RICHARD GARCIA V. JOHN DOE, No. 18-15858 (9th Cir. 2018)
Annotate this Case
Download PDF
FILED NOT FOR PUBLICATION DEC 5 2018 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT RICHARD GARCIA, U.S. COURT OF APPEALS No. 18-15858 Plaintiff-Appellant, D.C. No. 1:17-cv-00865-LJO-JLT v. MEMORANDUM* JOHN DOE, Defendant-Appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California Lawrence J. O’Neill, Chief Judge, Presiding Submitted November 27, 2018** Before: CANBY, TASHIMA, and FRIEDLAND, Circuit Judges. Richard Garcia, a New Mexico state prisoner formerly detained in California, appeals pro se from the district court’s judgment dismissing his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action alleging constitutional claims. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We review de novo. Resnick v. Hayes, 213 F.3d 443, 447 (9th Cir. * This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3. ** The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2). 2000) (dismissal under 28 U.S.C. § 1915A); Barren v. Harrington, 152 F.3d 1193, 1194 (9th Cir. 1998) (order) (dismissal under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii)). We reverse and remand. Garcia alleged in the complaint that he submitted his grievance 28 days after the event at issue, and that the prison improperly rejected his grievance as untimely. Because it is not clear from the face of the complaint that Garcia failed to exhaust available administrative remedies, sua sponte dismissal of Garcia’s action for failure to exhaust administrative remedies was improper at this early stage of the proceedings. See Cal. Code Regs. tit. 15, § 3084.8(b) (prisoner “must submit the appeal within 30 calendar days of . . . [t]he occurrence of the event or the decision being appealed”); Jones v. Bock, 549 U.S. 199, 214-15 (2007) (sua sponte dismissal for failure to exhaust administrative remedies is only appropriate if, taking the prisoner’s factual allegations as true, the complaint establishes the prisoner’s failure to exhaust); Sapp v. Kimbrell, 623 F.3d 813, 823 (9th Cir. 2010) (holding that “improper screening of an inmate’s administrative grievances renders administrative remedies ‘effectively unavailable’ such that exhaustion is not required”). We reverse and remand for further proceedings. Garcia’s request for the court to order production of prison surveillance 2 18-15858 video, set forth in the opening brief, is denied without prejudice to renewing the request before the district court on remand. REVERSED and REMANDED. 3 18-15858
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
