Campbell v. State

297 P.3d 489, 254 Or. App. 726, 2013 WL 355686, 2013 Ore. App. LEXIS 116
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedJanuary 30, 2013
Docket101115816; A150123
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 297 P.3d 489 (Campbell v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Campbell v. State, 297 P.3d 489, 254 Or. App. 726, 2013 WL 355686, 2013 Ore. App. LEXIS 116 (Or. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

BREWER, J. pro tempore

Plaintiff, a former inmate who was incarcerated in the custody of the Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC), appeals from a judgment dismissing this negligence action in which he sought damages against defendants1 for what he asserted was a two-year period of unlawful imprisonment after his sentences for various criminal offenses should have been discharged. The trial court dismissed the action after granting defendants’ motion for a directed verdict on the ground that plaintiff failed to adduce evidence that he had been unlawfully imprisoned. We affirm.

When we review a grant of a directed verdict, we view the facts in the light most favorable to the party opposing that motion — in this case, plaintiff. See Boothby v. D.R. Johnson Lumber Co., 341 Or 35, 38, 137 P3d 699 (2006) (using that standard). The facts, which we recount without unnecessary detail, are essentially undisputed. On November 8, 1983,- plaintiff was sentenced to a 20-year indeterminate sentence for first-degree burglary. After serving a two-year prison term, plaintiff was paroled for that offense on November 10, 1985. Plaintiff thereafter violated his parole, which was revoked on March 3, 1986. Plaintiff received an eight-month imprisonment sanction for the parole violation, and the Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision (the board) set a release date of October 9, 1986.

On August 8, 1986, plaintiff was convicted of first-degree kidnapping and sentenced to an eight-year indeterminate sentence consecutive to the burglary sentence. The board established a 52-month prison term for the kidnapping conviction. On February 8, 1991, plaintiff was paroled again. On October 17,1991, the board imposed a 180-day prison sanction after plaintiff committed a parole violation. That sanction commenced on the date of plaintiff’s arrest for the parole violation, August 17,1991, and it ended on February 12,1992, when plaintiff was once again paroled.

Meanwhile, however, on February 7, 1992, plaintiff was convicted of first-degree robbery and was sentenced to [728]*728180 months’ imprisonment under the sentencing guidelines, to be served consecutively to his previously imposed indeterminate sentences. Plaintiff successfully appealed that sentence and, on remand, he was resentenced on May 14, 1993, to a 130-month term of imprisonment that the court imposed concurrently with his previously imposed indeterminate sentences. Although plaintiff does not address these facts in his brief on appeal, the record indicates that he also had consecutive guidelines sentences on convictions for second-degree assault and supplying contraband. Plaintiff subsequently was paroled on his indeterminate kidnapping sentence (and placed on post-prison supervision for his guidelines offenses) in June 2005.

On November 21,2007, the board sentenced plaintiff to a 24-month prison term for violating the conditions of his parole. Plaintiff was once again released on parole on November 20, 2009. The board discharged plaintiff’s kidnapping sentence on January 15, 2011.

In this action, plaintiff alleged that defendants negligently calculated his two consecutive indeterminate sentences (burglary and kidnapping) and that, as a result, plaintiff served an unlawful prison term when the board sanctioned him for a parole violation in 2007. If the board had properly calculated those sentences, plaintiff asserts, it would have ascertained that they had been discharged before he was released from prison in June 2005. It follows, plaintiff reasons, that the board unlawfully treated him as a parolee on his release from prison in 2005 and lacked jurisdiction to sanction him for a later violation of parole. Plaintiff asserted that he had been damaged by reason of that unlawful imprisonment.

At trial, plaintiff elaborated the following two-pronged theory of defendants’ negligence. First, according to plaintiff, DOC failed to adjust his kidnapping sentence “to account for the 58 months plaintiff served on that sentence between 1986 and 1993.” According to plaintiff, DOC breached its duty to him by failing to adjust his maximum sentence date on the kidnapping conviction to reflect that combined 58-month period of imprisonment. Plaintiff relies on a “February 20, 2004 DOC face sheet [729]*729showing a ‘termination date’ on the Burglary-I sentence of ‘11/05/2003’ and a ‘MAX sentence date’ on the Kidnapping-I of ‘10/26/2011.’” Instead, plaintiff asserts, “[t]his facesheet should have reflected the 58 months plaintiff had already served on the Kidnapping-I sentence, which would have resulted in a ‘MAX sentence date’ no later than January 5, 2007 — more than 11 months prior to his incarceration for a parole violation on that sentence.”

In the second prong of his theory, plaintiff asserts that, throughout his 130-month prison term on the conviction for first-degree robbery, he was entitled to accrue “good-time credits” on his previously imposed concurrent indeterminate sentences for first-degree burglary and first-degree kidnapping. If he had received those credits, plaintiff argues, those indeterminate sentences would have been discharged before he was released from prison in June 2005. Plaintiff notes that the total term of his sentence for robbery was 4,865 days. From that starting point, he explains:

“As of October 17, 1991, the Board had calculated an expiration date of plaintiff’s indeterminate sentences of June 8, 2011 (as argued above, plaintiff disputes the accuracy of this calculation). From February 7, 1992, this computes to a duration of 7,061 days, which would establish a good-time date at 4,707 days, or December 27,2004. From May 14, 1993, this computes to a duration of 6,599 days, which would establish a goodtime date at 4,399 days, or May 30, 2005. Plaintiff did not forfeit any good time during this period, and would have reached both of those dates prior to his release on June 2, 2005, which should have resulted in a discharge of those sentences.”

Plaintiff observes that, throughout an inmate’s prison term, the board is required to update the inmate’s good-time date to reflect credits or deductions that the inmate accumulates under an indeterminate sentence. See Erbs v. Board of Parole, 90 Or App 253, 255, 752 P2d 318 (1988) (describing good-time calculation process). Plaintiff asserts that, when he was resentenced on the robbery conviction in 1993 and that sentence was imposed concurrently with his prior sentences, defendants “should have recalculated his good-time date so as to shorten his indeterminate sentences.” Plaintiff concludes:

[730]*730“By any reasoned calculation, Plaintiff reached the good-time date that the Board should have established on the indeterminate sentences and those sentences should have been discharged at that time. The Board and DOC breached their duty to plaintiff to correctly compute and administer his sentences by failing to adjust his good-time date and timely discharge his Kidnapping-I and Burglary-I sentences.”

In order to properly analyze plaintiff’s claim, it is necessary to briefly descend into the labyrinth of the history of the Oregon sentencing system. The legislature adopted the indeterminate sentencing scheme informally known as the matrix system in 1977, and that scheme remained in effect until the guidelines system went into effect on November 1, 1989.

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Related

Black v. Board of Parole
341 Or. App. 524 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2025)
Wilson v. Board of Parole & Post-Prison Supervision
324 P.3d 482 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2014)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
297 P.3d 489, 254 Or. App. 726, 2013 WL 355686, 2013 Ore. App. LEXIS 116, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/campbell-v-state-orctapp-2013.