Parratt v. Taylor

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Parratt v. Taylor

Argued March 2, 1981
Decided May 18, 1981

Full case name:	Parratt et al. v. Taylor

Citations:	451 U.S. 527

Holding

Court membership

Chief Justice: Warren E. Burger
Associate Justices: William J. Brennan, Jr., Potter Stewart, Byron White, Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun, Lewis F. Powell, Jr., William Rehnquist, John Paul Stevens

Case opinions

Majority by: Rehnquist
Joined by: Burger, Brennan, Stewart, White, Blackmun and Stevens
Concurrence by: Stewart
Concurrence by: White
Concurrence by: Blackmun
Concurrence by: Powell
Concurrence by: Marshall

Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527 (1981) was a case decided by the United States Supreme Court, in which the court considered the the applicability of Due Process to a claim brought under Section 1983.

The respondent was an inmate at the Nebraska Penal and Correctional Complex who had order hobby materials by mail. When the hobby materials were lost, he brought suit under 42 U.S.C. section 1983 to recover their value, $23.50.

The court held that when procedural due process guarantees only a post-deprivation hearing, provision of a right to sue in state court was provision of that hearing.

The court found that the deprivation did not occur as the result of some established state procedure, but as the result of the unauthorized failure of state agents to follow established state procedure, and because Nebraska had a tort claims procedure that provided a remedy to persons who had suffered a tortious loss at the hands of the State, but which respondent did not use, such procedure could have fully compensated respondent for his property loss and were sufficient to satisfy the requirements of due process.

The court found that although the respondent was deprived of property under color of state law, he had not sufficiently alleged a violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.