Hendrix v. Barfield

CourtDistrict Court, D. Nevada
DecidedMarch 4, 2020
Docket3:18-cv-00393
StatusUnknown

This text of Hendrix v. Barfield (Hendrix v. Barfield) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Nevada primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hendrix v. Barfield, (D. Nev. 2020).

Opinion

1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 2 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 3 Case No.: 3:18-cv-00393-RCJ-WGC JAMAL DAMON HENDRIX, 4 Order Plaintiff 5 Re: ECF No. 33 v. 6 JOSHUA BARFIELD, et. al., 7 Defendants 8

10 Plaintiff has filed a motion requesting the court to screen his First Amended Complaint. 11 (ECF No. 33.) 12 I. BACKGROUND 13 Plaintiff filed his original complaint, which the court screened on October 16, 2019. 14 (ECF No. 4.) Plaintiff was allowed to proceed with a First Amendment retaliation claim in Count 15 I against defendants J. Rivera (erroneously named as Riveria), J. Mason, V. Belt, D. Frazier, A. 16 Montes, S. Mollett, and John Doe 1 based on allegations that they participated in conducting an 17 unnecessary cell search in retaliation for Plaintiff's filing of grievances and civil litigation. 18 During the search, they destroyed his legal documents and religious books and materials. 19 Plaintiff was also required to strip and show his body cavity, and the search was unnecessary and 20 done for the purpose of intimidating and humiliating Plaintiff. Plaintiff had alleged that he filed 21 grievances, which were reviewed by Wickham and Filson, but they did not act on the grievances. 22 The court found that Plaintiff failed to state a colorable claim against Wickham and Filson 23 because he alleged that they knew about the grievances after the search was completed, but there 1 was no allegation that they knew about the December 10, 2017 search and acquiesced to that 2 search; therefore, Wickham and Filson were dismissed from Count I without prejudice. (ECF 3 No. 4 at 3-5.) 4 The court also found that Plaintiff failed to state a colorable Eighth Amendment

5 conditions of confinement claim in Count I, based on allegations that he was kept in the shower 6 area in restraints for six hours without a bathroom break as he had not alleged that he ever asked 7 to use the bathroom and was denied permission. In addition, the court stated that having to kneel 8 on a wet shower floor, without more, is insufficient to state a colorable conditions of 9 confinement claim. Therefore, these claims were dismissed without prejudice. (Id. at 6.) 10 Finally, the court dismissed Plaintiff's Fourteenth Amendment deprivation of property 11 claim without prejudice. (Id. at 7.) 12 In addition, he was allowed to proceed with a retaliation claim in Count II against 13 defendants Esquivel, Adams, Ornelas, Herrera, Filson and Wickham based on allegations that 14 they conducted an unnecessary search of Plaintiff's cell in retaliation for his filing of grievances

15 and civil rights litigation. During the search they threw away or destroyed Plaintiff's personal 16 property. Plaintiff was also allowed to proceed against Filson and Wickham based on allegations 17 that they were aware prison guards were conducting unnecessary retaliatory search of Plaintiff's 18 cell based on his previous grievances, but did not act to prevent the retaliatory searches and 19 continued to assign guards who had retaliated against Plaintiff to his unit. (Id. at 8.) 20 The court noted that none of the allegations implicated the Eighth Amendment, and as 21 such, the Eighth Amendment claim was dismissed without prejudice. (Id. at 7-8.) In addition, the 22 Fourteenth Amendment deprivation of property claim was dismissed without prejudice. (Id.) 23 1 Finally, Plaintiff was allowed to proceed with a retaliation claim against defendants Ivie 2 and Barfield in Count 3 based on allegations that they tampered with Plaintiff's meal in 3 retaliation for his filing of a grievance, and as a result he had nothing to eat for dinner and went 4 to bed hungry. (Id. at 9.)

5 The court noted that the allegations did not implicate the Fourteenth Amendment; 6 therefore, that claim was dismissed without prejudice. (Id.) The court also found that Plaintiff 7 failed to state a colorable free exercise of religion claim because Plaintiff did not allege that 8 Defendants brought him a non-kosher meal in place of his regular meal. Instead, he alleged they 9 brought him no edible food at all. The court concluded that the alleged failure to bring Plaintiff 10 his dinner on a single occasion did not place a substantial burden on his practice of only eating 11 kosher meals. Therefore, that claim was dismissed without prejudice. (Id. at 9-10.) 12 Defendants Drummond and Reubart were dismissed without prejudice because the 13 complaint did not contain any allegations against them. (Id. at 10.) 14 Therefore, the defendants proceeding in the original complaint were: Adams, Barfield, V.

15 Belt, Esquivel, Filson, D. Frazier, Herrera, Ivie, J. Mason, S. Mollett, A. Montes, Ornelas, J. 16 Rivera, Wickham, and John Doe 1 (when Plaintiff learns his identity). 17 Plaintiff subsequently filed a motion for leave to amend, and a motion to exclude his case 18 from mediation. (ECF Nos. 6, 7.) The latter motion was denied and the parties were unsuccessful 19 in settling the case. (ECF No2. 9, 13.) The court then issued an order granting Plaintiff's 20 application to proceed in forma pauperis, requiring him to pay the $350 filing fee over time, and 21 granted his motion for leave to file an amended complaint within 30 days. (ECF No. 15.) 22 Service of the original complaint was accepted by the Attorney General's Office on 23 behalf of Michael Adams, Vince Belt, Daniel Esquivel, Alfredo Montes, Jesus Rivera 1 (erroneously named as J. Riveria), and Harold Wickham. Service was not accepted for former 2 employees Joshua Barfield, Timothy Filson, Desean Frazier, Terri Herrera, Hawk Ivie, and 3 Joseph Mason, but their last known addresses were filed under seal. Service was also not 4 accepted for Javier Ornelas and Stephen Mollett as counsel was confirming the status of requests

5 for representation of those individuals and would file an amended acceptance of service, if 6 necessary. (ECF Nos. 16, 17.) The court issued summonses for Barfield, Filson, Frazier, Herrera, 7 Ivie and Mason. (ECF No. 20.) 8 Plaintiff filed his first amended complaint (FAC) on January 8, 2020. (ECF No. 21.) 9 The service return for Ivie was filed indicating service on February 10, 2020. (ECF No. 10 24.) 11 Defendants Adams, Belt, Esquivel, Montes, Ornelas, Rivera and Wickham filed an 12 answer to the FAC on February 11, 2020. Curiously, the answer states that various of the 13 defendants named in the FAC are not currently parties to the litigation even though they are 14 named in the FAC and there has been no order dismissing them from the case (Mason, Barfield,

15 Frazier, Ivie, Mollett, Filson, Beedle, McArdle, Drummond, Baltierra, Mele, Reubart, and John 16 Doe 1). (ECF No. 25.) 17 Following the filing of the answer, as it standard protocol, the court issued a scheduling 18 order. (ECF No. 26.) 19 Defense counsel never filed anything further regarding acceptance or non-acceptance of 20 service for Javier Ornelas and Stephen Mollett. The service returns from the U.S. Marshals for 21 service of the original complaint were subsequently returned as unexecuted for Filson, Frazier, 22 and Mason. (ECF Nos. 30, 31, 32.) 23 1 On February 27, 2020, Plaintiff filed a motion requesting that the court screen the FAC, 2 and re-set the discovery schedule. (ECF No. 33.) Plaintiff's motion is granted, and the court will 3 screen the FAC below. Defendants' answer to the FAC will be stricken as it was filed pre- 4 screening of the FAC. While the court would typically exercise its discretion and not screen an

5 amended complaint where the defendants had already filed an answer, the court will screen the 6 FAC here because the answer seemingly ignores the fact that the FAC includes additional 7 defendants and service on those new defendants has not been addressed.

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Bluebook (online)
Hendrix v. Barfield, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hendrix-v-barfield-nvd-2020.