Okumoto v. Lattin

649 F. Supp. 55, 1986 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16475
CourtDistrict Court, D. Nevada
DecidedDecember 15, 1986
DocketNo. CV-R-84-93-ECR
StatusPublished

This text of 649 F. Supp. 55 (Okumoto v. Lattin) 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
Okumoto v. Lattin, 649 F. Supp. 55, 1986 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16475 (D. Nev. 1986).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM DECISION AND ORDER

EDWARD C. REED, Jr., Chief Judge.

This is a civil rights case brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Robert Okumoto, the pro se plaintiff, was, when the incidents relevant to this case occurred, an inmate housed in prison facilities operated by the Nevada Department of Prisons.

The plaintiffs Second Amended Complaint (document # 69) alleges several claims under § 1983 based upon the following allegations: plaintiff was punished for a general violation of the Code of Penal Discipline when there was a specific minor violation covering the offense committed; plaintiff was punished without prior written notice; plaintiff was punished without consultation with a physician about his medical complaints; plaintiff was involuntarily transferred from the Southern Nevada Correctional Center (“SNCC”) to the “psychiatric” unit number four at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center (“NNCC”) as punishment and without notice or hearings; plaintiff was housed in the psychiatric unit as punishment; and plaintiff was denied access to a law library. The plaintiff has moved for a summary judgment on the claim that he was denied due process of law as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment when he was transferred from SNCC to unit number four at NNCC as punishment and without notice or hearings.

The day before he filed his Motion for Summary Judgment, the plaintiff filed a Motion for Leave to File an Amended Complaint. After the defendants responded to the plaintiffs Motion for Summary Judgment and after the plaintiff replied, the Motion for Leave to File an Amended Complaint filed on behalf of plaintiff was granted. The amendment of plaintiffs complaint added two defendants, both of whom are represented by the counsel that represents the other three named defendants. The amendment does not affect the issues raised by the Motion for Summary Judgment. Therefore, that motion can be disposed of at this time.

The plaintiff, in his Motion for Summary Judgment cites Vitek v. Jones, 445 U.S. 480, 100 S.Ct. 1254, 63 L.Ed.2d 552 (1980), and Barnes v. Wolff, 586 F.Supp. 312 (D.Nev.1984) as requiring, for due process, that a hearing be held before any institutional transfer. In a supplement to his Motion for Summary Judgment the plaintiff cites the Court to Baugh v. Woodard, 604 F.Supp. 1529 (E.D.N.C.1985). In an affidavit, submitted with the Motion for Summary Judgment, the plaintiff states that no hearings were held with him present prior to his transfer; he further states in his affidavit that the defendants have admitted that there is nothing in their records that shows that there was such a hearing.

In their opposition to plaintiffs motion, defendants argue that Vitek v. Jones, supra, and Barnes v. Wolff, supra, are distinguishable. Defendants assert that issues of material fact remain. Defendants attached to their opposition, as an exhibit, the State of Nevada Department of Prisons Procedure Manual, Procedure Number 205, pages 1-9.

The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States provides that [57]*57no state shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” U.S. Const, amend. XIV, § 1. The first inquiry in analyzing the plaintiff’s claim is whether a constitutionally protected liberty interest is implicated. Meachum v. Fano, 427 U.S. 215, 223-224, 96 S.Ct. 2532, 2537-38, 49 L.Ed.2d 451 (1976). The second is whether the deprivation of such an interest has been effected with due process of law.

Not every grievous loss suffered at the hands of a state requires the procedural protection of constitutional due process. Meachum, 427 U.S. at 224, 96 S.Ct. at 2538; Baumann v. Arizona Dep’t of Corrections, 754 F.2d 841, 843 (9th Cir.1985). Liberty interests that are protected by the Fourteenth Amendment arise from two sources—the Due Process Clause itself and the laws of the States. Hewitt v. Helms, 459 U.S. 460, 466, 103 S.Ct. 864, 868, 74 L.Ed.2d 675 (1983); Meachum, 427 U.S. at 223-227, 96 S.Ct. at 2537-39.

The Supreme Court has held that “[a]s long as the conditions or degree of confinement to which the prisoner is subjected is within the sentence imposed upon him and is not otherwise violative of the Constitution, the Due Process Clause does not in itself subject an inmate’s treatment by prison authorities to judicial oversight.” Montanye v. Haymes, 427 U.S. 236, 242, 96 S.Ct. 2543, 2547, 49 L.Ed.2d 466 (1976); see also Hewitt, 459 U.S. at 468, 103 S.Ct. at 869; Lucero v. Russell, 741 F.2d 1129 (9th Cir.1984). The plaintiff has not established as a fact that his transfer to unit number four at NNCC rendered the conditions or degree of his confinement beyond the sentence imposed upon him. On this point, a question of material fact remains.

In Hewitt, 459 U.S. at 469-472, 103 S.Ct. at 870-71 the Court held that a state creates a constitutionally protected liberty interest when it adopts rules which provide that prison officials may take a given action only if certain mandatory procedures are followed and only if specified substantive predicates are found. In Olim v. Wakinekona, 461 U.S. 238, 249-250, 103 S.Ct. 1741, 1747-48, 75 L.Ed.2d 813 (1983) the Supreme Court stressed that the key to a finding that a state has created a constitutionally protected liberty interest is the finding of the substantive predicate mentioned in Hewitt, supra. In Olim, the Court said, “a State creates a protected liberty interest by placing substantive limitations on official discretion,” and that “[a]n inmate must show ‘that particularized standards or criteria guide the State’s deci-sionmakers.’ ” Olim, 461 U.S. at 249, 103 S.Ct. at 1747 quoting Connecticut Board of Pardons v. Dumschat, 452 U.S. 458, 467, 101 S.Ct. 2460, 2465, 69 L.Ed.2d 158 (1981) (Brennan, J., concurring).

Kecently, in cases dealing with the creation of a constitutionally protected liberty interest by a state, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has stressed that, to find a state-created liberty interest, it is necessary to find that state law imposes substantive limitations on the exercise of official discretion. Roberts v. Spalding, 783 F.2d 867, 870-871 (9th Cir.1986); Baumann v. Arizona Dep’t of Corrections, 754 F.2d 841, 844-845 (9th Cir.1985).

In Barnes, supra, the court held that a state may create a constitutionally protected liberty interest by creating procedural prerequisites to official decisionmak-ing.

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Related

Meachum v. Fano
427 U.S. 215 (Supreme Court, 1976)
Montanye v. Haymes
427 U.S. 236 (Supreme Court, 1976)
Vitek v. Jones
445 U.S. 480 (Supreme Court, 1980)
Connecticut Board of Pardons v. Dumschat
452 U.S. 458 (Supreme Court, 1981)
Hewitt v. Helms
459 U.S. 460 (Supreme Court, 1983)
Olim v. Wakinekona
461 U.S. 238 (Supreme Court, 1983)
Manuel Lucero v. Dan Russell, Acting Warden
741 F.2d 1129 (Ninth Circuit, 1984)
Baugh v. Woodard
604 F. Supp. 1529 (E.D. North Carolina, 1985)
Barnes v. Wolff
586 F. Supp. 312 (D. Nevada, 1984)
Roberts v. Spalding
783 F.2d 867 (Ninth Circuit, 1986)

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Bluebook (online)
649 F. Supp. 55, 1986 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16475, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/okumoto-v-lattin-nvd-1986.