Brewster v. Mills

CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedJuly 14, 2020
Docket4:20-cv-03254
StatusUnknown

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

Bluebook
Brewster v. Mills, (N.D. Cal. 2020).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 7 CENIOUS BREWSTER, Case No. 20-cv-03254-HSG

8 Plaintiff, ORDER OF PARTIAL SERVICE; DISMISSING ONE CLAIM WITH 9 v. LEAVE TO AMEND; DISMISSING PLAINTIFF GARCIA; ADDRESSING 10 MILLS, et al., REMAINING PENDING MOTIONS 11 Defendants. Re: Dkt. Nos. 2, 8

13 14 Plaintiffs Augustin Garcia and Cenious Brewster, inmates at San Francisco County Jail, 15 have filed the instant pro se action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging that correctional officials 16 at San Francisco County Jail violated their constitutional rights. Their complaint (Dkt. No. 1) is 17 now before the Court for review under 28 U.S.C. § 1915A. 18 DISCUSSION 19 A. Standard of Review 20 A federal court must conduct a preliminary screening in any case in which a prisoner seeks 21 redress from a governmental entity or officer or employee of a governmental entity. See 28 U.S.C. 22 § 1915A(a). In its review, the court must identify any cognizable claims and dismiss any claims 23 that are frivolous, malicious, fail to state a claim upon which relief may be granted or seek 24 monetary relief from a defendant who is immune from such relief. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b)(1), 25 (2). Pro se pleadings must, however, be liberally construed. See Balistreri v. Pacifica Police 26 Dep’t, 901 F.2d 696, 699 (9th Cir. 1988). 27 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a)(2) requires only “a short and plain statement of the 1 necessary; the statement need only “‘give the defendant fair notice of what the . . . claim is and the 2 grounds upon which it rests.’” Erickson v. Pardus, 551 U.S. 89, 93 (2007) (citations omitted). 3 Although in order to state a claim a complaint “does not need detailed factual allegations, . . . a 4 plaintiff’s obligation to provide the grounds of his ‘entitle[ment] to relief’ requires more than 5 labels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do. . 6 . . Factual allegations must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level.” Bell 7 Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007) (citations omitted). A complaint must 8 proffer “enough facts to state a claim for relief that is plausible on its face.” Id. at 570. 9 To state a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a plaintiff must allege two essential elements: 10 (1) that a right secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States was violated, and (2) that 11 the alleged violation was committed by a person acting under the color of state law. See West v. 12 Atkins, 487 U.S. 42, 48 (1988). 13 B. Complaint 14 Plaintiff Brewster alleges that San Francisco County Jail deputy Mills has subjected him to 15 sexual slurs since he was assigned as pod deputy of the month and that San Francisco County Jail 16 deputy Prado stands by and does nothing but laugh. Usually defendant Mills makes these slurs 17 outside of camera view, but, on April 15, 2020, around 2:06 p.m., defendant Mills is on camera 18 coming down the stairs and looking up at plaintiff Brewster’s cell, saying that this is his jail, he’ll 19 do what he wants, he’ll make Brewster suck his dick until his body shakes. Deputy Prado looked 20 on, laughed, and did nothing to stop the sexual taunting and harassment. Plaintiff Brewster filed 21 an administrative grievance regarding defendant Mills’ sexual harassment. In retaliation for 22 plaintiff Brewster’s grievance, deputy Seng falsely accused plaintiff Brewster of gassing and had 23 plaintiff Brewster wrongfully placed in a safety cell and deputy Nguyen wrote plaintiff Brewster 24 up. 25 Plaintiff Garcia alleges that, on either April 20 or 21, 2020, he was called to see the nurse 26 and was escorted by defendant Mills. Defendant Mills placed the cuffs on plaintiff Garcia’s wrists 27 extremely tightly. When plaintiff Garcia asked why the cuffs were so tight, defendant Mills 1 appointment, defendant Mills stood at the door, eyeing plaintiff Garcia in a sexual manner and 2 winking. Upon leaving the appointment, plaintiff Garcia asked defendant Mills to stop harassing 3 him and why did defendant Mills look at him that way. Defendant Mills responded that he loves a 4 healthy fish. On plaintiff Garcia’s way back to his cell, plaintiff Garcia told a friend that he had a 5 few dollars for hygiene. Defendant Mills then told plaintiff Garcia that he loves a clean fish and 6 that plaintiff should hurry his sexy ass back upstairs. Plaintiff Garcia told defendant Mills to 7 please stop sexually harassing him, but defendant Mills just laughed at him. 8 C. Analysis 9 1. Dismissal of plaintiff Garcia 10 The use of co-plaintiffs presents a procedural problem unique to prisoner litigation. The 11 main problem with having unrepresented inmates proceeding as co-plaintiffs is that inmates lack 12 control over their ability to access each other to prepare documents and prosecute a case. Inmates 13 are frequently moved. The plaintiffs may not have access to each other in the future to prepare 14 documents and to discuss the case. Even inmates who initially are physically close to each other 15 often do not remain so for the months or years that it takes for a case to work its way through to 16 judgment. Perhaps one plaintiff will be moved to a different facility or be released from custody 17 all of which will make their joint prosecution of this case inordinately more difficult. The slow 18 pace of plaintiffs’ communications with each other will result in extensive delays at each point in 19 the litigation where they are required to file anything with the court. The record indicates that 20 plaintiffs Garcia and Brewster already face difficulty in communicating with each other. Plaintiff 21 Garcia has filed a motion requesting that the Court order prison officials to authorize in-person 22 meetings between himself and plaintiff Brewster, stating that they are otherwise unable to meet. 23 Dkt. No. 8. 24 In addition, as pro se plaintiffs, none of the plaintiffs have the authority to represent the 25 others. See Russell v. United States, 308 F.2d 78, 79 (9th Cir. 1962) (“a litigant appearing in 26 propria persona has no authority to represent anyone other than himself”). Thus, this case will be 27 delayed as any potential filing from the plaintiffs is shuttled back and forth between the plaintiffs 1 documents, but this essentially results in multiple cases within a case, which has few benefits to 2 match the substantial confusion caused by it. 3 “A district court possesses inherent power over the administration of its business.” 4 Spurlock v. Federal Bureau of Investigation, 69 F.3d 1010, 1016 (9th Cir. 1995); see Atchison, 5 Topeka & Santa Fe Ry. Co. v.

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Bluebook (online)
Brewster v. Mills, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brewster-v-mills-cand-2020.