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BURTON v. G. D. Lewis, Defendant. (2021)

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.2021-06-30No. No. 19-16670

Summary

Holding. The district court's summary judgment in favor of the defendant was affirmed because Burton failed to exhaust his administrative remedies and raised no genuine factual dispute regarding whether exhaustion was effectively impossible.

Jerry A. Burton, a California state prisoner, appealed a district court's grant of summary judgment dismissing his civil rights lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The district court found that Burton failed to complete the required administrative remedy procedures before filing suit and did not present evidence showing those remedies were genuinely unavailable. The appeals court reviewed the case from scratch and determined the district court correctly applied the exhaustion requirement, which mandates that prisoners use all proper administrative steps that the prison system offers before pursuing federal court relief.

Summary generated by law.co from the public-domain opinion. The opinion text itself is public domain.

Key issues

  • Whether administrative remedies must be exhausted before filing a § 1983 civil rights action
  • Whether the prisoner presented evidence that administrative remedies were effectively unavailable
  • Whether proper exhaustion requires using all steps an agency provides and doing so correctly

Procedural posture

Burton appealed pro se from the district court's summary judgment dismissing his § 1983 action for failure to exhaust administrative remedies.

Authorities cited

No cited authorities resolved to law.co cases yet.

Opinion

MEMORANDUM **

California state prisoner Jerry A. Burton appeals pro se from the district courts summary judgment for failure to exhaust administrative remedies in his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action alleging constitutional violations. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We review de novo. Albino v. Baca, 747 F.3d 1162, 1171 (9th Cir. 2014) (en banc). We affirm.

The district court properly granted summary judgment because Burton failed to exhaust his administrative remedies and failed to raise a genuine dispute of material fact as to whether administrative remedies were effectively unavailable. See Woodford v. Ngo, 548 U.S. 81, 90, 126 S.Ct. 2378, 165 L.Ed.2d 368 (2006) (“[P]roper exhaustion of administrative remedies ․ means using all steps that the agency holds out, and doing so properly (so that the agency addresses the issues on the merits)” (emphasis, citation and internal quotation marks omitted)); Sapp v. Kimbrell, 623 F.3d 813, 823-24, 826-27 (9th Cir. 2010) (describing limited circumstances under which exhaustion may be effectively unavailable).

We do not consider Burtons renewed motion for appointment of counsel (Docket Entry No. 27). In Docket Entry No. 12, this court denied Burtons motion for appointment of counsel and ordered that no motions for reconsideration, clarification, or modification of the denial shall be filed or entertained.

We do not consider matters not specifically and distinctly raised and argued in the opening brief, or arguments and allegations raised for the first time on appeal. See Padgett v. Wright, 587 F.3d 983, 985 n.2 (9th Cir. 2009).

The Clerk will file Burtons reply brief submitted at Docket Entry No. 28.

AFFIRMED.