Case Name: Lester STEPHENSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. DUNFORD, R. Tomporowski, R. Bish, C. Weichett, E. Stachewicz, Walter Kelly, Superintendent, Defendants-Appellees
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 2005-07-13
Citations: 139 F. App'x 311
Docket Number: Docket No. 04-3321
Parties: Lester STEPHENSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. DUNFORD, R. Tomporowski, R. Bish, C. Weichett, E. Stachewicz, Walter Kelly, Superintendent, Defendants-Appellees.
Judges: PRESENT: CABRANES, RAGGI Circuit Judges and SAND District Judge.
Reporter: West's Federal Appendix
Volume: 139
Pages: 311–312

Head Matter:
Lester STEPHENSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. DUNFORD, R. Tomporowski, R. Bish, C. Weichett, E. Stachewicz, Walter Kelly, Superintendent, Defendants-Appellees.
Docket No. 04-3321.
United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.
July 13, 2005.
Lester Stephenson, Elmira, NY, for Appellant, pro se.
Martin A. Hotvet, Assistant Solicitor General (Nancy A. Spiegel, Senior, Assistant Solicitor General, Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General, of counsel), State of New York Office of the Attorney General, Albany, NY, for Appellees.
PRESENT: CABRANES, RAGGI Circuit Judges and SAND District Judge.
The Honorable Leonard B. Sand, of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, sitting by designation.

Opinion:
SUMMARY ORDER
Plaintiff appeals from a judgment dated May 10, 2004, grating defendants' motion for summary judgment on the ground that plaintiff failed to exhaust his administrative remedies as required by 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a).
By agreement of the parties, see State of New York Letter Brief at 2, we vacate and remand the cause to the District Court to consider whether plaintiff has adduced "special circumstances in which . the prisoner's failure to comply with administrative procedural requirements may nonetheless have been justified." Giano v. Goord, 380 F.3d 670, 676 (2d Cir.2004); see also Hemphill v. New York, 380 F.3d 680, 689 (2d Cir.2004). As we noted in Hemp-hill, such circumstances might include an inmate's reasonable belief that his attempt to exhaust available administrative remedies by writing directly to the Superintendent comported with the Department of Correctional Services' procedural rules. Hemphill, 380 F.3d at 689-90.
We hereby VACATE the judgment of the District Court and REMAND for further proceedings consistent with this order.