Ejonga v. Watanabe

• Court: District Court, W.D. Washington
• Decided: August 18, 2021
• Docket: 2:21-cv-01004
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT TACOMA 9 10 JOJO DEOGRACIAS EJONGA, CASE NO. 2:21-cv-01004-RJB-JRC 11 Plaintiff, ORDER DIRECTING SERVICE 12 v. 13 CHERYL STRANGE, et al., 14 Defendants. 15 16 This is a civil rights action brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Plaintiff is proceeding 17 with this action pro se and in forma pauperis. Plaintiff is currently incarcerated at the Monroe 18 Correctional Complex—Reformatory and is subject to the Court’s Prisoner E-Filing Initiative 19 pursuant to General Order 06-16. The Court, having reviewed plaintiff’s complaint, hereby 20 ORDERS as follows: 21 (1) Consent 22 The Clerk is directed to issue the Notice of Option of Consent to Magistrate Judge J. 23 Richard Creatura. 24 1 (2) Service by Clerk 2 The Clerk is directed to send the following to the named defendants by e-mail: a copy of 3 plaintiff’s complaint, a copy of this Order, a copy of the Notice of Option to Consent, two copies 4 of the notice of lawsuit and request for waiver of service of summons, and a waiver of service of

5 summons. The Clerk shall also send a copy of the pending motion for a temporary restraining 6 order. Dkt. 8. 7 (2) Response Required 8 Defendant(s) shall have thirty (30) days within which to return the enclosed waiver of 9 service of summons. A defendant who timely returns the signed waiver shall have sixty (60) 10 days after the date designated on the notice of lawsuit to file and serve an answer to the 11 complaint or a motion permitted under Rule 12 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. 12 A defendant who fails to timely return the signed waiver will be personally served with a 13 summons and complaint, and may be required to pay the full costs of such service, pursuant to 14 Rule 4(d)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. A defendant who has been personally

15 served shall file an answer or motion permitted under Rule 12 within thirty (30) days after 16 service. 17 (3) Filing and Service by Parties, Generally 18 All attorneys admitted to practice before this Court are required to file documents 19 electronically via the Court’s CM/ECF system. Counsel are directed to the Court’s website, 20 www.wawd.uscourts.gov, for a detailed description of the requirements for filing via CM/ECF. 21 Plaintiff shall file all documents electronically. All filings must indicate in the upper right hand 22 corner the name of the magistrate judge to whom the document is directed. 23

24 1 Any document filed with the Court must be accompanied by proof that it has been served 2 upon all parties that have entered a notice of appearance in the underlying matter. Plaintiffs shall 3 indicate the date the document is submitted for e-filing as the date of service. 4 (4) Non-State Defendants

5 As a registered user of the Court’s electronic filing system, you must accept electronic 6 service of all court filings (except original service of a complaint) by prisoner litigants housed at 7 facilities actively engaged in the Prisoner E-Filing Initiative. Prisoner litigants incarcerated at 8 facilities actively engaged in the Prisoner E-Filing Initiative are no longer required to serve their 9 court filings on the Court or defendants by mail. Service by mail of your court filings to prison 10 litigants housed in facilities actively engaged in the Prisoner E-Filing Initiative is also no longer 11 required. 12 (5) Motions, Generally 13 Any request for court action shall be set forth in a motion, properly filed and served. 14 Pursuant to LCR 7(b), any argument being offered in support of a motion shall be submitted as a

15 part of the motion itself and not in a separate document. The motion shall include in its caption 16 (immediately below the title of the motion) a designation of the date the motion is to be noted for 17 consideration upon the Court’s motion calendar. 18 Stipulated and agreed motions, motions to file over-length motions or briefs, motions for 19 reconsideration, joint submissions pursuant to the option procedure established in LCR 37(a)(2), 20 motions for default, requests for the clerk to enter default judgment, and motions for the court to 21 enter default judgment where the opposing party has not appeared shall be noted for 22 consideration on the day they are filed. See LCR 7(d)(1). All other non-dispositive motions 23 shall be noted for consideration no earlier than the third Friday following filing and service of the

24 1 motion. See LCR 7(d)(3). All dispositive motions shall be noted for consideration no earlier 2 than the fourth Friday following filing and service of the motion. Id. 3 For electronic filers, all briefs and affidavits in opposition to either a dispositive or non- 4 dispositive motion shall be filed and served not later than 11:59 p.m. on the Monday

5 immediately preceding the date designated for consideration of the motion. 6 The party making the motion may electronically file and serve not later than 11:59 p.m. 7 on the date designated for consideration of the motion, a reply to the opposing party’s briefs and 8 affidavits. 9 (6) Motions to Dismiss and Motions for Summary Judgment 10 Parties filing motions to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12 of the Federal Rules of Civil 11 Procedure and motions for summary judgment pursuant to Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil 12 Procedure should acquaint themselves with those rules. As noted above, these motions shall be 13 noted for consideration no earlier than the fourth Friday following filing and service of the 14 motion.

15 Defendants filing motions to dismiss or motions for summary judgment are advised that 16 they MUST serve a Rand notice concurrently with motions to dismiss and motions for summary 17 judgment so that pro se prisoner plaintiffs will have fair, timely and adequate notice of what is 18 required of them in order to oppose those motions. Woods v. Carey, 684 F.3d 934, 941 (9th Cir. 19 2012). The Ninth Circuit has set forth model language for such notices: 20 A motion for summary judgment under Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure will, if granted, end your case. 21 Rule 56 tells you what you must do in order to oppose a motion for summary 22 judgment. Generally, summary judgment must be granted when there is no genuine issue of material fact – that is, if there is no real dispute about any 23 fact that would affect the result of your case, the party who asked for summary judgment is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, which will 24 1 end your case. When a party you are suing makes a motion for summary judgment that is properly supported by declarations (or other sworn 2 testimony), you cannot simply rely on what your complaint says. Instead, you must set out specific facts in declarations, depositions, answers to 3 interrogatories, or authenticated documents, as provided in Rule 56(e), that contradict the facts shown in the defendant’s declarations and 4 documents and show that there is a genuine issue of material fact for trial. If you do not submit your own evidence in opposition, summary 5 judgment, if appropriate, may be entered against you. If summary judgment is granted, your case will be dismissed and there will be no 6 trial.

7 Rand v. Rowland, 154 F.3d 952, 963 (9th Cir. 1998) (emphasis added). 8 Defendants who fail to file and serve the required Rand notice on plaintiff may have their 9 motion stricken from the Court’s calendar with leave to re-file. 10 (7) Direct Communications with District Judge or Magistrate Judge 11 No direct communication is to take place with the District Judge or Magistrate Judge with 12 regard to this case. All relevant information and papers are to be directed to the Clerk. 13 (8) The Clerk is directed to send copies of this Order and the Notice of Option to 14 Consent to plaintiff. 15 Dated this 18th day of August, 2021. A 16 17 J. Richard Creatura Chief United States Magistrate Judge 18

20 21 22 23 24