Opinion ID: 787443
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Special Circumstances Justifying Failure to Exhaust

Text: 40 Since the district court's ruling in Hemphill, we have held that there are certain `special circumstances' in which, though administrative remedies may have been available and though the government may not have been estopped from asserting the affirmative defense of non-exhaustion, the prisoner's failure to comply with administrative procedural requirements may nevertheless have been justified. Giano, citation (citing Berry, 366 F.3d at 88; Rodriguez order at 1). In Giano, the special circumstances justifying the plaintiff's failure to exhaust consisted of his reasonable interpretation of DOCS regulations. Accordingly, we remanded the case to the district court for dismissal (without prejudice) if prison authorities would still allow the plaintiff to pursue the administrative remedies he had reasonably believed to be unavailable to him. But we instructed the court to permit the plaintiff to proceed with his suit if it turned out that, as a result of a time-bar or other restriction, the administrative remedies were now unavailable to him. 41 In the case before us, as in Giano, the plaintiff asserts that his attempt to exhaust available administrative remedies by writing directly to Superintendent Artuz comported with DOCS procedural rules, or, at a minimum, reflected a reasonable interpretation of those regulations. At the very least, Hemphill asserts, DOCS regulations describing the expedited grievance procedure were manifestly unclear, and he justifiably interpreted them to allow him to seek relief directly from the Superintendent. The regulations governing expedited grievance procedures that were then in effect, Hemphill contends, nowhere explicitly required inmates to file a level 1 grievance in cases of employee misconduct. Rather, they simply advised that inmates should report the misconduct to the offender's immediate supervisor, and noted that such a complaint did not preclude the filing of a formal grievance. Moreover, Hemphill contends that DOCS's recent clarificatory amendments to the expedited grievance procedure regulations suggest their initial lack of transparency. The amendments make clear that inmates seeking expedited review of employee misconduct grievances are required to file a level 1 grievance as prescribed by 7 N.Y.C.R.R. § 701.7(a), and that complaining to the employee's immediate supervisor is not a prerequisite for filing a grievance with the IGP. 7 42 Hemphill's arguments about the lack of clarity in DOCS regulations are not manifestly meritless. Accordingly, having held in Giano that reliance on a reasonable interpretation of prison grievance regulations may justify an inmate's failure to follow procedural rules to the letter, we believe it appropriate to remand the instant case to the district court to allow it to consider, in light of Giano, this possible justification for Hemphill's failure to follow normal grievance procedures. 43 Further, in view of our decisions in Giano, Berry , and Rodriguez, the court should also determine, even if some or all of the defendants are not estopped from asserting non-exhaustion as an affirmative defense, and even if Surber's threats did not suffice to render the grievance procedures actually unavailable to Hemphill, whether the threats themselves justified Hemphill's failure to file a grievance in the manner prescribed by DOCS. Once again, the appropriate standard for determining whether Hemphill's fear of retaliation justified his sending a letter to Artuz rather than filing a level 1 grievance is the same as is applicable in cases of retaliation; that is, whether a similarly situated individual of ordinary firmness, see Davis v. Goord, 320 F.3d at 353, would have been deterred from following regular procedures. And, like an inmate claiming retaliation, Hemphill should have the opportunity to develop facts that would demonstrate that [defendants' actions] would deter a reasonable inmate from pursuing grievances. Id. at 354 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). 8 44 We also note that, in determining whether special circumstances justified Hemphill's failure to exhaust, the district court should consider the interplay between Surber's threats and Hemphill's decision to write directly to Superintendent Artuz, rather than filing a level 1 grievance. Given Surber's alleged warning of retaliation, it is arguable that Hemphill may have reasonably concluded that writing directly to the Superintendent involved an acceptable level of risk, whereas filing a level 1 grievance or notifying the immediate supervisors of his purported attackers was too fraught with danger. 45 If the district court determines that Hemphill failed to exhaust according to DOCS regulations, but that this failure was justified, the court must ask whether administrative remedies are still available to the plaintiff. If it appears that such remedies are available — for instance, if Hemphill may now file an untimely grievance — then the district court must dismiss his complaint without prejudice. It must, in addition, make that dismissal subject to reinstatement if the remedies turn out to be unavailable. Under this scenario, Hemphill must still try to exhaust the available administrative remedies before filing suit. If, instead, administrative remedies are no longer available to him, then, since he was justified in his prior failure to exhaust, Hemphill may proceed with his suit without further ado. Giano, citation.