Damon Turnage v. Thomas Dart, 16 F.4th 551

Damon Turnage, a Cook County Jail inmate with known seizure risk and a lower-bunk permit, was placed on an upper bunk on August 30, 2016 because his cellmate asserted a lower-bunk permit.
Turnage fell from the upper bunk on September 21, 2016, suffering a broken ankle and other injuries.
He filed an institutional grievance on September 27, 2016 (six days after the fall) and immediately appealed after denial.
Turnage sued under Title II of the ADA and §504 of the Rehabilitation Act seeking damages, alleging the Jail failed to enforce his lower-bunk accommodation.
The district court dismissed the suit under 42 U.S.C. §1997e(a) for failure to exhaust, reasoning Turnage could have grieved when placed on the upper bunk on August 30 and that omission barred later grievance.
The Seventh Circuit reversed, holding the Jail’s grievance rules allowed a grievance after the fall, the officials addressed the grievance on the merits (not as untimely), and a merits rejection counts as properly filed for exhaustion purposes.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether Turnage exhausted administrative remedies under §1997e(a) by filing a grievance after the fall	Turnage argued a grievance after the injury was timely and satisfied exhaustion for claims based on that injury	Jail argued he should have filed earlier (upon August 30 placement) and thus failed to exhaust	Court held the post‑fall grievance exhausted remedies; timely grievance tied to injury satisfies §1997e(a)
Whether an earlier, separate opportunity to grieve exposure to risk bars a later grievance about the resulting injury	Turnage argued plaintiffs may wait until injury occurs and then grieve; tort accrual supports that approach	Jail argued a grievance after the second event is untimely if an earlier grievance was possible	Court held prison rules did not bar a later grievance and normal tort accrual means waiting for injury can be proper
Effect of officials addressing a grievance on the merits rather than rejecting it as untimely	Turnage argued the merits decision means the grievance was properly filed for exhaustion purposes	Jail implicitly relied on timeliness theory but treated the grievance on the merits	Court held a grievance rejected on the merits is deemed properly filed for §1997e(a) (following Maddox)

Ross v. Blake, 136 S. Ct. 1850 (2016) (clarifies prisoners must take available institutional steps to exhaust administrative remedies)
United States v. Kubrick, 444 U.S. 111 (1979) (injury plus knowledge of cause marks accrual for tort claims)
Rozenfeld v. Medical Protective Co., 73 F.3d 154 (7th Cir. 1996) (there is no tort without injury)
Maddox v. Love, 655 F.3d 709 (7th Cir. 2011) (a grievance rejected on the merits counts as properly filed for exhaustion purposes)