Atherley v. Kernan

District Court, S.D. California·Decided September 12, 2022·No. 3:19-cv-02355·Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 EDLY A. ATHERLEY, II, Case No.: 19-cv-2355-LAB-DEB

12 Plaintiff, REPORT AND 13 v. RECOMMENDATION ON: (1) PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR 14 SCOTT KERNAN, et al., LEAVE TO FILE AN AMENDED 15 Defendants. COMPLAINT; AND (2) THE PARTIES’ JOINT MOTION TO 16 MODIFY THE SCHEDULING 17 ORDER

18 [DKT. NOS. 51, 55] 19

20 21 The Court submits this Report and Recommendation to United States District Judge 22 Larry Alan Burns pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b). 23 I. INTRODUCTION 24 Before the Court is Plaintiff’s Motion for Leave to File an Amended Complaint to 25 Add Defendants (“Motion to Amend”). Dkt. No. 51. Defendants oppose. Dkt. No. 57. Also 26 before the Court is the parties’ Joint Motion Requesting to Modify the Scheduling Order 27 Regulating Discovery and Other Pre-Trial Proceedings (“Joint Motion to Continue”). Dkt. 28 1 Motion for Leave to File an Amended Complaint but reinstating the claims in Plaintiff’s 2 First Amended Complaint previously dismissed as Heck-barred. The Court also 3 recommends GRANTING the parties’ Joint Motion to Continue to allow discovery on the 4 reinstated claims. 5 II. FACTUAL BACKGROUND 6 Plaintiff’s operative First Amended Complaint (“FAC”) alleges Richard J. Donovan 7 Correctional Facility (“Donovan”) Correctional Officers Hultz, Jaramillo, Strong, Pamplin, 8 Crespo, and Joyner used excessive force against Plaintiff in violation of his First and Eighth 9 Amendment rights. Dkt. No. 10. According to the FAC, Hultz gestured at Plaintiff in a 10 manner intended to “provoke violence,” and “glare[d] at . . . plaintiff in a menacing 11 fashion.” Id. at 8–10. Plaintiff reported Hultz’s conduct and completed a Form 22 12 grievance. Id. at 10. Two days later, an altercation ensued after Hultz refused Plaintiff’s 13 request to sign the Form 22. Id. at 12. Jaramillo, Pamplin, and Strong intervened with 14 excessive force, “maliciously” beating Plaintiff, while Crespo and Joyner stood by ignoring 15 Plaintiff’s pleas for help. Id. at 12–14. Hultz then fabricated a Rule Violation Report 16 (“RVR”) charging Plaintiff with battery on a peace officer. Id. at 21–22. 17 Plaintiff was transferred to California State Prison, Los Angeles County (“LA 18 County”), where staff investigated and held a hearing on the RVR. Id. at 21. The FAC 19 alleges staff there: (1) falsified injury reports; (2) used coercive tactics during investigative 20 interviews; and (3) violated due process. Id. at 17–32. A Senior Hearing Officer found 21 Plaintiff guilty of battery on a peace officer and “sentenced [Plaintiff] to 6 months in 22 isolation.” Id. at 21–22. 23 Plaintiff’s proposed Second Amended Complaint (“SAC”): (1) realleges, with 24 additional factual detail, the same Constitutional violations at Donovan and LA County 25 described in Plaintiff’s FAC; and (2) alleges new Constitutional violations at Mule Creek 26 State Prison (“Mule Creek”), where Plaintiff is presently housed. Dkt. No. 51-2 at 22–23. 27 Specifically, Count II of Plaintiff’s proposed SAC alleges this Court mailed its 28 February 9, 2021 Screening Order to Plaintiff at Mule Creek and: (1) Doe Defendants 1 “intentionally opened and read [this order] outside of Plaintiff’s presence and delivered the 2 Court’s mailing through regular mail”; (2) Doe Defendants “failed to document the receipt 3 of [this] mail”; and (3) mailroom supervisor Phillips “was deliberately indifferent” when 4 Plaintiff notified him of these violations. Id. at 25–26. 5 Count II of the proposed SAC also alleges Constitutional violations at Mule Creek 6 unrelated to anything in the FAC: (1) officials at Mule Creek directed Plaintiff’s 7 psychiatrist to “falsely represent[ ] facts about Plaintiff’s criminal conviction in a mental 8 health assessment”; and (2) for unspecified reasons, Mule Creek officials “ordered 9 [Plaintiff] to . . . be transported to another facility,” but, because Plaintiff had tested positive 10 for COVID-19 and Mule Creek was “under a state-mandated quarantine . . . Plaintiff 11 medically refused to be transported” and only agreed to “br[eak] quarantine” after an 12 unidentified correctional sergeant “threatened Plaintiff with a ‘physical cell extraction.’” 13 Dkt. No. 51-2 at 24–25. 14 III. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND 15 Plaintiff’s FAC alleges First, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment violations against 16 18 correctional and appeals officials at Donovan and LA County and the former Secretary 17 of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Dkt. No. 10 at 1–6, 24–26. 18 The Court screened Plaintiff’s FAC and dismissed all claims for relief “with respect 19 to any Defendant except Hultz, Strong, Jaramillo, Pamplin, Crespo, and Joyner.” Dkt. 20 No. 12 at 13, 24. The Court denied further leave to amend. Id. 21 Defendants then filed a Motion to Dismiss the FAC. Dkt. No. 24. The Court granted 22 the Motion, in part, and dismissed Plaintiff’s excessive force and retaliation claims against 23 Hultz, Jaramillo, Joyner, and Crespo as barred by Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 447 (1994). 24 Dkt. Nos. 29, 30. 25 Following the ruling on Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss, the Court issued a 26 Scheduling Order setting: (1) a June 3, 2022 deadline to amend the pleadings; (2) a 27 July 8, 2022 fact discovery cutoff; (3) an August 26, 2022 expert discovery cutoff and 28 motion filing deadline; and (4) a December 12, 2022 Pretrial Conference. Dkt. Nos. 36, 46. 1 Plaintiff timely brought his Motion to Amend. Dkt. No. 51. The parties also filed a Joint 2 Motion to Continue the Scheduling Order dates. Dkt. No. 55. 3 IV. LEGAL STANDARDS 4 In determining whether to grant leave to amend, a court considers “the presence of 5 any of four factors: bad faith, undue delay, prejudice to the opposing party, and/or futility.” 6 Owens v. Kaiser Found. Health Plan, Inc., 244 F.3d 708, 712 (9th Cir. 2001). Absent these 7 factors, the Court should freely grant leave to amend. AmerisourceBergen Corp. v. 8 Dialysist West, Inc., 445 F.3d 1132, 1136 (9th Cir. 2006). However, a “district court’s 9 discretion to deny leave to amend is particularly broad where plaintiff has previously 10 amended the complaint.” See Cafasso, U.S. ex rel. v. Gen. Dynamics C4 Sys., Inc., 637 11 F.3d 1047, 1058 (9th Cir. 2011). 12 A motion to reopen or continue discovery deadlines requires a showing of good 13 cause. See, e.g., Sheridan v. Reinke, 611 F. App’x 381, 384 (9th Cir. 2015) (applying “good 14 cause” requirement to motions to reopen discovery); see also Dkt. No. 36 at 5 (stating the 15 dates set forth in the Scheduling Order Regulating Discovery and Other Pretrial 16 Proceedings “will not be modified except for good cause shown”). The “‘good cause’ 17 standard primarily considers the diligence of the party seeking the amendment.” Johnson 18 v. Mammoth Recreations, Inc., 975 F.2d 604, 609 (9th Cir. 1992). Whether to reopen 19 discovery is within the “sound discretion” of the trial court. See Cornwell v. Electra Cent. 20 Credit Union, 439 F.3d 1018, 1027 (9th Cir. 2006). 21 V. DISCUSSION 22 Plaintiff seeks to amend his Complaint to add parties and claims “not previously 23 related to his [FAC]” and “cure deficiencies” previously “identified by the Court.” Dkt. 24 No. 51 at 8. Defendants oppose the Motion, asserting the proposed amendment is futile, 25 untimely, and improperly joins unrelated parties. Dkt. No. 57 at 5–9.

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