State attorneys sanctioned in inmate lawsuit

A judge has issued courtroom sanctions against attorneys representing the state in a complaint filed by a prison inmate who claims he was injured when a shelf in his cell fell on him.

In a recent decision, New York State Court of Claims Judge Christopher J. McCarthy found that the state “disposed of relevant evidence.”

As a result, McCarthy precluded the state from “offering evidence … as to the condition of the wooden shelf or locker prior to claimant’s accident,” according to the decision.

“The state also is precluded from offering any expert testimony about the shelf or locker to refute the inmate’s proof,” he wrote.

The state also “may not offer any evidence about a lack of notice of the condition of the shelf or locker because they failed to retain the cell inventory sheets, prior grievances, and work orders, for the inmate’s cell,” according to the decision.

McCarthy also ruled that plaintiff Raymond Lewis is entitled to an adverse inference against the state at trial on the issue that the destroyed cell inventory sheets, prior grievances, and work orders would not have supported their position and would not have contradicted the evidence offered by Lewis.

Lewis claims that, when he was an inmate on Dec. 1, 2015, at Wallkill Correctional Facility he was “injured by a piece of shelving that fell on him as a result of defendant’s negligence.”

Lewis was moving into a new cell, which contained a bunk bed, a locker, a chair, and a wooden shelf on top of the locker.

Lewis was sitting on a folding chair in front of his locker, according to the decision.

“After a minute or two of sitting in the chair, Lewis leaned back and either the chair or his body made contact with the locker, causing the wooden shelf that was on top of it to fall and strike him in the head and neck, and he began bleeding from his head,” according to the decision.

The shelf was removed from the cell and destroyed in May 2016, according to the decision.

Cell inventory sheets, grievance complaints and work orders for the cell were destroyed by the state before Lewis’s attorney made several discovery demands for them, according to the decision.

“The court finds that defendant knew, or should have known, that it was under an obligation to preserve evidence,” McCarthy wrote.

On Dec. 1, 2017, the chief of the Attorney General’s Claims Bureau wrote to the deputy commissioner and general counsel of the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to notify them of a litigation hold in place in connection with the claim.

“The Court concludes that defendant should have been aware of the likelihood of litigation at the time the wooden shelf and requested documents were destroyed,” McCarthy wrote.

“The Court finds that Defendant knew, or should have known, that those items were relevant to this claim, were reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence, and it was reasonably likely that they would be requested by claimant during discovery,” he wrote.

But McCarthy found there was “insufficient evidence to find that defendant acted intentionally, willfully, or  contumaciously.”

The state does not contest the fact that the shelf was not properly attached to the locker, or that the shelf struck claimant in the head and neck.

“The issue regarding the force of the object that struck claimant is an issue of the degree of claimant’s injury and relates to damages, not the issue of defendant’s liability, which must be decided first.”

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