Davis v. Bruce

215 F.R.D. 612, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8205, 2003 WL 21129658
CourtDistrict Court, D. Kansas
DecidedMarch 24, 2003
DocketCivil Action No. 00-3051-CM
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 215 F.R.D. 612 (Davis v. Bruce) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Davis v. Bruce, 215 F.R.D. 612, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8205, 2003 WL 21129658 (D. Kan. 2003).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

MURGUIA, District Judge.

Pending before the court are plaintiffs Motions for Relief of Order (Docs. 93 & 98), plaintiffs Motion to Strike and for Extension of Time (Doc. 97), plaintiffs Motion for a Preliminary Injunction or for Temporary Restraining Order (Doc. 99), and defendants’ Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 94).1 As set forth below, plaintiffs motions are denied and defendants’ motion is granted.

Plaintiff, who proceeds pro se, is incarcerated at the El Dorado Correctional Facility (EDCF) operated by the Kansas Department of Corrections. Plaintiff has named as defendant the Hutchinson Correctional Facility (HCF), a facility also operated by the Kansas Department of Corrections in which plaintiff was previously incarcerated. Plaintiff has also named as defendants four HCF employees in their official and individual capacities: Louis Bruce, A. Perez, Paul Wilson, and Keith Anderson (hereinafter “the individual defendants”).2 Plaintiff alleges in this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action that the defendant prison officials violated his constitutional right of access to the courts. Specifically, plaintiff claims that the prison law library is constitutionally inadequate. Additionally, he contends that certain HCF officials interfered with his efforts to file an application for extension of time to file a petition for certiorari with the United States Supreme Court seeking review of the Kansas Supreme Court’s denial of the plaintiffs application for a writ of habeas corpus. Plaintiff states that two officials unreasonably delayed their response to plaintiffs request for notaries and copies that he needed to file the application. Plaintiff claims that the defendants violated his rights under the First, Fourth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the United-States Constitution and Sections Ten and Eighteen of the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights. This court exercises jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1367(a).

Plaintiff requests monetary relief in the form of $1,000,000 in damages, attorney’s fees, and costs. Plaintiff also requests injunctive relief in the form of an order directing that the American Association of Law Libraries Committee on Law Library Services perform an inspection and evaluation of the HCF law library. Plaintiff also requests an evaluation of Inmate Legal Services at HCF, a hiring of additional attorneys by that [615]*615department, and additional measures aimed at preventing delay of inmate legal mail.

I. Plaintiff’s Motions for Relief of March 25, 2002 Order (Docs. 93 & 98)

• March 25, 2002 Order

Plaintiff moves the court, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59, for relief from the court’s March 25, 2002 Memorandum and Order (Doc. 91) (hereinafter “March 25 Order”) to the extent the order denied plaintiffs Motion to Supplement (Doc. 86) and Motion for Injunction and Restraining Order (Doc. 90). In the March 25 order, the court denied plaintiffs motion to amend his complaint (Doc. 86). The court found that Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(a) did not require that leave to amend be granted under the procedural posture of this case, where the claims plaintiff sought to add did not appear sufficiently related to the existing claims. Further, the court denied plaintiffs motion for an injunction and a restraining order (Doc. 90), in which plaintiff sought a court order directing, inter alia, corrections officials to refrain from altering plaintiffs level of security, from discriminating against him as a result of this action, and from impeding plaintiffs access to legal materials related to this action.

• Standard for Relief of Order

“[Pjrior to the entry of a final judgment, the district court retains the discretion to reconsider and revise” interlocutory orders. Richmond v. Crow, 61 F.3d 916, n. 2, 1995 WL 350800 at *3 n. 2 (10th Cir.1995) (Table, text in Westlaw) (citations omitted). Motions for review of interlocutory orders fall within “the district court’s general discretionary authority to review and revise interlocutory rulings prior to entry of final judgment, and, as such, did not call into play the timing and tolling considerations attendant upon motions to alter or amend judgment under Fed.R.Civ.P. 59(e).” Wagoner v. Wagoner, 938 F.2d 1120, 1122 n. 1 (10th Cir.1991).

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(e) provides that “[a]ny motion to alter or amend a judgment shall be filed no later than 10 days after entry of the judgment.” Whether to grant or deny a motion for reconsideration is committed to the court’s discretion. GFF Corp. v. Assoc. Wholesale Grocers, Inc., 130 F.3d 1381, 1386 (10th Cir.1997); Hancock v. City of Okla. City, 857 F.2d 1394, 1395 (10th Cir.1988). In exercising that discretion, courts in general have recognized three major grounds justifying reconsideration: (1) an intervening change in controlling law; (2) availability of new evidence; and (3) the need to correct clear error or prevent manifest injustice. Marx v. Schnuck Mkts., Inc., 869 F.Supp. 895, 897 (D.Kan.1994) (citations omitted); D. Kan. Rule 7.3 (listing three bases for reconsideration of order). “Appropriate circumstances for a motion to reconsider are where the court has obviously misapprehended a party’s position on the facts or the law, or the court has mistakenly decided issues outside of those the parties presented for determination.... A party’s failure to present its strongest case in the first instance does not entitle it to a second chance in the form of a motion to reconsider.” Sithon Maritime Co. v. Holiday Mansion, 177 F.R.D. 504, 505 (D.Kan.1998) (citations omitted).

• Analysis

The court has reviewed the March 25, 2002 order, as well as plaintiffs motions for leave to amend and for injunction and restraining order. Upon its review, the court does not find a basis for reconsideration of the March 25, 2002 order. The court does not believe that its March 25, 2002 order was the result of clear error or manifest injustice. Further, plaintiff has not identified, nor has the court discovered, any intervening change in controlling law or in the availability of new evidence pertinent to that order. Plaintiffs motions for relief of order (Does. 93 & 98) are denied.

• Plaintiffs Motion to Strike (Doc. 97)

Defendants move the court to dismiss this action under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim for which relief can be granted. Attached to defendants’ motion to dismiss is the Martinez report prepared in this case.

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215 F.R.D. 612, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8205, 2003 WL 21129658, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davis-v-bruce-ksd-2003.