Opinion ID: 767096
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Whether the district court erred in dismissing Snider's complaint on its own motion.

Text: 23 Section 1997e(c)(1) directs that a district court shall dismiss actions with respect to prison conditions on its own motion if the court is satisfied that the action is frivolous, malicious, or fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. 42 U.S.C. 1997e(c)(1). Snider contends that the district court abused its discretion in dismissing his complaint on its own motion because the basis upon which it did so--his failure to exhaust administrative remedies--is not enumerated in Section 1997e(c)(1) as a permissible basis for such dismissal. 24 We believe Snider is correct that Section 1997e(c)(1) was not intended to apply to dismissals without prejudice for failure to exhaust administrative remedies. First, the interplay between paragraphs (1) and (2) of Section 1997e(c) would make little sense if failure to state a claim included failure to exhaust. Paragraph (2) of Section 1997e(c) states that courts may dismiss claims that are facially frivolous, malicious, [or] fail[] to state a claim . . . without first requiring the exhaustion of administrative remedies. 42 U.S.C. 1997e(c)(2). If failure to state a claim included failure to exhaust for purposes of Section 1997e(c), then paragraph (2) would carry the highly improbable meaning that courts may dismiss for failure to exhaust administrative remedies without first requiring exhaustion of administrative remedies. Furthermore, paragraph (2) would be telling courts they may do what paragraph (1) asserts they shall do. This reading would also render Section 1997e(a) redundant: there would be no need to provide that prisoner actions may not be brought until administrative remedies are exhausted, as Section 1997e(a) provides, if Section 1997e(c)(1) mandated dismissal for failure to exhaust administrative remedies. 25 In addition, the apparent purposes of Section 1997e(c)(2) and of the three strikes provision of Section 1915(g) strongly imply that the dismissal contemplated in these provisions is one that finally terminates the action because of a determination that it ultimately cannot succeed. Presumably, the reason Section 1997e(c)(2) authorizes dismissal without first requiring the exhaustion of administrative remedies is that such exhaustion would be fruitless in an action that the court has determined to be irremediably defective. That is often not true of an action that is defective because administrative remedies have not yet been exhausted. Similarly, we believe Section 1915(g)'s mandate that prisoners may not qualify for IFP status if their suits have thrice been dismissed on the ground that they were frivolous, malicious, or fail[ed] to state a claim was intended to apply to nonmeritorious suits dismissed with prejudice, not suits dismissed without prejudice for failure to comply with a procedural prerequisite. 26 Failure to exhaust administrative remedies is often a temporary, curable, procedural flaw. If the time permitted for pursuing administrative remedies has not expired, a prisoner who brings suit without having exhausted these remedies can cure the defect simply by exhausting them and then reinistituting his suit (in the event the administrative claim fails to afford him the desired relief). Cf. Criales v. American Airlines, Inc., 105 F.3d 93, 95-98 (2d Cir. 1997) (holding that a Title VI plaintiff's failure to exhaust an administrative remedy was a curable defect that prevented the court from reaching the merits of his claim, but had no res judicata effect). That is no doubt why the district court dismissed Snider's complaint without prejudice. A. 10, 12. We do not think that Section 1915(g) was meant to impose a strike upon a prisoner who suffers a dismissal because of the prematurity of his suit but then exhausts his administrative remedies and successfully reinstitutes it. 27 For the foregoing reasons, we believe that fail[ure] to state a claim, as used in Sections 1997e(c) and 1915(g) of the PLRA, does not include failure to exhaust administrative remedies --at least absent a finding that the failure to exhaust permanently bars the suit. However, we need not decide this question. Even if Snider is correct in arguing that, for purposes of Section 1997e(c)(1), fail[ure] to state a claim does not include failure to exhaust, he is mistaken in arguing that a court lacks authority to dismiss for failure to exhaust on its own motion. His error lies in assuming that a court requires explicit statutory authorization to dismiss on its own motion. 28 Both the Supreme Court and the Second Circuit have long held that courts may dismiss actions on their own motion in a broad range of circumstances where they are not explicitly authorized to do so by statute or rule. See, e.g., Link v. Wabash R.R. Co., 370 U.S. 626, 629-32 (1962) (district court has inherent power to dismiss sua sponte for failure to prosecute); Costello v. United States, 365 U.S. 265, 286-87 (1961) (district court may dismiss sua sponte for plaintiff's failure to comply with an order of the court); Leonhard v. United States, 633 F.2d 599, 609 n.11 (2d Cir. 1980) (district court may dismiss sua sponte on statute of limitations grounds); see also Fed. R. Civ. P. 83(b) (A judge may regulate practice in any manner consistent with federal law . . . .). 29 In view of Section 1997e(a)'s command that no action with respect to prison conditions shall be brought . . . until such administrative remedies as are available are exhausted, we can perceive no reason why a court should be prohibited from dismissing actions in violation of this mandate on its own motion. On the contrary, dismissal on the court's own motion serves the beneficial end of avoiding the waste that would result from obliging a lawyer for the state to prepare the motion and appear in the action when the procedural defect is readily apparent to the court. 30 Nonetheless, the district court's judgment dismissing Snider's action must be vacated. The problem with the court's dismissal was not that it was done on the court's own motion, but rather that it was done without affording Snider notice and opportunity to be heard. 31 A court's dismissal on its own motion is sometimes described as a sua sponte dismissal. See, e.g., Bennet v. Artuz, 1999 F.3d 116 (2d Cir.1999). Perhaps because of the similarity between the words sua sponte and spontaneous, 1 legal parlance sometimes confuses the court's power to act on its own motion with the power to act immediately without affording an opportunity to be heard in opposition. The difference is significant. 32 Where a court order is either mandated by law or unquestionably beneficial to the party favored by the ruling, there is little reason to insist on the formality that the order await a motion made by that party. A district court may enter such an order on its own motion. This is all the more appropriate in circumstances where the party favored by the ruling has not yet appeared in the action. 33 On the other hand, providing the adversely affected party with notice and an opportunity to be heard plays an important role in establishing the fairness and reliability of the order. It avoids the risk that the court may overlook valid answers to its perception of defects in the plaintiff's case. Furthermore, denying a plaintiff an opportunity to be heard may tend to produce the very effect [the court] seek[s] to avoid--a waste of judicial resources--by leading to appeals and remands. Perez v. Ortiz, 849 F.2d 793, 797 (2d Cir. 1988). Unless it is unmistakably clear that the court lacks jurisdiction, or that the complaint lacks merit or is otherwise defective, we believe it is bad practice for a district court to dismiss without affording a plaintiff the opportunity to be heard in opposition. As we have previously stated, dismissal in such a manner may be, by itself, grounds for reversal. Square D Co. v. Niagra Frontier Tariff Bureau, Inc., 760 F.2d 1347, 1365 (2d Cir. 1985) (Friendly, J.) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted); Schlesinger Inv. Partnership v. Fluor Corp., 671 F.2d 739, 742 (2d Cir. 1982) (same); see also Perez, 849 F.2d at 797 (sua sponte dismissal with affording plaintiff notice and opportunity to be heard is itself grounds for reversal, (quoting Square D), although permitted in some circumstances where a complaint is obviously frivolous); cf. Eades v. Thompson, 823 F.2d 1055, 1062 (7th Cir. 1987) (observing that [a]t least four circuits do not permit sua sponte dismissals without notice and an opportunity to be heard). In this case, we conclude that, while the district court was free to act on its own motion, it erred in dismissing the complaint without giving Snider notice and an opportunity be heard in opposition. 34 The State contends on behalf of Defendant that this is a useless precaution, as Snider's failure to exhaust available administrative remedies was unambiguously established in the record. We disagree. The district court's sole basis for concluding that administrative remedies were available to Snider was that in his standard-form pro se complaint, he answered yes to a question asking him whether there [is] a prisoner grievance procedure in this institution. That was not an adequate basis. 35 Whether an administrative remedy was available to a prisoner in a particular prison or prison system, and whether such remedy was applicable to the grievance underlying the prisoner's suit, 2 are not questions of fact. They either are, or inevitably contain, questions of law. Where administrative remedies are created by statute or regulation affecting the governance of prisons, the existence of the administrative remedy is purely a question of law. The answer depends on the meaning of the relevant statute or regulation. Even where a grievance procedure is informally established by the warden of a prison and therefore not ascertainable by examination of statutes or regulations, the existence of the procedure may be a matter of fact, but whether it qualifies as an administrative remedy that must be exhausted under Section 1997e(a) is a question of law. The court cannot properly determine a question of law on the basis of a party's concession (much less by the concession of an unrepresented party). 3 The meaning of a statute, for example, cannot vary from case to case depending on concessions a party may have made. Cf. Swift & Co. v. Hocking Valley Ry. Co., 243 U.S. 281, 290 (1917) (The duty . . . of every judicial tribunal[] is . . . to determin[e] rights of persons or of property, which are . . . controverted in the particular case before it. . . . No stipulation of parties or counsel . . . can . . . affect the duty[] of the court in this regard.) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted) (Brandeis, J.); Smith Engineering Co. v. Rice, 102 F.2d 492, 499 (9th Cir. 1938) (We see no reason why we should make what we think would be an erroneous decision, because the applicable law was not insisted upon by one of the parties.). 36 For the foregoing reasons, we have no difficulty rejecting the State's contention that the record unambiguously establishes the availability of an administrative remedy Snider failed to exhaust, and we therefore reject the State's argument that notice and opportunity to be heard would be a meaningless formality. Indeed, the more serious question is whether, on this record, the defect would be cured merely by giving Snider the opportunity to be heard. A court may not dismiss for failure to exhaust administrative remedies unless the court determines that such remedies are available. Snider's answers cannot establish that. Even after giving Snider notice and opportunity to be heard, the court will be obligated to establish the availability of an administrative remedy from a legally sufficient source before it may dismiss his complaint. 37