Woulard v. Redman
Woulard v. Redman
Opinion of the Court
OPINION
Plaintiffs in three related prisoner civil rights suits seek money damages against various state officials under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The three cases have been consolidated for purposes of this opinion. Each plaintiff alleges that his constitutional rights were violated when the Delaware Correctional Center cancelled his previously accrued good time credits. Although those credits were later restored to each of the plaintiffs by the Delaware Supreme Court in Johnson v. State, 472 A.2d 1311, No. 350, 1982 (Del. Nov. 17, 1983), plaintiffs now seek monetary relief, presumably as compensation for the extra time they spent in jail.
Factual Background
Plaintiffs were all sentenced under Delaware’s minimum mandatory sentence statute, 11 Del.C. § 832(c).
On June 2, 1982, the Delaware Supreme Court overruled Kennish, holding that good time credits could not be awarded to prisoners serving minimum mandatory terms. Richmond v. State, 446 A.2d 1091 (1982). Although the Richmond court did not address the retroactivity of its decision, the Department of Correction, in response to the opinion, revoked all previously awarded credits granted to prisoners serving minimum mandatory terms.
Plaintiffs filed suit in state and federal court challenging the Department of Correction’s retroactive application of Richmond and its withdrawal of the credits previously awarded to plaintiffs. On No
The Magistrate has recommended judgment in favor of defendants on the ground of good faith official immunity, reasoning that defendants could not reasonably have known that they were violating plaintiffs’ clearly established constitutional rights. This Court agrees and will therefore grant defendants’ motions.
Discussion
The test for official immunity was most recently articulated by the Supreme Court in Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). The Supreme Court stated that officials are immune from liability for money damages if their conduct “does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.” Id. at 818, 102 S.Ct. at 2738. While recognizing that there are both subjective and objective components of good faith immunity, id. at 815, 102 S.Ct. at 2737, the Court explained that summary judgment could be granted based solely on objective factors. According to Harlow, if the law at the time an action occurred “was not clearly established, an official could not reasonably be expected to anticipate subsequent legal developments, nor could he be said to ‘know’ that the law forbade conduct not previously identified.” Id. at 818, 102 S.Ct. at 2738. Under such circumstances, summary judgment is appropriate. Id. at 816, 818, 102 S.Ct. at 2737, 2738.
This Court does not believe that defendants should reasonably have known they were violating plaintiffs’ clearly established constitutional rights. In reaching its conclusion, the Court does not decide whether, in fact, plaintiffs’ constitutional rights were violated; it merely decides that resolution of the constitutional question is so difficult and uncertain that a state official in defendants’ position should not be held liable for money damages.
There are, in particular, three possible theories under which plaintiff’s constitutional rights may have been violated by defendants’ revocation of their good time credits. None of these theories, as explained below, was so well established that defendants can be held liable for money damages. The first theory is that by increasing the punishment for conduct already committed by plaintiffs, defendants violated plaintiffs’ ex post facto' rights even though the Richmond decision was “foreseeable” under Delaware law. The second theory is that Richmond was an “unforeseeable” judicial decision, and that defendants’ retroactive application of Richmond therefore violated plaintiffs’ due process rights. The third theory of liability is the one adopted by the Delaware Supreme Court in Johnson. The uncertainty of the law under each theory will be explained in turn.
I. Ex Post Facto Administrative Action
The ex post facto implications of this case are complicated because the retroactive detriment felt by plaintiffs was neither legislative in origin nor was it the result of a purely administrative or judicial decision.
The law is clear that a legislature may not retroactively revoke previously accumulated good time credits. The Supreme Court in Weaver v. Graham, 450 U.S. 24, 101 S.Ct. 960, 67 L.Ed.2d 17 (1981),
The presence or absence of an affirmative, enforceable right is not relevant ... to the ex post facto prohibition, which forbids imposition of punishment more severe than the punishment assigned by law when the act to be punished occurred. Critical to relief under .the Ex Post Facto Clause is not an individual’s right to less punishment, but the lack of fair notice and governmental restraint when the legislature increases punishment beyond what was prescribed when the crime was consummated.
Id. at 30, 101 S.Ct. at 965. This fair notice concept is critical to a decision affecting good time credits, the Court explained, because “a prisoner’s eligibility for reduced confinement is a significant factor entering into both the defendant’s decision to plea bargain and the judge’s calculation of the sentence to be imposed.” Id. at 32, 101 S.Ct. at 966.
The change in good time policy in Weaver was legislatively produced through amendment of the governing statute. Plaintiffs’ suits, however, challenge an administrative action, not a legislative action. Many courts have recognized nonetheless that the ex post facto clause applies with equal force to administrative actions which have the effect of punishing or increasing the punishment for conduct occurring before the administrative change. See Holguin v. Raines, 695 F.2d 372, 374 (9th Cir. 1982); Geraghty v. United States Parole Commission, 579 F.2d 238, 266 (3d Cir. 1978), vacated on other grounds, 445 U.S. 388, 100 S.Ct. 1202, 63 L.Ed.2d 479 (1980); Love v. Fitzharris, 460 F.2d 382, 385 (9th Cir. 1972), vacated as moot, 409 U.S. 1100, 93 S.Ct. 896, 34 L.Ed.2d 682 (1973); Piper v. Perrin, 560 F.Supp. 253, 256 & n. 6 (D.N.H. 1983). As the Third Circuit Court of Appeals stated in Geraghty: .
[A] similar prohibition [against ex post facto laws] applies to an increase in punishment brought about by the rule-making, the administrative equivalent of legislation. The legislature cannot, by delegation, escape constitutional limitations on its power.
Were this a controversy involving an unprovoked administrative change in the state’s good time credit policy, the ex post facto analysis would be straightforward under Geraghty. The cases at bar do not, however, simply involve an ordinary example of administrative rule-making. Unlike Geraghty, the rule-making in these cases flowed from the Department’s response to a judicial interpretation of a statute. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Holguin v. Raines, 695 F.2d 372, held in a split decision that an administrative change prompted by a judicial decision is unconstitutional only if the judicial decision itself violated the due process clause under the Supreme Court cases of Marks v. United States, 430 U.S. 188, 97 S.Ct. 990, 51 L.Ed.2d 260 (1977), and Bouie v. City of Columbia, 378 U.S. 347, 84 S.Ct. 1697, 12 L.Ed.2d 894 (1964). Holguin, 695 F.2d at 374. The Supreme Court held in those cases that detrimental retroactive judicial decisions affecting penal statutes, although not literally forbidden under the ex post facto clause, are nonetheless unconstitutional under the due process clause if the decisions are “unforeseeable.” See Marks v. United States, 430 U.S. at 191-92, 97 S.Ct. at 992-93; Bouie v. City of Columbia, 378 U.S. 347 at 353-54, 84 S.Ct. 1697 at 1702-03, 12 L.Ed.2d 894. This unforeseeability element, while related to the ex post facto clause’s general concern with fair
In face of this split in the case law, even were the Court inclined to hold that foreseeability was irrelevant to the ex post facto question surrounding the Department’s action, defendants could not be held liable for a violation of the ex post facto clause. The law relating to foreseeability and judicially inspired administrative action was uncertain at the time plaintiffs were deprived of their good time credits and, in fact, remains unsettled today.
II. Retroactive Application of Judicial Decision
All courts would agree that if a judicial decision underlying a detrimental administrative action is unforeseeable, the detrimental action would violate either the due process or ex post facto clause. Taking the law as well established that retroactive administrative changes in response to unforeseeable judicial decisions are unconstitutional, the Court cannot say that defendants may be liable for money damages: a reasonable person in defendants’ position, the Court holds, would not necessarily have known that the Richmond decision was unforeseeable.
The Delaware Supreme Court in Johnson has already found that Richmond was foreseeable.
III. Johnson Theory of Liability
The Johnson court did, of course, find a constitutional violation. The constitutional violation found in Johnson does not, however, establish that defendants violated a “clearly established” constitutional right. The Johnson court conducted what appears to be a novel analysis. While holding that
In summary, no theory of defendants’ alleged constitutional violation can defeat their claim of good faith immunity. The law was, and indeed remains, too unsettled: 1) the law was not clearly established that defendants could be liable regardless of foreseeability; 2) there was a reasonable basis for believing Richmond was foreseeable; and 3) the Johnson theory of a due process violation was not clearly established at the time of defendants’ action. Under these circumstances defendants are entitled to good faith immunity under Harlow.
An order will be entered granting summary judgment to defendants.
. The record is silent as to how much extra time, if any, plaintiffs’ spent in prison before winning their credits in Johnson v. State, but resolution of that question is not necessary for purposes of this opinion.
. 11 Del.C. § 832(c) provides:
The minimum sentence of imprisonment required by this section and § 4205 of this title for a first offense shall not be subject to suspension, and no person convicted under this section shall be eligible for probation or parole during the first 3 years of such sentence.
. Under 11 Del.C. § 4381, a prisoner accumulates credits depending upon his good behavior and compliance with prison rules. It is undisputed in this case that plaintiffs were denied credits as a result of a general policy, not individualized decisions.
. The record is unclear as to whether any of the plaintiffs were affected adversely by this limitation to the Johnson holding.
. The Johnson court found that Richmond was foreseeable in light of the Delaware Supreme Court’s decisions in State v. Spence, 367 A.2d 983 (Del. 1976), and Woodward v. State, 416 A.2d 1225 (Del. 1980). Johnson, at 1315-1316. The Court explained:
There is merit in the State’s argument that Richmond was foreseeable in light of this Court’s decisions in State v. Spence ... and Woodward v. State____ In Spence, we held that a mandatory life sentence without benefit of parole could not be reduced by good time credits. Similarly, in Woodward, we held that a minimum mandatory prison term would not be diminished by good time credits for the purpose of determining eligibility for parole. The State argues that these decisions provided defendants with fair warning that credits earned for good behavior would not reduce a minimum mandatory sentence, hence, no due process violation occurred by the retroactive application of Richmond.
Id. at 1315.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Chester L. WOULARD v. Warden Walter REDMAN, Defendants Wayne C. JOHNSON v. John L. SULLIVAN, Defendants Edward R. SCOTT v. John L. SULLIVAN
- Status
- Published