Hough v. Fed. Bureau of Prisons

Full title: MALIK HOUGH, Plaintiff, v. FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS, et al., Defendants.

Court: United States District Court, District of Kansas

Date published: Jul 16, 2024

No. 24-3077-JWL (D. Kan. Jul. 16, 2024)

Opinion

24-3077-JWL

07-16-2024

MALIK HOUGH, Plaintiff, v. FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS, et al., Defendants.

JOHN W. LUNGSTRUM, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

JOHN W. LUNGSTRUM, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

Plaintiff, a federal prisoner, brings this pro se civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. §1983. Plaintiff is incarcerated at FCI-Leavenworth in Leavenworth, Kansas (“FCIL”), formerly named USP-Leavenworth (“USPL”). The Court granted Plaintiff leave to proceed in forma pauperis. On June 6, 2024, the Court entered a Memorandum and Order to Show Cause (Doc. 5) (“MOSC”) ordering Plaintiff to show good cause why his Complaint should not be dismissed for the reasons set forth in the MOSC. This matter is before the Court on Plaintiff's response (Doc. 8). The Court's screening standards are set forth in the MOSC.

I. Nature of the Matter Before the Court

Plaintiff's factual allegations are set forth in the MOSC. In summary, Plaintiff alleges that Correctional Officer (“CO”) Cunningham planted drugs in Plaintiff's cell and then charged him with an incident report under false pretenses. (Doc. 1, at 2, 6.) As a result, Plaintiff is housed in the Special Housing Unit (“SHU”). Id. Plaintiff also makes claims regarding his conditions of confinement at USPL, including conditions during a March 2024 lockdown, meals with insufficient calories, contaminated tap water, black mold, the destruction of his personal property, limited numbers placed on his inmate phone list, and lack of access to medical providers. Id. at 3-12.

Plaintiff names as defendants: the Bureau of Prisons; USPL Warden Carter; USPL Assistant Warden Alatary; USPL Captain Hart; and USPL CO Cunningham. For relief, Plaintiff seeks a sentence reduction, to have his incident report expunged, to have his status points reinstated, to be transferred to a low-security facility, and compensatory damages. Id. at 5.

II. DISCUSSION

Plaintiff brings this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The Court found in the MOSC that Plaintiff names the BOP and staff at USPL as defendants, and provides no factual claim or support for a claim that any defendant acted under color of state law. “To state a claim under § 1983, a plaintiff must allege the violation of a right secured by the Constitution and laws of the United States, and must show that the alleged deprivation was committed by a person acting under color of state law.” West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42, 48 (1988) (citations omitted). A defendant acts “under color of state law” when he “exercise[s] power ‘possessed by virtue of state law and made possible only because the wrongdoer is clothed with the authority of state law.'” Id. at 49 (citations omitted). Plaintiff does not have a cause of action under § 1983.

The Court found in the MOSC that Plaintiff has not shown that a Bivens remedy is available for his claims. Based on the reasoning set forth in the recent Tenth Circuit opinions cited below, the Court finds that Plaintiff's Complaint fails to state a claim for relief under Bivens.

The Tenth Circuit recently noted that the Supreme Court “is on course to treating Bivens as a relic of the 20th century” and that “[t]his development has been gradual, but relentless.” Logsdon v. U.S. Marshal Serv., 91 F.4th 1352, 1355 (10th Cir. 2024). The Tenth Circuit in Logsdon found that:

Without explicitly overruling its three acknowledged precedents, the [Supreme] Court has shown an increasing willingness to

distinguish them, now stating that the ultimate question to ask when determining whether the courts should recognize a Bivens cause of action not created by Congress is ordinarily only “whether there is any reason to think that Congress might be better equipped to create a damages remedy.” Egbert v. Boule, 596 U.S. 482, 492, 142 S.Ct. 1793, 213 L.Ed.2d 54 (2022). And the circumstances in which the answer to the question is “no” appears to comprise a null set. See id. at 503, 142 S.Ct. 1793. (Gorsuch, J., concurring) (“When might a court ever be ‘better equipped' than the people's elected representatives to weigh the ‘costs and benefits' of creating a cause of action? It seems to me that to ask the question is to answer it. To create a new cause of action is to assign new private rights and liabilities-a power that is in every meaningful sense an act of legislation.”); see also Silva v. United States, 45 F.4th 1134, 1140 (10th Cir. 2022) (“[W]e are left in no doubt that expanding Bivens is not just ‘a disfavored judicial activity,' it is an action that is impermissible in virtually all circumstances.” (quoting Egbert, 596 U.S. at 491, 142 S.Ct. 1793) (citation omitted)). The Court has said in effect that almost any difference between the case at hand and the three Court precedents can justify rejecting a cause of action. See Egbert, 596 U.S. at 503, 142 S.Ct. 1793 (Gorsuch, J., concurring) (“Candidly, I struggle to see how this set of facts differs meaningfully from those in Bivens itself.”).

And, perhaps even more striking, the Court has justified a departure from those precedents even when the facts are virtually the same if the government can provide a reason for not recognizing a cause of action that was not considered in the applicable precedent. Thus, in Egbert itself the Court considered an excessive-force claim, similar to the one in Bivens, against a federal officer. See Egbert, 596 U.S. at 495, 142 S.Ct. 1793 (“Bivens and this case do involve similar allegations of excessive force and thus arguably present almost parallel circumstances or a similar mechanism of injury.” (internal quotation marks omitted)). But it held that the court of appeals erred by recognizing a cause of action under Bivens, distinguishing Bivens based on facts that have no bearing on the elements of an excessive-force claim: the incident arose in the “border-security context,” and Congress had created remedies for misconduct by government agents. See id. at 494, 142 S.Ct. 1793. Given such hurdles placed in the way of a Bivens cause of action, Mr. Logsdon has no claim.

Id. at 1355-56.

The Tenth Circuit in Logsdon found that “[a] second independent ground for not recognizing a Bivens action . . . is that the availability of alternative remedies for misconduct . . . suggests that this court should not be the institution to create a remedy.” Id. at 1359. “If there are alternative remedial structures in place, that alone, like any special factor, is reason enough to limit the power of the Judiciary to infer a new Bivens cause of action.” Id. (quoting Egbert, 596 U.S. at 493). The Tenth Circuit quoted Egbert as follows:

“So long as Congress or the Executive has created a remedial process that it finds sufficient to secure an adequate level of deterrence, the courts cannot second-guess that calibration by superimposing a Bivens remedy. That is true even if a court independently concludes that the Government's procedures are not as effective as an individual damages remedy.” Id. at 498, 142 S.Ct. 1793 (internal quotation marks omitted).

Id.

In Silva, the Tenth Circuit held that the Bureau of Prison's Administrative Remedy Program “ARP” was adequate. Silva v. United States, 45 F.4th 1134, 1141 (10th Cir. 2022) (finding that the key takeaway from Egbert is “that courts may dispose of Bivens claims for ‘two independent reasons: Congress is better positioned to create remedies in the [context considered by the court], and the Government already has provided alternative remedies that protect plaintiffs' ”) (citation omitted); see also Noe v. United States Gov't, 2023 WL 8868491, at *2 (10th Cir. Dec. 22, 2023) (“We need not decide whether Noe's case is meaningfully different from Carlson, because in the wake of Egbert and Silva . . . the availability of the ARP is sufficient to foreclose a Bivens claim despite any factual similarity between the two.”). In Silva, the Tenth Circuit had little difficulty in concluding “that the BOP Administrative Remedy Program is an adequate ‘means through which unconstitutional actions . . . can be brought to the attention of the BOP and prevented from recurring.' ” Id. (citation omitted). “[B]ecause Bivens ‘is concerned solely with deterring the unconstitutional acts of individual officers,' ” we find the availability of the BOP's Administrative Remedy Program offers an independently sufficient ground to foreclose Plaintiff's Bivens claim. Id. (quoting Egbert, 142 S.Ct. at 1806 (quoting Malesko, 534 U.S. at 71, 122 S.Ct. 515)).

In his response, Plaintiff continues to argue that his constitutional rights were violated by staff at USPL. (Doc. 8.) Plaintiff does not address the unavailability of a Bivens remedy, but mentions in his response that he “should also apply to the (FTCA) Federal Tort Claim Act” because his property was thrown away while he was in the SHU. Id. at 3.

Plaintiff has not asserted a claim under the Federal Torts Claim Act (“FTCA”). The FTCA, 28 U.S.C. §§ 1346(b)(1), 2671-2680, “allows the United States to be sued for claims arising out of negligent or wrongful acts or omissions of its employees, when such employees are acting within the scope of their duties.” Ingram v. Faruque, 728 F.3d 1239, 1245 (10th Cir. 2013) (citing § 1346(b)(1)). “The United States is the only proper defendant in an FTCA action.” Smith v. U.S., 561 F.3d 1090, 1099 (10th Cir. 2009) (quoting Oxendine v. Kaplan, 241 F.3d 1272, 1275 n.4 (10th Cir. 2001)). The FTCA “provides the exclusive avenue to assert a claim sounding in tort against the United States.” Franklin Sav. Corp., In re, 385 F.3d 1279, 1286 (10th Cir. 2004), cert. denied, 546 U.S. 814 (2005) (citing 28 U.S.C. § 2679(a), which provides that “the FTCA remedy is ‘exclusive' for all ‘claims which are cognizable under section 1346(b)'”).

The FTCA has procedural and jurisdictional requirements. See Staggs v. U.S. ex rel. Dep't of Health and Human Servs., 425 F.3d 881, 885 (10th Cir. 2005) (stating that the “FTCA's presentation requirements are jurisdictional and cannot be waived”) (citation omitted). The Tenth Circuit has summarized the FTCA requirements as follows:

Under the FTCA, filing an administrative claim with the appropriate federal agency is a prerequisite to bringing a civil action against the United States for damages for the negligence or wrongful act of any United States employee. 28 U.S.C. § 2675(a); Three-M Enterprises, Inc. v. United States, 548 F.2d 293, 294 (10th Cir. 1977) . . . A claim is deemed presented when a federal agency receives from a claimant “an executed Standard Form 95 or other written notification of an incident, accompanied by a claim for money damages in sum certain for . . . personal injury, or death alleged to have occurred by reason of the incident.” 28 C.F.R. § 14.2(a). “[B]ringing an administrative claim is a jurisdictional prerequisite to suit, imposed by Congress, which the courts have no power to waive.” Nero v. Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, 892 F.2d 1457, 1463 (10th Cir. 1989); see also Bradley v. United States, 951 F.2d 268, 270 (10th Cir. 1991).

Industrial Constructors Corp. v. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, 15 F.3d 963, 967 (10th Cir. 1994). Section 2675(a) provides that “[a]n action shall not be instituted” upon an FTCA claim “unless the claimant shall have first presented the claim to the appropriate Federal agency and his claim shall have been finally denied by the agency in writing ....” Id. at n.1. The amount of damages claimed in a lawsuit under the FTCA is limited to “the amount of the claim presented to the federal agency.” 28 U.S.C. § 2675(b); see McNeil v. United States, 508 U.S. 106, 108 n.2 (1993) (citing 28 U.S.C. § 2675(a)).

Therefore, exhaustion of administrative remedies is a prerequisite to suit under the FTCA, and courts lack jurisdiction over FTCA claims not presented to the appropriate federal agency. See 28 U.S.C. § 2675(a); Greenlee v. U.S. Postal Serv., 247 Fed.Appx. 953, 954-55 (10th Cir. 2007). “Because the FTCA constitutes a waiver of the government's sovereign immunity, the notice requirements established by the FTCA must be strictly construed.” Bradley v. United States by Veterans Admin., 951 F.2d 268, 270 (10th Cir. 1991) (citation omitted). “The requirements are jurisdictional and cannot be waived.” Id. (citation omitted); Duplan v. Harper, 188 F.3d 1195, 1199 (10th Cir. 1999) (“As a jurisdictional prerequisite, the FTCA bars claimants from bringing suit in federal court until they have exhausted their administrative remedies.”) (citing 28 U.S.C. § 2675(a); McNeil, 508 U.S. at 113; Pipkin v. U.S. Postal Service, 951 F.2d 272, 273 (10th Cir. 1991)). Plaintiff has not alleged facts establishing that he exhausted the administrative tort claim remedy in a proper and timely manner prior to filing this action. This Court cannot exercise jurisdiction over an administratively unexhausted claim.

The Court also found in the MOSC that to the extent Plaintiff seeks to have his disciplinary report expunged or to have his sentence reduced, such claims must be brought pursuant to a habeas action. A § 2241 petition is appropriate when a prisoner challenges the execution of his sentence rather than the validity of his conviction or sentence. McIntosh v. U.S. Parole Comm'n, 115 F.3d 809, 811 (10th Cir. 1997).

Plaintiff has failed to show good cause why his Complaint should not be dismissed for the reasons set forth in the Court's MOSC.

IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED BY THE COURT that this matter is dismissed for failure to state a claim.

IT IS SO ORDERED.