LaChance v. Commissioner of Correction, et al. (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-160-15)

NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA, 02108-1750; (617) 557- 1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us 14-P-1648 Appeals Court EDMUND D. LaCHANCE, JR. vs. COMMISSIONER OF CORRECTION & others.1 No. 14-P-1648. Suffolk. May 13, 2015. – October 13, 2015. Present: Trainor, Agnes, & Blake, JJ. Imprisonment, Department disciplinary unit, Enforcement of discipline, Grievances. Administrative Law, Prison disciplinary proceeding, Agency’s authority, Regulations, Rulemaking. Practice, Civil, Review of administrative action, Summary judgment. Civil action commenced in the Superior Court Department on July 29, 2011. The case was heard by Marita A. Hopkins, J., on motions for summary judgment, and motions for reconsideration were considered by her. David J. Rentsch for the defendants. Edmund D. LaChance, Jr., pro se. TRAINOR, J. On cross-motions for summary judgment, the judge allowed the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment on 1 Various officials of the Department of Correction. 2 count IV of the complaint and the defendants’ motion for summary judgment on the remaining counts. In granting summary judgment on count IV, the judge “declare[d] that [North Central Correctional Institution’s (NCCI)] policy of terminating inmates from the Garden Program as a result of guilty findings violates the prohibition against imposing more than one sanction per offense contained in 103 Code Mass. Regs. § 430.25 [2006].”2 The defendants appeal from the allowance of summary judgment on count IV. We review the allowance of a motion for summary judgment de novo. Alicea v. Commonwealth, 466 Mass. 228, 234 (2013). The material facts are not in dispute. The plaintiff, an inmate in NCCI during all relevant times, was a participant in NCCI’s garden program, which is a leisure program, in the spring of 2011. The plaintiff was charged with and pleaded guilty to at least three different disciplinary offenses that occurred on different days between April 6 and May 13, 2011. The plaintiff 2 The judge also declared “that the defendants have not otherwise violated the plaintiff’s rights or the Department of Corrections Regulations.” The judge further concluded that whether the plaintiff could participate in the garden program was moot because the “growing season ha[d] long passed.” The judge nevertheless reached the merits because the issue whether a prisoner can be terminated from the garden program after a guilty finding falls within an exception to the mootness doctrine as it is “capable of repetition, yet evading review.” Karchmar v. Worcester, 364 Mass. 124, 136 (1973), quoting from Southern Pac. Terminal Co. v. Interstate Commerce Commn., 219 U.S. […]

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