Opinion
Case No. 14 C 4252
06-11-2014
DANIEL ANTHONY GARZA, 2012-1117028, Plaintiff, v. COOK COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONAL JAIL, Defendant.
MEMORANDUM ORDER
Daniel Garza ("Garza") has utilized the printed form of 42 U.S.C. § 1983 ("Section 1983") Complaint, made available for prisoners' use by the Clerk's Office, to sue Cook County Department of Correctional Jail because of assertedly intolerable living conditions in the Division 6 segregation cells at the Cook County Department of Corrections ("County Jail"), where Hernandez is in custody. This sua sponte memorandum order is issued because Hernandez has failed to establish his entitlement to enter the federal courthouse door.
That named defendant is not a sueable legal entity (a mistake for which this Court does not of course fault nonlawyer Garza). If Garza cures the jurisdictional problem referred to later in the text, this Court's ensuing order will address that issue appropriately.
Before that jurisdictional issue is addressed, however, this Court notes that Garza has complied with the requirements of 28 U.S.C. § 1915 ("Section 1915"), for his accompanying In Forma Pauperis Application has included the necessary printout of transactions in his trust fund account at the County Jail for the six months preceding the filing of the lawsuit (see Section 1915(a)(2)). If Hernandez were able to overcome the hurdle described next in the text, this Court would anticipate making the calculations called for by Section 1915.
But this memorandum order has referred to a critical -- because jurisdictional -- problem, and that relates to the precondition that Congress has attached to such Section 1983 lawsuits: the need to have exhausted all available administrative remedies before coming to the courts (42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a)). Because Garza has not even hinted at compliance with that requirement, there appears to be no need for a Pavey hearing unless Garza supplements his Complaint with a showing in that respect by a filing received in the Clerk's Office on or before June 25, 2014. If he fails to provide a timely and satisfactory filing in that respect, this Court will be constrained to dismiss this action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
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Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge