Terry Donald Rutledge a/k/a Tori Elise Rutledge v. Kobie Stoppenhagen, et al.

Summary

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana denies defendants’ joint motion for summary judgment in Terry Donald Rutledge’s prisoner civil-rights action. The court holds that prison officials made administrative remedies unavailable by improperly rejecting Rutledge’s grievances as untimely, and that the grievances sufficiently alerted officials to her excessive-force and medical-care claims under the Eighth Amendment. The court also denies as moot Rutledge’s motion for a status update.

Holdings

1. Defendants were not entitled to summary judgment because the undisputed evidence showed that the grievance office improperly rejected Rutledge's May 10 grievances as untimely, thereby making the administrative remedies unavailable.
2. The May 10 grievances were sufficient to exhaust Rutledge's excessive-force and denial-of-medical-care claims because they gave prison officials notice of the problems and identified the correctional and nursing personnel involved closely enough to indicate the defendants were targets.
3. Summary judgment was denied because defendants failed to meet their burden of showing that Rutledge had available administrative remedies that she failed to exhaust before filing suit.

Questions Presented

1. Whether defendants were entitled to summary judgment because Rutledge failed to exhaust available administrative remedies before filing suit.
2. Whether Rutledge's May 10 grievances sufficiently alerted prison officials to her excessive-force and denial-of-medical-care claims.
3. Whether the prison grievance office's rejection of the May 10 grievances as untimely rendered the administrative remedies unavailable.

Disposition

other