Carr v. Lytle et al

Filing 59

MEMORANDUM DECISION AND ORDER. Defendants Motion to Dismiss for Failure to State a Claim (Dkt. 25 ) is GRANTED. Plaintiff may proceed to the next stage of litigation on his due process claims basedon his placement in segregation pending investigatio n from approximately June 11, 2019, to approximately July 17, 2019. No other theories or claims will beentertained in this action. Motions for summary judgment on the remaining due process claim must be filedno later than September 30, 2022, with responses due 30 days after the filing of the motion.. Signed by Judge David C. Nye. (caused to be mailed to non Registered Participants at the addresses listed on the Notice of Electronic Filing (NEF) by (alw)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF IDAHO
JODY CARR,
Case No. 1:20-cv-00313-DCN
Plaintiff,
SEALED
MEMORANDUM DECISION
AND ORDER

vs.
C/O LYTLE and SGT. ANDERSON,
Defendants.

Pending before the Court are various motions filed by the parties, including a motion
for partial summary dismissal of one of Plaintiff’s two claims on grounds that it is barred
by a prior settlement agreement between the parties. Dkt. 25. Having considered the record
and the arguments of the parties, the Court concludes that Plaintiff’s first claim is subject
to dismissal and the second will proceed to summary judgment on a due process theory.
BACKGROUND
Plaintiff Jody Carr is a prisoner in custody of the Idaho Department of Correction
(IDOC). Plaintiff settled a first set of seven federal and state court actions against various
state actors on April 26, 2019, in a judicial settlement conference. The Court takes judicial
notice of the “global settlement agreement” (GSA) between Plaintiff, and the State, both
represented by counsel, terminating the following: United States District Court District of
Idaho Case Nos. 1:13-cv-00380-REB, 1:14-cv-00125-BLW, 1:15-cv-00133-CWD, 1:16cv-00182-DCN, 1:17-cv-00167-DCN, and 1:18-00247-DCN, as well as Ada County
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Fourth Judicial District Court Case No. CV01-19-5023. See Dkt. 15, sealed GSA in Case
No. 1:18-cv-000247-DCN. Hereinafter, each case will be referred to by its last few digits.
The GSA resolved all Plaintiff’s claims against the State of Idaho Department of
Correction, the State of Idaho, their “employees,” and “all other persons or entities acting
for, by or through them.” Id., p. 1. In the GSA Plaintiff gave up “any and all rights, actions,
causes of action, claims, concerns, grievances, demands, damages of any nature, and
attorney fees and costs which the undersigned now has or which may hereafter accrue on
account of, or in any way grow out of, any known and unknown, foreseen and unforeseen
injuries, damages, economic loss, loss of income, earnings or profit, medical expenses and
any other injuries, damages and expenses of any kind or character, or which may arise as
a result of or relate to the incidents which form the subject matter of any and all allegations
raised in any and all disputes between Releasor and any or all of the Releasees named in
any or all of the actions identified herein, including, without limitation the allegations
raised or the subject matter of any and all Complaints or Petitions for Writ of Habeas
Corpus which have been filed as of the date of signature herein.” Id., pp. 1-2.
In the GSA, Plaintiff also released all “past, present and future claims arising in
any way out of the dismissed lawsuits and Habeas Corpus Petition referenced herein,” and
the parties agreed that “no future actions(s) may be maintained which are based upon or
include in any fashion the alleged wrongful acts from the dismissed actions, nor may those
alleged wrongful acts be used as the basis for background evidence in any future lawsuits
or actions.” Id., p. 2. Plaintiff received a sum of money for release of all his claims. Id., pp.
2-3.
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DISCUSSION
The instant case is part of a second set of Plaintiff’s cases arising from Case No.
1:20-cv-00146-DCN, Carr v. Cupp (Case 146), which contained a multitude of unrelated
claims against a multitude of defendants, in violation of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure
20. The Court severed Plaintiff’s claims into a number of separate actions and required
Plaintiff to file a second amended complaint in each if he desired to pursue his claims; the
Court provided Plaintiff with the appropriate standards of law, including those governing
segregation and due process claims. See Case 146, Dkt. 13; see Dkt. 2 in this action.
In this severed action, Plaintiff has submitted a Second Amended Complaint with
exhibits. Dkt. 3. In accordance with the Initial Review Order, Plaintiff was permitted to
bring only the following claims in this action:
1. Defendants Lytle and Anderson violated Plaintiff’s due
process rights by transferring him to a close custody
unit, D-1 on April 8, 2019, without adequate due
process;
2. Defendants Lytle and Anderson transferred Plaintiff to
“The Hole” (disciplinary segregation) on June 12, 2019,
without adequate due process.
Id., p. 4.
Rather than follow the Court’s Order to bring these claims only in this action,
Plaintiff also attempted to pursue these same or similar claims in an amended pleading in
Case 146. The Court now reviews the claims Petitioner was authorized to raise in his
amended pleading.

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1. Claim 1: April 8, 2019 – All Legal Theories
Plaintiff alleges in the amended pleadings that, on April 8, 2019, IDOC employees
Lytle and Anderson transferred him to close custody with no override, in retaliation for
making PREA complaints. Dkt. 3. Lytle is directly named in suits settled by the GSA.
Anderson is an employee of IDOC. The PREA complaints are based on alleged sexual
assaults that occurred before the GSA. The date of Lytle and Anderson’s alleged acts
occurred before the GSA. These claims are barred by the GSA and accordingly fail to state
a claim upon which relief can be granted.
2. Claim 2: June 11, 2019 - Conspiracy
Plaintiff asserts that, on June 11, 2019, inmate Wolfe stole four affidavits of other
inmates that Plaintiff kept in his legal files. The affidavits were intended to support a class
action lawsuit centered on the dangerousness of double-celling inmates in close and
protective custody. Plaintiff asserts that Wolfe gave the affidavits to prison officials, who
conspired with Wolfe to stop the lawsuit from being filed. In a screening order in Case 146,
the Court has addressed this claim as one that fails to state a claim.
3. Claim 3: June 11, 2019 – Due Process
Plaintiff also alleges that, on June 11, 2019, Defendants failed to afford him
adequate due process when he was placed in segregation pending investigation for 36 days.
The segregation allegedly resulted from IDOC officials’ need to investigate Wolfe’s
statement to prison officials that Plaintiff was trying to entice inmate LaGrotta to assault
Plaintiff so Plaintiff could sue IDOC officials again.

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Plaintiff may proceed to the next stage of litigation—summary judgment—on the
claim that had a liberty interest in not being placed in segregation pending investigation for
36 days, and that he was not afforded proper due process when he was placed there.1 This
claim is not the subject of the pending Motion for Partial Summary Dismissal.
Though the body of the amended complaint mentions dates beyond June 12, 2019,
the prayer for relief makes it clear that the only claims asserted in this action arise from
April 8, 2019, and June 11/12, 2019. Plaintiff is pursuing claims arising after the 36-day
period in other pending lawsuits, and, thus, he cannot also do so here.
4. Public Disclosure of Confidential Settlement Agreement
Because the GSA contains a confidentiality clause (see Dkt. 15, pp 4-5, in Case
247), the parties and the Court have filed the GSA and documents quoting from it under
seal. Defendants point out that recently Plaintiff filed the GSA in its entirety as an exhibit
at Docket 30, pp. 12-19, without requesting that it be filed under seal. The effect is that
Plaintiff has published to all the world the terms upon which the State is willing to settle
with a prisoner, including the amount that the State was willing to pay. Because Plaintiff
has breached the confidentiality clause, Defendants who are parties to the GSA are entitled

1

In the GSA, Plaintiff gave up his own claims regarding dangerous conditions in the double-celled
close custody/protective custody units (which is the basis for the alleged class action lawsuit). At the time
Wolfe allegedly stole the affidavits for the class action lawsuit, Plaintiff had no right to continue to pursue
his released claims; in fact, continuing to pursue them violated the GSA. Therefore, he can state no personal
damage that resulted from any such conspiracy between Wolfe and prison officials to stop the class action
lawsuit. Neither can Plaintiff assert the rights or damages of other inmates who desired to filed similar
claims but were affected by the alleged actions of Wolfe and IDOC officials. It does not appear that Plaintiff
is attempting to proceed on these theories in this action, but to the extent that he attempts to do so, these
facts fail to state a claim upon which relief can be granted under a conspiracy theory, as explained in Case
146.

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to file a motion in this action for imposition of sanctions for breach of contract, separate
from, and in addition to, Plaintiff’s other breach of contract by bringing claims contrary to
the agreement.
In Baella-Silva v. Hulsey, 454 F.3d 5 (1st Cir. 2006), a similar case, the United
States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit reasoned:
We see no clear error in the district court’s determination that
Baella–Silva violated the confidentiality clause of the
agreement. Baella–Silva and his attorney actively participated
in negotiating and drafting the agreement, its terms were clear,
the settlement was incorporated into the district court’s
judgment, and that judgment was never appealed. Filing a
document on the district court’s electronic filing system is not
consistent with keeping information confidential.
Id. at 11. In Baella-Silva, the plaintiff and defendant were successive attorneys for a client
in a lawsuit, where the dispute was over the percentage of attorney fees due each attorney
after the case was decided in the client’s favor. After the attorneys decided that issue in a
settlement agreement ending a first case, one of the attorneys filed a second and third
lawsuit claiming breach of the agreement.
In that case, the parties had predetermined that the proper sanction for a breach of
the confidentiality clause would be $50,000 in liquidated damages. That sum was upheld
on appeal. The court also upheld a $20,320 sanction against Baella-Silva for his filing of
two new lawsuits that contravened the settlement agreement between him and the other
party to the agreement. “A trial court has wide discretion in its choice of sanctions,” the
First Circuit court observed. Id. at 13.
That court concluded that “the amount of the sanction, which is equal to the amount

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that Baella–Silva sought in the Commonwealth court in violation of the settlement
judgment, [was] not excessive.” Id. The court observed that the “sanction [was] reasonably
proportionate to the offending conduct.” Id. In addition, because “setting the amount of an
effective sanction may include punitive concerns as well as considerations of deterrence”
for the reason that one of the goals of a sanction “stem[s], in part, from a need to regulate
conduct during litigation,” the appellate court refused to disturb the sanction amount
imposed in the trial court’s discretion. Id. at 13.
The parties are invited to brief the sanctions issues in this case, explaining how legal
principles governing sanctions apply under the particular facts of this case. The Court will
leave it to the parties’ discretion whether to brief that issue now or after the case is
completed, whether on summary judgment or after trial.

ORDER
IT IS ORDERED:
1. Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss for Failure to State a Claim (Dkt. 25) is GRANTED.
2. Plaintiff may proceed to the next stage of litigation on his due process claims based
on his placement in segregation pending investigation from approximately June 11,
2019, to approximately July 17, 2019. No other theories or claims will be
entertained in this action.
3. Motions for summary judgment on the remaining due process claim must be filed
no later than September 30, 2022, with responses due 30 days after the filing of the
motion.
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4. Disclosures related to only the remaining claim are due within 30 days after entry
of this Order, superseding any prior deadlines.
5. Discovery on only the remaining claim shall be completed no later than August 15,
2022, superseding any prior deadlines.
6. Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel Discovery and Disclosures (Dkt. 37) is DENIED.
7. Plaintiff’s Motion Requesting This Court Impose Sanctions (Dkt. 38) is DENIED.
8. Plaintiff’s Application for Leave to Proceed in Forma Pauperis (Dkt. 42) is
GRANTED. Plaintiff has paid the filing fee, but it appears that he cannot otherwise
pay other costs that may be associated with this case.
9. Plaintiff’s Motion to Have More Than (3) Three Motions Before the Court Pending
at (1) One Time (Dkt. 43) is DENIED.
10. Plaintiff’s Motion Requesting this Court Reconsider and Review 20 Plaintiff's
Motion for Subpoenas and Subpoenas Duces Tecum (Dkt. 44) is DENIED.
11. Plaintiff’s Motion to Proceed Directly to Trial (Dkt 45) is DENIED.
12. Defendants Motion to Stay Deadlines (Dkt. 56) is GRANTED.
13. Plaintiff must not contravene the terms of the GSA in disclosures; in disclosure
requests; in discovery responses or requests; in notices, motions, responses, replies,
and exhibits; or in any other document whatsoever in this action. Plaintiff shall
follow the filing and redaction instructions in Case 146 in this and all other pending
cases. Further breaches of the GSA and court orders may result in further sanctions,
including dismissal of this entire case with prejudice, without further notice.

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14. Plaintiff will be sanctioned for including content that is prohibited by the GSA in
his second amended complaint in this action. The court will entertain a motion,
response, and reply from the parties as to the appropriate sanctions.
15. Plaintiff will also be sanctioned for filing the GSA as part of a public record in this
case. Damages continue to accrue because Plaintiff has made no effort to remedy
the filing by removing it from public view. The court will entertain a motion,
response, and reply from the parties as to the appropriate sanctions.

DATED: May 9, 2022
_________________________
David C. Nye
Chief U.S. District Court Judge

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