Opinion
Civil Action No. 03-12138-RWZ.
March 1, 2005
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER
Plaintiffs, twelve in number, are inmates at MCI Cedar Junction. Defendants are employees of the Massachusetts and Pennsylvania Departments of Correction who allegedly and in a variety of ways deprived plaintiffs of access to the law library, and thus the courts, took and lost plaintiffs' property, their legal materials, and denied plaintiffs legal telephone calls. The 219 paragraph complaint also includes a detailed statement by each plaintiff setting out that plaintiff's individual claim. The individual claims do not entirely coincide as to either the underlying facts or the legal theories on which they are based. Because no plaintiff is a lawyer, none may represent his fellow plaintiffs. Because prison rules and regulations limit contact among prisoners, whether in person, by telephone, or by mail, plaintiffs have difficulty communicating with each other about this lawsuit. Because this litigation had, as a result, become intractable to reasonable management, the court allowed plaintiffs' motion for the appointment of counsel. Despite diligent efforts by the court staff, no lawyer willing to take on this matter has materialized. The court will continue its efforts. In the interim, both sides have filed a number of motions which are ripe and need not await counsel.
Motion of Judicial Notice (#14 on the court's docket)
Plaintiffs request that the court take judicial notice of an unpublished decision of the Massachusetts Appeals Court, Dahl v. Commissioner of Corrections, AC No. 01-P-146, 2004 WL 1586405 (Mass.App.Ct. July 15, 2004). Defendants do not object so long as the entire decision is included.
The motion is allowed. The court will take judicial notice of the full decision.
Motion to Allow Plaintiffs to Correspond through the Mail (#27)
This motion is occasioned by the fact that not all plaintiffs are at Cedar Junction at this point in time. Defendants object to such communication because the court allowed the motion to appoint counsel, and the Department's regulations prohibit correspondence among inmates except in limited circumstances.
Pending the filing of an appearance by counsel, and despite the entry of a stay, the motion is allowed to the extent the regulations permit inmates to correspond about joint legal matters. The court anticipates that defendants will be as generous as possible in their interpretation of these regulations.
Motion for Leave to File an Amended Complaint (#26)
Plaintiffs seek to add claims and plaintiffs they had omitted, apparently by mistake, from the original complaint.
The motion is denied without prejudice to renewal after counsel is appointed.
DOC Defendants' Motion to Stay (#13)
Given the large number of plaintiffs and claims and the lack of factual and legal overlap, the case poses considerable burdens on defendants. Counsel for plaintiffs may well decide to streamline the pleadings and thereby eliminate much of the now anticipated motion and discovery skirmishes.
The motion is allowed pending further order of the court.