Edward Don Brown v. Allison, et al.

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. California
DecidedNovember 21, 2025
Docket2:22-cv-01571
StatusUnknown

This text of Edward Don Brown v. Allison, et al. (Edward Don Brown v. Allison, et al.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Edward Don Brown v. Allison, et al., (E.D. Cal. 2025).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 EDWARD DON BROWN, No. 2:22-cv-1571 DAD AC P 12 Plaintiff, 13 v. ORDER AND FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 14 ALLISON, et al., 15 Defendants. 16 17 Plaintiff is proceeding without counsel in this civil rights action. Pending before the court 18 are plaintiff’s motion to amend the complaint and defendant Young’s motion to opt out of post- 19 screening Alternative Dispute Resolution (“ADR”). ECF Nos. 35, 36. 20 I. Background 21 On May 30, 2025, the court screened the first amended complaint (“FAC”) and found that 22 plaintiff had stated some cognizable claims. ECF No. 21 at 4-7. Plaintiff was given the option to 23 proceed immediately on his medical deliberate indifference claim against defendant Young as set 24 forth in Section I.C. of the order, or to file a second amended complaint (“SAC”). Id. at 7, 11. 25 Plaintiff was given twenty-one days to inform the court of his election and warned that if he failed 26 to inform the court of his election, the court would assume he was choosing to proceed on the 27 complaint as screened and would recommend dismissal without prejudice of his Eighth 28 Amendment deliberate indifference claims based on his pain medication and conditions of 1 confinement, HIPAA claim, and state law claim, as well as defendants Allison, Covello, and 2 County of Ione. Id. at 12-13. 3 On July 29, 2025, after the deadline to file a notice of election had long passed, the 4 undersigned found the service of the FAC appropriate and directed service on defendant Young, 5 and concurrently issued findings and recommendations recommending that for the reasons set 6 forth in the court’s screening order plaintiff’s Eighth Amendment deliberate indifference claims 7 based on his pain medication and conditions of confinement, HIPAA claim, and state law claim, 8 and defendants Allison, Covello, and County of Ione be dismissed without prejudice. ECF No. 9 23. Plaintiff was given twenty-one days to file objections. Id. at 2. 10 In August and September, plaintiff filed motions for an extension of time. ECF Nos. 26, 11 29. Neither motion specified what deadline plaintiff sought to extend, so the court construed 12 them as motions for extensions of time to file objections to the undersigned’s findings and 13 recommendations and granted them. ECF No. 27, 30. The deadline to file objections was 14 October 3, 2025. ECF No. 30 at 2. 15 On October 6, 2025, after defendant Young had waived service, the court referred this 16 case to post-screening ADR project and stayed the case for 120 days. ECF No. 33. 17 II. Motion to Amend the Complaint 18 On October 2, 2025, plaintiff signed and mailed an amended complaint to the United 19 States District Court for the Eastern District. ECF No. 35. Because it was received at the Fresno 20 Division, a new case was opened. See Brown v. Young, No. 1:25-cv-1306 SAB (PC). The case 21 was then transferred to the Sacramento Division. See Brown v. Young, No. 2:25-cv-2864 SCR.1 22 Realizing the error, on November 10, 2025, the new case was closed, the amended complaint was 23 filed as a motion to amend in the present case, and backdated on the docket to October 3, 2025, 24 the date the court received the amended complaint. Id., ECF No. 7. 25 1 The court takes judicial notice of Brown v. Young, No. 1:25-cv-1306 SAB (PC) and Brown v. 26 Young, No. 2:25-cv-2864 SCR. Fed. R. Evid. 201(b)(2) (“The court may judicially notice a fact that is not subject to reasonable disputed because it . . . can be accurately and readily determined 27 from sources whose accuracy cannot reasonably be questioned.”); United States v. Wilson, 631 F.2d 118, 119 (9th Cir. 1980) (citations omitted) (“[A] court may take judicial notice of its own 28 records in other cases, as well as the records of an inferior court in other cases.”). 1 Because plaintiff is pro se and it appears plaintiff’s prior motions for extensions of time 2 were motions for extensions of time to file an amended complaint and not to file objections to the 3 court’s findings and recommendations, the court will vacate the findings and recommendations 4 (ECF No. 23), construe the motion to amend the complaint (ECF No. 35) as a timely SAC, and 5 screen the SAC.2 6 III. Statutory Screening of Prisoner Complaints 7 A. Legal Standards 8 As the court previously informed plaintiff, the court is required to screen complaints 9 brought by prisoners seeking relief against “a governmental entity or officer or employee of a 10 governmental entity.” 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(a). The court must dismiss a complaint or portion 11 thereof if the prisoner has raised claims that are “frivolous, malicious, or fail[] to state a claim 12 upon which relief may be granted,” or that “seek[] monetary relief from a defendant who is 13 immune from such relief.” 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b). 14 A claim “is [legally] frivolous where it lacks an arguable basis either in law or in fact.” 15 Neitzke v. Williams, 490 U.S. 319, 325 (1989); Franklin v. Murphy, 745 F.2d 1221, 1227-28 (9th 16 Cir. 1984). “[A] judge may dismiss . . . claims which are ‘based on indisputably meritless legal 17 theories’ or whose ‘factual contentions are clearly baseless.’” Jackson v. Arizona, 885 F.2d 639, 18 640 (9th Cir. 1989) (quoting Neitzke, 490 U.S. at 327), superseded by statute on other grounds as 19 stated in Lopez v. Smith, 203 F.3d 1122, 1130 (9th Cir. 2000). The critical inquiry is whether a 20 constitutional claim, however inartfully pleaded, has an arguable legal and factual basis. 21 Franklin, 745 F.2d at 1227-28 (citations omitted). 22 “Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a)(2) requires only ‘a short and plain statement of the 23 claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief,’ in order to ‘give the defendant fair notice of 24 what the . . . claim is and the grounds upon which it rests.’” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 25 2 Under the mailbox rule, the SAC was filed prior to the ADR order and is therefore not barred 26 by the ADR order. See ECF Nos. 33, 35; Houston v. Lack, 487 U.S. 266, 276 (1988) (establishing rule that a prisoner’s court document is deemed filed on the date the prisoner 27 delivered the document to prison officials for mailing); Jenkins v. Johnson, 330 F.3d 1146, 1149 n. 2 (9th Cir. 2003) (date petition is signed may be considered earliest possible date an inmate 28 could submit his petition to prison authorities for filing under the mailbox rule). 1 U.S. 544, 555 (2007) (alteration in original) (quoting Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 47 (1957)). 2 “Failure to state a claim under § 1915A incorporates the familiar standard applied in the context 3 of failure to state a claim under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6).” Wilhelm v. Rotman, 4 680 F.3d 1113

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Conley v. Gibson
355 U.S. 41 (Supreme Court, 1957)
Jenkins v. McKeithen
395 U.S. 411 (Supreme Court, 1969)
Hospital Building Co. v. Trustees of Rex Hospital
425 U.S. 738 (Supreme Court, 1976)
Houston v. Lack
487 U.S. 266 (Supreme Court, 1988)
Neitzke v. Williams
490 U.S. 319 (Supreme Court, 1989)
Ashcroft v. Iqbal
556 U.S. 662 (Supreme Court, 2009)
Johnson v. Duffy
588 F.2d 740 (Ninth Circuit, 1978)
United States v. John Paul Wilson
631 F.2d 118 (Ninth Circuit, 1980)
Harry Franklin v. Ms. Murphy and Hoyt Cupp
745 F.2d 1221 (Ninth Circuit, 1984)
John C. McGuckin v. Dr. Smith John C. Medlen, Dr.
974 F.2d 1050 (Ninth Circuit, 1992)
Michael Wayne Jenkins v. Dan Johnson, Superintendent
330 F.3d 1146 (Ninth Circuit, 2003)
Wilhelm v. Rotman
680 F.3d 1113 (Ninth Circuit, 2012)
Farmer v. Brennan
511 U.S. 825 (Supreme Court, 1994)
Webb v. Smart Document Solutions, LLC
499 F.3d 1078 (Ninth Circuit, 2007)
George v. Smith
507 F.3d 605 (Seventh Circuit, 2007)
Timothy Sneed v. Pan American Hospital
370 F. App'x 47 (Eleventh Circuit, 2010)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
Edward Don Brown v. Allison, et al., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/edward-don-brown-v-allison-et-al-caed-2025.