Lopez v. Nichols

Background

Tito Lopez, a California prisoner proceeding without a lawyer, brought a civil-rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against prison officials. He alleged that, in January 2021, he told Correctional Officers Callison, Nichols, and Sullivan that he had abdominal pain, but they did not summon emergency medical care. He also alleged that Nichols told him to submit a medical request form and that Nichols, Callison, and Sullivan arranged for him to be taken to the prison medical clinic.

The defendants moved for summary judgment, arguing that Lopez had not exhausted the available prison grievance process. Lopez did not oppose the motion, although the court had warned him about the consequences of failing to respond.

Court’s analysis

The court explained that summary judgment is appropriate when the evidence shows no genuine dispute over a fact that could affect the result and the moving party is entitled to judgment. An unopposed motion cannot be granted solely because no opposition was filed; the court must still determine whether the moving papers show that no material factual dispute exists.

The Prison Litigation Reform Act requires prisoners to properly exhaust available administrative remedies before bringing claims about prison conditions under Section 1983. For the health-care issues involved here, the applicable California process required use of a CDCR-602 HC form and, when necessary, an appeal to the Health Care Correspondence and Appeal Branch. A substantive decision at the headquarters level completed the process.

The court found no dispute that Lopez had not filed an administrative grievance about the events at issue. The prison’s records showed no grievance filed by Lopez since January 2021, although the prison recorded all grievances it received, including rejected or canceled grievances. The court also found that the grievance process was available to Lopez. He had filed administrative grievances before, including one in August 2020, and there was no evidence that the process was less available to him in January 2021. The court therefore found no triable issue about exhaustion.

Ruling

Judge Jeffrey S. White granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment. The complaint was dismissed without prejudice to filing a new action after Lopez properly exhausted his claims. The court denied the motion to stay discovery as unnecessary, directed the Clerk to enter judgment and close the file, and ordered that it be done.