Christopher Hargis v. Phil Foster, Beauchamp, Lahaei, D.W. McEcheron and D. H.O. Crawford

312 F.3d 404, 2002 U.S. App. LEXIS 24365, 54 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 516, 2002 WL 31687678
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedDecember 3, 2002
Docket00-35466
StatusPublished
Cited by88 cases

This text of 312 F.3d 404 (Christopher Hargis v. Phil Foster, Beauchamp, Lahaei, D.W. McEcheron and D. H.O. Crawford) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Christopher Hargis v. Phil Foster, Beauchamp, Lahaei, D.W. McEcheron and D. H.O. Crawford, 312 F.3d 404, 2002 U.S. App. LEXIS 24365, 54 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 516, 2002 WL 31687678 (9th Cir. 2002).

Opinions

ORDER

The opinion of this court filed March 7, 2002, slip op. at 3727 [282 F.3d 1154], is amended as follows:

On page 3737 [at 1159] of the slip opinion, delete the first sentence of the first full paragraph, and substitute in its stead:

Based on this evidence, a jury could reasonably conclude that the prison officials acted unreasonably in characterizing Hargis’s statements as an attempt to coerce Beauchamp into not enforcing the shaving rule.

On page 3738 [at 1159] delete the entirety of the text of III. after the heading. Replace it with the following:

Hargis requested voluntary dismissal of his retaliation and Eighth Amendment claims pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 41(a)(2) without specifying that he was requesting dismissal without prejudice. The district court granted the motion and dismissed with prejudice. Hargis objects to the dismissal with prejudice. We review a district court’s determination of the terms and conditions of dismissal under Rule 41(a)(2) for an abuse of discretion. Koch v. Hankins, 8 F.3d 650, 652 (9th Cir.1993).

Rule 41(a)(2) provides:

Except as provided in paragraph (1) of this subdivision of this rule, an action shall not be dismissed at the plaintiffs instance save upon order of the court and upon such terms and conditions as the court deems prop[407]*407er.... Unless otherwise specified in the order, a dismissal under this paragraph is without prejudice.
Rule 41 vests the district court with discretion to dismiss an action at the plaintiffs instance “upon such terms and conditions as the court deems proper.” That broad grant of discretion does not contain a preference for one kind of dismissal or another. In a separate clause, Rule 41 provides that orders that fail to specify whether dismissal is with or without prejudice are to be interpreted as dismissals without prejudice. In this limited sense, the rule has a “default position,” but this default position applies to the interpretation of a silent order, not to the district court’s discretionary decision in the first instance. See Semtek Int’l v. Lockheed Martin Corp., 531 U.S. 497, 503, 121 S.Ct. 1021, 149 L.Ed.2d 32 (2001) (construing similar text in Rule 41(b) as “nothing more than a default rule for determining the import of a dismissal”); 9 Charles Alan Wright & Arthur R. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 2367 (2d ed. 1994) (“[I]f the plaintiff either moves for dismissal without prejudice or fails to specify whether the request is for dismissal with or without prejudice, the matter is left to the discretion of the court. The court may grant dismissal without prejudice or may require that the dismissal be with prejudice. If the court’s order is silent on this point, the dismissal is without prejudice.... ”).
In the instant case, Hargis requested a dismissal without specifying whether he was requesting dismissal with or without prejudice, implicitly accepting either determination by the district court. That court could have remained silent on this point, in which case we would find the dismissal to have been without prejudice. Instead, it made its determination. Because Hargis’s motion did not pre-elude this determination, we find that the district court did not abuse its discretion in doing so.

On page 3740 [at 1160] delete the text of IV following the heading (Conclusion). Replace it with the following:

Because Hargis has raised a triable issue of fact as to whether the coercion regulation was constitutional as applied to him, we reverse the district court’s summary judgment on the First Amendment free speech claim and remand for further proceedings. The district court’s dismissal of the retaliation and Eighth Amendment claims is affirmed.

AFFIRMED IN PART, REVERSED IN PART, AND REMANDED.

The dissent is amended as follows:

On page 3746-47 [at 1164] of the slip opinion, delete the paragraph beginning “our opinion also errs ...”
On page 3747 [at 1164]of the slip opinion, modify the final remaining paragraph to read: “I agree that it was too late to raise an ADA claim on appeal and that the district court acted within its discretion in dismissing Hargis’s retaliation and Eighth Amendment claims. Otherwise, I respectfully dissent.”

With these amendments a majority of the panel has voted to deny rehearing. The full court has been advised of these amendments and has voted to deny the petition for rehearing en banc.

■ The petition for rehearing and the petition for rehearing en banc are denied. No further petition for rehearing en banc will be entertained. The Clerk is directed to file and republish the majority opinion and the dissent as amended.

The mandate shall issue forthwith.

[408]*408OPINION

BETTY B. FLETCHER, Circuit Judge

Christopher Hargis, an Idaho prisoner who suffers from a neurological disorder causing jerking and shaking, brings this action, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, against the defendant prison officials in their individual and official capacities for "violating his First and Eighth Amendment rights. He asserts that the defendants violated his First Amendment right to free speech when they punished him under a coercion regulation. Hargis was disciplined for violating the coercion regulation when he informed a guard that shaving with a razor blade endangered his safety due to his medical condition and that the guard’s actions and statements could come up in pending state court litigation. Har-gis also claims the defendants used the coercion regulation as a pretext to retaliate against' him for exercising his First Amendment right to petition the government for redress of grievances. Finally, he claims the defendants subjected him to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment by forcing him to injure himself by shaving with a razor blade. The district court granted the defendants summary judgment on the free speech claim and dismissed the remaining claims.

We are asked to decide two questions: (1) whether there is a triable issue of fact as to whether the defendants’ application of the coercion regulation in this case violated Hargis’s right to free speech and (2) whether the district court abused its discretion in dismissing Hargis’s retaliation and Eighth Amendment claims with prejudice. We answer both questions in the affirmative. In addition, Hargis’s newly-appointed counsel raises an ADA claim. However, because the ADA claim was neither alleged nor argued in the district court, we will not consider the ADA claim on this appeal. United States v. Antonakeas, 255 F.3d 714, 721 (9th Cir.2001) (noting that ordinarily this court will not hear issues raised for the first time on appeal).

I.

Factual and Procedural Background

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312 F.3d 404, 2002 U.S. App. LEXIS 24365, 54 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 516, 2002 WL 31687678, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/christopher-hargis-v-phil-foster-beauchamp-lahaei-dw-mcecheron-and-d-ca9-2002.