Brown v. Hannah

850 F.Supp.2d 471

Keith Stanley BROWN, Plaintiff

v.Major Sue HANNAH, et al., Defendants.

Civil Action No. 4:CV–11–0260.

United States District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania.

Feb. 6, 2012.

Keith Stanley Brown, Huntingdon, PA, pro se.

Jaime B. Boyd, Chief Counsel's Office, Mechanicsburg, PA, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM

WILLIAM J. NEALON, District Judge.

THE BACKGROUND OF THIS ORDER IS AS FOLLOWS:

On February 2, 2011, Plaintiff, Keith Stanley Brown (“Brown”), an inmate confined in the State Correctional Institution, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania (“SCI–Huntingdon”), filed this civil rights action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The named Defendants are the following three (3) SCI–Huntingdon employees: Warden Raymond Lawler, Hearing Examiner Charles Mitchell, and Major Sue Hannah. (Doc. 1, complaint).

Plaintiff claims that after verbally complaining to his Unit Manager, Hannah, about lost property, she instructed him to file a DC–135 form (request slip) regarding his allegations. Id., ¶ 6. Brown admits that he stated on said request form, “[w]hy do you woman take the responsibility to hold these jobs and I feel as though most female staff in prison try to impress male officer yall [sic] should not even be allow to work in mens prison because of the complex you woman carry.” Id., ¶ 7. For writing the above statement, Brown was issued Misconduct No. B077246 for “using abusive, obscene or inappropriate language to an employee.” Id., ¶¶ 9, 11.

Brown was afforded a misconduct hearing, after which the Hearing Examiner, Mitchell, found him guilty and sanctioned him to sixty (60) days in disciplinary custody. Id. Brown appealed the Hearing Examiner's findings, and received three (3) levels of appellate review pursuant to the Department's Misconduct Policy, DC–ADM 801.1. Id., ¶ 12. He alleges that Mitchell's findings were inappropriate because the charges are “false” and he was not allowed to call witnesses or “confront and cross examine the accuser [Hannah].” Id., ¶ 11. Brown also alleges that the misconduct was issued in retaliation and as part of a conspiracy between the Defendants. Id.

For relief, Plaintiff seeks compensatory and punitive damages for the issuance of a false misconduct, the denial of due process during his misconduct hearing, the imposition of an excessive sentence received in violation of the Eighth Amendment, retaliation, conspiracy and denial of access to the courts. Id.

Presently pending before the Court is the Corrections Defendants' motion to dismiss the Plaintiff's complaint. (Doc. 11). The parties have fully briefed the issues and the motion is now ripe for disposition. For the reasons that follow, the Court will grant Defendants' motion to dismiss.

I. Motion to Dismiss

The Court in Williams v. Hull, 2009 WL 1586832, *2–*3 (W.D.Pa.2009), set forth the Motion to Dismiss standard of review, as annunciated by the Supreme Court in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007), and as refined in Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009), as follows:

The issue is not whether the plaintiff will prevail at the end but only whether he should be entitled to offer evidence to support his claim. Neitzke [ v. Williams, 490 U.S. 319, 109 S.Ct. 1827, 104 L.Ed.2d 338 (1989) ];Scheuer v. Rhodes, 419 [416] U.S. 232, 94 S.Ct. 1683, 40 L.Ed.2d 90 (1974). A complaint must be dismissed pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) if it does not allege “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) (rejecting the traditional 12(b)(6) standard set forth in Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 78 S.Ct. 99, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957)). See also Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 697, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 1960, 173 L.Ed.2d 868, ––––, 2009 WL 1361536 (May 18, 2009) (specifically applying Twombly analysis beyond the context of the Sherman Act). The court must accept as true all allegations of the complaint and all reasonable factual inferences must be viewed in the light most favorable to plaintiff. Angelastro v. Prudential–Bache Securities, Inc., 764 F.2d 939, 944 (3d Cir.1985). The Court, however, need not accept inferences drawn by plaintiff if they are unsupported by the facts as set forth in the complaint. See California Pub. Employee [Employees'] Ret. Sys. v. The Chubb Corp., 394 F.3d 126, 143 (3d Cir.2004) citing Morse v. Lower Merion School Dist., 132 F.3d 902, 906 (3d Cir.1997). Nor must the court accept legal conclusions set forth as factual allegations. Twombly, 550 U.S. at 556 [127 S.Ct. 1955], citing Papasan v. Allain, 478 U.S. 265, 286, 106 S.Ct. 2932, 92 L.Ed.2d 209 (1986). “Factual allegations must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level.” Twombly, 550 U.S. at 556 [127 S.Ct. 1955]. Although the United States Supreme Court does “not require heightened fact pleading of specifics, [the Court does require] enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Id. at 570 .

In other words, at the motion to dismiss stage, a plaintiff is “required to make a ‘showing’ rather than a blanket assertion of an entitlement to relief.” Smith v. Sullivan, 2008 WL 482469, at *1 (D.Del. February 22, 2008) quoting Phillips v. County of Allegheny, 515 F.3d 224, 231 (3d Cir.2008). “This does not impose a probability requirement at the pleading stage, but instead simply calls for enough facts to raise a reasonable expectation that discovery will reveal evidence of the necessary element.” Phillips, 515 F.3d at 232, quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 556 n. 3 [127 S.Ct. 1955].

Williams, 2009 WL 1586832 at *2–*3.

In considering a motion to dismiss, a court generally should consider not only the allegations contained in the complaint itself but also the exhibits attached thereto, which the complaint incorporates pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 10(c). Lum v. Bank of America, 361 F.3d 217, 222 (3d Cir.2004) (holding that in deciding a motion to dismiss, a court should consider only the allegations in the complaint, exhibits attached to the complaint, matters of public record, and documents that form the basis of a claim); Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. v. White Consolidated Industries, Inc., 998 F.2d 1192 (3d Cir.1993).

II. DiscussionA. Due Process

The filing of a false misconduct report does not violate an inmate's due process rights. The general rule, as stated in Freeman v. Rideout, 808 F.2d 949, 951 (2d Cir.1986), provides that a “prison inmate has no constitutionally guaranteed immunity from being falsely or wrongly accused of conduct which may result in the deprivation of a protected liberty interest.” “The Plaintiff, as all other prison inmates, has the right not to be deprived of a protected liberty interest without due process of law.” Thus, where a prisoner is provided due process, no constitutional violation results from his being falsely accused of a misconduct.

The Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution provides in pertinent part: “No State shall ... deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law....” The Supreme Court has mandated a two-part analysis of a procedural due process claim: (1) “whether the asserted individual interests are encompassed within the ... protection of ‘life, liberty or property[,]’ ” and (2) “if protected interests are implicated, we then must decide what procedures constitute ‘due process of law.’ ” Ingraham v. Wright, 430 U.S. 651, 672, 97 S.Ct. 1401, 51 L.Ed.2d 711 (1977). If there is no protected liberty or property interest, it is unnecessary to analyze what procedures were followed when an alleged deprivation of an interest occurred. In Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 563–73, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974), where the plaintiffs were deprived of good time credits as a severe sanction for serious misconduct, the Supreme Court held that such inmates had various procedural due process protections in a prison disciplinary proceeding, including the right to call witnesses and to appear before an impartial decision-maker.¹

Thereafter, the Court in Hewitt v. Helms, 459 U.S. 460, 471, 103 S.Ct. 864, 74 L.Ed.2d 675 (1983), stated that a state law which “used language of an unmistakably mandatory character” creates a protected liberty interest. Following Hewitt many courts held that a state regulation can create a due process interest—such as freedom from punitive segregation—if the rule contains mandatory language such as “shall” or “will.” E.g., Layton v. Beyer, 953 F.2d 839, 848–49 (3d Cir.1992).

The Court's decision in Sandin v. Conner, 515 U.S. 472, 115 S.Ct. 2293, 132 L.Ed.2d 418 (1995), however, marked a shift in the focus of liberty interest analysis from one “based on the language of a particular regulation” to “the nature of the deprivation” experienced by the prisoner. Id. at 481, 115 S.Ct. 2293. In Sandin, the Court was presented with the procedural due process claims of a state prisoner who had been found guilty of misconduct and sentenced to thirty (30) days in disciplinary segregation. Id. at 474–76, 115 S.Ct. 2293. The Court first found that the approach adopted in Hewitt—described above—was unwise and flawed. Id. at 481–84, 103 S.Ct. 864. The Court also rejected plaintiff Conner's argument that “any state action taken for punitive reasons encroaches upon a liberty interest under the Due Process Clause even in the absence of any state regulation.” Id. at 484, 103 S.Ct. 864. The Court reasoned, inter alia, that “[d]iscipline by prison officials in response to a wide range of misconduct” is expected as part of an inmate's sentence. Id. at 485, 103 S.Ct. 864. The nature of plaintiff Conner's confinement in disciplinary segregation was found similar to that of inmates in administrative segregation and protective custody at his prison. Id. at 486, 103 S.Ct. 864.

Focusing on the nature of the punishment instead of on the words of any...