Gonzalez v. Malhotra

District Court, S.D. California·Decided June 2, 2020·No. 3:19-cv-02056·Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 MANUEL ANTONION GONZALEZ, Case No.: 3:19-cv-2056-JLS-AHG CDCR #T-42888, 12 ORDER: (1) DENYING MOTION Plaintiff, 13 FOR RECONSIDERATION; AND vs. (2) DISMISSING SECOND 14 AMENDED COMPLAINT DR. MALHOTRA; DR. ZHANG; 15 PURSUANT TO 28 U.S.C. § 1915A WARDEN OF R. J. CORRECTIONAL 16 FACILITY; ASSOCIATE WARDEN OF RJD, 17 Defendants. 18 19 20 I. Procedural History 21 Plaintiff Manuel Antonio Gonzalez, currently incarcerated at Richard J. Donovan 22 Correctional Facility (“RJD”) in San Diego, California, is proceeding pro se in this civil 23 action filed pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. (See Compl., ECF No. 1.) 24 Plaintiff prepaid the $400 filing fee required by 28 U.S.C. § 1914(a) to commence a 25 civil action at the time he submitted his original complaint. (See ECF No. 5.) In addition, 26 Plaintiff filed a Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order (“TRO”), a Motion for 27 Preliminary Injunction (“PI”), and a Motion to Appoint Counsel together with his 28 Complaint (ECF Nos. 2, 3, 4.). Plaintiff has not requested that the Clerk issue a summons, 1 “present[ed] a summons to the clerk for signature and seal” pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 2 4(b), or has yet executed service of his complaint, TRO or PI upon any of the named 3 Defendants. 4 On December 3, 2019, the Court denied Plaintiff’s Motion for TRO and PI, denied 5 his Motion to Appoint Counsel, and dismissed his Complaint for failing to state a claim 6 pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915A. (See ECF No. at 10-11.) However, Plaintiff was given 7 leave to file an amended complaint in order to correct the deficiencies of pleading identified 8 in the Court’s Order. (Id. at 11.) 9 On January 14, 2020, Plaintiff filed a forty-eight (48) page First Amended Complaint 10 (“FAC”), as well as over seventy (70) pages of exhibits. (See FAC, ECF No. 7.) On April 11 7, 2020, the Court determined that Plaintiff failed to comply with Federal Rule of Civil 12 Procedure 8 and failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted; therefore, the 13 Court dismissed his FAC with leave to file an second amended complaint. (See ECF No. 14 8 at 7–8.) 15 On May 11, 2020, Plaintiff filed a forty-six (46) page Second Amended Complaint 16 (“SAC”), as well as over eighty (80) pages of exhibits. (See SAC, ECF No. 9.) Plaintiff 17 has also filed a Motion for Reconsideration in which he objects to the citation to Ashcroft 18 v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) in analyzing whether he has stated a claim upon which 19 relief may be granted. (See Mot., ECF No. at 11.) 20 II. Motion for Reconsideration 21 Plaintiff argues that the Court’s reliance on Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662 (2009) 22 in screening his FAC was misplaced. (Mot. at 1.) Specifically, Plaintiff alleges that the 23 facts in Iqbal involved “a national and international security emergency unprecedented in 24 the history of the American Republic.” (Id. at 1 (citing Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 670).) Plaintiff 25 maintains that the “current complaint [FAC] will almost certainly be more ordinary than 26 Iqbal, and Higher Courts may not demand such detailed pleading.” (Id.) Instead of Iqbal, 27 Plaintiff maintains that the Court should rely on Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 28 544 (2007). (Id.) 1 Even though the facts in Iqbal are not at all comparable to the facts in Plaintiff’s 2 case, that is immaterial. In 2007, the Supreme Court decided Twombly and held that a 3 claim may be dismissed if the plaintiff fails to allege “enough facts to state a claim to relief 4 that is plausible on its face.” Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570 (abrogating pleading standard 5 established by Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41,78 (1957)). Two years later, in Iqbal, the 6 Supreme Court clarified the rule set forth by Twombly and held that detailed factual 7 allegations are not required, but “[t]hreadbare recitals of elements of a cause of action, 8 supported by mere conclusory statements, do not suffice.” Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 668. The 9 Court looks to Iqbal, not for a comparison of the specific factual allegations, but rather for 10 the pleading standard required by the Supreme Court’s decisions in determining whether 11 Plaintiff has stated sufficient facts to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. 12 A motion for reconsideration cannot be granted merely because Plaintiff is unhappy 13 with the judgment, frustrated by the Court’s application of the facts to binding precedent, 14 or because he disagrees with the ultimate decision. See 11 Charles Alan Wright & Arthur 15 R. Miller, Federal Practice & Procedure § 2810.1 (3d ed.) (“[R]econsideration of a 16 judgment after its entry is an extraordinary remedy which should be used sparingly.”). 17 Therefore, Plaintiff’s Motion for Reconsideration is DENIED. 18 II. Sua Sponte Screening pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915A 19 A. Legal Standard 20 Plaintiff was incarcerated at the time he filed this action. “As used in this section, 21 the term ‘prisoner’ means any person incarcerated or detained in any facility who is accused 22 of, convicted of, sentenced for, or adjudicated delinquent for, violations of criminal law or 23 the terms or conditions of parole, probation, pretrial release, or diversionary program.” 42 24 U.S.C. § 1915A(c); see also Olivas v. Nevada ex rel. Dept. of Corr., 856 F.3d 1281, 1284 25 (9th Cir. 2017) (citing 28 U.S.C. § 1915(h), 1915A(c); 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(h)). 26 Section 1915A “mandates early review—‘before docketing [] or [] as soon as 27 practicable after docketing’—for all complaints ‘in which a prisoner seeks redress from a 28 governmental entity or officer or employee of a governmental entity.’” Chavez v. 1 Robinson, 817 F.3d 1162, 1168 (9th Cir. 2016) (alterations in original). The mandatory 2 screening provisions of § 1915A apply to all prisoners, no matter their fee status, who bring 3 suit against a governmental entity, officer, or employee. See, e.g., Resnick v. Hayes, 213 4 F.3d 443, 446-47 (9th Cir. 2000). “On review, the court shall . . . dismiss the complaint, 5 or any portion of the complaint,” if it “(1) is frivolous, malicious, or fails to state a claim 6 upon which relief may be granted; or (2) seeks monetary relief from a defendant who is 7 immune from such relief.” Olivas, 856 F.3d at 1283 (quoting 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b)). “The 8 purpose of § 1915A is to ‘ensure that the targets of frivolous or malicious suits need not 9 bear the expense of responding.’” Nordstrom v. Ryan, 762 F.3d 903, 907 n.1 (9th Cir. 10 2014) (quoting Wheeler v.

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