Day v. Chaplin , 354 F. App'x 472 ( 2009 )


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  • 07-5478-pr
    Day v. Chaplin
    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
    FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT
    SUMMARY ORDER
    Rulings by summary order do not have precedential effect. Citation to summary orders
    filed after January 1, 2007, is permitted and is governed by this court’s Local Rule 32.1 and
    Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32.1. In a brief or other paper in which a litigant cites a
    summary order, in each paragraph in which a citation appears, at least one citation must either
    be to the Federal Appendix or be accompanied by the notation: “(summary order).” A party
    citing a summary order must serve a copy of that summary order together with the paper in
    which the summary order is cited on any party not represented by counsel unless the summary
    order is available in an electronic database which is publicly accessible without payment of fee
    (such as the database available at http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/). If no copy is served by
    reason of the availability of the order on such a database, the citation must include reference
    to that database and the docket number of the case in which the order was entered.
    At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, held at
    the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse, 500 Pearl Street, in the City of New
    York, on the twenty fifth day of November two thousand and nine.
    PRESENT:
    ROGER J. MINER ,
    JOSÉ A. CABRANES,
    CHESTER J. STRAUB,
    Circuit Judges.
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    JASON MOURICE DAY ,
    Plaintiff-Appellant,
    v.                                                                                No. 07-5478-pr
    PAUL CHAPLIN , WAYNE CHOINSKY , T. BOGDANOFF, CAPTAIN
    TRAVLIN , and JAMES DZURENDA,
    Defendants-Appellees,
    THERESA C. LANTZ , JAMES MC GAUGHEY , NANCY B. ALISBERG , BEN A. SOLNIT, DAVID C. FATHI,
    ERIN BOGGS, DAVID BUDLONG , MARK BUCHANAN , DOCTOR LAWLOR , TERRENCE M. O’NEILL,
    ANN E. LYNCH , STEVEN R. STROM , CONNECTICUT DEPARTMENT OF MENTAL HEALTH , and
    OFFICE OF CONNECTICUT ATTORNEY GENERAL,
    Defendants.*
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    *
    The Clerk of Court is directed to amend the official caption to conform to the listing of the parties stated
    above.
    1
    FOR PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT:                       Jason Mourice Day, pro se, Cheshire, CT
    FOR DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES:                      Ann E. Lynch, Assistant Attorney General (Richard
    Blumenthal, Attorney General, on the brief), Attorney
    General’s Office, State of Connecticut, Hartford, CT
    Appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut
    (Alan H. Nevas, Judge).
    UPON CONSIDERATION WHEREOF, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED,
    ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that the judgment of the District Court is AFFIRMED.
    Plaintiff-appellant Jason Mourice Day (“plaintiff” or “Day”) appeals from a judgment of the
    District Court which (1) dismissed plaintiff’s claims for injunctive relief as moot and (2) granted
    summary judgment to the defendants-appellees on plaintiff’s 
    42 U.S.C. § 1983
     claims upon finding
    that plaintiff failed to exhaust his administrative remedies. We assume the parties’ familiarity with
    the factual and procedural history of this case.
    As an initial matter, we agree with the District Court that Day’s claims for injunctive relief
    have been rendered moot. Those claims related to his treatment at the Garner Correctional
    Institution (“GCI”) and sought transfer from that facility. Because Day is no longer housed at GCI,
    his claims for injunctive relief are moot. See Mawhinney v. Henderson, 
    542 F.2d 1
    , 2 (2d Cir. 1976).
    We review de novo an order granting summary judgment. See, e.g., Miller v. Wolpoff &
    Abramson, L.L.P., 
    321 F.3d 292
    , 300 (2d Cir. 2003). Summary judgment is appropriate only if “there
    is no genuine issue as to any material fact” and the moving party is “entitled to judgment as a matter
    of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c).
    Pursuant to the Prison Litigation Reform Act (“PLRA”), “[n]o action shall be brought with
    respect to prison conditions under [
    42 U.S.C. § 1983
    ], 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). In Woodford v. Ngo, the Supreme Court held that the
    exhaustion requirement of the PLRA cannot be satisfied by an “untimely or otherwise procedurally
    defective administrative grievance or appeal,” and that the PLRA requires “proper exhaustion,”
    which “means using all steps that the agency holds out, and doing so properly (so that the agency
    addresses the issues on the merits).” 
    548 U.S. 81
    , 83-84, 90 (2006) (internal quotation marks
    omitted). This Court has recognized three qualifications to the PLRA’s exhaustion requirement:
    “when (1) administrative remedies are not available to the prisoner; (2) defendants have either
    waived the defense of failure to exhaust or acted in such [a] way as to estop them from raising the
    defense; or (3) special circumstances, such as a reasonable misunderstanding of the grievance
    procedures, justify the prisoner’s failure to comply with the exhaustion requirement.” Ruggiero v.
    County of Orange, 
    467 F.3d 170
    , 175 (2d Cir. 2006).
    2
    We agree with the District Court that Day failed properly to exhaust his administrative
    remedies. The District Court took judicial notice of Administrative Directive 9.6 of the Connecticut
    Department of Correction, which “provides that matters relating to [the] application of
    departmental policies, rules and procedures, individual employee actions, and any other matters
    relating to access to programs, conditions of care and housing unit conditions are grievable” and
    further noted that “plaintiff’s claims fall into these categories.” Day v. Lantz, No. 03:05 cv 1347, slip
    op. at 7-8 (D. Conn. Nov. 15, 2007). The informal letters of complaint that Day sent to the
    Connecticut Department of Correction officials do not conform to the proper administrative
    remedy procedures established by the Connecticut Department of Correction. Moreover, the
    affidavits of the grievance coordinators at the facilities where Day was incarcerated establish that
    Day did not file any proper administrative grievances relevant to the claims raised in his complaint.
    Although Day argues that he could not pursue a grievance with the Department of
    Correction based on a settlement agreement between the State of Connecticut Office of Protection
    and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities and Connecticut prison officials, that agreement
    explicitly states that it does not alter the administrative remedies available to prisoners. Moreover,
    he has presented no evidence showing that his misunderstanding of the available grievance
    procedures was reasonable. Accordingly, the District Court’s grant of summary judgment based on
    plaintiff’s failure to exhaust administrative remedies was proper.
    CONCLUSION
    We have considered all of plaintiff’s arguments and find them to be without merit. For the
    foregoing reasons, the judgment of the District Court is AFFIRMED.
    FOR THE COURT,
    Catherine O’Hagan Wolfe, Clerk of Court
    By ______________________________
    3
    

Document Info

Docket Number: 07-5478-pr

Citation Numbers: 354 F. App'x 472

Judges: Miner, Cabranes, Straub

Filed Date: 11/25/2009

Precedential Status: Non-Precedential

Modified Date: 11/5/2024