Wagoner v. Lemmon

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendants-prison and prison officials’ motion for summary judgment in plaintiff-prisoner’s section 1983 and ADA/Rehabilitation Act actions alleging that defendants failed to accommodate his disability by providing him with suitable wheelchair, where Dist. Ct. found that plaintiff had failed to exhaust his administrative remedies with respect to all but two of his relevant grievances, and that defendant had not been denied access to prison facilities within meaning of ADA or Rehabilitation Act. While plaintiff argued that Dist. Ct. should have granted his request to conduct Peavy hearing to determine whether he had exhausted his administrative remedies prior to acting on summary judgment motion, record showed that plaintiff had failed to follow Dist. Ct.’s order with respect to procedure for filing request for Peavy hearing. Moreover, Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendant’s summary judgment motion where: (1) plaintiff could not pursue section 1983 action against prison or Commissioner in his official capacity since neither are “persons” for purposes of section 1983; and (2) plaintiff could not establish either ADA or Rehabilitation Act claim, since plaintiff’s allegation that he was inconvenienced through lack of suitable wheelchair did not amount to complete denial of services.