Contreras v. Diaz

District Court, S.D. California·Decided January 13, 2020·No. 3:19-cv-02108·Unknown

Opinion

RAMON CONTRERAS, Case No.: 19-cv-02108-BAS-WVG CDCR #V-99014,

Plaintiff, ORDER:

v. 1) GRANTING MOTION TO PROCEED IN FORMA PAUPERIS RALPH DIAZ; PATRICK COVELLO; [ECF No. 2]; K. COTTRELL; C. ROCHA; V. CORTES; H. CRUZ; M. SEAMAN; AND PLASCENCIA, 2) DISMISSING COMPLAINT Defendants. PURSUANT TO 28 U.S.C. §§ 1915(e)(2), 1915A(b) WITH LEAVE TO AMEND [ECF No. 1] On November 1, 2019, Plaintiff Ramon Contreras, currently incarcerated at Corcoran State Prison located in Corcoran, California and proceeding pro se, filed a civil rights complaint pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. (See Compl., ECF No. 1). Plaintiff did not prepay the civil filing fee required by 28 U.S.C. § 1914(a) when he filed his Complaint; instead, he filed a Motion to Proceed In Forma Pauperis (“IFP”) pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a). (Mot. to Proceed IFP, ECF No. 2). For the reasons below, the Court GRANTS Plaintiff’s Motion to Proceed IFP and DISMISSES the Complaint with leave to amend.

All parties instituting any civil action, suit or proceeding in a district court of the United States, except an application for writ of habeas corpus, must pay a filing fee of $400.1 See 28 U.S.C. § 1914(a). The action may proceed despite a plaintiff’s failure to prepay the entire fee only if he is granted leave to proceed IFP pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a). See Andrews v. Cervantes, 493 F.3d 1047, 1051 (9th Cir. 2007). However, prisoners who are granted leave to proceed IFP remain obligated to pay the entire fee in “increments” or “installments.” Bruce v. Samuels, -- U.S. --, 136 S. Ct. 627, 629 (2016); Williams v. Paramo, 775 F.3d 1182, 1185 (9th Cir. 2015). Prisoners must pay the entire fee regardless of whether their action is ultimately dismissed. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(1) & (2); Taylor v. Delatoore, 281 F.3d 844, 847 (9th Cir. 2002). Section 1915(a)(2) also requires prisoners seeking leave to proceed IFP to submit a “certified copy of the trust fund account statement (or institutional equivalent) for . . . the 6-month period immediately preceding the filing of the complaint.” 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(2); Andrews v. King, 398 F.3d 1113, 1119 (9th Cir. 2005). From the certified trust account statement, courts assess an initial payment of 20% of (a) the average monthly deposits in the account for the past six months, or (b) the average monthly balance in the account for the past six months, whichever is greater, unless the prisoner has no assets. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(1); 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(4). The institution having custody of the prisoner then collects subsequent payments, assessed at 20% of the preceding month’s income, in any month in which his account exceeds $10, and forwards those payments to the Court until the entire filing fee is paid. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(2); Bruce, 136 S. Ct. at 629. As required by Local Civil Rule 3.2, Plaintiff has submitted a copy of his CDCR Inmate Statement Report. (See Mot. to Proceed IFP at 4.) This statement shows that 1 In addition to the $350 statutory fee, civil litigants must pay an additional administrative fee of $50. See 28 U.S.C. § 1914(a) (Judicial Conference Schedule of Fees, District Court Misc. Fee Schedule, § 14 (eff. June 1, 2016). The additional $50 administrative fee does not apply to persons granted leave to proceed Plaintiff’s available balance is insufficient to impose an initial partial filing fee at the time of filing. Therefore, the Court will not direct the Secretary of the CDCR, or his designee, to collect an initial partial filing fee at this time. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(4) (providing that “[i]n no event shall a prisoner be prohibited from bringing a civil action or appealing a civil action or criminal judgment for the reason that the prisoner has no assets and no means by which to pay the initial partial filing fee.”); Taylor, 281 F.3d at 850 (finding that 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(4) acts as a “safety-valve” preventing dismissal of a prisoner’s IFP case based solely on a “failure to pay ... due to the lack of funds available to him when payment is ordered.”). However, the balance of the $350 total fee owed in this case must be collected by the agency having custody of the prisoner and forwarded to the Clerk of the Court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(2). II. SCREENING PURSUANT TO 28 U.S.C. §§ 1915(e)(2)(B), 1915A(b) A. Standard of Review Because Plaintiff is a prisoner and is proceeding IFP, his Complaint also requires a pre-answer screening pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2) and § 1915A(b). Under these statutes, the Court must sua sponte dismiss a prisoner’s IFP complaint, or any portion of it, which is frivolous, malicious, fails to state a claim, or seeks damages from defendants who are immune. See Lopez v. Smith, 203 F.3d 1122, 1126–27 (9th Cir. 2000) (en banc) (discussing 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)); Rhodes v. Robinson, 621 F.3d 1002, 1004 (9th Cir. 2010) (discussing 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b)). “The purpose of [screening] is ‘to ensure that the targets of frivolous or malicious suits need not bear the expense of responding.’” Nordstrom v. Ryan, 762 F.3d 903, 920 n.1 (9th Cir. 2014) (citation omitted). “The standard for determining whether a plaintiff has failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted under § 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii) is the same as the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) standard for failure to state a claim.” Watison v. Carter, 668 F.3d 1108, 1112 (9th Cir. 2012); see also Wilhelm v. Rotman, 680 F.3d 1113, 1121 (9th Cir. 2012) (noting that screening pursuant to § 1915A “incorporates the familiar standard applied in the context of failure to state a claim under

Contreras v. Diaz, (S.D. Cal. 2020).

Contreras v. Diaz (Contreras v. Diaz) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Wolff v. McDonnell
418 U.S. 539 (Supreme Court, 1974)
Rhodes v. Chapman
452 U.S. 337 (Supreme Court, 1981)
Whitley v. Albers
475 U.S. 312 (Supreme Court, 1986)
Graham v. Connor
490 U.S. 386 (Supreme Court, 1989)
Wilson v. Seiter
501 U.S. 294 (Supreme Court, 1991)
Sandin v. Conner
515 U.S. 472 (Supreme Court, 1995)
Devlin v. Scardelletti
536 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 2002)
Bartlett v. Strickland
556 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 2009)
Rhodes v. Robinson
621 F.3d 1002 (Ninth Circuit, 2010)
New Hampshire Hemp Council, Inc. v. Marshall
203 F.3d 1 (First Circuit, 2000)
Michael Henry Ferdik v. Joe Bonzelet, Sheriff
963 F.2d 1258 (Ninth Circuit, 1992)
Raymond Watison v. Mary Carter
668 F.3d 1108 (Ninth Circuit, 2012)
Rhodes v. Robinson
408 F.3d 559 (Ninth Circuit, 2005)
Wilhelm v. Rotman
680 F.3d 1113 (Ninth Circuit, 2012)
Michael Lacey v. Joseph Arpaio
693 F.3d 896 (Ninth Circuit, 2012)
Laurie Tsao v. Desert Palace, Inc.
698 F.3d 1128 (Ninth Circuit, 2012)
Javiad Akhtar v. J. Mesa
698 F.3d 1202 (Ninth Circuit, 2012)