James Stile v. Strafford County Department of Corrections, Bruce Pelkie, Jake Collins, Tracey Warren, Robert Farrell, Laura Noseworthy, and Christopher Brackett

2019 DNH 161
CourtDistrict Court, D. New Hampshire
DecidedSeptember 20, 2019
Docket15-cv-494-SM
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 2019 DNH 161 (James Stile v. Strafford County Department of Corrections, Bruce Pelkie, Jake Collins, Tracey Warren, Robert Farrell, Laura Noseworthy, and Christopher Brackett) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Hampshire primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
James Stile v. Strafford County Department of Corrections, Bruce Pelkie, Jake Collins, Tracey Warren, Robert Farrell, Laura Noseworthy, and Christopher Brackett, 2019 DNH 161 (D.N.H. 2019).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

James Stile

v. Case No. 15-cv-494-SM Opinion No. 2019 DNH 161 Strafford County Department of Corrections, Bruce Pelkie, Jake Collins, Tracey Warren, Robert Farrell, Laura Noseworthy, and Christopher Brackett

O R D E R

Before the court is defendants’ (first) motion for summary

judgment (Doc. No. 74), which seeks judgment as a matter of law

on the four claims that have been allowed to proceed in this

action. In their motion, defendants argue that plaintiff, James

Stile, failed to exhaust the available administrative remedies

at the Strafford County House of Corrections (“SCHC”) from

January 2013 through June 2015 when he was in pretrial

detention, warranting summary judgment pursuant to the Prison

Litigation Reform Act (“PLRA”), 42 U.S.C. § 1997e, as to each of

the claims remaining in this action.

Although Stile did not file a timely objection to the

instant motion, Stile objected to defendants’ (second) motion

for summary judgment, in a filing he entitled, “Plaintiff’s

Response to Motion for Summary Judgment” (Doc. No. 85)

(hereinafter “Stile Decl.”). That filing ends with Stile’s

1 declaration, signed upon pains of perjury, that the matters

asserted in Document No. 85 are true to the best of his

knowledge. This court considers the record before the court

relevant to defendants’ (first) summary judgment motion to

include the pertinent exhibits to defendants’ (second) summary

judgment motion (Doc. No. 83), as well as the factual matters

declared to be true in Document No. 85.

Summary Judgment Standard

“Summary judgment is warranted if ‘there is no genuine

dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to

judgment as a matter of law.’” Luceus v. Rhode Island, 923 F.3d

255, 256-57 (1st Cir. 2019) (quoting Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a)).

Where the party moving for summary judgment bears the burden of

proof on an issue, that party “must provide evidence sufficient

for the court to hold that no reasonable trier of fact could

find other than in its favor.” Am. Steel Erectors, Inc. v.

Local Union No. 7, Int’l Ass’n of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental

& Reinforcing Iron Workers, 536 F.3d 68, 75 (1st Cir. 2008); see

also Asociación de Suscripción Conjunta del Seguro de

Responsabilidad Obligatorio v. Juarbe-Jiménez, 659 F.3d 42, 50

n.10 (1st Cir. 2011) (once defendant moving for summary judgment

on affirmative defense produces “conclusive” evidence to

2 establish defense, burden shifts to plaintiff to show that

defense does not apply).

As to issues on which the nonmoving party bears the burden

of proof, the party moving for summary judgment must first

identify the portions of the record that show the absence of any

genuine issue of material fact; then the burden shifts to the

nonmoving party to demonstrate, by reference to materials of

evidentiary quality, that a trier of fact could reasonably

resolve that issue in the nonmoving party’s favor. Flovac, Inc.

v. Airvac, Inc., 817 F.3d 849, 853 (1st Cir. 2016). The

nonmoving party’s failure to make the requisite showing as to

issues upon which it bears the burden of proof “entitles the

moving party to summary judgment.” Id.

Claims

Four claims remain in this action:

(1) a Fourteenth Amendment procedural due process claim arising from Stile’s placement in disciplinary segregation on “D-Pod” upon his arrival at the SCHC, without prior notice and a hearing;

(2) a First Amendment free exercise claim arising from Stile’s alleged lack of access to weekly religious services while he was housed on D-Pod;

(3) a claim under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (“RLUIPA”), also arising from Stile’s alleged lack of access to weekly religious services while on D-Pod; and

3 (4) a Fourteenth Amendment inadequate medical care claim arising from the alleged withholding of the appropriate dosage of a prescription breathing medication, known as Advair, for two years while Stile was in pretrial detention at the SCHC.

See Aug. 2, 2017 R&R (Doc. No. 61), at 1-2 (listing claims),

approved by Sept. 1, 2017 Order (Doc. No. 62).

Discussion

I. PLRA Exhaustion

Defendants argue that, as to each of the remaining claims,

Stile did not exhaust the grievance procedures that were

generally available at the SCHC, which warrants an order

granting their motion for summary judgment on those claims. The

PLRA provides, in pertinent part, 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 PLRA’s exhaustion requirement is

designed to “afford[ ] corrections officials time and

opportunity to address complaints internally before allowing the

initiation of a federal case.” Porter v. Nussle, 534 U.S. 516,

524–25 (2002).

The “PLRA exhaustion requirement requires proper

exhaustion,” Woodford v. Ngo, 548 U.S. 81, 93 (2006), which

4 means using all the steps that the prison grievance system makes

available, and doing so in conformity with the agency’s

deadlines and other critical procedural rules, id. at 90. “[I]t

is the prison’s requirements, and not the PLRA, that define the

boundaries of proper exhaustion.” Jones v. Bock, 549 U.S. 199,

218 (2007).

There is one exception to the exhaustion rule -

administrative remedies must, in fact, be “available” to the

prisoner. Ross v. Blake, 136 S. Ct. 1850, 1856 (2016).

Circumstances in which a remedy may be considered unavailable

include when “it operates as a simple dead end — with officers

unable or consistently unwilling to provide any relief to

aggrieved inmates,” id. at 1859; when prison officials “thwart

inmates from taking advantage of a grievance process through

machination, misrepresentation, or intimidation,” id. at 1860;

and when “rules are ‘so confusing that . . . no reasonable

prisoner can use them,’” id. at 1859 (citations omitted).

Claims for which a plaintiff has not exhausted his available

administrative remedies are subject to dismissal. See Medina-

Claudio v. Rodríguez-Mateo, 292 F.3d 31, 36 (1st Cir. 2002).

Failure to exhaust available administrative remedies is an

affirmative defense on which defendants bear the burden of

proof. See Jones, 549 U.S. at 216; Albino v. Baca, 747 F.3d

1162, 1172 (9th Cir. 2014) (en banc).

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