A state prisoner filed a pro se action under 42 U.S.C. sec. 1983, alleging that various defendants subjected him to cruel and unusual punishment by smoking and/or permitting inmates to smoke in designated nonsmoking areas and those subjecting him to having to breathe secondhand tobacco smoke.  An individual defendant, Tim Hansche, filed a motion to dismiss, contending that the Plaintiff had failed to exhaust his administrative remedies as to him and had failed to sate a claim as to Mr. Hansche.  The court ruled that, to exhaust his administrative remedies under the Prison Litigation Reform Act, a prisoner must specifically name in the grievance each defendant who is named in his civil action.  The court granted Hansche’s motion to dismiss, because the Plaintiff’s “first amended complaint fails to specify that his claims against Defendant Hansche were exhausted in the administrative process.”

2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 81196 (U.S.D.C. M.D. Tenn.).