S. Borrero-Bejerano v. Comwlth of PA, DOC

CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 8, 2019
Docket453 C.D. 2018
StatusUnpublished

This text of S. Borrero-Bejerano v. Comwlth of PA, DOC (S. Borrero-Bejerano v. Comwlth of PA, DOC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
S. Borrero-Bejerano v. Comwlth of PA, DOC, (Pa. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

IN THE COMMONWEALTH COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA

Santo Borrero-Bejerano, : Appellant : : v. : No. 453 C.D. 2018 : Submitted: December 21, 2018 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, : Department of Corrections, : SCI Huntingdon, Mr. Kevin Kauffman : C/O Butler Search Team at SCIH and : Property Sergeant Anders, of : SCI-Huntingdon :

BEFORE: HONORABLE ROBERT SIMPSON, Judge HONORABLE P. KEVIN BROBSON, Judge HONORABLE ELLEN CEISLER, Judge

OPINION NOT REPORTED

MEMORANDUM OPINION BY JUDGE SIMPSON FILED: February 8, 2019

Santo Borrero-Bejerano (Inmate), representing himself, appeals from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Huntingdon County (trial court) that sustained preliminary objections and dismissed his complaint with prejudice. Upon review, we affirm most of the trial court’s order, vacate part of the trial court’s order, and remand for further proceedings.

I. Background Appellees are the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Commonwealth), the Department of Corrections (Department), State Correctional Institution (SCI)- Huntingdon, Mr. Kevin Kauffman (Kauffman), Corrections Officer (C/O) Butler (Butler), and Property Sergeant Anders (Anders) (collectively DOC Parties). Kauffman is the Superintendent at SCI-Huntingdon. Butler and Anders are Department employees serving at SCI-Huntingdon.

Because this appeal concerns preliminary objections, we accept the following facts as pleaded in the complaint.1

Inmate is currently incarcerated at SCI-Huntingdon. When he entered prison in 2012, he possessed and was wearing a Seiko watch worth over $5,000. The watch was duly listed on his property inventory, but its monetary value was not noted. Although the Department ostensibly has a policy limiting to $50.00 the value of a watch an inmate may retain, the property inventory Inmate signed did not indicate any limit on the value of retained property, nor did the policy appear in the inmate handbook Inmate received upon incarceration. Inmate was not instructed either to turn in the watch or to mail it home. Inmate retained his watch for the next five years without incident.

In February 2017, Butler and another officer employed at SCI- Huntingdon entered Inmate’s cell and conducted a random security search. The Department’s search policy states inmates are permitted to be present when their cells are searched, unless there are exigent circumstances such as an investigation of misconduct. Inmate received no previous citation for misconduct and was not under

1 This Court’s review of a trial court’s order sustaining preliminary objections is limited to determining whether the trial court committed an error of law or an abuse of discretion. Brown v. Clark, 184 A.3d 1028 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2018). The trial court may sustain preliminary objections only where it appears with certainty that the law will not allow recovery. Id. Courts accept as true all well-pleaded facts and all reasonable inferences from those facts, but need not accept unwarranted inferences, conclusions of law, argumentative allegations, or expressions of opinion. Id.

2 investigation. Nonetheless, Butler and his fellow officer conducted the February 2017 search while Inmate was absent from his cell for work at his paid job in the prison kitchen.

During the search, Butler removed Inmate’s watch from his cell without the knowledge of his fellow officer. Butler did not provide a confiscation slip for the watch as required by Department policy.

Inmate reported to the block sergeant that his watch was gone and there was no confiscation slip. At the block sergeant’s direction, Butler provided a confiscation slip. Butler stated on the confiscation slip that he removed Inmate’s watch because it was “not his.” Compl., ¶15 & Ex. 1. Butler accused Inmate of stealing the watch and stated Inmate would not get the watch back no matter what he did.

Inmate next contacted Anders, the property sergeant, about his watch. Like Butler, Anders accused Inmate of stealing the watch. Compl., ¶24. Anders stated that the watch was not listed on Inmate’s property inventory. Compl., ¶19 & Ex. 2. Inmate obtained a copy of his property inventory form and showed Anders that the watch was indeed listed on the form. Compl., ¶¶20-22 & Ex. 4. Anders still refused to return Inmate’s watch, stating that listing the watch on the property inventory did not make it Inmate’s property. Compl., ¶23 & Ex. 5.

3 Anders also threatened Inmate with retaliation if Inmate filed a grievance or continued asking for the return of his watch. Anders told Inmate he would end up in the restricted housing unit and still would never get his watch back.

Inmate nonetheless filed a grievance seeking the return of his watch. Two days later, Butler confiscated Inmate’s television and electronic drum set and cited Inmate for misconduct, stating the items were not his. Both items were returned to Inmate, but Butler confiscated the drum set a second time and issued misconducts for Inmate’s possession of the items, even after Inmate proved they belonged to him.

In March 2017, Inmate spoke personally with Kauffman and asked him to stop the threats and harassment by Anders and Butler. Their conduct apparently ceased for a time, but then resumed. In May 2017, for example, as Inmate was on his way to church, Butler stopped him in the hall, searched him roughly, threw his belongings on the floor, and laughed at him.2

Inmate’s grievance concerning his watch was upheld. However, Anders then stated he was unable to locate Inmate’s watch to return it to him. As a result, Inmate received a compensatory credit to his prison account of only $26.72, the price of a watch sold in the prison commissary.

2 In his brief on appeal, Inmate alleges he suffered additional retaliation for filing his grievance, including a misconduct based on fabricated facts, transfer out of the honors block, and loss of his paid job. However, Inmate did not plead these alleged events in the complaint, and attachment of supporting documents to his brief does not make those documents part of the record. See Pa. Dep’t of Educ. v. Bagwell, 114 A.3d 1113 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2015). Therefore, we cannot consider them on appeal. Id.

4 Inmate appealed his grievance to the next stage of the grievance process. The grievance coordinator acknowledged Inmate’s watch was worth more than $50.00, but limited Inmate’s total recovery to that amount, citing the Department’s policy limiting the value of a watch retained by an inmate. Inmate therefore received a further credit of $23.28 to his account in addition to the prior credit of $26.72, for a total of $50.00.

Inmate appealed further until he exhausted the administrative grievance process, but he was unable to recover either the watch or its full value. Inmate then filed a civil complaint in the trial court.

Count I of the complaint alleged the DOC Parties, and specifically Butler and Anders, deprived Inmate of his property rights by committing intentional or negligent conversion, acting with either an evil motive or reckless indifference to Inmate’s rights. Inmate also averred the DOC Parties acted under color of state law. Count II alleged intentional infliction of emotional distress (designated “mental distress” in the complaint). Compl. at ¶11. Count III alleged failure to protect Inmate’s property.

The DOC Parties filed preliminary objections on four bases. First, all DOC Parties asserted immunity,3 arguing that the complaint asserted only claims

3 A defendant must ordinarily plead immunity, an affirmative defense, as new matter with the answer to the complaint, not as a preliminary objection. Pa. R.C.P. No. 1030; Paluch v. Pa. Dep’t of Corr., 175 A.3d 433

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Brown v. Blaine
833 A.2d 1166 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 2003)
Berthesi v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation
246 F. Supp. 2d 434 (E.D. Pennsylvania, 2003)
Bush v. Veach
1 A.3d 981 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 2010)
Shore v. Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
168 A.3d 374 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 2017)
Paluch v. PA Department of Corrections
175 A.3d 433 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 2017)
L. Brown v. A. Clark
184 A.3d 1028 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 2018)

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