Court Opinion

ID: 9468756
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:22:51.96152+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:02.421985
License: Public Domain

DONALD RUSSELL, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I dissent. My difference with the majority relates to what I believe to be the dispositive issue in this appeal.
In my opinion, the dispositive issue in this § 1983 action is not, as the majority assumes, whether the hearing officer at plaintiff’s administrative disciplinary hearing erred in his evidentiary rulings. That is an issue which, for purposes of disposing of this action, is irrelevant. It may be conceded that the hearing officer erred in his evidentiary rulings, though it is only fair to add that his rulings are supported by a district court opinion in this circuit, which was affirmed without opinion by this Court.1 There was, however, a right of *1132administrative appeal from such rulings. The plaintiff did appeal and the presiding officer’s rulings were in effect voided and the plaintiff-prisoner was relieved of any deprivation on account of such rulings.
The critical and dispositive issue present in this § 1983 action which should have been addressed first on this appeal, was whether the presiding officer in the administrative proceedings is immune from any personal liability under § 1983 for any error in evidentiary rulings made by him in the course of the administrative proceedings. If the answer is that the hearing officer is immune, then that answer is dispositive of the issue of the officer’s personal liability in this case. It is that issue which the court in this case should, in my opinion, have initially addressed. That issue, however, is neither mentioned nor addressed in the majority opinion except in a footnote declaring this is not an appropriate case for the consideration of such issue. With all deference, I do not think we can pass over the dispositive issue in the case on that basis.
The majority would justify passing over this critical issue by declaring that this is “an inappropriate case on which to consider whether the hearing officer who presided at a disciplinary committee hearing is clothed with any judicial immunity.” It seems to reach this conclusion because the district court did not discuss the issue and such defense was “not developed in the briefs filed with us.” It does concede, however, that, by his answer, whether the district court decided it or not, the defendant did raise the issue. But whether the defendant in his brief in this case “developed” the point or the district court discussed immunity is not the issue.2 We are expected to do justice and, upon appeal, we are not confined in our decision by what the court below may have said or not said nor are we to disregard an absolute defense manifest indubitably on the record because it has not been fully “developed” by the defendant in his brief in this Court.
Simply because a party inadequately argues a point or a district court neglects to rule on the point is no reason for us to disregard a point, a decisive point in the disposition of the case. The defendant has suffered a judgment against him. The amount of the judgment is minimal but the legal costs of the action are not. They may involve both the costs of the trial in the district court and the proceedings in this court, as well as the allowance of an attorney’s fee. This defendant, who obviously is a person of limited resources and who would suffer a real deprivation if forced to pay an unfair judgment, is facing a judgment of what may well be several thousands of dollars in costs. If he is immune from liability, it is wrong for him to be forced to pay that judgment and I submit it is our duty to inquire whether he is immune and, if he is, to free him from liability. We cannot stand by, shielded by the inaction perhaps of the district court or the inattention of counsel, and allow the defendant to be mulcted illegally and unfairly in damages when it is plain he is immune. I repeat: Courts exist to do justice and, if it is clear on the record that the defendant is immune from liability — as I submit the defendant is in this case — we are obligated to dismiss the action against the defendant. Since I think, with all respect for the contrary views of my brothers, that there is immunity in this case we should so declare, thereby affirming the dismissal of this action by the district court.
An administrative hearing officer, in my opinion, who is in effect an administrative law judge, is clothed with the same immunity as a judge in connection with any rulings made by him in the course of the administrative hearing itself. I perceive no more *1133reason to deny him such immunity than to deny it to a district judge. The compelling reasons which confer immunity on the judge, even when his ruling or judicial action may violate a litigant’s most fundamental rights, are equally applicable to the administrative law judge. Is one any more entitled to sue a hearing officer under § 1983 for error in his rulings in the course of administrative proceedings, than one, who has been denied by a trial judge his constitutional right of cross-examination, or the right to call witnesses on relevant issues, would have a right to sue the judge for such denial?
Administrative law judges are a definite part of the judicial process and perform the same function as judges, only at a lower level. They certainly are analogous in any event to magistrates, who are admittedly immune from liability for their rulings, Timmerman v. Brown, 528 F.2d 811, 814 (4th Cir. 1975). If administrative officers are to be denied immunity that normally protects the judicial officer in his official actions,3 who will be willing to accept the hazards of acting as an administrative law judge, knowing as he does that if he errs, he will be liable personally in damages?
Administrative proceedings for the resolution of disputed disciplinary actions in the prison context have grown immeasurably since the courts have required administrative hearings in the more serious disciplinary actions. In such administrative proceedings — just as in other administrative proceedings as well as in actual trial at the district court level — there is always the danger that the initial presiding officer may commit an error which could be regarded as violative of a fundamental right. Will one be willing to act as a hearing officer in such a proceeding with the threat over his head of a suit for personal damages if he errs in some ruling in the proceeding, especially where, as here, there is a right of administrative appellate review?
I would hold that the defendant Gardner was immune from liability for any error in any ruling that he may have made in the course of the administrative disciplinary proceedings, and I would affirm the dismissal of the action by the district court.

. In Pollard v. Baskerville, 481 F.Supp. 1157 (E.D.Va.1979), a hearing officer in a prisoner’s disciplinary administrative hearing had denied the prisoner the right to have his defense witnesses “appear in person at the disciplinary hearing” and limited his presentation to “written statements from [the prisoner’s] witnesses.” Id. at 1161. The district court, applying as it understood Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974), held that the prisoner in such proceedings did “not have a constitutional right to have witnesses in his defense personally appear at his disciplinary hearing.” Id. at 1161. That opinion was *1132affirmed by this Court without an opinion [620 F.2d 294 (Tables) 1980], Thus, at least four judges of this Circuit have applied substantially the same rule as did the administrative hearing officer. They are immune from any liability on account of such ruling. Why is not the administrative hearing officer in this case?

. Actually the failure of the district court to discuss the fact, may be explained by the fact that the district court, which dismissed the plaintiff’s claim on other grounds, saw no reason to discuss the immunity issue.

. In Stump v. Sparkman, 435 U.S. 349, 356, 98 S.Ct. 1099, 1104, 55 L.Ed.2d 331 (1978), the Court said:
“A judge will not be deprived of immunity because the action he took was in error, was done maliciously, or was in excess of his authority; rather, he will be subject to liability only when he has acted in the ‘clear absence of all jurisdiction.’ ” (Quoting from Bradley v. Fisher, 13 Wall. 335, 351, 20 L.Ed. 646 (1872)).
This rule of judicial immunity was held to apply to § 1983 actions. Id. at 356, 98 S.Ct. at 1104.