Hill v. Snyder

Dist. Ct. erred in dismissing for failure to exhaust administrative remedies plaintiff-prisoner’s section 1983 action alleging that defendants-prison officials failed to protect him from other inmates who threw feces at him. Although state’s grievance policy required plaintiff to seek informal resolution of his complaints, and if dissatisfied submit formal grievance prior to filing lawsuit, record showed with respect to first grievance that plaintiff had satisfied all informal and written prerequisites of grievance process prior to filing instant lawsuit, and that defendant’s staff merely returned grievance unprocessed and had failed to inform him that he could appeal defendant’s refusal to process grievance. Moreover, record showed that defendant’s staff refused to give plaintiff grievance form with respect to two other incidents at issue in instant lawsuit, and that said failure was sufficient reason to excuse any exhaustion requirement for these incidents.