Blomdahl v. Shinn

CourtDistrict Court, D. Arizona
DecidedDecember 8, 2021
Docket2:21-cv-01863
StatusUnknown

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

Bluebook
Blomdahl v. Shinn, (D. Ariz. 2021).

Opinion

1 MDR 2 WO 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA 8 9 Adam Paul Blomdahl, No. CV 21-01863-PHX-MTL (DMF) 10 Plaintiff, 11 v. ORDER 12 Director David Shinn, et al., 13 Defendants.

14 15 On November 4, 2021, Plaintiff Adam Paul Blomdahl, who is confined in a 16 Maricopa County Jail, filed a pro se civil rights Complaint pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 17 § 1983 (Doc. 1). Plaintiff subsequently filed an Application to Proceed In Forma 18 Pauperis (Doc. 4). The Court will grant the Application to Proceed. Because Plaintiff has 19 failed to state a claim, the Court will dismiss the Complaint with leave to amend. 20 I. Application to Proceed In Forma Pauperis and Filing Fee 21 The Court will grant Plaintiff’s Application to Proceed In Forma Pauperis. 28 22 U.S.C. § 1915(a). Plaintiff must pay the statutory filing fee of $350.00. 28 U.S.C. 23 § 1915(b)(1). The Court will not assess an initial partial filing fee. Id. The statutory filing 24 fee will be collected monthly in payments of 20% of the previous month’s income credited 25 to Plaintiff’s trust account each time the amount in the account exceeds $10.00. 28 U.S.C. 26 § 1915(b)(2). The Court will enter a separate Order requiring the appropriate government 27 agency to collect and forward the fees according to the statutory formula. 28 . . . . 1 II. Statutory Screening of Prisoner Complaints 2 The Court is required to screen complaints brought by prisoners seeking relief 3 against a governmental entity or an officer or an employee of a governmental entity. 28 4 U.S.C. § 1915A(a). The Court must dismiss a complaint or portion thereof if a plaintiff 5 has raised claims that are legally frivolous or malicious, that fail to state a claim upon which 6 relief may be granted, or that seek monetary relief from a defendant who is immune from 7 such relief. 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b)(1)–(2). 8 A pleading must contain a “short and plain statement of the claim showing that the 9 pleader is entitled to relief.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2) (emphasis added). While Rule 8 does 10 not demand detailed factual allegations, “it demands more than an unadorned, the- 11 defendant-unlawfully-harmed-me accusation.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 12 (2009). “Threadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of action, supported by mere 13 conclusory statements, do not suffice.” Id. 14 “[A] complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a 15 claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’” Id. (quoting Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 16 550 U.S. 544, 570 (2007)). A claim is plausible “when the plaintiff pleads factual content 17 that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the 18 misconduct alleged.” Id. “Determining whether a complaint states a plausible claim for 19 relief [is] . . . a context-specific task that requires the reviewing court to draw on its judicial 20 experience and common sense.” Id. at 679. Thus, although a plaintiff’s specific factual 21 allegations may be consistent with a constitutional claim, a court must assess whether there 22 are other “more likely explanations” for a defendant’s conduct. Id. at 681. 23 But as the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has instructed, courts 24 must “continue to construe pro se filings liberally.” Hebbe v. Pliler, 627 F.3d 338, 342 25 (9th Cir. 2010). A “complaint [filed by a pro se prisoner] ‘must be held to less stringent 26 standards than formal pleadings drafted by lawyers.’” Id. (quoting Erickson v. Pardus, 551 27 U.S. 89, 94 (2007) (per curiam)). 28 . . . . 1 If the Court determines that a pleading could be cured by the allegation of other 2 facts, a pro se litigant is entitled to an opportunity to amend a complaint before dismissal 3 of the action. See Lopez v. Smith, 203 F.3d 1122, 1127-29 (9th Cir. 2000) (en banc). 4 Plaintiff’s Complaint will be dismissed for failure to state a claim, but because it may 5 possibly be amended to state a claim, the Court will dismiss it with leave to amend. 6 III. Complaint 7 In his three-count Complaint, Plaintiff seeks monetary damages and injunctive relief 8 from Defendants Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) Director David Shinn, Deputy 9 Warden Scott, Disciplinary Captain Brennen, and Unit Manager Miller. 10 In Count One, Plaintiff raises an Eighth Amendment claim regarding his medical 11 care. He contends that when he became “seriously ill w[ith the] coronavirus and/or a 12 deadly infectious disease” on June 15, 2020, Defendant Scott was in charge of the unit on 13 which Plaintiff was confined. Plaintiff alleges Defendant Scott “did not ensure the safety 14 and cleanliness” of the unit. Plaintiff claims that for over 24 hours, he had “needless pain 15 and suffering,” was “dry heaving/vomiting,” and was “forced into substandard conditions 16 of confinement.” Plaintiff asserts that when he later requested his medical records through 17 ADC’s grievance/request system, he was denied access to his records. Plaintiff also claims 18 there is a “liberty interest involved” because “while the grievance system was effectively 19 unavailable,” he was denied “regular legal calls, (LRT) legal resource tech. from tablet/law 20 library”; was denied “rec/shower on a regular basis”; and was “subject[ed] to excessive 21 transfers” and “mass punishment by using excessive tear gas in confined spaces,” which 22 harmed his lungs and caused breathing problems. Plaintiff claims Defendants Shinn and 23 Scott enforced “this policy” against Plaintiff, which “caus[ed] injuries, as cruel and unusual 24 punishment in [Plaintiff’s] pod to force inte[]grat[ion], (reclass) out of unit.” He alleges 25 that because Defendants Shinn and Scott failed to ensure his safety and the cleanliness of 26 his pod, he suffered for over 24 hours with an infectious disease, developed “as[th]ma[- 27 ]type symptoms” and shortness of breath, and was “den[ied] needs/medical records.” 28 . . . . 1 In Count Two, Plaintiff raises an Eighth Amendment claim regarding disciplinary 2 proceedings. He claims that between November 22, 2019, and September 10, 2021, 3 Defendant Brennen was the resource officer for disciplinary proceedings and “used 4 discriminatory punishment against Plaintiff[] for refusing to sign the (IHP) inte[]gration 5 form.” Plaintiff alleges this claim is “for injunctive relief on an unconstitutional ‘override’ 6 system per D.O. 801 policy and punitive damages for emotional distress/pain and 7 suffering.” Plaintiff claims that during this time, there was a “national state of emergency 8 and pand[e]mic crisis,” he was being denied regular recreation and showers, and he was 9 being “unfairly punished” for taking “bird[ ]baths” in the toilet and sink in his cell.

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Bluebook (online)
Blomdahl v. Shinn, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blomdahl-v-shinn-azd-2021.