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Poullard v. Hanson8/14/2002
In this suit for damages and declaratory judgment, the plaintiff John Poullard, a prisoner at David Wade Correctional Institute, appeals a judgment of the trial court sustaining dilatory exceptions filed by the defendants, Lt. Col. Ray Hanson, Classification Officer Jamie Fussell, and Sgt. Randall DeLoach. For the following reasons, we affirm.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
John Poullard is a prisoner at the David Wade Correctional Institute. He asserts that on September 30, 2001, Sgt. Randall DeLoach, an employee of the David Wade Correctional Institute, fabricated a disciplinary report against Poullard after Sgt. DeLoach told Poullard that he could have Poullard's mattress, sheets and blanket taken from his cell. On October 4, 2001, Poullard appeared before a disciplinary board consisting of Lt. Col. Ray Hanson and Classification Officer Jamie Fussell, also employees of the David Wade Correctional Institute. According to Poullard, he told the board that the disciplinary report was not true, and requested to call another inmate as a witness to prove that the report was false. However, Poullard asserted that the board denied his request and ordered security to take Poullard's mattress, sheets and blanket, leaving him with only a concrete slab as a bed in an isolation cell. Poullard also asserted that the concrete aggravated a medical problem with his prostate and that his complaint to the defendants about being deprived of his mattress, blanket and sheets was ignored.
Based on these allegations, Poullard filed a petition for damages asserting that the defendants violated a duty of care owed to him, and that he was deprived of equal protection of the law because all inmates were governed by the same disciplinary rules, but deprivation of the mattress, sheets, and blanket was not listed in the rules as a part of any penalty or sentence. Alleging that the actions against him were unconstitutional, Poullard sought a declaratory judgment that the defendants had unconstitutionally deprived him of his mattress, sheet and blanket. He further sought damages in the amount of $15,000 for the aggravation of his prostate condition and $500 for each day that he went without a mattress.
As previously noted, the defendants filed dilatory exceptions of prematurity and vagueness based upon Poullard's failure to exhaust administrative remedies and failure to identify the file number of any administrative remedy exhausted with respect to his claim. Poullard filed an opposition to the exception of prematurity, asserting that the presentation of his state court tort action to the prison officials charged with executing the administrative remedy would unconstitutionally divest the district court of original jurisdiction. In support of this position, Poullard cited Pope v. State, 1999-2559 (La. 6/29/01), 792 So. 2d 713.
At a hearing on the exceptions, the trial court concluded that Pope, supra, did not make Louisiana's entire Correction Administrative Remedy Procedure ("CARP") unconstitutional and had no effect on Louisiana's Prison Litigation Reform Act ("PLRA"). Accordingly, the court found that under both statutes, the inmate was obligated to proceed with the administrative remedies available to him before he could file suit in district court. The court further concluded that Poullard was not alleging "the sorts of injuries that Mr. Pope suffered," and that "just calling the matter a tort action" did not allow the prisoner to escape the effects of CARP and PLRA. Poullard now appeals.
DISCUSSION
On appeal, Poullard asserts that the trial court erred in granting the defendants' exceptions of vagueness and ambiguity. Before addressing the merits of
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