Adams v. Wolff

624 F. Supp. 1036, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12235
CourtDistrict Court, D. Nevada
DecidedDecember 30, 1985
DocketCV-R-80-258-ECR
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 624 F. Supp. 1036 (Adams v. Wolff) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Nevada primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adams v. Wolff, 624 F. Supp. 1036, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12235 (D. Nev. 1985).

Opinion

ORDER

EDWARD C. REED, Jr., District Judge.

Plaintiff James Adams, Jr. (Plaintiff) has filed objections to portions of the Report and Recommendation filed June 24, 1985, by U.S. Magistrate Phyllis Halsey Atkins. The Report and Recommendation followed three days of evidentiary hearing.

No objection has been raised to the Magistrate’s findings that Plaintiff suffered the loss of a recently purchased bedspread by reason of a mistake by defendant Ronald Hansen, and that its value was $37.47. There is no clear error apparent from the record, therefore this Court accepts Magistrate Atkins’ recommendation that judgment be granted in favor of Plaintiff and against defendant Hansen in the sum of $37.47.

Plaintiff has objected to the Magistrate’s Report and Recommendation' concerning the lack of written notice to Plaintiff that he was charged with major violation 313, which may arise upon an inmate being found guilty of three or more general violations within a six-months period. He was found guilty of major violation 313 and sentenced to ten days in punitive segregation at Nevada State Prison (NSP), a maximum security facility. At the time he had been housed at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center (NNCC), a medium security institution.

It is undisputed that Plaintiff received no prior written notice that he would be charged with major violation 313 at a Disciplinary Committee hearing (the second of the day for Plaintiff) on October 17, 1980. At the first hearing on that date, a plea bargain had been reached. Plaintiff pleaded guilty to the general violations of disobeying an order and using abusive language. In return, a major violation (obstructing a search) was dismissed and the Disciplinary Committee agreed to the transfer of Plaintiff to a different unit within NNCC for five days of punitive segregation, to be suspended pending sixty days of clear conduct. At the second hearing the Disciplinary Committee considered the general violation of destroying the property of another. Plaintiff had pleaded not guilty to this charge, and contested it. He earlier had received due notice of the charge. He was found guilty by the Committee, which then charged him with major violation 313, since the destruction of property conviction was Plaintiff’s third general violation conviction within a six-months period.

Proper written notice had been provided Plaintiff as to all three general violations. Also, there had been sufficient evidence submitted to support the convictions entered for these offenses. The lack of notice as to major violation 313 was explained by defendant James Dredge, a member of the Disciplinary Committee, as a misinterpretation of the law. It was believed, he said, that 313 was merely an enhancement of punishment rule, rather than a separate violation of the Code of Penal Discipline. The record reveals that Plaintiff had been aware of the existence of 313, but had not realized that it was going to be applied against him.

Conviction of a major violation, such as 313, may be punished by punitive segregation of up to fifteen days and transfer to another institution. Punishment for a general violation may include only five days of punitive segregation within the same institution where the prisoner is housed.

Magistrate Atkins found that the lack of proper notice of the 313 charge against Plaintiff violated his due process rights. She also noted that defendant David Brady, a member of the Disciplinary Committee, had recommended to the Superintendent of NNCC that Plaintiff be transferred to protective custody in NSP. The reason given was that it appeared to the Committee that [1038]*1038another inmate, James Jones, had turned a number of NNCC inmates against Plaintiff, and there was no safe place in NNCC to house Plaintiff in light of such hostility against him.

Plaintiff, who asked for damages, testified before the Magistrate that he lost $12 per week from the blood bank and $20 per month from his prison job as a result of his being transferred to NSP. The Magistrate found that there was evidence to sustain the charges against Plaintiff and that his transfer to NSP was not unlawful. Therefore, she felt that there was no unlawful transfer that could be viewed as the proximate cause of damages for which Plaintiff could be compensated. However, she recommended that he receive an award of $1, as nominal damages, for the denial of due process in not giving him proper notice of the major violation charge against him. Magistrate Atkins also recommended that the major violation be expunged from Plaintiff’s prison record. She also held that Plaintiff should be denied punitive damages because he had failed to prove that the defendants' conduct involved reckless or callous indifference to Plaintiff’s federally protected rights or that their actions were motivated by malicious intent.

In his objections, Plaintiff contends that he actually served ten days in punitive segregation at NSP, whereas he should only have served five days in segregation at NNCC for the general violations’ convictions. The defendants, in response, correctly have noted that he was subject to a five-day punishment for each general violation, and there were two of which he was convicted. Plaintiff also argues that there existed no legitimate security concern that would justify his transfer to protective custody at NSP. He contends that the evidence was false that supported the transfer.

It is not controverted that procedural due process requires advance written notice to a prison inmate of any major violation charge against him. See Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 563, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 2978, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974). Therefore, Magistrate Atkins was justified in finding that Plaintiff’s due process rights technically had been violated by the absence of proper notice as to the 313 charge. However, she also was correct in finding that there was sufficient evidence to support the 313 conviction. So long as there is some evidence in the record, that is, some basis in fact, the Disciplinary Boards’ conclusion may be upheld. Superintendent, Mass. Correctional Institution, Walpole v. Hill, — U.S. -, 105 S.Ct. 2768, 2774, 86 L.Ed.2d 356 (1985).

Under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a plaintiff must prove that a violation of his constitutional rights actually caused him injury before he may recover compensatory damages. Pino v. Dalsheim, 605 F.Supp. 1305, 1318 (S.D.N.Y.1984). A plaintiff who has established a violation of his rights, but not actual injury resulting therefrom, may collect only nominal damages. Id. Nominal damages should not exceed $1. Carey v. Piphus, 435 U.S. 247, 267, 98 S.Ct. 1042, 1054, 55 L.Ed.2d 252 (1978); Wiggins v. Rushen, 760 F.2d 1009, 1012 (9th Cir.1985). Magistrate Atkins’ recommendation that Plaintiff be awarded nominal damages of $1 against defendants David Brady, James Dredge and R. Jones, the members of the Disciplinary Committee, is accepted. Her recommendation that the major violation (313) be expunged from Plaintiff’s prison record also is appropriate in order to afford him all the relief to which he is entitled. See Pino v. Dalsheim, supra at 1319.

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Bluebook (online)
624 F. Supp. 1036, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12235, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adams-v-wolff-nvd-1985.