Abernathy v. Myers

CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Illinois
DecidedAugust 12, 2021
Docket3:19-cv-01062
StatusUnknown

This text of Abernathy v. Myers (Abernathy v. Myers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Abernathy v. Myers, (S.D. Ill. 2021).

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

EDWARD ABERNATHY, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) vs. ) Case No. 3:19 -CV-01062 -MAB ) PERCY MEYERS, ET AL., ) ) Defendants. )

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

BEATTY, Magistrate Judge: This matter is before the Court on Defendants Percy Myers and Kathryn Adams’s motion, and supporting memorandum, for summary judgment (Docs. 140, 141). For the reasons set forth below, the motion is DENIED. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND Plaintiff filed this civil rights action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in the Central District of Illinois on November 29, 2018 for deprivations of his constitutional rights while incarcerated at Pinckneyville Correctional Center (“Pinckneyville”) (Docs. 1, 42). Plaintiff alleged that Pinckneyville officials and staff provided inadequate treatment for his dementia (Doc. 42). After dismissing Plaintiff’s first complaint on February 23, 2019 (Doc. 26), the Court conducted a threshold review pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915A and allowed Plaintiff to proceed on one Eighth Amendment claim of deliberate indifference to a serious medical need against Defendants Myers and Brown (Doc. 42). On October 1, 2019, this case was transferred from the Central District of Illinois to the Southern District of Illinois (Doc. 63). Soon after, Plaintiff was appointed counsel on October 10, 2019 (Doc. 78).

Plaintiff then filed the second, and operative, amended complaint after seeking leave from the Court on April 23, 2020 (Doc. 127). In this complaint, Plaintiff brings an Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment claim that Defendants Brown, Myers, and Adams acted with deliberate indifference to the serious medical needs of Plaintiff by consciously failing to take reasonable measures to provide treatment for his serious medical needs (Doc. 127).

On June 25, 2020, Defendants Adams and Myers filed their motion for summary judgment on the issue of exhaustion (Docs. 140, 141). Soon after, on June 29, 2020, Defendant Brown filed a motion to withdraw the affirmative defense of exhaustion of administrative remedies (Doc. 142). The Court granted this motion on July 1, 2020 (Doc. 143). As such, only two out of the three Defendants filed the pending motion for summary

judgment on the issue of exhaustion. Plaintiff filed his response on July 27, 2020 (Doc. 144). Defendants did not file a reply brief or otherwise address the additional facts asserted by Plaintiff or the evidence he submitted in support thereof. Because the parties’ filings do not involve a genuine issue of material fact, no evidentiary hearing pursuant to Pavey v. Conley, 544 F.3d 739 (7th Cir. 2008) was necessary.

LEGAL STANDARDS Summary Judgment Summary judgment is proper only if the movant shows that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and they are entitled to judgment as a matter of law. FED. R. CIV. P. 56(a). In making that determination, the court must view the evidence in the light most favorable to, and draw all reasonable inferences in favor of, the nonmoving party.

Apex Digital, Inc. v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 735 F.3d 962, 965 (7th Cir. 2013) (citation omitted). Courts generally cannot resolve factual disputes on a motion for summary judgment. E.g., Tolan v. Cotton, 572 U.S. 650, 656, 134 S. Ct. 1861, 1866, 188 L. Ed. 2d 895 (2014) (“[A] judge's function at summary judgment is not to weigh the evidence and determine the truth of the matter but to determine whether there is a genuine issue for trial.”) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). However, when the motion for summary

judgment pertains to a prisoner’s failure to exhaust, the Seventh Circuit has instructed courts to conduct an evidentiary hearing and resolve contested issues of fact regarding a prisoner’s efforts to exhaust. Wagoner v. Lemmon, 778 F.3d 586, 590 (7th Cir. 2015) (citing Pavey v. Conley, 544 F.3d 739 (7th Cir. 2008)). Accord Roberts v. Neal, 745 F.3d 232, 234 (7th Cir. 2014). However, where there is no disputed issue of fact, no hearing is necessary.

Exhaustion The Prison Litigation Reform Act provides that a prisoner may not bring a lawsuit about prison conditions unless and until he has exhausted all available administrative remedies. 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a); Pavey v. Conley, 663 F.3d 899, 903 (7th Cir. 2011)). Exhaustion is an affirmative defense, which the defendants bear the burden of proving.

Pavey, 663 F.3d at 903 (citations omitted). In order for a prisoner to properly exhaust his or her administrative remedies, the prisoner must “file complaints and appeals in the place, and at the time, the prison’s administrative rules require.” Pozzo v. McCaughtry, 286 F.3d 1022, 1025 (7th Cir. 2002); see also Woodford v. Ngo, 548 U.S. 81, 90 (2006). As an inmate in the IDOC, Plaintiff was required to follow the grievance process outlined in the Illinois Administrative Code. ILL.

ADMIN. CODE, tit. 20, § 504.800, et seq. (2017). The regulations first require an inmate to attempt to resolve the dispute through his or her counselor. Id. at § 504.810(a).1 If the counselor is unable to resolve the grievance, it is sent to the grievance officer, who reports his or her findings and recommendations in writing to the Chief Administrative Officer (the warden). Id. at § 504.830(e). The warden then provides the inmate with a written decision on the grievance. Id. If the inmate is not satisfied with the warden’s decision, he

or she has thirty days to appeal to the Director of the IDOC by sending the grievance to the Administrative Review Board (“ARB”). Id. at § 504.850(a). The ARB submits a written report of its findings and recommendations to the Director, who then makes a final determination “within six months after receipt of the appealed grievance, when reasonably feasible under the circumstances.” Id. at § 504.850(d), (e).

An inmate may also request that a grievance be handled as an emergency by forwarding the grievance directly to the warden. 20 ILL. ADMIN. CODE § 504.840 (2017). If the warden determines that “there is a substantial risk of imminent personal injury or other serious or irreparable harm to the [inmate],” then the grievance is handled on an emergency basis, meaning the warden will expedite processing of the grievance and

respond to the inmate, indicating what action shall be or has been taken. Id. On the other hand, if the warden determines that the grievance should not be handled on an

1 There are exceptions to this rule. 20 ILL. ADMIN. CODE § 504.810(a), 504.870 (2017). emergency basis, the inmate is notified in writing that he “may resubmit the grievance as non-emergent, in accordance with the standard grievance process.” Id.

Though the Seventh Circuit requires strict adherence to the exhaustion requirement, Dole v. Chandler, 438 F.3d 804, 809 (7th Cir.

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Related

Woodford v. Ngo
548 U.S. 81 (Supreme Court, 2006)
Jones v. Bock
549 U.S. 199 (Supreme Court, 2007)
Maddox v. Love
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Pavey v. Conley
663 F.3d 899 (Seventh Circuit, 2011)
Pavey v. Conley
544 F.3d 739 (Seventh Circuit, 2008)
Tolan v. Cotton
134 S. Ct. 1861 (Supreme Court, 2014)
Maurice Jackson v. John Shepherd
552 F. App'x 591 (Seventh Circuit, 2014)
Apex Digital, Incorporated v. Sears, Roebuck & Company
735 F.3d 962 (Seventh Circuit, 2013)
Richard Wagoner v. Indiana Department of Correcti
778 F.3d 586 (Seventh Circuit, 2015)
Darreyll Thomas v. Michael Reese
787 F.3d 845 (Seventh Circuit, 2015)
Mark Weiss v. Wayne Barribeau
853 F.3d 873 (Seventh Circuit, 2017)
Roberts v. Neal
745 F.3d 232 (Seventh Circuit, 2014)
Conley v. Anglin
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Glick v. Walker
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Bluebook (online)
Abernathy v. Myers, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/abernathy-v-myers-ilsd-2021.