Eighth Circuit Holds Partial Exhaustion Requires Total Dismissal
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals held that 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a) requires dismissal of a complaint alleging multiple prison conditions claims against multiple defendants, when each claim against each defendant was not fully exhausted administratively before filing.
Missouri prisoners Malik Abdul-Muhammad and Rashid Ash-Sheikh Junaid unsuccessfully challenged numerous prison policies internally. They then brought suit in federal court against twelve prison officials, challenging the policies they grieved and alleging "that the individual defendants retaliated against them for filing an earlier lawsuit, "unlawfully used the grievance procedure to suppress the Muslim community," and engaged in a "conspiracy to conceal the violations of 'civil rights.'" These latter claims were not pursued through the prison grievance system.
The district court dismissed the complaint, finding "the plaintiffs failed to exhaust their claims as to each defendant named in the complaint."
The Eighth Circuit upheld the dismissal. Citing several unpublished opinions, the court was "persuaded to hold that a prisoner who files a complaint in federal court asserting multiple claims against multiple prison officials based on multiple prison grievances must have exhausted each claim against each defendant in at least one of the grievances." See also Curry v. Scott, 249 F.3d 493, 505 (6th Cir. 2001) (§1997e(a) requires prisoner to identify each person he intends to sue in grievances).
The court also held that when a prisoner "joins multiple prison-condition claims in a single complaint § 1997e(a) requires that the inmate exhaust all available prison grievance remedies as to all of his claims prior to filing suit in federal court." Failure to do so requires dismissal of the entire complaint. Graves v. Norris, 218 F.3d 884, 885 (8th Cir. 2000) (per curiam) and Johnson v. Jones, 340 F.3d 624, 627 (8th Cir. 2003). Therefore, unless you are certain you have fully exhausted every claim, you should not join multiple claims in a single complaint. See: Abdul-Muhammad v. Kempker, 450 F.3d 350 (8th Cir. 2006).
This case has been overruled by Jones v. Bock, 127 S.Ct. 910 (2007) which held that failure to exhaust administrative remedies is an affirmative defense to be plead by the defendants and not a pleading requirement.
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Related legal case
Abdul-Muhammad v. Kempker
| Year | 2006 |
|---|---|
| Cite | 450 F.3d 350 (8th Cir. 2006) |
| Level | Court of Appeals |
| Injunction Status | N/A |