Cummings v. Diaz

District Court, S.D. California·Decided August 13, 2020·No. 3:20-cv-01020·Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 EDWARD MAURICE CUMMINGS, Case No.: 3:20-cv-01020 CAB-WVG CDCR #AF-0209, 12 ORDER: Plaintiff, 13 vs. 1) GRANTING MOTION TO 14 PROCEED IN FORMA PAUPERIS RALPH DIAZ, Sec. of the CDCR; 15 [ECF No. 3]; DANIEL PARAMO, Warden; C.

16 COVEL, Assoc. Warden; M. KEENER, AND Sergeant; BONAFICIO, Corrections 17 Officer, DOES 1-100, 2) DISMISSING COMPLAINT FOR 18 Defendants. FAILING TO STATE A CLAIM 19 PURSUANT TO 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2) & 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b) 20 21 22 Edward Cummings (“Plaintiff”), currently incarcerated at Mule Creek State Prison 23 (“MCSP”) located in Ione, California, and proceeding pro se, has filed a civil rights 24 complaint pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. See Compl., ECF No. 1. 25 Plaintiff did not prepay the civil filing fee required by 28 U.S.C. § 1914(a), nor did 26 he file a Motion to Proceed In Forma Pauperis (“IFP”) when he filed his Complaint, and 27 the Court dismissed the action on June 9, 2020 for that reason. ECF No. 2. Plaintiff was 28 given forty-five days within which to either pay the civil filing fee or move to proceed IFP. 1 Id. On July 6, 2020, Plaintiff filed an IFP motion pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a) ECF No. 2 3. 3 I. Motion to Proceed IFP 4 All parties instituting any civil action, suit or proceeding in a district court of the 5 United States, except an application for writ of habeas corpus, must pay a filing fee of 6 $400.1 See 28 U.S.C. § 1914(a). The action may proceed despite a plaintiff’s failure to 7 prepay the entire fee only if he is granted leave to proceed IFP pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 8 § 1915(a). See Andrews v. Cervantes, 493 F.3d 1047, 1051 (9th Cir. 2007). However, 9 prisoners who are granted leave to proceed IFP remain obligated to pay the entire fee in 10 “increments” or “installments,” Bruce v. Samuels, __ U.S. __, 136 S. Ct. 627, 629 (2016); 11 Williams v. Paramo, 775 F.3d 1182, 1185 (9th Cir. 2015), and regardless of whether their 12 action is ultimately dismissed. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(1) & (2); Taylor v. Delatoore, 281 13 F.3d 844, 847 (9th Cir. 2002). 14 Section 1915(a)(2) also requires prisoners seeking leave to proceed IFP to submit a 15 “certified copy of the trust fund account statement (or institutional equivalent) for ... the 6- 16 month period immediately preceding the filing of the complaint.” 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(2); 17 Andrews v. King, 398 F.3d 1113, 1119 (9th Cir. 2005). From the certified trust account 18 statement, the Court assesses an initial payment of 20% of (a) the average monthly deposits 19 in the account for the past six months, or (b) the average monthly balance in the account 20 for the past six months, whichever is greater, unless the prisoner has no assets. See 28 21 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(1); 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(4). The institution having custody of the prisoner 22 then collects subsequent payments, assessed at 20% of the preceding month’s income, in 23 any month in which his account exceeds $10, and forwards those payments to the Court 24 until the entire filing fee is paid. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(2); Bruce, 136 S. Ct. at 629. 25

26 1 In addition to the $350 statutory fee, civil litigants must pay an additional administrative fee of $50. See 27 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 28 1 In support of his IFP Motion, Plaintiff has submitted a copy of his CDCR Inmate 2 Statement Report as well as a Prison Certificate completed by an MCSP accounting officer. 3 See ECF Nos. 2, 4; 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(2); S.D. Cal. CivLR 3.2; Andrews, 398 F.3d at 4 1119. These statements show that Plaintiff has carried an average monthly balance of 5 $88.16, had $57.79 in average monthly deposits to his account over the 6-month period 6 immediately preceding the filing of his Complaint and had an available balance of $113.54 7 on the books at the time of filing. (See ECF No. 3 at 4-7.) Based on this accounting, the 8 Court GRANTS Plaintiff’s Motion to Proceed IFP (ECF No. 3) and assesses his initial 9 partial filing fee to be $17.63 pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(1). 10 The Court will direct the Secretary of the CDCR, or his designee, to collect the initial 11 $17.63 fee assessed only if sufficient funds are available in Plaintiff’s account at the time 12 this Order is executed. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(4) (providing that “[i]n no event shall a 13 prisoner be prohibited from bringing a civil action or appealing a civil action or criminal 14 judgment for the reason that the prisoner has no assets and no means by which to pay the 15 initial partial filing fee.”); Bruce, 136 S. Ct. at 630; Taylor, 281 F.3d at 850 (finding that 16 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(4) acts as a “safety-valve” preventing dismissal of a prisoner’s IFP 17 case based solely on a “failure to pay . . . due to the lack of funds available to him when 18 payment is ordered.”). The remaining balance of the $350 total fee owed in this case must 19 be collected by the agency having custody of the prisoner and forwarded to the Clerk of 20 the Court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(2). 21 II. Screening Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1915(e)(2)(B) and 1915A(b) 22 A. Standard of Review 23 Because Plaintiff is a prisoner and is proceeding IFP, his Complaint also requires a 24 pre-answer screening pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2) and § 1915A(b). Under these 25 statutes, the Court must sua sponte dismiss a prisoner’s IFP complaint, or any portion of it, 26 which is frivolous, malicious, fails to state a claim, or seeks damages from defendants who 27 are immune. See Lopez v. Smith, 203 F.3d 1122, 1126-27 (9th Cir. 2000) (en banc) 28 (discussing 28 U.S.C.

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