Opinion ID: 78066
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The District Court Had Jurisdiction To Consider the Sufficiency of Douglas's Complaint.

Text: The Prison Litigation Reform Act provides, No Federal civil action may be brought by a prisoner confined in a jail, prison, or other correctional facility, for mental or emotional injury suffered while in custody without a prior showing of physical injury. 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(e). We have interpreted this statute to require the dismissal of several prisoners' complaints for emotional injury without prejudice to their being re-filed at a time when the plaintiffs are not confined. Harris v. Garner, 216 F.3d 970, 985 (11th Cir.2000) (en banc). Although another circuit has read our decision in Harris as holding that section 1997e(e) deprives a district court of subject-matter jurisdiction, Positive Black Talk, Inc. v. Cash Money Records, Inc., 394 F.3d 357, 366 n. 6 (5th Cir.2004), we have not addressed that question in a published decision. Our understanding of section 1997e(e) is guided by a recent decision of the Supreme Court about the meaning of another subsection of that statute. In Jones v. Bock, the Supreme Court held that the limitation of complaints brought by prisoners who have not exhausted administrative remedies, 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a), is an affirmative defense, not a jurisdictional limitation. 549 U.S. 199, 127 S.Ct. 910, 921, 166 L.Ed.2d 798 (2007). The Act casts the limitation that the Supreme Court interpreted in Jones in language that is materially indistinguishable from the language of the limitation of actions for emotional injury: No 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); see Jones, 127 S.Ct. at 925 (Section 1997e(e) contains similar language [to section 1997e(a)].). In the light of Jones, we conclude that the limitation of complaints by prisoners for emotional injury, 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(e), provides an affirmative defense, not a jurisdictional limitation. To interpret the language of section 1997e(e) to mean something different from the same language in section 1997e(a) would contravene our normal rules of statutory construction. Jones, 127 S.Ct. at 925. [S]imilar language contained within the same section of a statute must be accorded a consistent meaning. Nat'l Credit Union Admin. v. First Nat'l Bank & Trust Co., 522 U.S. 479, 501, 118 S.Ct. 927, 939, 140 L.Ed.2d 1 (1998). Because section 1997e(e) creates an affirmative defense, the district court had the power to consider whether Douglas's complaint states a valid claim. Davenport Recycling Assocs. v. Comm'r, 220 F.3d 1255, 1259 (11th Cir.2000). We have explained that an affirmative defense is a defense that may be pled in a case which is already within the court's authority to decide, and the ability of a party to assert such a defense has nothing to do with the court's power to resolve the case. Id. The district court had subject-matter jurisdiction to consider the dismissal of Douglas's complaint with prejudice. Our conclusion that the limitation contained in section 1997e(e) is an affirmative defense does not mean that the district court erred when it considered the applicability of that section on its own initiative. See Jones, 127 S.Ct. at 921. A complaint is subject to dismissal for failure to state a claim when its allegations, on their face, show that an affirmative defense bars recovery on the claim. Cottone v. Jenne, 326 F.3d 1352, 1357 (11th Cir.2003). Because the complaint discloses that Douglas was a prisoner when the complaint was filed and requests damages for emotional injury without a prior showing of physical injury, the district court had the authority, see 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii), to dismiss the complaint without prejudice under section 1997e(e). But the district court was also free to determine that the complaint fails to state a claim for relief on other grounds.