Spencer v. Bouchard

• Decision Date: 06 June 2006
• Docket Number: No. 05-2562.,05-2562.
• Citation: 449 F.3d 721
• Parties: William Sim SPENCER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Michael J. BOUCHARD et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 721

449 F.3d 721

William Sim SPENCER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Michael J. BOUCHARD et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 05-2562.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Submitted: May 4, 2006.

Decided and Filed: June 6, 2006.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

ON BRIEF: Keith J. Lerminiaux, Oakland County Corporation Counsel, Pontiac, Michigan, for Appellees. William Sim Spencer, Ionia, Michigan, pro se.

Before: MOORE, COLE, and CLAY, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

KAREN NELSON MOORE, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff-Appellant William Sim Spencer, a Michigan state prisoner proceeding pro se, brought this civil rights action against Defendants-Appellees Michael J. Bouchard, Thomas Quisenberry, Snarey, and Wallace¹ (collectively "the defendants"), all officials with the Oakland County Sheriff's Office. Spencer alleged various claims under the First, Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments. After the magistrate judge recommended granting dismissal or summary judgment to the defendants on all but one of Spencer's claims, the district court granted summary judgment on all of them. Spencer's appeal has been referred to a panel of the court pursuant to Sixth Circuit Rule 34(j)(1). Upon examination, we unanimously agree that oral argument is not needed. FED. R. APP. P. 34(a).

Because Spencer has offered sufficient evidence to create a genuine issue of material fact with respect to his Eighth Amendment inadequate-shelter claim against Snarey and Wallace, we REVERSE that part of the district court's judgment. Because Spencer has failed to satisfy the Prison Litigation Reform Act's ("PLRA") administrative exhaustion requirement with respect to his First Amendment claim against Bouchard, Snarey, and Wallace, his Eighth Amendment inadequate-shelter claim against Bouchard, and all claims against Quisenberry, we VACATE that part of the judgment and instruct the district court instead to DISMISS the claims without prejudice. Because Spencer has waived review of all other claims, we AFFIRM the balance of the judgment. We REMAND for proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I. BACKGROUND

Spencer was a pretrial detainee at the Oakland County Jail in Pontiac, Michigan from August 15, 2001 to February 4, 2002. In 2003, Spencer filed an action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against several officials in the Oakland County Sheriff's Office, which operates the jail: Sheriff Bouchard, Undersheriff Quisenberry, Lieutenant Snarey, and Captain Wallace. Spencer alleged that the defendants violated the First Amendment by providing inadequate reading material; the Fourth Amendment by opening his legal mail; the Eighth Amendment by maintaining overcrowded conditions, denying out-of-cell exercise time, and failing to provide adequately warm and dry shelter; and the Fourteenth Amendment by providing inadequate grievance procedures.

The defendants moved for dismissal for failure to state a claim or, in the alternative, summary judgment. 6 Joint Appendix ("J.A.") at 384-414. The magistrate judge recommended that all claims against Quisenberry and the First Amendment claim against Bouchard, Snarey, and Wallace be dismissed for failure to exhaust the administrative remedies as required by the PLRA. 4 J.A. at 252-54, 260-61 (Report and Recommendation ("R & R") at 5-7, 13-14). Proceeding to the merits, the magistrate judge recommended that summary judgment be denied with respect to the Eighth Amendment claim for inadequate shelter. 4 J.A. at 258 (R & R at 11). Finally, the magistrate judge recommended the grant of summary judgment with respect to each of the remaining claims. 4 J.A. at 262 (R & R at 15). Spencer filed general objections to the magistrate judge's adverse recommendations. 7 J.A. at 465-67. The defendants filed an objection to the magistrate judge's recommendation on the Eighth Amendment inadequate-shelter claim, arguing, inter alia, that they could not be held liable for the failure to act. 7 J.A. at 458-61.

The district court rejected the magistrate judge's recommendation regarding the Eighth Amendment inadequate-shelter claim and reviewed no other aspect of the magistrate judge's report. The district court granted summary judgment to the defendants and dismissed the case with prejudice. Spencer now appeals.

II. SCOPE OF THE APPEAL

A. Objections to Magistrate Judge's Report

At the outset we must determine which, if any, claims to address on appeal. The magistrate judge's report included a notice requiring objections to be filed within ten days. 4 J.A. at 262 (R & R at 15). A party who receives such notice yet fails timely to object is deemed to waive review of the district court's adoption of the magistrate judge's recommendations. Mattox v. City of Forest Park, 183 F.3d 515, 519-20 (6th Cir.1999); United States v. Walters, 638 F.2d 947, 949-50 (6th Cir.1981); see also Thomas v. Arn, 474 U.S. 140, 155, 106 S.Ct. 466, 88 L.Ed.2d 435 (1985) (upholding the waiver rule as a valid exercise of this court's supervisory power, "at least when it incorporates clear notice to the litigants and an opportunity to seek an extension of time for filing objections"). In the instant case, by granting summary judgment to the defendants on all claims, the district court rejected the magistrate judge's recommendations (1) to dismiss all claims against Quisenberry for failure to exhaust under the PLRA; (2) to dismiss the First Amendment claim against Bouchard, Snarey, and Wallace for failure to exhaust under the PLRA; and (3) to deny summary judgment with respect to the Eighth Amendment inadequate-shelter claim against Bouchard, Snarey, and Wallace. Therefore, Spencer has not waived review of these claims.

The district court did, however, adopt the rest of the magistrate judge's report, so we must assess whether Spencer satisfied the objection requirement for his other claims. Spencer filed several objections, the first of which stated that "Plaintiff OBJECTS to the granting of summary judgment in favor of the defendants regarding Plaintiff's overcrowding Claim because the Complaint, Exhibits, Depositions and Affidavits of record support that the relief requested by Plaintiff regarding this issue should be GRANTED." 7 J.A. at 466. Subsequent objections replaced "overcrowding Claim" with "Cruel and Unusual Punishment/Confinement Claim," "Due Process Regarding the Grievance Procedure Claim," and "Fourth Amendment Claims — Legal Mail," respectively. 7 J.A. at 466-67.

Overly general objections do not satisfy the objection requirement. Miller v. Currie, 50 F.3d 373, 380 (6th Cir.1995); Howard v. Sec'y of Health & Human Servs., 932 F.2d 505, 508-09 (6th Cir.1991). "The objections must be clear enough to enable the district court to discern those issues that are dispositive and contentious." Miller, 50 F.3d at 380. Spencer's objections simply identified the discrete claims for which the magistrate judge's recommendations were adverse to Spencer and then urged that they instead be resolved in his favor. We have held that "objections disput[ing] the correctness of the magistrate's recommendation but fail[ing] to specify the findings ... believed [to be] in error" are too general. Id. Thus, we conclude that Spencer has waived review of all issues other than the claims against Quisenberry and the First Amendment and Eighth Amendment inadequate-shelter claims against Bouchard, Snarey, and Wallace.

B. PLRA Exhaustion

Having determined that Spencer has preserved certain claims for review, we must next address whether he has satisfied the requirements of the PLRA, which 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." 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a). The Oakland County Jail provides a two-step grievance procedure in which the inmate first submits a written complaint to the Lieutenant of Corrective Services and then appeals the decision to the Captain of Corrective Services. 2 J.A. at 60. Spencer has attached documents indicating that he followed this procedure. J.A. at 49-51, 57.

Of course, it is not enough simply to follow the grievance procedure; in order to satisfy the administrative exhaustion requirement, the content of the grievances must be adequate, too. First, under our precedent a grievance must identify each defendant eventually sued. E.g., Curry v. Scott, 249 F.3d 493, 504-05 (6th Cir.2001). Spencer's grievances fail to identify (1) Quisenberry in the context of any claims; (2) Bouchard, Snarey, or Wallace in the context of the First Amendment claim; and (3) Bouchard in the context of the Eighth Amendment inadequate-shelter claim. Accordingly, Spencer failed to exhaust these claims. We VACATE the district court's grant of summary judgment to Quisenberry on all claims; to Bouchard, Snarey, and Wallace on the First Amendment claim; and to Bouchard on the Eighth Amendment inadequate-shelter claim. The district court is instructed instead to DISMISS these claims without prejudice.

One of Spencer's grievances does, however, name Snarey and Wallace in the context of the Eighth Amendment inadequate-shelter claim. We therefore proceed to the second requirement regarding the content of grievances: "a prisoner must have alleged mistreatment or misconduct on the part of the defendant" in his grievance. Burton v. Jones, 321 F.3d 569, 575 (6th Cir.2003). This standard is not a particularly strict one:

In describing the alleged mistreatment or misconduct, ... we would not require a prisoner's grievance to allege a specific legal theory or facts that correspond to all the required elements of a particular legal theory. Rather, it is sufficient for a court to find that a prisoner's [grievance] gave prison officials fair notice of the alleged mistreatment or misconduct that forms the basis of the constitutional or statutory claim made against a defendant...