Suit Alleging Prisoner’s Retaliatory Transfer to Out-of-State Prison May be Brought in Receiving State’s Courts
Suit Alleging Prisoner’s Retaliatory Transfer to Out-of-State Prison May be Brought in Receiving State’s Courts
In April 2008, the First Circuit Court of Appeals held that a lawsuit alleging that a prisoner had been transferred to an out-of-state prison in retaliation for the prisoner’s litigation activities had been wrongfully dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction.
In 2003, Francis Hannon filed suit in federal court in Massachusetts alleging, among other claims, that he had been transferred by Jeffrey Beard, the then-Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (as of July 2013, the Secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation), from Pennsylvania in retaliation for his litigation activities. The district court dismissed this claim, stating it lacked personal jurisdiction over Beard.
The First Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, holding that an assertion of personal jurisdiction over Beard was authorized by the Massachusetts long-arm statute and comported with constitutional due process considerations. The court reasoned that “[t]he contracts that Beard would have had to make to arrange for Hannon’s transfer from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts are sufficient to constitute “transacting business” under the broadly-construed long-arm statute. A defendant need not have been physically present in the forum state in order to have “transacted business’ there.”
The court rejected Beard’s argument that asserting personal jurisdiction over him “would subject… his counterparts across the country to lawsuits in every state that is a party to the [Interstate Corrections] Compact.” It noted that the case before it turned on the “unique factual situation wherein the harm alleged was directly tied to the contacts (by Beard, with Massachusetts) establishing personal jurisdiction.” The court’s opinion thus “gives no assistance” to a transferred prisoner seeking to assert a claim “based on pre-transfer grievances.”
See: Hannon v. Beard, 524 F.3d 275 (1st Cir. 2008).
Related legal case
Hannon v. Beard
| Year | 2008 |
|---|---|
| Cite | 524 F.3d 275 (1st Cir. 2008) |
| Level | Court of Appeals |
| Appeals Court Edition | F.3d |