Braham v. Clancy

• Decision Date: 29 September 2005
• Docket Number: Docket No. 03-0153.
• Citation: 425 F.3d 177
• Parties: Michael BRAHAM, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CLANCY, C/O, I/O; John Doe, Medic, I/O, Defendants, John J. Armstrong, Comm, I/O, Lantz, Warden, I/O, Nmi Bates, I/O, Brostek, C/O, I/O, Bellaro, C/O, I/O, Barbour, Lt, I/O Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

425 F.3d 177

Michael BRAHAM, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CLANCY, C/O, I/O; John Doe, Medic, I/O, Defendants, John J. Armstrong, Comm, I/O, Lantz, Warden, I/O, Nmi Bates, I/O, Brostek, C/O, I/O, Bellaro, C/O, I/O, Barbour, Lt, I/O Defendants-Appellees.

Docket No. 03-0153.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Submitted: February 2, 2005.

Decided: September 29, 2005.

Michael Braham, Cheshire Correctional Institute, Cheshire, CT, Pro se.

Madeline A. Melchionne, Assistant Attorney General, Hartford, CT, for Richard Blumenthal, Attorney General of Connecticut, for Defendants-Appellees.

Before: POOLER, B.D. PARKER, Circuit Judges, and CASTEL, District Judge.^*

B.D. PARKER, Circuit Judge.

Michael Braham, pro se and incarcerated, appeals the dismissal by the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (Smith, M.J.) of claims against several officials¹ of the Corrigan Correctional Facility. Braham alleged that a former cellmate had threatened and then assaulted him, and that prison officials, who were aware of the danger, failed to respond to his request for a cell change. Specifically, Braham claimed that the officials' failure to protect him and indifference to his complaints violated the Eighth Amendment. He requested a declaratory judgment, along with compensatory and punitive damages. See 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

The District Court granted summary judgment on the ground that Braham failed to exhaust administrative remedies as required by the Prisoner Litigation Reform Act ("PLRA" or "the Act"). See 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a). On appeal, Braham contends that appropriate remedies were unavailable because prison officials had failed to respond to a series of inmate request forms he filed as part of the prison's informal grievance process. Alternatively, he contends that exhaustion should be excused because, after he was assaulted, he received the relief he had sought — transfer to another cell. Finally, Braham contends that, even if additional administrative remedies were available, he exhausted them by notifying the warden in writing and by raising his claim during the prison's disciplinary appeals process.

Because summary judgment was granted prior to our recent decisions in a series of cases addressing the PLRA's exhaustion requirements, we vacate the judgment and remand to the District Court to consider whether the plaintiff provided prison officials with sufficient information to permit them to take appropriate remedial measures in response to his grievance, thereby satisfying the Act's exhaustion requirement.

BACKGROUND

Except as otherwise noted, the facts are undisputed. Braham believed that prison officials had been unresponsive to his request for a cell change after he notified them that, between August and October 1999, his then cellmate, Edward Burgos, had threatened him with bodily harm. Braham claims that he wrote to a Lieutenant Bates reporting these threats and requesting a cell change, but Bates did not respond in a timely fashion. When he did respond, Bates claimed to no longer be in charge of cell changes, and did not forward the request to the appropriate prison officials. Braham then sent another written request for a cell change to an Officer Bellaro, informing Bellaro that Braham and his cellmate were experiencing conflict. Braham also contends that he expressed his concerns to Bellaro in person, but Bellaro again failed to take them seriously.

On October 4, Braham told an Officer Brostek that "he and his cellmate were not getting along and that he wanted to be moved before the situation became violent." Brostek denied this request, explaining to Braham that "he would not make a cell change unless there was a fight in the cell." Later that day, Braham told Lieutenant Barbour that he had made numerous requests for a cell change, and that his dispute with Burgos was escalating. Barbour also declined the request, informing Braham that he was not authorized to change Braham's cell.

On the evening of October 4, Burgos assaulted Braham, causing abrasions and lacerations to his face and head that required sutures. Although Burgos was the one who assaulted Braham, Braham was charged with, and found guilty of, a disciplinary infraction, and was segregated for fifteen days.

Magistrate Judge Thomas P. Smith presided over the case upon consent of the parties, and granted summary judgment to Defendants. In their motion for summary judgment, Defendants essentially contended that Braham had failed to exhaust his administrative remedies. In support of their motion, Defendants submitted an affidavit from Michael Lewis, Corrigan's Grievance Coordinator, explaining its grievance procedures. Lewis explained that the Connecticut Department of Corrections' Administrative Directive 9.6 ("the Directive" or "Directive 9.6") requires prisoners to attempt to resolve problems through an inmate request system prior to filing a grievance. Under the Directive, grievable matters include "[i]ndividual inmate actions" and any matter relating to "conditions of care or supervision and living unit conditions." The Directive provides that meritorious grievances "shall be given an appropriate and meaningful remedy," such as corrective action, and change, enforcement, or development of internal policies. While a grievance could be rejected for failure to seek informal resolution via submission of an Inmate Request Form, the Inmate Request Form requirement could "be waived for an emergency grievance," which is appropriate for resolution of "an issue which presents... a threat of death or injury." After utilizing the informal inmate request system, inmates who still wish to file grievances are required to do so within 30 days of the event at issue.

Corrigan's grievance process consists of three levels. First, the grieving prisoner receives a Level 1 Review by the Facility Administrator, Community Services Unit or ranking facility Health Service Administrator/Supervisor within 30 days of filing his grievance, and is given directions for appealing to Level 2. Next, the prisoner can seek a Level 2 Review by the Director of the Region, Director of Community Services or Regional Health Service Administrator within 25 days of receiving a Level 1 response. Finally, if the prisoner's appeal at Level 2 is unsuccessful, he can seek a Level 3 review by the Commissioner for the Department of Corrections within 5 days. Lewis testified that Corrigan's records indicate that Braham had not filed a grievance relating to the October 4 assault or to his requests for a transfer or a change of cellmates.

Based on a perceived failure to follow these procedures, the Defendants argued that Braham had not complied with the exhaustion requirements of the PLRA. See 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a). Specifically, they contended that because Braham never filed a grievance relating to his cellmate's conduct, he was precluded from filing a Section 1983 claim related to his assault. They also contended that exhaustion was required regardless of whether the precise relief sought by Braham was available or whether it was futile as a consequence of the changes in bunking arrangements following the assault, and that informal letters and requests were insufficient substitutes for exhaustion. Finally, the Defendants contended that although Braham's cell change had already taken place, exhaustion would have allowed the facility to review its policies and procedures relating to such complaints in accordance with the Directive.

In opposition to summary judgment, Braham admitted that he had not filed a grievance relating to the Burgos attack but argued that he had initiated the informal inmate request process required by the Directive. Pointing out that the attack occurred before the grievance filing deadline (30 days after denial of an inmate request), Braham argued that because he was transferred to a different cell after the attack, he "no longer had a viable grievance that could be filed or acted upon." In further opposition to the motion, Braham submitted several documents including his correspondence with prison officials, in which he had alerted them to the volatile situation he confronted.¹ In an inmate request form, dated September 3, Braham requested a cell change because he could no longer live with Burgos as a consequence of his threats. On September 23, Braham filed another request form, complaining that his first request, which he had given to Lieutenant Bates, had not been answered. Braham reported that he and Burgos had reached a resolution under which the two would trade cells with another inmate, and he requested that the officials expedite this move because Braham found the situation "extremely stressful." In an undated response, Officer Bellaro denied the need for a cell change. Finally, on September 29, Braham filed an inmate request form again requesting a cell change. In that request, Braham proposed a "worker" inmate as a potential cellmate because Bellaro said that he "would only put 2 workers together." Braham stated that he had "tried everything with my celly but he is immature and nothing works."

The Court concluded that Braham had failed to file a formal grievance over the denial of his cell change and for the October 4 assault. The Court reasoned that it was "of no consequence that the plaintiff filed several inmate request forms prior to the assault," as he "offered no evidence or legal analysis that supports his position that he was relieved of [sic] following the grievance procedures of Directive 9.6." The Court also noted that exhaustion is "required regardless of whether the precise relief desired by the plaintiff is available in the administrative context, or whether participation in the administrative process might, for some other reason, be deemed futile." Because Braham did not "tak[e] the grievance process to its final stage prior to filing this action," but rather "chose ... to terminate his efforts when he...