McBride v. Lopez

Plaintiff filed a pro se complaint under 42 U.S.C. 1983, claiming violation of his Eighth Amendment rights by use of excessive force by prison guards. At issue was a claim that a threat of retaliatory action by a prison guard had the effect of rendering the prison grievance system unavailable so as to excuse the prisoner’s failure to meet the time limitation for filing a grievance. As a preliminary matter, the court held that exhaustion issues must instead generally be decided on a motion for summary judgment pursuant to Rule 56. The court joined other circuits in holding that fear of retaliation may be sufficient to render the inmate grievance procedure unavailable, and the court approved the test applied in the Eleventh Circuit that requires both a subjective and objective basis for the fear. In this case, the court held that plaintiff failed to show an objective basis for his belief that prison officials would retaliate against him for filing a grievance. Therefore, the court affirmed the district court's dismissal of the complaint. View "McBride v. Lopez" on Justia Law