Opinion ID: 2831831
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Additional Claims Reinstated

Text: The Eighth Amendment requires “nutritionally adequate food that is prepared and served under conditions which do not present an immediate danger to the health and well being of the inmates who consume it.” Robles v. Coughlin, 725 F.2d 12, 15 (2d Cir. 1983) (per curiam) (internal quotation marks omitted). The district court acknowledged that Willey’s complaint alleges that “the bread was usually stale and the cabbage usually rotten.” J.A. 676. Accordingly, notwithstanding that “[c]ourts in this Circuit routinely have dismissed” inadequate‐nutrition claims, id. at 677, Willey’s claim is not that all 41 restricted diets are unconstitutional, but that the particular food he received was. Especially in light of the liberality courts must show to pro se pleadings, we find that Willey adequately pleaded this claim by alleging that his restricted diet was unusually unhealthy.
As with the claim for unsanitary conditions, we have already explained that we must revive Willey’s claim for theft of legal documents because the district court dismissed it on grounds not raised in the defendants’ motion. We write further to clarify how to consider this claim on remand. The district court dismissed this claim “because New York state law provides him with an adequate post‐deprivation remedy, i.e., § 9 of the Court of Claims Act.” Id. at 669–70. In support of this conclusion, the district court cited the Supreme Court’s holding that “even the intentional destruction of an inmate’s property by a prison officer does not violate the Due Process Clause if the state provides that inmate with an adequate post‐deprivation remedy.” Id. at 669 (citing Hudson v. Palmer, 468 U.S. 517, 536 (1984)). 42 If Willey’s claim were for the destruction of his television or jewelry, this analysis would suffice. But nowhere does the district court distinguish between replaceable consumer goods and possibly irreplaceable legal documents. Legal documents have characteristics that differentiate them from mere “property” whose destruction can be adequately remedied by a generic property‐deprivation state law. Their theft or destruction, for example, may irrevocably hinder a prisoner’s efforts to vindicate legal rights. On remand, the district court should consider this claim as one for impeding access to the courts: It is now established beyond doubt that prisoners have a constitutional right of access to the courts. This Court recognized that right more than 35 years ago when it struck down a regulation prohibiting state prisoners from filing petitions for habeas corpus unless they were found “ ‘properly drawn’ ” by the “ ‘legal investigator’ ” for the parole board. We held this violated the principle that “the state and its officers may not abridge or impair petitioner’s right to apply to a federal court for a writ of habeas corpus.” Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 821–22 (1977) (citations omitted).
We also vacate the dismissal of Willey’s claim for harassment, again because the defendants did not mention it in their motion for summary judgment. 43 See J.A. 626–30. On remand, the district court has an opportunity to analyze this claim afresh under our recent decision in this area. See Crawford v. Cuomo, No. 14‐ 969, 2015 WL 4728170, at –6 (2d Cir. Aug. 11, 2015). Crawford gives new guidance on the meaning of Boddie v. Schnieder, 105 F.3d 857, 861 (2d Cir. 1997), our Circuit’s leading Eighth Amendment case on harassment and abuse that leaves no physical injury. The district court may also consider whether Willey’s psychological pain and resulting suicide attempt constitute an “appreciable injury” that makes actionable the various forms of harassment Willey allegedly suffered. See Purcell v. Coughlin, 790 F.2d 263, 265 (2d Cir. 1986) (per curiam).
Willey’s claims for malicious prosecution and false imprisonment went unmentioned in the district court’s decision, in the defendants’ motion for summary judgment, and in the briefing on appeal.3 Willey’s complaint featured some of the ambiguities and inartful allegations typical of a pro se filing, which 3 Waiver is an equitable doctrine, and we find more equitable the reinstatement of these claims than the act of attributing to Willey’s appointed pro bono appellate counsel the knowing and voluntary relinquishment of them in light of their going unmentioned in the district court’s decision. 44 we must liberally construe. But we have no trouble concluding that his complaint stated, at a minimum, pendent state‐law claims for both malicious prosecution and false imprisonment. Willey even emphatically underlined his malicious‐prosecution claim in his amended complaint: “Plaintiff was threatened and maliciously prosecuted with false charges and outside criminal charges of allegedly possessing contraband in the form of a weapon because plaintiff refused to act as an informant for security staff.” J.A. 170 (emphasis in original). The elements of a claim for malicious prosecution in New York are: “ ‘(1) the initiation or continuation of a criminal proceeding against plaintiff; (2) termination of the proceeding in plaintiff’s favor; (3) lack of probable cause for commencing the proceeding; and (4) actual malice as a motivation for defendant’s actions.’ ” Manganiello v. City of New York, 612 F.3d 149, 161 (2d Cir. 2010) (quoting Murphy v. Lynn, 118 F.3d 938, 947 (2d Cir. 1997)). To make out a federal claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in addition to a state‐law claim, “a plaintiff must show a violation of his rights under the Fourth Amendment and must establish the elements of a malicious prosecution claim under state law.” Id. at 160–61 (citations omitted). 45 Willey alleged these elements. First, a prosecution was initiated against Willey in Alden Town Court for his alleged possession of a shank while incarcerated at Wende, the same conduct for which he was initially sentenced to solitary confinement. Second, those charges were dismissed. Third, Willey’s allegation is that Taylor and Lambert fabricated the allegation as retaliation for his refusal to provide false information to corrections officers, so he plainly pleaded lack of probable cause. Fourth, also because he alleges the prosecution was initiated in retaliation, Willey sufficiently alleges actual malice. We cannot say from the record or briefing whether the prosecution caused a violation of Willey’s Fourth Amendment rights so as to permit a claim under § 1983. Likewise, Willey’s complaint alleges the elements of a claim for false imprisonment within solitary confinement. This claim, too, he did not hide: “I was in fact falsely imprisoned.” J.A. 20. In New York, “[t]o establish this cause of action the plaintiff must show that: (1) the defendant intended to confine him, (2) the plaintiff was conscious of the confinement, (3) the plaintiff did not consent to the confinement and (4) the confinement was not otherwise privileged.” Broughton v. State of New York, 37 N.Y.2d 451, 456 (1975). To succeed on the fourth 46 element, a plaintiff complaining of false imprisonment within solitary confinement must have “sufficiently pleaded that he had been subjected to punitive segregation for no legitimate reason and without the rudimentary protections of due process.” Gittens v. State of New York, 504 N.Y.S.2d 969, 972 (N.Y. Ct. Cl. 1986). Willey alleged, first for his punitive segregation in solitary and then for the more‐punitive segregation behind cell shields, that the confinement was intentional, that he was conscious of it, that he did not consent to it, and that it was not privileged because it was done for an illegitimate reason and without due process. As with the malicious‐prosecution claim, it is unclear on this record whether Willey stated a federal claim in addition to a state‐law claim for false imprisonment.