Hayes v. Dunn et al
Filing
38
Memorandum Opinion and Order. Defendants' 34 36 Motions for Summary Judgment are granted, and this case is dismissed without prejudice due to Plaintiff's failure to exhaust his administrative remedies prior to filing this lawsuit. Final Judgment shall be entered. Signed by Magistrate Judge Linda R. Anderson on 3/8/2016. (ACF)
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI
NORTHERN DIVISION
GREGORY HAYES
VS.
PLAINTIFF
CIVIL ACTION NO. 3:14CV468-LRA
NURSE DUNN, ET AL
DEFENDANTS
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
This cause is before the Court on Defendants’ motions for summary judgment [34
& 36]. Both Defendants Evelyn Dunn and Dr. Roy Reeves assert that the claims of
Plaintiff Gregory Hayes should be dismissed due to his failure to exhaust his remedies
that were available to him through the Administrative Remedy Program [ARP]
implemented by the Mississippi Department of Corrections [MDOC]. Additionally,
Defendants contend that Hayes’s claims should be dismissed on the merits. Plaintiff has
failed to file a written response to the motion or otherwise submitted any evidence
regarding the assertions set forth by Defendants. After a thorough review of the
pleadings and exhibits, Hayes’s sworn testimony, and the applicable law, the Court finds
that the motion should be granted based upon Hayes’s non-exhaustion.
Failure to exhaust is an affirmative defense, so Defendant has the burden of
demonstrating that Hayes failed to exhaust his administrative remedies. Jones v. Bock,
549 U.S. 199, 216 (2007). At the summary judgment stage, this means that Defendant
“must establish beyond peradventure all of the essential elements of the defense of
exhaustion to warrant summary judgment in their favor.” Dillon v. Rogers, 596 F.3d 260,
266 (5th Cir. 2010). The court shall grant summary judgment “if the movant shows that
there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment
as a matter of law.” FED. R. CIV. P. 56(a). “The moving party must show that if the
evidentiary material of record were reduced to admissible evidence in court it would be
insufficient to permit the nonmoving party to carry its burden.” Beck v. Tex. St. Board of
Dental Exam’rs, 204 F.3d 629, 633 (5th Cir. 2000) (citing Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477
U.S. 317, 327 (1986). The burden shifts to the non-movant to set forth specific facts
showing that there is a genuine issue for trial. Allen v. Rapides Parish Sch. Bd., 204 F.3d
619, 621 (5th Cir. 2000).
Hayes was a convicted felon housed in the custody of the MDOC at the East
Mississippi Correctional Facility [EMCF] in Meridian, Mississippi, on June 16, 2014,
when he filed this lawsuit. He filed suit against “Nurse Dunn,” and “Dr. Reeves” because
they allegedly gave him Haldol shots even though he was allergic to that medication.
As Defendants point out, the applicable section of the Prison Litigation Reform
Act (“PLRA”), 42 U.S.C. § 1997(e), provides that “[n]o action shall be brought with
respect to prison conditions under section 1983 of this title, or any other Federal law, by a
prisoner confined in any jail, prison, or other correctional facility until such
administrative remedies as are available are exhausted.”
This statute clearly requires an inmate bringing a civil rights action in this Court to
first exhaust his available administrative remedies. Booth v. Churner, 532 U.S. 731, 739
(2001). Exhaustion is no longer left to the discretion of the district court, but is
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mandatory. Porter v. Nussle, 534 U.S. 516, 524 (2002). Exhaustion will not be excused
when an inmate fails to timely exhaust his administrative remedies; the exhaustion
requirement also means “proper exhaustion.” Woodford v. Ngo, 548 U.S. 81, 83-84
(2006). It is not enough to merely initiate the grievance process or to put prison officials
on notice of a complaint; the grievance process must be carried through to its conclusion.
Wright v. Hollingsworth, 260 F.3d 357, 358 (5th Cir. 2001). This is so regardless of
whether the inmate’s ultimate goal is a remedy not offered by the administrative process,
such as money damages. Id.
In Jones v. Bock, 549 U.S. 199, 211 (2007), the Supreme Court held that
exhaustion was mandatory under the PLRA and that “unexhausted claims cannot be
brought in court.” Citing Jones, the Fifth Circuit restated that “the PLRA pre-filing
exhaustion requirement is mandatory and non-discretionary,” and that “district courts
have no discretion to waive the PLRA’s pre-filing exhaustion requirement.” Gonzalez v.
Seal, 702 F.3d 785, 787-88 (5th Cir. 2012) (per curiam); Moussazadeh v. Texas Dept. of
Criminal Justice, 703 F.3d 781, 788 (5th Cir. 2012) (quoting Gonzalez).
The records provided by Defendants (and unrebutted by Hayes) confirm that
Hayes did not exhaust his available administrative remedies regarding his specific claim
that he was given Haldol shots even though he was allergic to that medication. The
MDOC Grievance Detail, dated April 24, 2015, submitted in support of the motion,
confirms that Plaintiff filed an ARP on January 3, 2014, EMCF 14-31, complaining about
the medical treatment he was receiving for his mental problems [34-2, pp. 3-4]. Both a
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First Step and a Second Step response were received. These responses indicate that
Hayes was examined by his psychiatrist, Dr. Anderson, on January 11, 2014, and Hayes’s
medications were adjusted. The conclusion was that Hayes’s issues were “addressed by
Mental Health Team” and that no further action would be taken. Hayes did not mention
either Defendant Dunn or Defendant Dr. Reeves in this ARP, nor did he indicate that he
received Haldol injections and was allergic to them.
The Grievance Detail also confirms that on January 21, 2014, Hayes filed an ARP
[EMCF 14-180] complaining that he did not get proper medical care for his neck problem
[Exhibit B, 34-2]. He received both a First Step Response and a Second Step Response,
but nothing in this ARP related to Haldol injections or these Defendants. According to
Defendants, no ARP was filed regarding Hayes being given Haldol injections by either
Nurse Dunn or Dr. Reeves.
The Administrative Remedy Program has been implemented by the MDOC
statewide in all prisons, including EMCF, under the authority of Miss. Code Ann. § 47-5801. The Court initially approved the MDOC ARP in Gates v. Collier, GC 71-6-S-D
(N.D. Miss. 1971) (Order entered Feb. 15, 1994). The program was changed from a
three-step process to a two-step process effective September 19, 2010, and that revised
program was approved in Gates v. Barbour, No. 4:71-cv-6-JAD, Doc. 1242 (N.D. Miss.
Aug. 19, 2010).1 See also Threadgill v. Moore, 3:10cv378-TSL-MTP, 2011 WL
4388832, at *3 n. 6 (S.D. Miss. 2011).
1
The Program is contained in the MDOC Inmate Handbook, ch. VIII, available at
http://www.mdoc.state.ms.us/Inmate_Handbook/CHAPTER%30VIII.pdf.
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The two-step process requires that an inmate submit a written grievance to the
Legal Claims Adjudicator at the prison within 30 days of the incident. If the adjudicator
accepts the ARP, it is forwarded to the appropriate official, and that official issues a First
Step Response. If unsatisfied, the inmate may continue to the Second Step by using
Form ARP-2 and sending it to the Legal Claims Administrator, utilizing the manila
envelope furnished with the Step One response. A final decision will be made by the
Superintendent, Warden, or Community Corrections Director.
Hayes testified at the omnibus hearing regarding his attempts to exhaust his claims
[34-1, pp. 12-13]. According to Hayes, he did file an ARP against Dr. Reeves, but he did
not file one against Nurse Dunn. He filed the grievance “on the whole medical room.”
Id. at 13. When asked if he completed the whole process with the grievances, Hayes
testified: “I really don’t know.....” Id. After receiving Defendants’ evidence of nonexhaustion, Hayes has not submitted any competing evidence showing that he did exhaust
these claims. Hayes’s conclusory allegations regarding exhaustion are insufficient to
evade the requirement.
The exhaustion requirement demands proper exhaustion. According to the MDOC
ARP program, this means the initial grievance must be filed within 30 days of the
incident. In Woodford, the Supreme Court found that the PLRA’s exhaustion requirement
means “proper” exhaustion, which requires a prisoner to “complete the administrative
review process in accordance with the applicable procedural rules, including deadlines, as
a precondition to bringing suit in federal court.” Woodford, at 83-84. See also Gordon v.
Yusuff, No. 03-60822, 2004 WL 1551625, at *1 (5th Cir. 2004) (a federal prisoner’s
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untimely appeal to Central Office constituted grounds for dismissal based upon nonexhaustion). It is the prison’s requirements, not the PLRA, that define the requirements
of exhaustion. Jones v. Bock, 549 U.S at 218. Accordingly, the MDOC ARP’s 30-day
filing requirement must be met before an inmate can be found to have exhausted his
claims. Now, Hayes may not be able to meet the timeliness deadline regarding the claim
he set forth in his federal Complaint. Hayes never stated precisely when he was given
Haldol shots.
Hayes did file an ARP regarding the “treatment he received for his mental
problems.” [3 ]. Yet, he did not mention Nurse Dunn or Dr. Reeves, nor did he complain
of being allergic to Haldol. He did not charge that he received injections of Haldol from
Nurse Dunn or Dr. Reeves or other medical personnel. In his Affidavit [36-1], Dr.
Reeves confirms that he treated Hayes on two occasions at EMCF, on August 7, 2011,
and on February 2, 2014. At neither time was Hayes on Haldol, nor did Dr. Reeves
prescribe or administer Haldol to him. According to Dr. Reeves, he prescribed
benztropine mesylate at the second exam, a drug used to treat involuntary movements due
to the side effects of certain psychiatric drugs. Hayes has not rebutted Dr. Reeves’s
affidavit.
The law requires that the prison officials be provided fair notice of a prisoner’s
specific complaints and with the “time and opportunity to address [the] complaints
internally.” Johnson v. Johnson, 385 F.3d 503, 516 (5th Cir. 2004). “Since prisoners are
generally required to follow the procedures adopted by the state prison system, the
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specificity requirement should be interpreted in light of the grievance rules of the
particular prison system ....” Id. at 517. See also Marsalis v. Cain, Civil Action No. 120799, 2014 WL 51215 (M.D. La. Jan. 7, 2014) (claims not raised “and/or were only
alluded to so minimally as to be insufficient to provide fair notice to prison officials of the
plaintiff’s specific complaints...” were unexhausted; no specific mention of defendant
made in grievance). In this case, even though Hayes did generally complain about his
mental health treatment, Nurse Dunn and Dr. Reeves had no notice of his complaints
about them in regard to injections of Haldol. This issue could not be addressed internally
due to the lack of notice. The ARP Hayes filed was addressed by a “Dr. Anderson” and
by a “Dr. D. Edwards.” Because Defendant Dr. Reeves was not named in the ARP, he
was not put on notice of the charges Hayes made.
The law does not necessarily require that the prison official defendant be
specifically named in the grievance. In Jones v. Bock, the Court held that exhaustion is
not per se inadequate merely because a prison official sued in the § 1983 action was not
named in the administrative grievance. 549 U.S. at 218. The Court noted that it is the
prison’s grievance procedure that controls, and that procedure may require the prisoner to
reference a particular official. Id. “The level of detail necessary in a grievance to comply
with the grievance procedures will vary from system to system and claim to claim, but it
is the prison’s requirements, and not the PLRA, that define the boundaries of proper
exhaustion.” Id. Although the MDOC program has no specific requirement that the
individual prison official be named, the inmate is required to present as many facts as
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possible and answer all the questions “who, what, when, where, and how concerning the
incident.” (See the ARP, Chapter III, IV. Procedures D.) Effectively, this portion of the
ARP requires that all officials involved be named or at least referenced by description.
See Curry v. Scott, 249 F.3d 493, 505 (6th Cir. 2001) (a grievance specifically
complaining of a beating by one guard did not suffice to exhaust a failure to protect claim
against another guard not mentioned in the grievance but who stood by and watched).
To defeat a summary judgment motion, competent evidence must be provided to
defeat that set forth by the movant. Although Hayes did file an ARP regarding his mental
health treatment, his ARP did not reflect the Complaint he brings in this Court. He
generally contends he exhausted, but his ‘conclusory allegations, unsubstantiated
assertions, or only a scintilla of evidence’ will not satisfy the nonmoving party’s burden
on summary judgment.” Garner v. Moore, 536 Fed. Appx. 446, 449 (5th Cir. 2013)
(quoting Freeman v. Tex. Dep’t of Criminal Justice, 369 F.3d 854, 860 (5th Cir. 2004). In
this case, Defendants’ “uncontested, competent summary judgment evidence establishes
beyond peradventure” that the ARP was available to Hayes and that he failed to complete
it regarding the claim set forth in the Complaint. See Fruge v. Cox, Civil Action No. 140153, 2015 WL 964560 at *4 (W.D. La., March 4, 2015).
Defendants have also moved for summary judgment based upon the merits of
Hayes’s claims. Because Hayes failed to exhaust his administrative remedies, the Court
need not reach the merits of the claims. See Marshall v. Price, 239 F.3d 365 (5th Cir.
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2000) (declining to reach the merits of an inmate’s Section 1983 claims after finding that
he failed to exhaust his administrative remedies).
For these reasons, the Court finds that Defendants’ Motions for Summary
Judgment [34 & 36] should be and are hereby granted and Plaintiff’s Complaint be
dismissed without prejudice as to all Defendants.2
Respectfully submitted, this the 8th day of March 2016.
/s/ Linda R. Anderson
UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE
2
Hayes’s delay may foreclose his ability to properly exhaust available
administrative remedies, as “proper exhaustion” requires compliance with deadlines and
other critical procedural rules. Woodford, supra.
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