Calderon v. City of San Jose

District Court, N.D. California·Decided July 26, 2024·No. 5:24-cv-00289·Unknown

Opinion

ALEJANDRO CALDERON, Case No. 24-cv-00289-VKD

Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANTS’ v. MOTION TO DISMISS WITH LEAVE TO AMEND CITY OF SAN JOSE, et al., Re: Dkt. No. 32 Defendants.

Plaintiff Alejandro Calderon brings this action against defendants the City of San Jose (“City”) and Officer Jorge Rodriguez-Martinez.1 Dkt. No. 10. The amended complaint asserts violations of the First and Fourth Amendments under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 as well as related state claims. Defendants move to dismiss the amended complaint under Rule 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim and they assert that Officer Rodriguez is entitled to qualified immunity. Dkt. No. 32. Mr. Calderon opposes the motion. Dkt. No. 36. The Court held oral argument on the motion on July 23, 2024. Dkt. No. 38. Upon consideration of the moving and responding papers, and the parties’ arguments at the hearing, the Court grants defendants’ motion to dismiss the amended complaint with limited leave to amend.2 1 In his amended complaint, Mr. Calderon named seven other members of the San Jose Police Department as defendants, in addition to 50 “Doe” defendants. See Dkt. No. 10. On June 17, 2024, the parties stipulated to dismiss defendants Dewberry, Felicien, Juarez, Stults, Latendresse, and Cooley with prejudice. Dkt. Nos. 34, 35. At the hearing on the defendants’ motion to dismiss, the parties confirmed that they meant also to dismiss defendant Foss. Dkt. No. 38. According to the amended complaint, on May 22, 2023, officers of the San Jose Police Department came to Mr. Calderon’s residence. Dkt. No. 10 ¶ 17. The officers questioned Mr. Calderon’s girlfriend about “whether there was a domestic violence dispute going on at the residence,” and she “adamantly” denied that there was. Id. Although the amended complaint is unclear on this point, the officers apparently left the residence thereafter. After about five minutes, the officers returned to the residence. Id. ¶ 18. Mr. Calderon alleges that he spoke to the officers through his screen door. Id. Then, he says that when he “put his hand through the screen door to open it,” an unidentified officer “violently pulled [him] out of his home,” “without cause.” Id. Mr. Calderon “repeatedly” asked if he was being detained, and Officer Rodriguez responded that Mr. Calderon was not being detained. Id. Mr. Calderon alleges that, “despite [his] being compliant, the officers pulled, manipulated, and twisted [his] arm behind his back to handcuff him,” and “placed the handcuffs extremely tight around [his] hands.” Id. Mr. Calderon says that he was arrested and charged “without evidence” for a domestic violence offense and was detained at Elmwood Correctional Facility for three days before the charges were dropped and he was released. Id. ¶ 19. Mr. Calderon asserts the following claims: (1) unlawful seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, against Officer Rodriguez; (2) excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, against Officer Rodriguez; (3) retaliation for questioning officer conduct in violation of the First Amendment, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, against Officer Rodriguez; (4) interference with the exercise or enjoyment of constitutional rights, under California Civil Code § 52.1 (“the Bane Act”), against Officer Rodriquez and the City; (5) negligence against Officer Rodriguez and the City; (6) assault against Officer Rodriguez and the City; (7) battery against Officer Rodriguez and the City; and (8) false imprisonment against Officer Rodriguez and the City. Mr. Calderon claims that he “suffer[ed] severe physical injuries, including tendinitis and nerve damage in his left hand”3 as well as “severe emotional distress.” Id. ¶ 20. He seeks unspecified general, special, punitive, statutory, and exemplary damages as well as an award of attorneys’ fees and costs. A motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) tests the legal sufficiency of the claims in the complaint. Navarro v. Block, 250 F.3d 729, 732 (9th Cir. 2001). Dismissal is appropriate where there is no cognizable legal theory or an absence of sufficient facts alleged to support a cognizable legal theory. Id. (citing Balistreri v. Pacifica Police Dep’t, 901 F.2d 696, 699 (9th Cir. 1990)). In such a motion, all material allegations in the complaint must be taken as true and construed in the light most favorable to the claimant. Id. However, “[t]hreadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of action, supported by mere conclusory statements, do not suffice,” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009), and “[f]actual allegations must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level,” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007) (citations omitted). Moreover, the Court is not required to “‘assume the truth of legal conclusions merely because they are cast in the form of factual allegations.’” Prager Univ. v. Google LLC (“Prager I”), No. 17-CV-06064-LHK, 2018 WL 1471939, at *3 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 26, 2018) (quoting Fayer v. Vaughn, 649 F.3d 1061, 1064 (9th Cir. 2011) (per curiam)). Nor does the Court accept allegations that rest on “allegations that are merely conclusory, unwarranted deductions of fact, or unreasonable inferences,” In re Gilead Scis. Sec. Litig., 536 F.3d 1049, 1055 (9th Cir. 2008). Rule 8(a)(2) requires only “a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2). This means that the “[f]actual allegations must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level.” Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555 (citations omitted). However, only plausible claims for relief will survive a motion to dismiss. Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 679. A claim is plausible if the facts pled permit the court to draw a reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the alleged misconduct. Id. A plaintiff does not have to provide detailed facts, but the pleading must include “more than an unadorned, the-defendant- unlawfully-harmed-me accusation.” Id. at 678. A. Doe Defendants Mr. Calderon includes “Does 1-50” in the caption of his amended complaint, which includes generic allegations that all such defendants are “responsible in some manner for [his] injuries and damages.” See Dkt. No. 10 at 2 (caption) & ¶ 15. However, the amended complaint contains no specific allegations as to any such unnamed defendant. See id. At the hearing on the defendants’ motion to dismiss, Mr. Calderon’s counsel confirmed that the Doe defendants are not intended to represent specific unidentified individuals against whom Mr. Calderon is asserting claims; rather, they are merely placeholders for additional defendants that may be discovered as the case progresses. Dkt. No. 38. This is not an appropriate use of Doe defendant pleading. See Merino v. Cnty. of Santa Clara, No. 18-CV-02899-VKD, 2019 WL 2437176, at *12 (N.D. Cal. June 11, 2019) (“[T]he use of ‘John Doe’ to identify a defendant is generally disfavored . . . .”). Doe defendant pleading may be appropriate in limited circumstances, such as where “there are specific [unknown] individuals whose conduct forms the basis of [pl

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Calderon v. City of San Jose, (N.D. Cal. 2024).

Calderon v. City of San Jose (Calderon v. City of San Jose) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Foman v. Davis
371 U.S. 178 (Supreme Court, 1962)
Tennessee v. Garner
471 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1985)
Graham v. Connor
490 U.S. 386 (Supreme Court, 1989)
Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly
550 U.S. 544 (Supreme Court, 2007)
Ashcroft v. Iqbal
556 U.S. 662 (Supreme Court, 2009)
Pearson v. Callahan
555 U.S. 223 (Supreme Court, 2009)
United States v. Yeh, Hsin-Yung
278 F.3d 9 (D.C. Circuit, 2002)
Fayer v. Vaughn
649 F.3d 1061 (Ninth Circuit, 2011)
Michael Lacey v. Joseph Arpaio
693 F.3d 896 (Ninth Circuit, 2012)
In Re Gilead Sciences Securities Litigation
536 F.3d 1049 (Ninth Circuit, 2008)
Leadsinger, Inc. v. BMG Music Publishing
512 F.3d 522 (Ninth Circuit, 2008)
Mullenix v. Luna
577 U.S. 7 (Supreme Court, 2015)
White v. Pauly
580 U.S. 73 (Supreme Court, 2017)
Estate of Lopez Ex Rel. Lopez v. Gelhaus
871 F.3d 998 (Ninth Circuit, 2017)
Robert Reese, Jr. v. County of Sacramento
888 F.3d 1030 (Ninth Circuit, 2018)
Rafael Sandoval v. County of Sonoma
912 F.3d 509 (Ninth Circuit, 2018)