Starr v. Dube, et al.

2007 DNH 153

• Court: District Court, D. New Hampshire
• Decided: December 7, 2007
• Docket: 05-CV-264-SM
• Status: Published

Opinion

Starr v . Dube, et a l . 05-CV-264-SM 12/07/07 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

DISTRICT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

Darren Starr, Plaintiff

v. Civil No.05-cv-264-SM Opinion N o . 2007 DNH 153 Cpl. Denis Dube, L t . John Loven Bruce Cattell, and John Vinson, Defendants

O R D E R

Darren Starr, an inmate in the Northern Correctional

Facility has sued in two counts, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, claiming

that defendants violated his First Amendment rights by issuing a

disciplinary report against him (Count I ) and conducting a

destructive search of his cell (Count II) in retaliation for his

having invoked the internal prison grievance procedure. Before

the court are plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment on Count I

(document n o . 22) and defendants’ motions for summary judgment on

Count I (document n o . 28) and Count II (document n o . 3 0 ) ,

respectively. Each motion is duly opposed. For the reasons

given, plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment is denied;

defendants’ motion for summary judgment on Count I is granted;

and defendants’ motion for summary judgment on Count II is

denied. Summary Judgment Standard

Summary judgment is appropriate when the record reveals “no

genuine issue as to any material fact and . . . the moving party

is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” FED. R . CIV. P .

56(c). “An issue is genuine i f , on the evidence presented, it

‘may reasonably be resolved in favor of either party.’” Cordi-

Allen v . Conlon, 494 F.3d 245, 249 (1st Cir. 2007) (quoting

Garside v . Osco Drug, Inc., 895 F.2d 4 6 , 48 (1st Cir. 1990)).

“[A] fact is material if it would affect the outcome of the

case.” Brown v . Latin Am. Music Co., 498 F.3d 1 8 , 22 (1st Cir.

2007) (citing Cochran v . Quest Software, Inc., 328 F.3d 1 , 6 (1st

Cir. 2003)). “The object of summary judgment is to ‘pierce the

boilerplate of the pleadings and assay the parties’ proof in

order to determine whether trial is actually required.’” Dávila

v . Corporación de P . R . para la Diffusión Pública, 498 F.3d 9, 12

(1st Cir. 2007) (quoting Acosta v . Ames Dep’t Stores, Inc., 386

F.3d 5 , 7 (1st Cir. 2004)).

To defeat a motion for summary judgment, “the non-moving

party ‘must set forth specific facts showing that a genuine issue

of material fact exists as to each issue upon which [he] would

bear the ultimate burden of proof at trial.’” Torres-Negron v .

Merck & Co., 488 F.3d 3 4 , 39 (1st Cir. 2007) (quoting Santiago-

2 Ramos v . Centennial P.R. Wireless Corp., 217 F.3d 4 6 , 53 (1st

Cir. 2000)). To make that showing, “the non-moving party may not

rest merely upon the allegations or denials in its pleading.”

Id. (citation omitted). When ruling on a party’s motion for

summary judgment, the court must view the facts in the light most

favorable to the nonmoving party and draw all reasonable

inferences in that party’s favor. See id. (citing Rodríguez v .

SmithKline Beecham, 224 F.3d 1 , 5 (1st Cir. 2000)).

Background

On July 2 3 , and September 4 , 1 5 , and 1 7 , 2003, plaintiff

Starr submitted Inmate Request Slips (IRSs) to complain about

four separate incidents in which Corporal Denis Dube presented

him with invoice slips at the prison canteen in a manner that

Starr considered inappropriate.

In the September 15 IRS, Starr stated: “Cpl. Dube is simply

being an unprofessional little man with an unreasonable control

problem.” (Compl., Ex. 4.) On September 1 6 , Lieutenant John

Loven spoke with Cpl. Dube about Starr’s September 15 IRS, and

“told [him] that if he thought inmate Starr was being

disrespectful towards him, he [Cpl. Dube] could write a D-Report”

and that h e , L t . Loven, “could do the investigation after the

3 review process if he [Dube] chose to write him [Starr] up.”

(Pl.’s Mot. Summ. J., Ex. B , at 1.) Cpl. Dube did, in fact,

lodge a Disciplinary Report (D-Report), dated September 1 6 ,

charging Starr with violating Disciplinary Rule 14B (“Rule 14B”),

which prohibits insubordination or disrespect toward a staff

member. (Compl., Ex. 5.) It is undisputed that the basis for

the D-Report was the language Starr used in his September 15 IRS

and, in particular, the “little man” comment. (Pl.’s Mot. Summ.

J., Ex. A , at 2 ; Pl.’s O b j . to Summ. J. (document n o . 3 1 ) , Ex. 7 ,

at 3.)

L t . Loven investigated Cpl. Dube’s D-Report and recommended

that the incident “be processed as a minor disciplinary

infraction with sanctions of 20 hours extra duty [and] 10 days

loss of recreation (suspended 90 days).” (Compl., Ex. 5.) On

September 1 7 , L t . Loven told Starr about the results of his

investigation, and Starr pleaded not guilty to the infraction.

(Id.) On September 2 2 , Starr was served with a Notice of

Disciplinary Hearing. (Id.) At the September 24 hearing, the D-

Report was dismissed without prejudice, due to irregularities in

the investigation, and Starr did not serve any extra duty or lose

any recreation time as a result of i t . (Compl., Ex. 9.)

4 On September 1 5 , 2003, Media Generalist Angela Poulin filed

an incident report in which she stated that an issue of the New

Hampshire Bar News was missing from the prison’s law library.

(Def.’s Mot. Summ. J. (document n o . 3 0 ) , Ex. A.) More

specifically, she reported that the missing Bar News was last

seen in the library at 10:45 a.m. on September 11 when it was

identified on an inventory checklist, and that between 10:45 on

September 11 and 6:53 a.m. on September 1 5 , when the Bar News was

reported missing, the only inmates who had visited the library

were plaintiff and William Looney. (Id.)

At approximately 10:30 a.m. on September 1 8 , Starr asked L t .

Loven whether he had processed the IRS he had filed on the

previous day. (Pl.’s O b j . to Summ. J. (document n o . 3 1 ) , Ex. 9

(Starr Aff.) ¶ 8.) L t . Loven responded by saying “I’ll go

process it now.” (Id.) At 10:45, Starr went to the law library

with Looney. (Starr Aff. ¶ 8.)

Also on September 1 8 , Cpl. Dube approached Sergeant Wilson

with Poulin’s incident report and asked the sergeant if he had

anyone who could search the cells of Starr and Looney. (Pl.’s

O b j . to Summ. J. (document n o . 3 1 ) , Ex. 7 , at 1.) Sgt. Wilson

responded that he did not, and told Cpl. Dube to search the two

5 cells if he had the time. (Id.) Cpl. Dube searched both cells,

without either inmate present. (Id., Ex. 4 (Looney Aff.) ¶ 4 ;

Starr Aff. ¶ 8.) While Cpl. Dube left Looney’s cell in good

condition (Looney Aff. ¶ 4 ) , it is undisputed that he ruined much

of Starr’s stored food by pouring it out and contaminating it

with toiletries and cleaning supplies, destroyed photographs and

magazines, and damaged Starr’s legal materials by, among other

things, ruining many of his legal papers with food and cleaning

supplies and throwing a law book into the toilet (Starr Aff. ¶ 8 ;

Compl., Ex. 6 ¶ 4 ; Pl.’s O b j . to Summ. J. (document n o . 3 1 ) , Ex.

3 , at 2 - 3 ) .

Starr exhausted available administrative remedies regarding

the D-Report and the destruction of his property through the

prison grievance procedure, to no avail. This action followed.

Discussion

Both parties have moved for summary judgment on Count I , and

defendant has moved for summary judgment on Count I I . The court

considers each count in turn.

6 Count I

In Count I , plaintiff asserts that defendants violated his

First Amendment rights by issuing a false disciplinary report

against him for filing the September 15 IRS containing the

“little man” comment. Both parties move for summary judgment on

Count I . Defendants argue that: (1) prosecuting a Rule 14B

infraction based upon insubordinate or disrespectful statements

made in an IRS does not violate an inmate’s constitutional

rights; and (2) even if they did violate plaintiff’s

constitutional rights, an award of money damages is precluded by

the doctrine of qualified immunity.

42 U.S.C. § 1983 creates a cause of action against any

person who, under color of State law, deprives another of any

rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution or

the laws of the United States. The First Amendment to the U.S.

Constitution, made applicable to the states by the Fourteenth

Amendment, guarantees both freedom of speech and the right to

petition the government for the redress of grievances. Moreover,

“[t]he ‘government’ to which the First Amendment guarantees a

right of redress of grievances includes . . . prison

authorities.” Bradley v . Hall, 64 F.3d 1276, 1279 (9th Cir.

1995) (citing Soranno’s Gasco, Inc. v . Morgan, 874 F.2d 1310,

7 1314 (9th Cir. 1989)). The government may violate a person’s

First Amendment rights either by denying him the opportunity to

exercise those rights or by taking adverse action against him

because he has exercised them. See Ward v . Hickey, 996 F.2d 4 4 8 ,

452 (1st Cir. 1993) (“a school committee violates the First

Amendment . . . if it denies rehiring in retaliation for a

nontenured teacher’s exercise of constitutionally protected

speech”).

The elements of a retaliation claim brought by a prisoner

have been described by the court of appeals for the Fifth Circuit

as follows:

To prevail on a claim of retaliation, a prisoner must establish (1) a specific constitutional right, (2) the defendant’s intent to retaliate against the prisoner for his or her exercise of that right, (3) a retaliatory adverse act, and (4) causation. Causation requires a showing that “but for the retaliatory motive the complained of incident . . . would not have occurred.” Johnson v . Rodriguez, 110 F.3d 299, 310 (5th Cir. 1997) (quoting Woods [v. Smith], 60 F.3d [1161,] 1166 [(5th Cir. 1995)]), cert. denied, 522 U.S. 995 (1997).

McDonald v . Steward, 132 F.3d 225, 231 (5th Cir. 1998) (parallel

citations omitted); c f . McDonald v . Hall, 610 F.2d 1 6 , 18 (1st

Cir. 1979) (holding that prisoner who alleged that he was

8 transferred in retaliation for exercising his right of access to

the courts stated a claim under § 1983).

The parties engage on the constitutionality of applying Rule

14B to statements made by prisoners in written grievances, under

the standards enunciated by the United States Supreme Court in

Turner v . Safley, 482 U.S. 78 (1987), and reaffirmed in Shaw v .

Murphy, 532 U.S. 223 (2001). While it appears likely that a

prison disciplinary rule banning insubordination and disrespect

may be applied, constitutionally, to written communications made

during an internal prison grievance process, Count I may be

resolved on grounds that do not require constitutional analysis.

The third element of plaintiff’s cause of action requires

proof of “a retaliatory adverse act.” McDonald, 132 F.3d at 231.

Here, plaintiff has failed to allege such an act, much less

produce evidence that he suffered one.

The court of appeals for this circuit has held that an

inmate alleging that he was transferred from one prison to

another because he filed claims against prison officials

sufficiently stated a retaliation claim under § 1983, see

McDonald, 610 F.2d at 1 8 , and that an inmate sufficiently stated

9 a retaliation claim based upon denial of a timely transfer to

minimum security, denial of permission to consult an outside

specialist for a back injury, and harassment by the prison

medical staff, see Ferranti v . Moran, 618 F.2d 8 8 8 , 892 (1st Cir.

1980). But the court has yet to specifically identify the

threshold an act must clear before it qualifies as a “retaliatory

adverse act.”

The Fifth Circuit, however, has described that threshold,

after surveying its own precedent and relevant decisions from

several other circuits. See Morris v . Powell, 449 F.3d 6 8 2 , 684-

86 (5th Cir. 2006). In Morris the court held that, “an inmate

must allege more than de minimis retaliation to proceed with such

a claim.” Id. at 684-85. As a theoretical matter, a retaliatory

act is “more than de minimis” if it “would chill or silence a

person of ordinary firmness from future First Amendment

activities.” Id. at 685-86 (quoting Crawford-El v . Britton, 93

F.3d 813, 826 (D.C. Cir. 1996) (en banc), vacated on other

grounds, 523 U.S. 574 (1998). On the other hand: “Some acts,

though maybe motivated by retaliatory intent, are so de minimis

that they would not deter the ordinary person from further

exercise of his rights. Such acts do not rise to the level of

10 constitutional violations and cannot form the basis of a § 1983

claim.” Morris, 449 F.3d at 686.

Moving from the theoretical to the practical, the Morris

court offered the following examples:

In Jones v . Greninger, 188 F.3d 3 2 2 , 325-26 (5th Cir. 1999), we affirmed the dismissal of a claim alleging that the inmate had been restricted to five hours a week in the law library in retaliation for filing grievances. Although retaliatory intent was properly alleged, the inmate’s claim failed because the retaliatory adverse acts did not rise to the level of a constitutional violation. Similarly, in Gibbs v . King, 779 F.2d 1040, 1046 (5th Cir. 1986), we upheld a dismissal, writing that “a single incident, involving a minor sanction, is insufficient to prove [retaliatory] harassment.” Thus, without explicitly applying a de minimis test, this court has refused to recognize retaliation claims based only on allegations of insignificant retaliatory acts.

When confronted with more serious allegations of retaliation, however, we have not hesitated to recognize the legitimacy of an inmate’s claim. In Hart v . Hairston, 343 F.3d 7 6 2 , 764 (5th Cir. 2003), we reversed summary judgment dismissing a retaliation claim where the alleged adverse act was twenty-seven days of commissary and cell restrictions. Although we declined to adopt such a test, we noted that “the penalties imposed on Hart do not qualify as ‘de minimis’ under various standards cited by other circuits.”

Likewise, in Parker v . Carpenter, 978 F.2d 1 9 0 , 192-93 (5th Cir. 1992), we held that retaliation in the form of transferring the inmate to a more violent section of the prison was sufficient to support a retaliation claim. In Jackson v . Cain, 864 F.2d 1235, 1248 (5th Cir. 1989), we overturned summary judgment

11 where an inmate alleged that he had been transferred to a less desirable job within the prison in retaliation for filing grievances. The inmate, who had worked in a light labor job, was moved for forty-seven days to a job that subjected him to extreme hardship and serious health risks.

449 F.3d at 685 (footnotes omitted).

The retaliatory adverse act alleged in Count I – the

issuance of a D-Report that was dismissed before any discipline

was actually imposed – is less substantial than the least

substantial de minimis act identified by the Morris court. In

both Jones and Gibbs, discipline was actually imposed. Here, by

contrast, the disciplinary actions recommended by L t . Loven –

relatively minor to begin with – were never imposed because

plaintiff’s D-Report was dismissed at the September 24 hearing.

On that basis, the court has no difficulty concluding that Count

I fails as a matter of law for want of a cognizable retaliatory

adverse act.

Count II

In Count I I , plaintiff asserts that Cpl. Dube violated his

First Amendment rights by conducting a destructive search of his

cell in retaliation for the four IRSs he filed concerning Cpl.

Dube’s conduct at the canteen. Defendants move for summary

12 judgment on Count II on two separate grounds: (1) plaintiff’s

failure to show that he had a First Amendment right; and (2) his

failure to provide evidence of a retaliatory motive sufficient to

overcome their explanation for the search of his cell, i.e.,

Angela Poulin’s report of missing library materials. In other

words, defendants engage on the first and fourth elements of

plaintiff’s cause of action, those requiring the identification

of a constitutional right and proof of causation. See McDonald,

132 F.3d at 231.

Defendants’ first argument is not persuasive. They merely

incorporate the argument in their motion for summary judgment on

Count I , contending that under relevant Supreme Court precedent,

it was not unconstitutional to initiate disciplinary action under

Rule 14B in response to the “little man” comment in plaintiff’s

September 15 IRS. That may be s o , but defendants misunderstand

plaintiff’s complaint. Unlike Count I , which alleges that

defendants retaliated against plaintiff for the “little man”

comment in his September 15 IRS, Count II alleges that

defendants, and in particular Cpl. Dube, retaliated against him

for filing four IRSs complaining about Cpl. Dube’s actions in the

canteen, the last of which was filed the day before Cpl. Dube

ransacked his cell and processed just beforehand. Regardless of

13 whether plaintiff had a constitutional right to call Cpl. Dube a

“little man” in an IRS, he surely had a constitutional right to

invoke the prison’s own grievance procedure and file the four

IRSs complaining about Cpl. Dube. See Morris, 449 F.3d at 684

(“A prison official may not retaliate against or harass an inmate

for complaining through proper channels about a guard’s

misconduct.”) (citation omitted). Thus, defendants have not

demonstrated that plaintiff has failed to establish the first

element of his claim.

Defendants’ second argument is similarly unavailing. As

noted above, the fourth element of plaintiff’s cause of action

requires him to prove that “but for the retaliatory motive the

complained of incident . . . would not have occurred.” McDonald,

132 F.3d at 231 (citation omitted). According to defendants,

they are entitled to judgment as a matter of law on Count II

because: (1) Poulin’s incident report conclusively shows that

there was a legitimate reason for searching plaintiff’s cell,

unrelated to his exercise of First Amendment rights; and (2)

plaintiff has alleged no more than “a bare allegation of temporal

proximity” to support the causation element.

14 Poulin’s incident report provided a legitimate basis upon

which to search plaintiff’s cell, but does not conclusively

establish that Cpl. Dube’s execution of the search was either

legitimate or non-retaliatory. Plaintiff has also produced

evidence beyond simple allegations of temporal proximity to

support the causation element. Among other things, plaintiff has

produced evidence that: (1) Cpl. Dube, the target of plaintiff’s

four IRSs, personally brought Poulin’s incident report to Sgt.

Wilson’s attention and virtually volunteered to search

plaintiff’s cell; (2) after plaintiff and inmate Looney visited

the library on September 11 – the day on which the Bar News is

alleged to have gone missing – Cpl. Dube searched both plaintiff

and Looney on their way back from the library to their cells, and

found neither inmate in possession of any library materials; (3)

after it was searched, Looney’s cell was left in an orderly

condition, while, in plaintiff’s cell, Cpl. Dube opened sealed

containers of food that could not possibly have concealed the Bar

News for which he was purportedly searching, dumped food on

plaintiff’s bunk and contaminated it with toiletries, destroyed

photographs, poured food and toiletries onto plaintiff’s legal

15 papers, and threw a law book into the cell’s toilet,1 and left

the cell in that condition.

In other words, plaintiff has produced evidence from which a

reasonable jury could conclude that Cpl. Dube sought out the

opportunity to search plaintiff’s cell for library materials he

knew plaintiff did not have, and used the occasion of that

pretextual search to ransack the cell and destroy plaintiff’s

property, in retaliation for plaintiff’s four complaints about

his conduct in the canteen. Thus, plaintiff’s evidence

concerning Cpl. Dube’s volunteering to search his cell, Dube’s

search of plaintiff and Looney after they left the law library on

September 1 1 , and the scope and manner of executing the search of

plaintiff’s cell (both on its own and as compared with the search

of Looney’s cell 2 ), taken together, is sufficient to create a

1 Defendants have produced no evidence contradicting plaintiff’s description of the search and its aftermath. They also appear to concede that Cpl. Dube violated prison policy — PPD 5.22, IV(4)(C)(1) and (2) — by searching plaintiff’s legal papers in his absence, and without showing that it was not feasible to have him present, and by failing to attempt to leave his legal papers “in the same condition and in the same order that they were in prior to the cell search.” 2 Defendants argue that the fact that Cpl. Dube searched both plaintiff’s cell and Looney’s cell demonstrates that the search of plaintiff’s cell was not retaliatory. That argument overlooks the uncontested fact that while searching two cells for the very same contraband, Cpl. Dube left one cell, Looney’s, in

16 triable issue of material fact regarding the causation element of

plaintiff’s claim. As the causation element is the only one

defendants challenge in their motion for summary judgment on

evidentiary grounds, they are not entitled to judgment as a

matter of law on Count I I .

Conclusion

For the reasons given, plaintiff’s motion for summary

judgment (document n o . 22) is denied; defendants’ motion for

summary judgment on Count I (document n o . 28) is granted; and

defendants’ motion for summary judgment on Count II (document n o .

30) is denied. Accordingly, this case remains on track for trial

on Count I I .

SO ORDERED.

___________ Steven J. McAuliffe :hief Judge December 7 , 2007

cc: Darren Starr, pro se Glenn A . Perlow, Esq. Mary E . Maloney, Esq.

good condition, while his search of the other cell, plaintiff’s, resulted in the destruction of plainly unrelated property, including legal material, for no apparent reason.