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| Court to Consider Right to Sue Company Running Halfway House for Federal Agency |
| By New York Times |
| Published: 03/07/2001 |
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The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to decide whether private companies that run prisons or perform other traditionally governmental functions for the federal government can be sued for constitutional violations committed by their employees. The case is an appeal by a company that ran a halfway house on Manhattan's East Side for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. An inmate suffering from congestive heart failure alleged in a suit for $4 million in damages that he was denied use of the elevator and was forced to walk up the stairs to his fifth-floor room. While climbing the stairs, he had a heart attack, fell and suffered an injury that left him with lasting balance problems. Under a 1971 Supreme Court decision generally referred to as the Bivens case, people whose rights are violated by federal agents can sue for damages in federal court. The Bivens doctrine has been extended to permit suits against private employees who are performing government functions. But the court has never decided whether the companies themselves - more inviting targets for lawsuits than individual defendants because of their greater resources - can be sued. In this case, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in Manhattan, ruled in the fall that the suit could go forward; it has not yet gone to trial. The question of corporate liability for damages has become increasingly important as the government turns over the running of prisons, hospitals and even schools to private companies. The defendant in this case is the Correctional Services Corporation, based in Sarasota, Fla., which was widely known in the New York area under a former name, Esmor Correctional Services Inc. As Esmor, it ran a jail in Elizabeth, N.J., for immigrants being detained by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. After a riot there in 1995, immigration officials blamed the company for harassing and degrading the immigrants in its charge and for failing to keep the immigration service informed about conditions. The halfway house at 15 East 31st Street, known as Le Marquis, which Esmor opened in 1991, was the subject of several complaints. Staff turnover the first year was nearly 100 percent. A federal inspection in 1992 found bare cupboards, with nothing for the inmates to eat for breakfast, and 30 percent fewer staff members than called for in the contract. John E. Malesko, the plaintiff in this case, was transferred to Le Marquis in February 1994 to serve the final months of a federal prison sentence for securities fraud. Because of his heart condition, the staff at first allowed him to use the elevator to reach his fifth-floor room. But according to the accusations in his lawsuit, on March 28, 1994, a officer forced him to walk up the stairs and threatened to have him sent back to prison unless he was in his room in time for a head count. Mr. Malesko had a heart attack on the stairs. In its appeal from the Second Circuit ruling, Correctional Services Corp. v. Malesko, No. 00-860, the company is arguing that a 1994 Supreme Court decision barring a Bivens damage suit against the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation should be interpreted to bar similar suits against companies. In a brief urging the justices not to hear the appeal, Mr. Malesko's lawyers told the court: 'The privatization of core government activities - such as law enforcement - may save the government money, but should not erode constitutional protections against those acting under color of state law.' |
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