Paul Redd, Jr. v. Michael Daley

MEMORANDUM

Paul Redd, Jr. (“Redd”), a prisoner currently in the custody of the California Department of Corrections (“CDC”), appeals the dismissal of his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim against CDC Correctional Officer Michael Daley for failure to exhaust administrative remedies, as required by 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a) of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (“PLRA”). We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We reverse and remand for further proceedings. We review de novo the district court’s determination that a prisoner failed to exhaust administrative remedies. O’Guinn v. Lovelock Corr. Ctr., 502 F.3d 1056, 1059 (9th Cir.2007).

The district court dismissed Redd’s excessive force claim for failure to exhaust because Redd did not assert in his prison grievance that Daley used excessive force. However, where prison grievance rules do not set forth a level of factual specificity— as is the case here — this court has held that a prisoner must simply notify the prison of the “nature of the wrong for which redress is sought.” Griffin v. Arpaio, 557 F.3d 1117, 1120 (9th Cir.2009) (quoting Strong v. David, 297 F.3d 646, 650 (7th Cir.2002)). Here, Redd’s grievance addresses the incident with Daley…