ARTIS CREWS v. DONALD MEE, JR.

 

NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE

APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION

SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY

APPELLATE DIVISION

DOCKET NO. A-1601-05T51601-05T5

ARTIS CREWS,

Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.

DONALD MEE, JR.,

Defendant-Respondent.

___________________________________

 

Submitted July 19, 2006 - Decided August 10, 2006

Before Judges Fuentes and Graves.

On appeal from Superior Court of

New Jersey, Law Division, Special

Civil Part, Mercer County, Docket

No. SC-918-05.

Artis Crews, appellant pro se.

Zulima V. Farber, Attorney General,

attorney for respondent (Michael J. Haas,

Assistant Attorney General, of counsel;

Karen L. Jordan, Deputy Attorney General,

on the brief).

PER CURIAM:

Plaintiff Artis Crews appeals from the judgment of the Law Division, Special Civil Part, dismissing his Small Claims complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Plaintiff is an inmate incarcerated in a New Jersey State Prison. He filed a complaint against defendant Donald Mee, Jr., in his capacity as Assistant Superintendent of the prison, for the value of thirty-eight packs of cigarettes. Plaintiff alleged that the cigarettes were wrongfully confiscated by the prison authorities as contraband.

Plaintiff had a full administrative review of this issue pursuant to the procedures governing the treatment of prisoners established by regulations of the Department of Corrections. Upon exhausting his administrative remedies, rather than filing an appeal in the Appellate Division, plaintiff filed a complaint in the Law Division seeking a judgment for the value of the cigarettes.

In this light, the trial court correctly dismissed the case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Pascucci v. Vagott, 71 N.J. 40, 52 (1976); R. 2:2-3(a).

Affirmed.

 

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A-1601-05T5

August 10, 2006