Cason Cunningham v. Norm Kramer

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
• Decided: June 13, 2019
• Docket: 17-15430
• Status: Unpublished

Opinion

NOT FOR PUBLICATION FILED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS JUN 13 2019 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

CASON D. CUNNINGHAM, No. 17-15430

Plaintiff-Appellant, D.C. No. 1:15-cv-01362-AWI-MJS

v. MEMORANDUM* NORM KRAMER, Ex-Director of Coalinga State Hospital; et al.,

Defendants-Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California Anthony W. Ishii, District Judge, Presiding

Submitted June 11, 2019**

Before: CANBY, GRABER, and MURGUIA, Circuit Judges.

California civil detainee Cason D. Cunningham appeals pro se from the

district court’s judgment dismissing his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action alleging federal

and state law claims. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We review de

novo. Barren v. Harrington, 152 F.3d 1193, 1194 (9th Cir. 1998) (order)

* This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3. ** The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2). (dismissal under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii)); May v. Baldwin, 109 F.3d 557,

560-61 (9th Cir. 1997) (dismissal on the basis of qualified immunity). We affirm.

The district court properly dismissed Cunningham’s Fourteenth Amendment

conditions-of-confinement claim because it would not have been clear to every

reasonable official that detaining Cunningham in the Central Valley, where Valley

Fever was endemic, was unlawful under the circumstances. See Ashcroft v. al-

Kidd, 563 U.S. 731, 735 (2011) (explaining two-part test for qualified immunity);

Hines v. Youseff, 914 F.3d 1218, 1229-30 (9th Cir. 2019) (existing Valley Fever

cases did not clearly establish a “right to be free from heightened exposure to

Valley Fever spores”).

We do not consider matters not specifically and distinctly raised and argued

in the opening brief. See Padgett v. Wright, 587 F.3d 983, 985 n.2 (9th Cir. 2009).

AFFIRMED.