Opinion ID: 490113
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Causation and culpability

Text: 34 Section 1983 imposes a causation requirement similar to that of ordinary tort law. Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167, 187, 81 S.Ct. 473, 484, 5 L.Ed.2d 492 (1961); Leite v. City of Providence, 463 F.Supp. 585, 589 (D.R.I.1978) (The broad language of section 1983 ... provides for liability for any person 'causing' a constitutional deprivation....). Causation under section 1983 may be found both where a defendant's action ... deprives a plaintiff of a constitutional right and [where a defendant] fail[s] to act, when there is a duty to act, to prevent such a deprivation, Clark v. Taylor, 710 F.2d 4, 9 (1st Cir.1983). With respect to prison officials, however, liability is not imposed for deprivations of federal rights caused by merely negligent acts or omissions: 35 [A] prison official ... cannot be liable under section 1983 for merely negligent failure to act. He can, however, be liable for a failure to act that reflects a reckless or callous indifference to the rights ... of the prisoners in his charge. 36 Clark v. Taylor, 710 F.2d at 9; see also Gero v. Henault, 740 F.2d 78, 85 (1st Cir.1984), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1191, 105 S.Ct. 965, 83 L.Ed.2d 970 (1985); Miller v. Solem, 728 F.2d 1020, 1024 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 841, 105 S.Ct. 145, 83 L.Ed.2d 84 (1984); Bannister v. Ponte, 609 F.Supp. 920, 923, 924 (D.Mass.1985). 8 37 No findings were made below about who caused the plaintiff-appellant's due process deprivation, and the record on appeal permits no conclusive inferences to be drawn. Perhaps, as the record suggests, the lateness of the hearing was attributable to the Correctional Administration's having employed only one hearing examiner at the time. In that case, the Correctional Administrator, Mr. Callazo, may be at fault for not staffing his department sufficiently. On the other hand, it is possible that the hearing examiner received insufficiently prompt notification to schedule a timely hearing. 9 If this were the case, then the official or officials responsible for notifying the hearing examiner might be at fault. Alternatively, as the district court suggested, it may be that the regular superintendent at Vega Alta, Alice V. Vasquez, failed to make herself available for a timely hearing. In that case, assuming her testimony was essential for the rule 22 hearing, none of the named defendants would be at fault in this suit, and the appellant would be entitled to no relief. 38 The dearth of evidence and findings with respect to causation also precludes any assessments of the appellees' culpability. For instance, even if the Correctional Administrator were at fault for employing only one hearing examiner, liability would not result unless his error reflected callous indifference to the post-transfer hearing rights of prisoners. Such culpability might be shown, for example, by evidence that the Correctional Administrator knew of the staff shortage and failed to act upon it, or that he willfully failed to monitor compliance with the hearing requirements of rule 22. 39 For purposes of our disposition of this appeal, however, the relevant fact is that we cannot rule out the possibility that one or more of the defendants-appellees caused the appellant's due process deprivation with callous indifference to her federal rights. We therefore must remand the case for further fact-finding on the questions of causation and culpability. Cf. Cortes Quinones v. Jimenez Nettleship, 773 F.2d 10, 14 (1st Cir.1985).