United States Second Circuit

In an action involving a prison grievance, district court's grant of defendant's motion for summary judgment on the ground that plaintiff failed to exhaust administrative remedies under the Prison Litigation Reform Act by omitting the names of defendants from his prison grievance is reversed and remanded where: 1) subsequent to the district court decision, the Supreme Court held in Jones v. Bock that exhaustion under the PLRA does not require a prisoner's grievance to identify the parties responsible for misconduct unless an identification requirement is provided in the state's grievance procedures; and 2) New York grievance procedures do not require an inmate to specifically name responsible parties. Dismissal of plaintiff's retaliation claim is reversed and denial of plaintiff's motion for new trial is affirmed.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/27/2009
• Published 02/27/2009

Judges

• POOLER, Circuit Judge:, Before:  LEVAL, POOLER, and PARKER, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Cesar A. Espinal, pro se, for Plaintiff-Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Marion R. Buchbinder, Assistant Solicitor General, (Barbara D. Underwood, Solicitor General, Benjamin N. Gutman, Deputy Solicitor General, Assistant Solicitor General, on the brief), for Andrew M. Cuomo, Attorney General of the State of New York, New York, NY, for Defendants-Appellees.