Court Opinion

ID: 9497989
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:05:13.567905+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:58:32.663278
License: Public Domain

CLAY, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
While I join, in part, the majority’s ultimate conclusion that Jones-Bey’s First Amendment retaliation claim against Defendant Johnson must be dismissed without prejudice for failure to exhaust administrative remedies I believe that the majority’s failed attempt to apply a total exhaustion rule is foreclosed by our prior decision in Hartsfield v. Vidor, 199 F.3d 305 (6th Cir.1999). Although I respectfully dissent from the exhaustion holding reached by my colleagues, I am not sure that a dissent is actually necessary because the majority’s decision constitutes a nullity to the extent that it conflicts with Hartsfield.
In Hartsfield, this Court confronted exactly the same situation that we face to*810day- and reached the opposite conclusion. The prisoner-plaintiff in Hartsfield filed a complaint with various claims against multiple defendants, some of which were exhausted and some of which were not. We held that the unexhausted claims must be dismissed; however, we permitted the exhausted claims to move forward and be resolved on the merits. Id. at 309. Hartsfield is a binding opinion in this Circuit, and it has been correctly cited in a number of our unpublished decisions as holding that “[if] a complaint contains exhausted and unexhausted claims, the district court may address the merits of the exhausted claims and dismiss only those that are unexhausted.” Williams v. McGinnis, 234 F.3d 1271, 2000 WL 1679471 at **2 (6th Cir.2000) (citing Hartsfield, 199 F.3d at 309); accord Fisher v. Wickstrom, 230 F.3d 1358, 2000 WL 1477232 at *1 (6th Cir.2000); McElhaney v. Elo, 230 F.3d 1358, 2000 WL 1477498 at **3 (6th Cir.2000); Wash v. Rout, 215 F.3d 1328, 2000 WL 658925 at *1 (6th Cir.2000); Riley v. Richards, 210 F.3d 372, 2000 WL 332013 at *2 (6th Cir.2000). Additionally, even if one were to argue that Hartsfield did not expressly hold that a partial exhaustion rule applies, the Hartsfield panel indisputably could not have decided the case in the way that it did if total exhaustion was required. Thus, Hartsfield definitively foreclosed the application of the total exhaustion rule in this Circuit.
The majority completely ignores Harts-field ’s import, instead relying on our subsequent opinion in Knuckles El v. Toombs, in which we purported to “reserve for another day” the question of whether exhausted claims in a ‘mixed’ complaint may move forward. See 215 F.3d 640, 642 (6th Cir.2000). However, the majority’s reliance on Knuckles El is misplaced; Knuckles El failed to even cite to Hartsfield, and thus it incorrectly described the state of PLRA exhaustion in this Circuit. The question Knuckles El claimed to leave open was not an open question at all; it had already been answered in Hartsfield. Furthermore, because Hartsfield was decided first, subsequent panels are required to follow it under 6TH CIR. R. 206(c), which mandates that “[Reported panel opinions are binding on subsequent panels. Thus, no subsequent panel overrules a published opinion of a previous panel. Court en banc consideration is required to overrule a published opinion of the court.” See United States v. Davis, 397 F.3d 340, 350 n. 7 (6th Cir.2005) (citing Rule 206(c)); Valentine v. Francis, 270 F.3d 1032, 1035 (6th Cir.2001) (same). Because we are bound by Hartsfield unless and until the en banc court holds otherwise, the majority’s contrary opinion is not the controlling law in the Sixth Circuit, and should not be followed by future panels of this Court.
The majority feebly attempts to disclaim the precedential value of Hartsfield by noting that the same judge authored both Hartsfield and Knuckles El, and that I sat on the Knuckles El panel; however, these facts are of no consequence whatsoever. Regardless of its author or panel membership, it is clear that Knuckles El incorrectly construed the state of exhaustion law in this Court by improperly ignoring precedent. In addition, the majority’s suggestion that Hartsfield was unclear is undermined by the fact that numerous panels properly construed Hartsfield both before and after the issuance of Knuckles El. See, e.g., Williams, 2000 WL 1679471 (decided after Knuckles El); Fisher, 2000 WL 1477232 (same); McElhaney, 2000 WL 1477498 (same); Wash, 2000 WL 658925 (decided before Knuckles El); Riley, 2000 WL 332013 (same).1 Instead of *811acknowledging that Knuckles El mistakenly overlooked precedent, the majority condemns itself to repeat the mistake by once again misconstruing Hartsfield.
Notwithstanding the fact that the majority’s holding ignores the principle of stare decisis, its reliance on the PLRA’s language to apply the total exhaustion rule is unpersuasive. While it is true that § 1997e(a) states that no “action” shall be brought as opposed to no “claim,” “it [does not] follow[ ] that the only possible response to the impermissibility of the bringing of the action is to dismiss it in its entirety- to kill it rather than to cure it.” Ortiz v. McBride, 380 F.3d 649, 657 (2d Cir.2004). The text of § 1997e(a) is far “ ‘too ambiguous’ to sustain the conclusion that Congress intended” for a total exhaustion rule to be applied. Id at 657-58 (quoting Rose v. Lundy, 455 U.S. 509, 516, 102 S.Ct. 1198, 71 L.Ed.2d 379 (1982)); see also Henderson v. Sebastian, No. 04-C-0039-C, 2004 WL 1946398 at *6 (W.D.Wis. Aug.25, 2004) (quoting Alexander v. Davis, 282 F.Supp.2d 609, 610 (W.D.Mich.2003)) (noting that “courts have characterized this linguistic interpretation as a ‘thin reed’ on which to base such a weighty conclusion”). It is precisely because of this ambiguity that the majority must necessarily perform a gymnastic interpretation of other subsections of the statute in order to reach its conclusion that Congress “intended” total exhaustion.
The majority’s discussion of § 1997e(c) is entirely unhelpful, inasmuch as that section appears to use the term ‘action’ “interchangeably with ‘claim.’ ” Henderson, 2004 WL 1946398 at *6. Additionally, applying the tenet of statutory construction “that similar language contained within the same statute must be accorded a consistent meaning,” National Credit Union Administration v. First National Bank and Trust Co., 522 U.S. 479, 501, 118 S.Ct. 927, 140 L.Ed.2d 1 (1998), under a total exhaustion regime the application of a consistent meaning to “action” in § 1997e(a) and (c)(1) renders subsection (c)(2) superfluous. Section 1997e(e)(l) states that a court shall “dismiss any action brought ... if the court is satisfied that the action is frivolous, malicious,” etc., while § 1997e(c)(2) states that “[i]n the event that a claim is, on its face, frivolous, malicious,” etc., “the court may dismiss the underlying claim without first requiring the exhaustion of administrative remedies.” In order to be consistent, a court “would be required to dismiss a prisoner’s entire complaint [under subsection (c)(1) ] if any of the claims therein were found to be frivolous or insufficient to justify relief.” Jenkins v. Toombs, 32 F.Supp.2d 955, 958 (W.D.Mich.1999). However, if subsection (c)(1) requires dismissal of an action for frivolousness, then subsection (c)(2)’s reference to dismissal of frivolous claims would be entirely unnecessary. Id.; accord Hubbard v. Thakur, 344 F.Supp.2d 549, 555-56 (E.D.Mich.2004).
Because the statutory language does not unambiguously require total exhaustion, the majority turns its discussion to the purposes behind the PLRA. It is undisputed that “Congress enacted § 1997e(a) to reduce the quantity and improve, the quality of prisoner suits.” Porter v. Nussle, 534 U.S. 516, 524, 122 S.Ct. 983, 152 L.Ed.2d 12 (2002). However, the purposes underlying the statute are better served by a partial exhaustion rule than by the total exhaustion rule advocated by the majority. There is a danger that rather than lessening the number of suits filed, the total exhaustion rule will increase piecemeal. litigation by encouraging prisoners to file additional § 1983 lawsuits. See Ortiz, *812380 F.3d at 658 (holding that it is “doubtful” that dismissing actions rather than individual claims “will do more than require plaintiffs who bring ‘mixed’ actions to refile their claims with the claims that were held by the district court to be unex-hausted simply omitted.”). In other words, “prisoners are likely to simply amend their complaints to eliminate the unexhausted claims and refile,” leaving the district court “with exactly the same claims that could have been resolved at the outset.” Jenkins v. Toombs, 32 F.Supp.2d 955, 959 (W.D.Mich.1999). Consequently, the partial exhaustion rule is more efficient, and thus more in line with the purposes of the PLRA, than the total exhaustion rule the majority seeks to adopt. In addition, regardless of whether total or partial exhaustion is applied, prisoners are still required to fully exhaust any claims they wish to press in federal court, and district courts are clearly barred from resolving any grievances which have not been submitted to prison officials. See Booth v. Churner, 532 U.S. 731, 121 S.Ct. 1819, 149 L.Ed.2d 958 (2001); Curry v. Scott, 249 F.3d 493, 501 (6th Cir.2001); see also Ortiz, 380 F.3d at 661 (“[A] rule permitting the dismissal of unexhausted claims does indeed defer to state administrative proceedings by insisting that prison administrators adjudicate each prisoner’s section 1983 claim in the first instance.”). Finally, prisoners already have an incentive not to file multiple lawsuits because of multiple filing fees and 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g)’s ‘three strikes’ rule, which bars a prisoner who has filed three previous frivolous or meritless suits from proceeding informa pawperis in subsequent suits. See Wilson v. Yaklich, 148 F.3d 596, 602 (6th Cir.1998).
Further rebutting the claim that total exhaustion spares district courts from determining which claims are exhausted and which are unexhausted, the Second Circuit has noted that prisoners’ suits often present challenging exhaustion questions that must be resolved at the outset of the litigation, regardless of whether the court ultimately applies a total or a partial exhaustion rule. In such situations, “the district court must first familiarize itself with the case and hear the positions of the parties in order to decide the exhaustion issue as a preliminary matter.” Ortiz, 380 F.3d at 659. Once the district court has expended time determining whether claims have been exhausted “[i]t hardly seems to aid efficiency to require that ... it must dismiss any remaining exhausted claims only to allow the same case, absent the unex-hausted claims, to be reinstituted, heard again on the exhausted issues, and then decided.” Id. Once again, partial exhaustion is the more efficient approach.
Additionally, the majority’s comparison of prisoner civil rights litigation to habeas corpus is completely inappropriate in light of clear Supreme Court precedent. Whereas habeas exhaustion “is principally designed to protect the state courts’ role in the enforcement of federal law and prevent disruption of state judicial proceedings,” no such parallel exists in the PLRA context. Rose, 455 U.S. at 518, 102 S.Ct. 1198; see also Preiser v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 475, 491, 93 S.Ct. 1827, 36 L.Ed.2d 439 (1973) (“The rule of exhaustion in federal habeas corpus actions is rooted in considerations of federal-state comity.”). The Supreme Court has repeatedly contrasted and distinguished habeas actions from § 1983 actions, very recently noting that “habeas corpus actions require a petitioner fully to exhaust state remedies which § 1983 does not.” See Wilkinson v. Dotson, — U.S. -, -, 125 S.Ct. 1242, 1246, 161 L.Ed.2d 253 (2005) (citing Preiser v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 475, 490-91, 93 S.Ct. 1827, 36 L.Ed.2d 439 (1973); Patsy v. Bd. of Regents, 457 U.S. 496, 507, 102 *813S.Ct. 2557, 73 L.Ed.2d 172 (1982)); see also Edwards v. Bálisok, 520 U.S. 641, 649, 117 S.Ct. 1584, 137 L.Ed.2d 906 (1997); Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477, 480-81, 114 S.Ct. 2364, 129 L.Ed.2d 383 (1994). In Wilkinson, the Court found that unlike habeas, which has clear comity-concerns that require a petitioner to press his or her claims in state court, in § 1983 suits “the competing need to vindicate federal rights without exhaustion” allows “prisoners [to] bring their claims without fully exhausting state-court remedies.” Id. The Court also noted the PLRA’s general requirement that state administrative remedies be exhausted, however, it is clear from Wilkinson’s discussion of § 1983 and habeas that these two types of actions are inherently different. Id. at 1246-49 (discussing line of cases from Preiser to Edwards in which the Court distinguished habeas actions from § 1983 suits). The majority’s attempt to draw parallels between the PLRA and habeas is entirely misplaced and completely unsupportable under clear Supreme Court precedent.2
Furthermore, unlike the state courts that review habeas petitions, “prison administrators generally limit their review to determining whether prison policy has been violated.” Jenkins, 32 F.Supp.2d at 959 (quoted in Ortiz, 380 F.3d at 660). Prison officials are not equipped to review complex legal claims, and unlike state court proceedings, prison administrative review of grievances is not conducted under the rules of evidence or other judicial procedures “employed by courts of law in an attempt to assure accurate fact-finding.” Ortiz, 380 F.3d at 660. For those reasons, prison administrative proceedings are highly unlikely to create the sort of complete factual record contemplated by the majority. One need not look any further than the record in this case: the individual issues that Jones-Bey fully grieved with prison officials do not present a better administrative record than the ones that he only grieved through step one; for each fully grieved complaint, the record of step three review merely consists of brief, conclusory statements indicating that the review at steps one and two adequately addressed the problem, and that prison policy had not been violated and/or Jones-Bey did not presented a grievable claim. These statements have been entirely unhelpful in reviewing this case, and in no way are they comparable to a state court decision.
The majority’s flimsy comparison of ha-beas and prisoner civil rights litigation is also dubious when one considers that habe-as petitions “are usually about a singular event the petitioner’s conviction in state court.” Ortiz, 380 F.3d at 661. By contrast, prisoner civil rights suits “routinely seek to address more than one grievance sometimes a laundry list of grievances relating to different events or circumstances.” Id.; see also Jenkins, 32 F.Supp.2d at 959 (noting that the prisoner-plaintiffs claims “range from allegations of general discrimination against black Jewish prisoners to improper handling of his food”). In the instant case, for example, Jones-Bey claims that Defendant Johnson repeatedly retaliated against him for exercising his First Amendment rights, and on one occasion used excessive force against him in violation of the Eighth Amendment; *814however, Jones-Bey also has an unrelated claim alleging that Defendant Trierweiler mishandled some of his grievances. The claims against Johnson and Trierweiler are not about a singular event, or a related series of events, and the majority has not presented any compelling reason to explain why the failure to exhaust the claims against Johnson requires the dismissal of the exhausted claim against Trierweiler.
Finally, I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that total exhaustion is not unduly punitive because prisoners may still proceed in forma pauperis. Title 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(1) requires prisoners filing in forma pauperis to “pay the full amount of a filing fee” to refile exhausted claims; thus, despite the possibility of proceeding in forma pauperis, requiring the prisoner to refile may still “ ‘amount to nothing more than a monetary penalty against the prisoner.’ ” Blackmon v. Crawford, 305 F.Supp.2d 1174, 1180 (D.Nev.2004) (quoting Scott v. Gardner, 287 F.Supp.2d 477, 488 (S.D.N.Y.2003)); see also Jenkins, 32 F.Supp.2d at 959. “Although additional filing fees may prove a disincentive from bringing a mixed petition in theory,” it is likely that “such incentives will have little effect because many prisoners do not understand the exhaustion rule in the first place.” Blackmon, 305 F.Supp.2d at 1180. Further, the majority’s suggestion that prisoners engage in a conscious cost-benefit analysis or “choice” of when to bring exhausted claims is belied by the fact that many, if not most, pro se prisoners have little or no education, resources or understanding of complex legal principles such as the exhaustion of administrative remedies. Cf id. (noting that “pro se prisoners cannot be held to understand the consequences of the ‘total exhaustion’ rule when the federal courts are so widely split on whether or not it even applies”). In practice, the total exhaustion rule is not only likely to amount to a monetary penalty, it is also likely to be a convenient means for district courts to expediently close the courthouse door to pro se prisoner litigants, without proper regard for the merits of their claims or consideration of their status. See Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 106, 97 S.Ct. 285, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976) (quoting Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 520-21, 92 S.Ct. 594, 30 L.Ed.2d 652 (1972)) (“[A] pro se complaint, ‘however inartfully pleaded,’ must be held to ‘less stringent standards than formal pleadings drafted by lawyers.’ ”); Burton v. Jones, 321 F.3d 569, (6th Cir.2003) (“A handwritten pro se complaint should be liberally construed.”); FED. R. CIV. P. 8(f) (“All pleadings shall be so construed as to do substantial justice.”).
Because the total exhaustion rule directly conflicts with our prior, published opinion in Hartsfield, I respectfully dissent from the majority’s failed attempt to adopt such a rule. Moreover, the total exhaustion rule is ill-advised, and it fails to serve the efficiency purposes behind the PLRA as well the partial exhaustion rule. However, because Jones-Bey failed to exhaust his administrative remedies relating to the First Amendment retaliation claim against Defendant Johnson, I agree with the majority that the claim should be dismissed without prejudice.

. Furthermore, the author of the majority opinion in the instant case sat on the panel in Wash.

. Notwithstanding my belief that habeas exhaustion provides an extremely poor analogy to PLRA exhaustion, it should be noted that in another recently decided case, the Supreme Court modified the total exhaustion rule of Rose v. Lundy to hold that when confronted with a "mixed” habeas petition, a federal district court has limited discretion to stay the petitioner’s exhausted claims while he or she exhausts the unexhausted claims in state court. See Rhines v. Weber, - U.S. -, 125 S.Ct. 1528, 161 L.Ed.2d 440 (2005).