Horton v. Eischen
- Jeffrey Bryan
- 0:25-cv-02238
- U.S. District Court · District of Minnesota
- 2
In Horton v. Eischen, Judge Bryan dismissed without prejudice the petition filed by Donovan Orville Horton seeking release from federal custody because Horton had not first exhausted the available administrative complaint process before coming to court.
Federal prisoners at FPC Duluth or similar facilities who seek to challenge their confinement in federal court without first completing the Bureau of Prisons' internal administrative grievance process.
What happened
In Horton v. Eischen, federal prisoner Donovan Orville Horton filed a petition asking a federal court to order his release or otherwise review his confinement at FPC Duluth, a federal prison camp. Before a federal court can consider such a petition, a prisoner generally must first go through the prison system's own internal grievance and appeals process — a requirement called exhaustion of administrative remedies. The record showed that Horton had not completed that process before filing his court petition.
United States Magistrate Judge Leo I. Brisbois issued a Report and Recommendation on July 15, 2025, concluding that the petition should be dismissed because of this failure to exhaust administrative remedies. No party — including Horton — filed any objection to that recommendation, meaning the court reviewed it only for obvious legal error.
Finding no clear error in the Magistrate Judge's analysis, Judge Bryan accepted the Report and Recommendation in full. The petition was dismissed without prejudice, meaning Horton is not permanently barred from refiling if he completes the required administrative process. His separate application to proceed without paying court fees was denied as moot — meaning it no longer needed to be decided once the case was dismissed.
The detailed version
Case: Horton v. Eischen, File No. 25-cv-2238 (JMB/LIB), United States District Court for the District of Minnesota. Presiding District Judge: Jeffrey M. Bryan. Magistrate Judge: Leo I. Brisbois.
Background: Petitioner Donovan Orville Horton, a federal prisoner housed at FPC Duluth (a federal prison camp), filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus — a legal request asking the court to review the lawfulness of his confinement and potentially order relief. The respondent is B. Eischen, identified in connection with FPC Duluth.
Magistrate Judge's Report and Recommendation: On July 15, 2025, Magistrate Judge Brisbois issued a Report and Recommendation (R&R) recommending that the petition be denied without prejudice. The basis was Horton's failure to exhaust administrative remedies — the legal requirement that a federal prisoner must complete all available internal grievance and appeal procedures within the Bureau of Prisons before seeking judicial review. The R&R cited Mathena v. United States, 577 F.3d 943, 946 (8th Cir. 2009), as authority for this requirement.
Objections: No party filed objections to the R&R. Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 72(b) and Eighth Circuit precedent (Grinder v. Gammon, 73 F.3d 793, 795 (8th Cir. 1996)), when no objections are filed, the district court reviews the R&R only for clear error.
Court's Ruling: Judge Bryan found no clear error in the R&R and adopted it in full. The court issued three dispositive rulings: (1) the R&R was adopted; (2) the petition was dismissed without prejudice — meaning Horton retains the ability to refile after properly exhausting administrative remedies; and (3) Horton's application to proceed in forma pauperis (a request to waive filing fees based on financial hardship) was denied as moot because the dismissal of the case eliminated any need to rule on fee waiver.
Date of Order: September 15, 2025.
Reviewer note from the AI+
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.