and further, that Stewart had not produced any evidence that the warden and deputy warden had not performed their duties properly. It held that Uptоn was not precluded by any prison rule from serving on the disciplinary committee. The district court also held that some evidence supported the disciplinary committee's decision that Stewart was guilty of a prison rules infraction, that Stewart's hearing had been procedurally regular, and that members of the disciplinary committee enjoyed absolute immunity for their decision not to consider the prison log evidence as requested by Stewart.1 In this appeal, Stewart claims that none of these decisions is supported by substantial evidence.
Although later, at the close of the defendants' case, Stewart moved for a directed verdict against the remaining defendants, Corrections Officer Harris, and Corrections Officer Upton (in his capacity as the officer who wrote the rules violation report), at no time during the trial did Stewart move for a directed verdict against any of the defendants dismissed at the close of Stewart's case. More precisely, he failed to move for a directed verdict against the commissioner, the warden, the deputy warden, and the disciplinary committee, including Upton in his capacity as a committee member.2 The law is well established in this circuit that this failure precludes his raising the issue of sufficiency of the evidence against those defendants on appeal. See Smith v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Co.,
We find more than "some" evidence in the record to support the trial сourt's decision to grant directed verdicts in favor of the commissioner, warden, deputy warden, and disciplinary committee. Indeed, the decision falls far short of producing a manifest miscarriage of justice that indicates the district court abused its discretion or that would justify reversing it on appeal. We therefore affirm the district court's directed verdict and now turn to the issues which were tried to the jury.
IV.
Stewart claims that Harris and Upton dеnied his fourteenth amendment due process rights. The jury heard Stewart's evidence that both Harris and Upton acted in bad faith during the entire course of the disciplinary proceedings, thereby abusing legal process in violation of state tort law, and abridging his federal rights secured by section 1983. Specifically, Stewart attempted to prove that Harris harbored personal animosity toward him and therefore brought false disciplinary charges against him simply for harassment. He also presented evidence attempting to prove that Upton failed to inform him that by requesting a hearing before a full disciplinary committee, Stewart exposed himself to more punishment than he could have received for a minor offense processed by a single disciplinary officer. He also attempted to prove that Upton forwarded his case to a full disciplinary committee when he had not requested a committee hearing in writing as required by the prison rules, and that Upton, like Harris, harbored a personal bias toward him.
After a full jury trial exploring the truth or falsity of the disciplinary charges,3 the alleged personal bias of both Harris and Upton, and the alleged procedural irregularities, the jury returned a verdict against Stewart and in favor of the defendants. Stewart now claims this verdict is not supрorted by substantial evidence.
The standard of appellate review applicable to jury verdicts is whether the record contains any competent and substantial evidence fairly tending to support the verdict. If so, the court will not overturn that verdict, even if different inferences and conclusions also might be supported by the evidence. Wood v. Diamond M Drilling Co.,
The formal charge sheet explicitly informs an inmate that a request to have a minor violation heard before a full disciplinary committee exposes the inmate to more serious punishment than could be imposed by a single disciplinary hearing officer.4 Although Stewart did not submit a written request for a full disciplinary committee hearing on a separate piece of paper, he did sign the charge sheet indicating he had read the form and received a copy of it. Further, he signed appropriate lines on the charge sheet to request that the incident be investigated and indicating that he intended to call witnesses in his behalf. The handbook makes clear that full disciplinary committee hearings afford inmates these rights, but that hearings before a single disciplinary hearing officer do not.
As the district court explained to the jury, no court or administrative body has interpreted the "in writing" requirement of the prison rules. The jury reasonably could have concluded that by signing the charge sheet three times, two of these times in spaces indicating that he wished to exercise procedural rights afforded only inmates whose charges are heard before full disciplinary committees, Stewart requested the full committee hearing in writing. Further, in the light of the evidence that Stewart had been through this same procedure at least once before, the jury could have concluded that Stewart knew that by signing the charge sheet he was requesting a full committee hearing and that the committee could impose punishment exceeding that which a disciplinary officer could impose. We therefore uphold the jury's decision that Harris and Upton acted in good faith, and that Stewart requested a disciplinary committee, in writing, fully aware of the possible punishments it might impose.
V.
From the beginning, Stewart's claim has been that he was accused falsely and trеated unfairly by those processing the rules-violation charges. In addition to three administrative bodies, a United States magistrate, a United States District Judge, and a jury, all reviewed his claims in light of the evidence, and found each to be meritless. We agree with their decisions and therefore affirm the holdings of the district court denying Stewart damages under both section 1983 and state tort law.
AFFIRMED.
Notes
The district court relied on this court's decision in Cruz v. Skelton,
At the close of the trial against defendants Upton and Harris, defense counsel moved for summary judgment. Stewart's counsel made a countermotion "simply that the verdict be directed in the plaintiff's favor if the Court see fit to direct a verdict in anyone's favor and award damages to the plaintiff." Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(a) requires that a motion for a directed verdict "state the specific grounds therefor." While failure to state the specific grounds may be sufficient basis for a court to deny the motion, e.g., Guest House Motor Inn, Inc. v. Duke,
A federal court, of course, does not sit to review de novo evidence supporting prison disciplinary action, but only to redrеss due process violations. Armstead v. Louisiana,
None of the prison rules in the relevant edition of the prison handbook approved in Gates v. Collier,