Jackson v. Esser

Defendant, an inmate in a Wisconsin facility, filed a lawsuit against the facility and its employees alleging violations of his Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Defendant alleged that his rights were violated when he was placed in a cell without running water for five days and that after the water was turned on was not provided treatment for dehydration. The district court found that defendant had not exhausted his administrative remedies as to certain claims and defendants and granted summary judgment in favor of other defendants. The matter proceeded to trial against a single defendant, the jury found in favor of the defendant, and plaintiff appealed. The Seventh Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part, agreeing with defendant that the district court should not have disregarded his allegedly unprocessed grievances without holding an evidentiary hearing but found there was no error in the trial court’s conclusion that the processed grievances did not exhaust remedies as to all of his claims. The Seventh Circuit also found no error in the trial court’s summary judgment rulings and that defendant had forfeited his claim challenging the sufficiency of the evidence because he failed to move for judgment as a matter of law or for a new trial. (JACKSON-AKIWUMI and PRYOR, concurring)