Source: http://ca10.washburnlaw.edu/cases/2001/04/00-6146.htm
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 04:47:49+00:00

Document:
Plaintiff Kenneth R. Koetting brought this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging a variety of types of unconstitutional treatment while he was a prisoner in the Noble County Jail in Perry, Oklahoma, and seeking damages and declaratory and injunctive relief. The district court concluded that Koetting's complaint failed to state a claim on which relief could be granted and dismissed it pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). Koetting appeals. We affirm for the reasons stated below.
Koetting was incarcerated in the Noble County Jail from October 1998 to May 1999. Most of this time he was a pretrial detainee, but during the last few days of his confinement at the jail, he was a convicted felon awaiting transfer to the custody of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. (He is currently incarcerated in the Lawton Correctional Facility.) He filed this action pro se while still a pretrial detainee at the jail. He alleged that defendants failed to adequately fund, staff and operate the jail and that this resulted in inadequate access to a law library and legal materials; denial of his First Amendment right to newspapers and magazines; and an assortment of unconstitutional prison conditions involving, inter alia, medical care, recreational facilities, visitation policy, and possible hazardous substances in the jail. He also alleged that 28 U.S.C. § 1915, as amended by the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), is unconstitutional. Defendants filed a motion to dismiss or, in the alternative, for summary judgment. Following Koetting's response, a magistrate judge considered the parties' arguments and recommended that the complaint be dismissed for failure to state a claim. Adopting the magistrate judge's report and recommendation, the district court dismissed Koetting's complaint and assessed him a strike pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). The district court also denied his request for reconsideration filed under Fed. R. Civ. P. 59(e).
[t]he broad reading of the plaintiff's complaint does not relieve the plaintiff of the burden of alleging sufficient facts on which a recognized legal claim could be based. Not every fact must be described in specific detail, and the plaintiff whose factual allegations are close to stating a claim but are missing some important element that may not have occurred to him, should be allowed to amend his complaint. Nevertheless, conclusory allegations without supporting factual averments are insufficient to state a claim on which relief can be based. This is so because a pro se plaintiff requires no special legal training to recount the facts surrounding his alleged injury, and he must provide such facts if the court is to determine whether he makes out a claim on which relief can be granted. Moreover, in analyzing the sufficiency of the plaintiff's complaint, the court need accept as true only the plaintiff's well-pleaded factual contentions, not his conclusory allegations.
Koetting contends on appeal that the district court never indicated to him prior to the magistrate judge's report and recommendation that his complaint was deficient and that it should have allowed him to amend his complaint, though he does not indicate how. In neither his response to defendants' motion, his objections to the magistrate judge's report, his motion for reconsideration, nor by separate motion did he seek leave to amend his complaint. For a variety of reasons, he may not raise that issue now. See Walker v. Mather (In re Walker), 959 F.2d 894, 896 (10th Cir. 1992) (appellate court will not consider arguments not presented to district court); Moore v. United States, 950 F.2d 656, 659 (10th Cir. 1991) (appellate court will not consider argument not included in objections to magistrate judge's recommendation); Glenn v. First Nat'l Bank, 868 F.2d 368, 369-71 (10th Cir. 1989) (district court not obligated to sua sponte allow plaintiff to amend complaint).
We also agree with the district court that Koetting's contention that PLRA is unconstitutional fails to state a claim. We have already upheld the constitutionality of PLRA on several grounds. White v. Colo., 157 F.3d 1226, 1232-35 (10th Cir. 1998). We find the additional grounds asserted by Koetting--violation of separation of powers doctrine, invalid taking, taxation without representation, inter alia--to be without merit.
Koetting also challenges the district court's denial of his motion for reconsideration in which he contended that the district court did not adequately consider his objections to the magistrate judge's report and recommendation and that the magistrate judge did not give him notice of the standards she was employing. The district court stated that it conducted a de novo review, and we accept that statement as adequate indication the court properly considered the objections. See Clark v. Poulton, 963 F.2d 1361, 1368 (10th Cir. 1992). Additionally, the magistrate judge was not obligated to give Koetting notice of the standards governing her analysis of defendants' motion. By the types of relief sought, defendants' motion gave Koetting notice of the applicable standards.
We have considered Koetting's other arguments and find them equally unpersuasive. The judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED. All outstanding motions are DENIED. Koetting is reminded of his continuing obligation to make partial payments until the docketing fees are fully paid.
1. Defendants moved alternatively for dismissal for failure to state a claim or for summary judgment. While the district court stated that it was dismissing Koetting's complaint under Rule 12(b)(6), it appears to have considered evidence submitted by defendants--a jail inspection report--that was outside the complaint. In our analysis of the court's action under Rule 12(b)(6), we will not consider this report. See Brown v. Zavaras, 63 F.3d 967, 970 (10th Cir. 1995).
2. While Koetting's conditions-of-confinement claims as a pretrial detainee are analyzed as due process claims and those as a convicted felon are analyzed as Eighth Amendment claims, the same analysis applies to both types of claims. See Lopez v. LeMaster, 172 F.3d 756, 759 n.2 (10th Cir. 1999).
3. The district court correctly noted that because Koetting has been transferred to another facility and there is no reasonable expectation he will return to the jail, his requests for declaratory and injunctive relief are moot. See McAlpine v. Thompson, 187 F.3d 1213, 1216-18 (10th Cir. 1999).

References: § 1983
 § 1915
 § 1915
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