Negron v. Turco
Negron v. Turco
Opinion of the Court
*119Jose L. Negron ("Plaintiff") is incarcerated with the Massachusetts Department of Correction. Plaintiff has been housed at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center, MCI-Concord, MCI-Shirley (Medium), and/or NCCI-Gardner at all times relevant to this litigation. On September 17, 2017, this Court issued an order dismissing all of Plaintiff's claims except found that Counts III and IV were plausibly pled. (Docket No. 87). Plaintiff's surviving claims are against Defendant Melendez for retaliation in violation of
Standard of Review
Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provides that the court shall grant summary judgment if the moving party shows, based on the materials in the record, "that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed. R. Civ. P. 56. A factual dispute precludes summary judgment if it is both "genuine" and "material." See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. ,
The moving party is responsible for "identifying those portions [of the record] which it believes demonstrate the absence of a genuine issue of material fact." Celotex Corp. v. Catrett ,
Discussion
1. Count III
The principles of administrative exhaustion provide "that no one is entitled to judicial relief for a supposed or threatened injury until the prescribed administrative remedy has been exhausted." Myers v. Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp. ,
Prisoners attempting to litigate their cases in court must also comply with these exhaustion requirements. The Prison Litigation Reform Act ("PLRA") provides in relevant part:
No action shall be brought with respect to prison conditions under section 1983 of this title, or any other Federal law, by a prisoner confined in any jail, prison, or other correction facility until such administrative remedies as are available are exhausted.
42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a) ; see also Woodford v. Ngo ,
Here, Plaintiff alleges that disciplinary reports were issued as retaliation for this lawsuit. (Docket No. 95 ¶ 62). However, Plaintiff has failed to file any grievance alleging Defendant Melendez was responsible for any disciplinary report he received. (Docket No. 226 ¶ 261). And, while Plaintiff did challenge Disciplinary Report No. 377384, nowhere in that appeal did Plaintiff imply that Defendant Melendez was responsible. Id. ¶¶ 253-259.
Accordingly, because Plaintiff did not raise any claims against Defendant Melendez when he challenged Disciplinary Report No. 377384, this Court will not consider them. In addition, with respect to his remaining retaliation allegations against Defendant Melendez, Plaintiff has failed to exhaust his administrative remedies.
2. Count IV
"[A] final judgment on the merits of an action precludes the parties or their privies from relitigating issues that were or could have been raised in that action." Allen v. McCurry ,
This court must "give the same preclusive effect to a state-court judgement as would the courts of the State rendering the judgement." McDonald v. City of West Branch, Michigan ,
On September 14, 2016, Suffolk Superior Court dismissed Plaintiff's claim with prejudice for failure to comply with a court order to pay a filing fee. (Docket No. 226, Ex. C at 160, 192). The dismissal does not fall within the scope of any exception and accordingly operates as an adjudication on the merits. Further, the claims and parties are sufficiently identical as Plaintiff similarly alleged that Defendants Nelligan and Cresey failed to protect him based on the same set of facts as this case. (Docket No. 226-3 at 161-83).
Accordingly, this Court is precluded from relitigating Plaintiff's failure to protect *121claims against Defendants Nelligan and Cresey.
Conclusion
For the reasons stated above, Plaintiff's motion (Docket No. 221) is denied and Defendants' motion (Docket No. 224) is granted.
SO ORDERED.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Jose L. NEGRON v. Thomas TURCO, III Abbe Nelligan, Colette Goguen, Luis Melendez, and Lori Cresey
- Status
- Published