Raynard Jackson v. Dane Esser, 105 F.4th 948

Raynard Jackson, a Wisconsin prisoner, was placed in an observation cell without running water for five days while subject to clinical observation restrictions after reporting suicidal ideation.
Jackson alleged that Lt. Dane Esser and other staff ignored his repeated requests to restore water and then failed to provide adequate medical care for resulting dehydration.
Jackson claims he filed ten grievances over these conditions, but the prison processed only five; the district court, without an evidentiary hearing, considered only the processed grievances for exhaustion purposes.
The district court dismissed most defendants and claims on exhaustion grounds and granted summary judgment to Nurse Edge and Capt. Flannery; only claims against Lt. Esser proceeded to trial, where the jury ruled for Esser.
On appeal, Jackson argued the district court erred by ignoring his unprocessed grievances without holding a Pavey hearing, improperly dismissing claims as unexhausted, wrongly granting summary judgment, and making erroneous trial evidentiary rulings.

Issue	Jackson's Argument	Esser's Argument	Held
Whether court wrongly disregarded unprocessed grievances for exhaustion	Jackson said he plausibly alleged filing additional grievances, raising factual dispute	Esser argued only 5 grievances filed & properly processed	Court erred; factual dispute requires Pavey hearing on exhaustion
Whether processed grievances exhausted all claims	Processed grievances gave sufficient notice of all claims and parties	Processed grievances did not put prison on notice regarding all parties and claims	Processed grievances exhausted only claims against Esser and medical care deliberate indifference for dehydration against Esser, Edge, Flannery
Whether summary judgment for Nurse Edge was proper	Edge was deliberately indifferent by not providing medical care for dehydration	Edge claims Jackson refused treatment and care met minimum standard	No deliberate indifference; summary judgment for Edge affirmed
Whether trial evidentiary rulings were erroneous	Court wrongly excluded prior lawsuit, racism evidence; wrongly admitted hunger strike evidence	Proper to exclude as prejudicial/irrelevant; hunger strikes showed possible intent	No abuse of discretion; any error in admitting hunger strike evidence was harmless

Pavey v. Conley, 544 F.3d 739 (7th Cir. 2008) (requiring evidentiary hearing when exhaustion of remedies is disputed)
Roberts v. Neal, 745 F.3d 232 (7th Cir. 2014) (swearing contests over exhaustion require a hearing)
Turley v. Rednour, 729 F.3d 645 (7th Cir. 2013) (exhaustion is meant to alert prison to the nature of the problem)
Maddox v. Love, 655 F.3d 709 (7th Cir. 2011) (exhaustion standard is based on the notice given to the prison)
Gomez v. United States, 763 F.3d 845 (7th Cir. 2014) (clarified Rule 404(b) in admitting other-act evidence)
Maher v. City of Chicago, 547 F.3d 817 (7th Cir. 2008) (failure to make Rule 50 motion precludes challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence)