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Failure to Exhaust Administrative Remedies Dooms 7th Circuit Prisoner Suit

Failure to Exhaust Administrative Remedies Dooms 7th Circuit Prisoner Suit

 

By Derek Gilna

 

The §1983 civil rights complaint filed by Wisconsin state prisoner, James R. Schultz, has been dismissed by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals for failure to exhaust administrative remedies. Schultz had argued in his lawsuit that prison officials retaliated against him “for speaking up about an assault that he alleged had been made upon him by two prison guards.”

 

Schultz further alleged that the retaliation had taken the form of being placed in segregation and being forbidden to discuss the alleged assault. Schultz argued in his response to the government’s motion for summary judgment that he took that prohibition as meaning that he could not pursue his administrative remedy process.

 

The Court was not persuaded. Writing for the three judge panel, Judge Posner did note that Schultz failed to file a grievance “by ‘fear of reprisal’ [b]ut he has presented no evidence to substantiate the claim, though invited to do so by the district judge before the judge ruled on, and granted ... defendants’ motion for summary judgment.”

 

Posner, never one to pass up an opportunity to explore some area of the law in what would normally be a summary affirmation, perhaps by an unpublished opinion, then compared the “objective” and “subjective” standards regarding availability of prison remedies on grounds of intimidation, noting that there was support in case law to excuse exhaustion of remedies in certain instances where prison guards had preyed upon a fearful prisoner to dissuade him from filing a grievance. In conclusion, however, the court ruled that there was no evidence presented by Schultz that he was entitled to relief under either standard, and it affirmed the district court decision. See: Schultz v. Pugh, 728 F.3d 619 (7th Cir. 2013).

           

 

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Related legal case

Schultz v. Pugh