Weiss v. Barribeau

Dist. Ct. erred in granting defendants-prison officials’ motion for summary judgment in plaintiff-prisoner’s section 1983 action alleging that defendants had failed to prevent assault by his cellmate or properly treat his broken ankle, where basis for ruling was Dist. Ct.’s finding that plaintiff had failed to exhaust prison’s internal remedies prior to filing instant lawsuit. Dismissal was premature, where, although plaintiff had failed to file amended grievance within applicable time frame and had failed to appeal adverse ruling on his second administrative complaint regarding plaintiff’s broken ankle, record showed that any administrative remedies were unavailable to plaintiff, since plaintiff lacked access to necessary forms to prosecute said internal claims, where plaintiff had been transferred to different facility to treat his mental illness at time when plaintiff was to file said internal grievances. Moreover, plaintiff was under influence of psychotropic drugs at all relevant times and was otherwise unaware of rejection of his second administrative complaint.