Prisons — administrative remedies

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United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Civil

Prisons — administrative remedies

Where a prisoner failed to exhaust his administrative remedies before filing a civil rights suit, judgment was properly entered in favor of the defendants.

“What the cases have not considered, however, is a situation in which prison personnel, sensing atypical cognitive or psychological infirmities of the prisoner plaintiff, deliberately exploit these infirmities to deter him from filing a grievance. That would be the kind of misconduct that the doctrine of equitable estoppel makes a defense to a variety of claims and defenses, most commonly a statute of limitations defense. See, e.g., Arteaga v. United States, 711 F.3d 828, 833 (7th Cir. 2013). In Kaba v. Stepp, supra, 458 F.3d at 686-87, we left open the possibility that equitable estoppel might be a defense to failure to exhaust prison remedies. We need not decide; the present case is remote from that hypothetical situation.”

Affirmed.

12-2568 Schultz v. Pugh

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, Crabb, J., Posner, J.