United States Ninth Circuit

In an action raising Eighth Amendment claims against employees of a private corporation operating a federal prison under contract with the Bureau of Prisons, dismissal of the action is reversed where: 1) the company's employees acted "under color of federal law" for purposes of Bivens liability; and 2) a faithful application of Wilkie's two-part test counseled that state tort remedies alone were insufficient to displace Bivens and there were no "special factors counselling hesitation" in allowing plaintiff's suit to proceed.

Appellate Information

• Argued 10/07/2009
• Decided 06/07/2010
• Published 06/07/2010

Judges

• Before: PROCTER HUG, JR. and RICHARD A. PAEZ, Circuit Judges, and JANE A. RESTANI, Judge.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• John F. Preis, University of Richmond School of Law, Richmond, VA, and Charles Francis Carbone, San Francisco, CA, for the plaintiff-appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Michael Kenneth Johnson, Lewis, Brisbois, Bisgaard & Smith, LLP, San Francisco, CA, for defendants-appellees Wackenhut/The GEO Group, Inc., Margaret Minneci, Robert Spack, Bob D. Steifer, and Becky Maness., David J. Wilson, Manning & Marder Kass Ellrod Ramirez LLP, Los Angeles, CA, for defendant-appellee Jonathan E. Akanno.