Opinion ID: 2977854
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: West

Text: West argued that plaintiff failed to exhaust his administrative remedies with respect to his claims that he was denied a diabetic diet and appropriate medical care. Defendants No. 08-1281 10 argued that two grievances identified by plaintiff, filed on February 20, 2006 (URF 06-020438-12H) (“0438”), and on February 26, 2006 (URF 06-02-0476-12I) (“0476”), failed to properly exhaust these claims. In the first of these (“0438”) plaintiff claimed that, on February 15, 2006, West told him that his diabetes was poorly controlled but refused plaintiff a medical transfer to a facility where he could receive a diabetic diet. The Step I grievance also stated that plaintiff had proved that a white prisoner whose insulin-dependent diabetes was also poorly controlled was given a diabetic diet and transferred to a facility with a dietician. The MDOC denied the grievance at Step I because (1) West was not at the facility on the February 15 incident date and denied having the alleged conversation with plaintiff; (2) plaintiff did not make a legitimate attempt to resolve the issue since the February 15 encounter; and (3) a prisoner’s need for a special diet is in the discretion of the Medical Service Provider who had not determined that plaintiff’s needs could not be met at the Chippewa facility. Denying the Step II appeal, the MDOC indicated that the nurses responded appropriately to plaintiff’s requests and that plaintiff’s grievance lacked factual credibility. The grievance was denied at Step III because West was not at the facility on the date of the incident and denied having the alleged conversation with plaintiff. Defendant persuaded the district court that the grievance was not properly exhausted because it was rejected for failure to comply with critical procedural requirements. However, that is not evident from the Step I, II, and III responses, which appear instead to deny the grievance on the merits because West was not present on the day in question and because plaintiff received appropriate care. No. 08-1281 11 Defendant also argued that the grievance was not properly exhausted because plaintiff did not attempt to resolve the issue before filing the grievance, which stated the date of incident as February 15, 2006 and indicated “Jan/Feb 15, 06” as when he attempted to resolve the issue. Reasoning that plaintiff could not attempt to resolve an issue before it happened, the district court concluded that plaintiff failed to comply with grievance procedure. It is not clear from the MDOC’s responses that the grievance was denied for this alleged procedural default. The Step I response stated: “It should be noted the patient has not made a legitimate attempt to resolve his issue since the February 15th encounter when he was evaluated by nursing for callus formation.” Nor is it clear that no attempt was made since the grievance averred that plaintiff had attempted to resolve the issue several times and had been instructed to re-write the grievance to leave out the white prisoner’s name and medical information. It was error to conclude that this grievance failed to properly exhaust the claim against West concerning the denial of his request for a diabetic diet.3 The judgment is AFFIRMED in part and REVERSED in part, and the claims against West regarding the denial of a diabetic diet are REMANDED for further 3 The last grievance (“0476”) filed on February 26, 2006, listed February 19 and 24, 2006, as the date of incident, but alleged generally that plaintiff continued to suffer pain from the partial right foot amputation, that the physician’s assistant refused to properly treat his injuries, that he was denied an influenza vaccination, and that the above denial of medical treatment was in retaliation for a lawsuit he filed against the Chief Medical Director and other medical personnel. The Step I response indicated that the grievance was a duplicate of grievances “0437” and “1880” and denied the grievance on the merits because there was no entry in the health record for the dates listed, the allegations against West were untrue, and diabetic patients did not fit the criteria for the influenza vaccination. Plaintiff’s appeal to Step II was denied on the merits, and the grievance was rejected at Step III as vague with respect to the denial of care, for raising multiple unrelated issues, and for the reasons given at Step I and II. The district court did not err in finding that the grievance did not properly exhaust the claims regarding the denial of treatment or a diabetic diet because the grievance was vague and raised multiple unrelated issues. No. 08-1281 12 proceedings.