Weldon Wiggins v. Ruth Rushen, Director of the California Department of Corrections, Main Classification Committee at Soledad

Weldon Wiggins, acting pro se, brought an action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Rushen, Director of the California Department of Corrections, claiming that access to the law library at the California Training Facility at Soledad (Soledad) for those held in maximum security was constitutionally inadequate. The district court issued a mandatory injunction governing access to legal materials for maximum security inmates and awarded Wiggins nominal damages of $250.00. On appeal the Director argues that: (1) the district court’s denial of Rushen’s motion to dismiss for mootness was erroneous; (2) the district court’s order governing access to legal materials constitutes an unwarranted intervention in the prison’s administration; and (3) the award of damages is excessive.

Wiggins was a maximum security inmate at Soledad in February 1982 when he filed this section 1983 suit. On April 26, 1982, while the case was pending, Wiggins was transferred from Soledad to another facility, the Deuel Vocational Institution. At an evidentiary hearing on August 27, 1982, the district court denied the Director’s motion to dismiss for mootness and ruled that Wiggins could maintain the action on behalf…

dissenting:

I respectfully dissent. I would remand to the district court for further fact-finding to determine whether the injunction aspect of this case is moot. The district court, as the majority acknowledges, determined that Wiggins’s claim was not moot because it was “capable of repetition, yet evad[ed] review.” The majority reverses on the basis that the possibility of conviction and return to maximum security at Soledad are too speculative, but in reaching this conclusion, the majority, itself, speculates about factual questions that simply are not resolved on the record before us. Yet, the majority is unwilling to remand to enable the district court to make findings that might remove the uncertainty.

Wiggins is in county jail awaiting trial on charges brought against him while on parole. We need the district court’s findings to enable us to assess the likelihood that Wiggins may be reincarcerated in the California state prisons and returned to Sole-dad. The district court expressed concern that Wiggins’s transfer from maximum security and from Soledad perhaps was in response to Wiggins’s litigation. We need the district court’s findings on this point also.

Our court has…

760 F.2d 1009 Weldon WIGGINS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Ruth RUSHEN, Director of the California Department of Corrections, Main Classification Committee at Soledad; et al., Defendants-Appellants. No. 83-1719. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted Oct. 5, 1984. Decided May 17, 1985. Patricia Stern Green, San Francisco, Cal., for plaintiff-appellee. Richard G. Tullis, Dist. Atty. Gen., San Francisco, Cal., for defendants-appellants. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Before WALLACE, KENNEDY, and FLETCHER, Circuit Judges. KENNEDY, Circuit Judge: 1 Weldon Wiggins, acting pro se, brought an action under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 against Rushen, Director of the California Department of Corrections, claiming that access to the law library at the California Training Facility at Soledad (Soledad) for those held in maximum security was constitutionally inadequate. The district court issued a mandatory injunction governing access to legal materials for maximum security inmates and awarded Wiggins nominal damages of $250.00. On appeal the Director argues that: (1) the district court's denial of Rushen's motion to dismiss…