Bailey v. Williams

CourtDistrict Court, D. Nevada
DecidedJune 14, 2022
Docket2:22-cv-00381
StatusUnknown

This text of Bailey v. Williams (Bailey v. Williams) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Nevada primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bailey v. Williams, (D. Nev. 2022).

Opinion

2 DISTRICT OF NEVADA

4 ANTHONY BAILEY, Case No. 2:22-cv-00381-CDS-NJK

5 Plaintiff, THREE STRIKES ORDER

v. 6

7 WARDEN BRIAN WILLIAMS, et al.,

8 Defendants.

9 10 I. DISCUSSION 11 Plaintiff Anthony Bailey is a prisoner proceeding pro se. On March 1, 2022, he submitted a 12 civil rights complaint pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and an application to proceed in forma pauperis. 13 ECF Nos. 1, 1-1, 1-2. On at least four prior occasions while incarcerated, however, Plaintiff has 14 brought a court action or appeal that was dismissed on the grounds that it was frivolous. 15 Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g), “if [a] prisoner has, on 3 or more prior occasions, while 16 incarcerated or detained in any facility, brought an action or appeal in a court of the United 17 States that was dismissed on the grounds that it is frivolous, malicious, or fails to state a claim 18 upon which relief may be granted,” he may not proceed in forma pauperis and, instead, must pay 19 the full $402.00 filing fee in advance unless he is “under imminent danger of serious physical 20 injury.” 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). “Not all unsuccessful cases qualify as a strike under § 1915(g).” 21 Andrews v. King, 398 F.3d 1113, 1121 (9th Cir. 2005). If an action or an appeal “was not dismissed on 22 one of the specific enumerated grounds, it does not count as a strike under § 1915(g).” Harris v. 23 Harris, 935 F.3d 670, 673 (9th Cir. 2019). “[D]ocket records may be sufficient to show that a prior 24 dismissal satisfies at least one of the criteria under § 1915(g).” Andrews, 398 F.3d at 1121. “[T]he § 25 1915(g) calculation includes claims dismissed prior to the effective date of the statute”—April 26 26, 1996. Tierney v. Kupers, 128 F.3d 1310, 1311 (9th Cir. 1997). 27 “Dismissed appeals that rely on district court findings that the appeal was not taken in 28 good faith are the equivalent of a finding of frivolity and therefore count as a strike under 2 (citing Knapp v. Hogan, 738 F.3d 1106, 1110 (9th Cir. 2013)), adopted by 2020 WL 6196226 (E.D. Cal. 3 Oct. 22, 2020); see also El-Shaddai v. Zamora, 833 F.3d 1036, 1046 (9th Cir. 2016) (reaffirming 4 Knapp’s holding that “two dismissed appeals counted as strikes because they relied on district 5 court findings that the appeal [was] not taken in good faith, and lack of good faith in this 6 context has been held to be equivalent to a finding of frivolity” (internal quotation marks and 7 citation omitted)). Moreover, “an appeal may count as a strike pursuant to [§] 1915(g) when the 8 appellate court denies a prisoner [in forma pauperis] status on appeal on grounds of frivolousness 9 ‘even though [the appellate court] did not dismiss the appeal until later when the [appellant] 10 did not pay the filing fee.’” Gipbsin, 2020 WL 4364649, at *5 (quoting Richey v. Dahne, 807 F.3d 11 1202, 1208 (9th Cir. 2015)). 12 Plaintiff accumulated at least four strikes before bringing this action. On three separate 13 occasions, the Ninth Circuit adopted the district court’s finding that Plaintiff’s appeal was not 14 taken in good faith, denied him permission to proceed in forma pauperis, and then dismissed the 15 appeal for failure to prosecute when he failed to pay the filing fee. Bailey v. Gunderson et al., No. 95- 16 17213, ECF Nos. 9, 14 (9th Cir. 1996); Bailey v. Hunnell, No. 98-15212, ECF Nos. 15, 17 (9th Cir. 17 1998); Bailey v. Leonhardt et al., No. 02-16378, ECF Nos. 12, 15 (9th Cir. 2002).1 Each of these 18 dismissals qualifies as a strike. See, e.g., Blackwell v. Jenkins, No. 19-cv-00442, 2021 WL 825747, at *3 19 (E.D. Cal. Mar. 4, 2021) (“The district court certified that the appeal was not taken in good faith. 20 The appellate court reviewed the record and confirmed that plaintiff was not entitled to IFP 21 status. The appellate court later dismissed plaintiff’s appeal for failure to prosecute when he 22 failed to pay the filing fee. An appellate court’s reliance on a district court’s finding that an 23 appeal was not taken in good faith is equivalent to a finding of frivolity. Even if the dismissal of 24 an appeal occurs later for another reason, the rejection of IFP status because an appeal is 25 26 27

28 1 The Court takes judicial notice of the docket sheets for these appeals, which are attached as exhibits to this order. 2 and citations omitted)), adopted by 2021 WL 1401836 (E.D. Cal. Apr. 14, 2021).2 3 Plaintiff incurred a fourth strike on May 9, 2018, when a court in this district dismissed 4 one of his civil rights actions “with prejudice because it [was] frivolous and cannot be cured by 5 amendment.” Bailey v. Herndon, No. 16-cv-02595, 2018 WL 2136356, at *1 (D. Nev. May 9, 2018). 6 Because Plaintiff accumulated four strikes before filing this action, he may not proceed in 7 forma pauperis unless he was “under imminent danger of serious physical injury” at the time he 8 filed the Complaint. 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g); see also Andrews v. Cervantes, 493 F.3d 1047, 1053 (9th Cir. 9 2007) (holding that availability of imminent-danger exception “turns on the conditions a 10 prisoner faced at the time the complaint was filed, not at some earlier or later time”). The 11 imminent-danger exception “functions as a limited safety valve for a prisoner who has exhausted 12 his three strikes but nevertheless faces imminent danger [of serious physical injury] stemming 13 from the violations of law alleged in his complaint.” Ray v. Lara, 31 F.4th 692, 701 (9th Cir. 2022). 14 Plaintiff has not satisfied the imminent-danger exception here. The Complaint alleges 15 that Defendants violated the First Amendment and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized 16 Persons Act by repeatedly cancelling Muslim Friday prayer services. ECF No. 1-1 at 3-10. 17 Nothing in the Complaint suggests that Plaintiff was “under imminent danger of serious 18 physical injury” when he filed this lawsuit. 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). Because Plaintiff has 19 accumulated at least four strikes and has failed to satisfy the imminent-danger exception, he 20 must prepay the $402.00 filing fee in full to proceed with this action. 21 II. CONCLUSION 22 For the foregoing reasons, it is ordered that Plaintiff’s application to proceed in forma 23 pauperis (ECF No. 1) is denied. 24 25 2 See also Morris v. Petersen, No. 12-cv-02480, 2015 WL 4776088, at *2 (N.D. Cal. Aug. 13, 2015) 26 (assessing strike where “district court certified that the appeal was not taken in good faith,” and “[t]he Ninth Circuit agreed, required [plaintiff] to pay the full filing fee, and then dismissed the appeal when he 27 failed to do so”); Murillo v. McBride, No. 11-cv-1560, 2014 WL 2858529, at *3 (S.D. Cal.

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Related

Andrews v. Cervantes
493 F.3d 1047 (Ninth Circuit, 2007)
Eric Knapp v. Hogan
738 F.3d 1106 (Ninth Circuit, 2013)
Andrews v. King
398 F.3d 1113 (Ninth Circuit, 2005)
Lund v. Henderson
807 F.3d 6 (First Circuit, 2015)
Adonai El-Shaddai v. Jeffrey Wang, Md
833 F.3d 1036 (Ninth Circuit, 2016)
Tommie Harris v. K. Harris
935 F.3d 670 (Ninth Circuit, 2019)
Edward Ray, Jr. v. E. Lara
31 F.4th 692 (Ninth Circuit, 2022)
Tierney v. Kupers
128 F.3d 1310 (Ninth Circuit, 1997)

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Bailey v. Williams, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bailey-v-williams-nvd-2022.