Dinan v. Carter
- Laura Swain
- 1:21-cv-08987
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Dinan v. Carter, Judge Swain dismissed Luke Dinan’s complaint because he had not exhausted required prison remedies.
Luke Dinan’s constitutional conditions-of-confinement claims against the named New York City Department of Correction officials were dismissed because he had not exhausted the required grievance process; the court did not reach the seriousness of the alleged conditions.
What happened
In Dinan v. Carter, Luke Dinan, who was representing himself, sued New York City Department of Correction officials over conditions during his pretrial detention at the Vernon C. Bain Center. He said he was denied toilet paper, soap, and toothbrushes for two to three days and food and water for seven to eight hours.
The defendants asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing that Dinan had not completed the required prison grievance process before suing and that the alleged conditions were not serious enough to support a constitutional claim. Dinan did not respond or keep the court informed of his address.
The court granted the motion to dismiss because Dinan could not have completed the grievance process in the approximately one week between the alleged incident and filing his complaint. Judge Swain directed the Clerk to enter judgment, dismiss the complaint, and close the case; she also denied permission to appeal without paying court fees.
The detailed version
- Dinan v. Carter · No. 1:21-cv-08987
- Laura Swain
- Mar. 22, 2023
Background
Luke Dinan brought this case without a lawyer against Warden Carter, Warden Guerra, Captain Horton, Captain Anthony Daniel, Captain Carlo Ciquero, and Captain Jermain Slack. He alleged that New York City Department of Correction officials violated his constitutional rights while he was a pretrial detainee at the Vernon C. Bain Center. According to the complaint, on or about October 5, 2021, he was denied toilet paper, soap, and toothbrushes for two to three days and food and water for seven to eight hours.
Dinan submitted his complaint to prison authorities on October 12, 2021, and it was filed on November 1, 2021. He later made no filings, did not submit an amended complaint as directed, and did not provide a current address after court mail was returned as undeliverable.
Defendants’ motion
The defendants moved to dismiss. They argued that Dinan had not exhausted his administrative remedies, meaning that he had not completed the available prison grievance process before filing suit. They also argued that the conditions he described were not an objectively serious deprivation sufficient to support a constitutional conditions-of-confinement claim.
Court’s analysis
The court granted the motion based on failure to exhaust administrative remedies under the Prison Litigation Reform Act. The court explained that a person in custody must properly complete all available steps in the agency’s grievance process before bringing a lawsuit about confinement conditions.
The court found that failure to exhaust was apparent from the complaint. Dinan alleged that the relevant conduct began on October 5, 2021, but he submitted his complaint for filing only about one week later, on October 12. The court stated that the Department of Correction grievance process takes many weeks to complete, so Dinan could not have exhausted it before filing. The court therefore held that his claims were barred by failure to exhaust.
Because the court dismissed the case on that threshold ground, the opinion did not decide whether the alleged denial of supplies, food, and water was serious enough to violate the Constitution.
Disposition
The court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss the complaint. It directed the Clerk to enter judgment dismissing the complaint and close case number 21-cv-8987. The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying court fees. Judge Laura Taylor Swain signed the Memorandum Order on March 22, 2023.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.