Million v. Raymer

139 S.W.3d 914, 2004 Ky. LEXIS 235, 2004 WL 1877221
CourtKentucky Supreme Court
DecidedJune 17, 2004
Docket2002-SC-0205-DG
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 139 S.W.3d 914 (Million v. Raymer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Kentucky Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Million v. Raymer, 139 S.W.3d 914, 2004 Ky. LEXIS 235, 2004 WL 1877221 (Ky. 2004).

Opinions

Opinion of the Court by

Justice GRAVES.

In November 1998, Appellee, Donald Raymer, an inmate at the Kentucky State [916]*916Penitentiary (KSP), was placed in administrative segregation pending an investigation into whether he had introduced contraband, namely marijuana, into the institution. Ultimately, Raymer was charged with two violations of Corrections Policy and Procedure (CCP): possession or promoting of dangerous contraband and developing a relationship with a correctional officer. Raymer was subsequently transferred to the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex (EKCC).

On January 12, 1999, Raymer appeared before the prison disciplinary committee at EKCC and pled guilty to having had a relationship with a correctional officer, but denied the contraband offense. Following the initial hearing, the committee found Raymer guilty of the contraband charge and penalized him with the loss of 180 days of accumulated good time, 180 days of telephone restriction, and 90 days in disciplinary segregation. Raymer successfully appealed to the EKCC Warden /Appellant herein, George Million, who reversed the committee’s decision and ordered a new hearing. Following a second hearing before the committee on March 22, 1999, Raymer was again found guilty of the contraband charge but his penalty was reduced to 54 days in segregation, which he had already served.

Kentucky’s CPP 15.6 requires that appeals of disciplinary proceedings be made to the warden in writing within 15 days of the committee’s decision. In his effort to appeal from the second committee hearing, Raymer filed an open records request form on March 31, 1999, seeking a copy of the second hearing video tape. The record reflects that on April 2, 1999, Corrections Employee and Legal Aide Supervisor, Kathy Litteral, noted on Raymer’s request form that the video equipment malfunctioned during the second hearing and, as a result, there was no tape of the proceeding. It is unclear, however, exactly when Raymer became aware of this information.

On April 15, 1999, Warden Million affirmed Raymer’s conviction, noting that the 15-day deadline for filing the appeal had passed. Nonetheless, Raymer filed an appeal on April 16, 1999. A notation at the bottom of the document indicates that the belated appeal was filed at the direction of Ms. Litteral. Raymer alleges in his brief that Ms. Litteral told his legal aide to “ignore the notice denying the appeal,” and that Raymer’s belated appeal would receive “full and proper consideration.” While the Department of Corrections does not contest Raymer’s version of the events, it does note that nothing on the belated appeal indicates that it was ever received by the appropriate authority.

Raymer alleges that he made several inquiries in the following months to Ms. Litteral regarding the status of his appeal. On June 1, 2000, Raymer filed a petition for declaratory judgment in the Morgan Circuit Court claiming that his due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution were violated during the prison disciplinary hearings, and seeking an expungement of the disciplinary report. On July 7, 2000, the Morgan Circuit Court granted the Department of Corrections’ motion to dismiss Raymer’s petition as being time barred by the one-year statute of limitations set forth in KRS 413.140(l)(a).

The Court of Appeals, however, reversed the circuit court’s decision, finding that Raymer’s petition “asserted a claim specifically arising under the policies and procedures adopted by the Department of Corrections as authorized by the Legislature at KRS 196.030(1) and KRS [917]*917197.020(1).” Thus, the Court of Appeals ruled that Raymer’s petition was timely filed under KRS 413.120(2), which allows five years for commencing “[a]n action based upon a liability created by statute, when no other time is fixed by the statute creating the liability.”

This Court thereafter granted the Department of Corrections’ motion for discretionary review. At issue in this case is the applicable statute of limitations for a civil declaratory judgment action alleging violation of an inmate’s constitutional rights in a prison disciplinary proceeding.1

Appellant argues that, contrary to the Court of Appeals’ decision, the five-year limitations period under KRS 413.120(2) is inapplicable to Raymer’s claim because: (1) KRS 196.0302, KRS 197.0203, and CPP 15.64 are not statutes that create liability, and (2) Raymer’s petition only asserted violations of his 14th Amendment due process rights. As such, Raymer’s petition alleged the type of constitutional torts governed by the one-year statute of limitations found in KRS 413.140(a).

Raymer responds that the five-year statute of limitations applies to prison disciplinary proceedings because the constitutionally-required procedural protections arise due to rights conferred upon the inmate under Kentucky Law. Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974); Black v. Parke, 4 F.3d 442 (6th Cir.1993). Essentially, Raymer contends that, although the state is under no duty to provide these rights or entitlements, once the state creates them it is required to provide procedural due process before denying the right or entitlement. Wolff supra. Raymer argues that the state-created right at issue in this case finds its origin in the Kentucky Constitution § 254. KRS 196.030(l)(a) and KRS 197.020(2), enacted to comply with the constitutional mandate, delegate rule-making power to the Kentucky Department of Corrections. Raymer cites to this Court’s decision in Mahoney v. Carter, Ky., 938 S.W.2d 575 (1997), for the proposition that prison officials may create constitutionally-protected liberty interests through official policies and procedures. Therefore, Ray-mer maintains that to hold that properly adopted prison regulations do not create a cause of action or liability would be contrary to Wolff, supra, which makes clear [918]*918that officials cannot create a liberty interest and then provide procedural protections beyond the review of the courts. 418 U.S. at 558, 94 S.Ct. 2963.

“A petition for declaratory judgment pursuant to KRS 418.040

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Million v. Raymer
139 S.W.3d 914 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 2004)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
139 S.W.3d 914, 2004 Ky. LEXIS 235, 2004 WL 1877221, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/million-v-raymer-ky-2004.