Serrano v. Rudas

Summary

The document contains findings and recommendations in a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action brought by Andres Masqueda Serrano against correctional medical provider Robert Rudas. It recommends granting Rudas’s partial motion for summary judgment on the ground that Serrano failed to exhaust administrative remedies for medical-deliberate-indifference claims beyond the alleged discontinuation of pain medication.

Holdings

1. Plaintiff's grievance did not exhaust his claim that Defendant Rudas failed to provide adequate medical care unrelated to the discontinuation of pain medication because it concerned the discontinuation of morphine and did not provide sufficient notice of the separate factual basis for the broader inadequate-treatment claim.
2. Defendant established the existence of an available administrative remedy and Plaintiff's failure to exhaust the inadequate-medical-care claim, shifting the burden of production to Plaintiff.
3. Plaintiff failed to produce evidence showing that the available administrative grievance process was effectively unavailable.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Plaintiff exhausted available administrative remedies for his Eighth Amendment deliberate-indifference claim that Defendant Rudas failed to provide adequate medical care apart from discontinuing morphine.
2. Whether the undisputed grievance record established Defendant's entitlement to partial summary judgment on that unexhausted claim.
3. Whether Plaintiff demonstrated that the administrative grievance process was effectively unavailable to him.

Disposition

dismissed