Donaldson v. United States , 281 F. App'x 75 ( 2008 )


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  •                                                                                                                            Opinions of the United
    2008 Decisions                                                                                                             States Court of Appeals
    for the Third Circuit
    6-2-2008
    Donaldson v. USA
    Precedential or Non-Precedential: Non-Precedential
    Docket No. 06-3265
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    Recommended Citation
    "Donaldson v. USA" (2008). 2008 Decisions. Paper 1081.
    http://digitalcommons.law.villanova.edu/thirdcircuit_2008/1081
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    NOT PRECEDENTIAL
    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
    FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
    ____________
    No. 06-3265
    ____________
    SADRICK DONALDSON,
    Appellant,
    v.
    UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
    Appellee.
    ____________
    On Appeal from the United States District Court
    for the Western District of Pennsylvania
    D.C. No. 04-cv-00257E
    District Judge: Honorable Sean J. McLaughlin
    ____________
    Submitted Under Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a)
    May 23, 2008
    Before: SMITH, HARDIMAN and NYGAARD , Circuit Judges.
    (Filed: June 2, 2008)
    ____________
    OPINION OF THE COURT
    ____________
    HARDIMAN, Circuit Judge.
    Sadrick Donaldson appeals from an order of the District Court that: (1) adopted
    the Magistrate Judge’s Report and Recommendation (R&R) that his claim be dismissed
    under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) and (2) denied his motion to amend the
    complaint to sue the Attorney General of the United States. We will affirm.
    I.
    Because we write for the parties, we recount only those facts essential to our
    decision.
    While incarcerated at FCI-McKean, Donaldson felt threatened by a fellow inmate
    and former paramour, Eric Drayton. In November 2002, Donaldson expressed his
    concern to prison officials and was placed in the Special Housing Unit at his request.
    After investigating the alleged threat and concluding that there was no credible evidence
    of any threat to Donaldson’s safety, prison officials returned him to the general
    population in February 2003. Six months later, Drayton walked into a classroom and
    threw a hot mixture of pepper and baby oil into Donaldson’s face, causing him first and
    second degree burns to his eyes, face, scalp, and shoulders.
    Donaldson first argues that the District Court erred when it adopted the Magistrate
    Judge’s recommendation that his FTCA claim should be dismissed pursuant to the
    discretionary function exception to the FTCA’s waiver of sovereign immunity. The R&R
    specifically advised Donaldson that he had ten days to file objections, and that failure to
    2
    do so “may constitute a waiver of any appellate rights.” Although Donaldson failed to
    object, he “has not waived [his] right to object in this court to the legal conclusions
    contained therein.” See United Steelworkers of Am. v. New Jersey Zinc Co., Inc., 
    828 F.2d 1001
    , 1006 (3d Cir. 1987). Instead, he has waived his right to plenary review of the
    District Court’s order and we will review for plain error. See Nara v. Frank, 
    488 F.3d 187
    , 194 (3d Cir. 2007).1
    To ascertain the applicability of the discretionary function exception, we first
    determine whether the challenged conduct involves an “element of judgment or choice.”
    See Mitchell v. United States, 
    225 F.3d 361
    , 363 (3d Cir. 2000). If it does, we then
    consider “whether that judgment is of the kind that the discretionary function exception
    was designed to shield.” 
    Id.
     (citations omitted).
    “Before we can make the two-part . . . inquiry to determine whether the
    discretionary function exception immunizes the Government from a suit based on its
    conduct, we must identify the conduct at issue.” Merando v. United States, 
    517 F.3d 160
    ,
    165 (3d Cir. 2008). Here, Donaldson alleges that the Bureau of Prisons (BOP)
    “repeatedly ignored his reports of sexual harassment and threats of violence” and failed to
    protect him from Eric Drayton.
    1
    Donaldson insists that we may apply whatever standard of review we wish
    pursuant to Leyva v. Williams, 
    504 F.3d 357
    , 364 (3d Cir. 2007). Leyva is inapposite
    because the pro se litigant in that case was not notified, as Donaldson was, that he would
    lose appellate rights if he failed to object to the R&R.
    3
    “Now that we have identified the Government’s conduct at issue in this case, we
    determine whether the discretionary function exception immunizes it from a lawsuit based
    on that conduct.” Id. at 168. This inquiry requires us to “decide whether a statute,
    regulation, or policy required” the BOP to protect Donaldson “in any specific manner, or
    whether the Government’s actions were discretionary because they involved an element
    of judgment or choice.” Id. (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).
    Here, the conduct at issue was governed by a federal statute which requires the
    BOP to provide for the “protection” and “safekeeping” of inmates in its care. See 
    18 U.S.C. § 4042
    (a)(2), (3). The District Court correctly determined that this statute leaves
    the implementation of these duties to the discretion of BOP officials. Additionally,
    various federal regulations require the BOP to “control inmate behavior” and “take
    disciplinary action” when necessary, but they leave it to the BOP’s discretion as to how to
    accomplish those goals. See 
    28 C.F.R. § 541.10
    (a); see also 
    28 C.F.R. § 541.22
    (a)
    (providing that the BOP “may” remove an inmate from the general population for safety
    reasons). No federal statute, regulation, or policy required the BOP to take a particular
    course of action to ensure Donaldson’s safety from attacks by other inmates, including
    Drayton. Therefore, the first step of the Mitchell analysis is satisfied. See Cohen v.
    United States, 
    151 F.3d 1338
    , 1342 (11th Cir. 1998) (explaining that “even if § 4042
    imposes on the BOP a general duty of care to safeguard prisoners, the BOP retains
    sufficient discretion in the means it may use to fulfill that duty to trigger the discretionary
    4
    function exception.”). Accord Ashford v. United States, 
    511 F.3d 501
    , 505 (5th Cir.
    2007); Montez ex rel. Estate of Hearlson v. United States, 
    359 F.3d 392
    , 396-98 (6th Cir.
    2004); Santana-Rosa v. United States, 
    335 F.3d 39
    , 43-44 (1st Cir. 2003); Dykstra v.
    United States Bureau of Prisons, 
    140 F.3d 791
    , 795-96 (8th Cir. 1998); Calderon v.
    United States, 
    123 F.3d 947
    , 948-50 (7th Cir. 1997).
    Turning to the second prong of the Mitchell test, we conclude that the judgment
    involved in this case — i.e., how best to protect one inmate from the threat of attack by
    another — “is of the kind that the discretionary function exception was designed to
    shield.” Mitchell, 
    225 F.3d at 363
    . Prison administrators should be afforded wide-
    ranging deference in implementing and executing their policies because their discretion is
    needed to preserve internal discipline and maintain institutional security. Bell v. Wolfish,
    
    441 U.S. 520
    , 547-48 (1979). Supreme Court authority underscores the principle that
    prison officials have discretionary power over the safety of the institutions they operate.
    See Rhodes v. Chapman, 
    452 U.S. 337
    , 349 n.14 (1981); see also Whitley v. Albers, 
    475 U.S. 312
    , 321-22 (1986).
    Likewise, courts of appeals have applied the discretionary function exception to
    bar an inmate’s claims for injuries he received while incarcerated. See Calderon, 
    123 F.3d at 948, 951
     (discretionary function exception barred FTCA claim despite evidence
    that BOP officials knew of the threat to inmate and took no steps to protect him); Cohen,
    
    151 F.3d at 1344
     (discretionary function exception shielded the BOP from FTCA
    5
    liability, where an inmate that the BOP had misclassified attacked and injured the
    plaintiff); Alfrey v. United States, 
    276 F.3d 557
    , 565 (9th Cir. 2002) (where BOP
    officials’ decision not to relocate an inmate in the face of death threats from his cellmate
    resulted in the inmate’s death, “what steps to take in response to a reported threat”
    required correctional officers to “set priorities among all extant risks: the risks presented
    by the reported threat, along with the other risks that inevitably arise in a prison,” all of
    which “implicate social and public-policy considerations.”). In accordance with these
    authorities, we find that the BOP’s decisions about how to protect Donaldson from
    Drayton are the kinds of judgments that the discretionary function exception was
    designed to protect.2
    For the foregoing reasons, we find that the District Court did not err in holding that
    the discretionary function exception to the FTCA shields the United States from liability
    in this case.
    II.
    Donaldson next argues that the Magistrate Judge erred in denying him leave to
    amend his complaint to add sixteen BOP employees as defendants because they “violated
    2
    We also reject Donaldson’s contention that the use of prison officials’ individual
    judgments as to how the Drayton threat should have been handled removed their
    decisions from the sphere of public policy. See Alfrey, 
    276 F.3d at 566
     (finding that,
    although BOP officials’ decisions involved professional judgment, “that fact alone does
    not remove the decisions from the realm of policy-based judgments”); see also Calderon,
    
    123 F.3d at 950-51
     (observing that even ordinary “day to day” decisions by BOP officials
    involve “considerations of public policy”).
    6
    [his] Constitutional Rights.” That issue, however, is not before this Court because
    Donaldson failed to appeal the Magistrate Judge’s February 24, 2005 Order denying him
    leave to amend. Instead, Donaldson only appealed the District Court’s May 16, 2006
    Order which dismissed his FTCA claim and denied his motion to amend the complaint to
    add the Attorney General of the United States.
    Donaldson does not argue on appeal that the District Court erred in denying him
    leave to bring a claim against the Attorney General. Had he done so, we would affirm for
    the same reason as the District Court.
    For all of the foregoing reasons, we will affirm the judgment of the District Court.
    7