Hill v. Shaffer

District Court, S.D. California·Decided October 22, 2024·No. 3:24-cv-01131·Unknown

Opinion

BRIAN T. HILL, Case No. 3:24-cv-01131-JES-MSB CDCR #H-67149, ORDER DENYING MOTION TO Plaintiff, PROCEED IN FORMA PAUPERIS vs. AS BARRED BY 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g) AND DISMISSING CIVIL

JENNIFER SHAFFER, Chief 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b)(1) Commissioner for BPH; BRIAN

ROBERTS, Commissioner for BPH; [ECF No. 2] RICHARD JALLINS, Associate Chief Deputy Commissioner; DAVIS S. WILDMAN, Ph.D, Forensic Psychologist for BPH; JASMINE A. TEHRANI, Senior Psychologist/Supervisor; PHILLIP OSULA; KEITH WATTLEY, Defendants. Plaintiff Brian T. Hill, a state prisoner currently incarcerated at the California Training Facility (“CTF”) in Soledad, California, and proceeding without counsel, has filed a civil rights complaint pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, accompanied by a motion to proceed in forma pauperis (“IFP”) pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a). (See ECF Nos. 1, 2.) Hill claims various members of the California Board of Parole Hearings (“BPH”) denied his rights to due process and effective assistance of counsel during a March 2, 2017 BPH hearing at Calipatria State Prison (“CAL”) during which he was determined unsuitable for release on parole. (See “Compl.” ECF No. 1 at 1‒2, 7‒22.) Hill seeks more than $4 million in general and punitive damages and asks to be “released from prison.” (Id. at 25.) A. Legal Standards All parties instituting any civil action, suit or proceeding in a district court of the United States, except an application for writ of habeas corpus, must pay a filing fee of $350 fee, and those not granted leave to proceed IFP must pay an additional administrative fee of $55. See 28 U.S.C. § 1914(a) (Judicial Conference Schedule of Fees, District Court Misc. Fee Schedule, § 14 (eff. Dec. 1, 2023)). The action may proceed despite a plaintiff’s failure to prepay the entire fee only if he is granted leave to proceed IFP pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a). See Andrews v. Cervantes, 493 F.3d 1047, 1051 (9th Cir. 2007); Rodriguez v. Cook, 169 F.3d 1176, 1177 (9th Cir. 1999). For prisoners like Hill, however, the Prison Litigation Reform Act (“PLRA”) amended 28 U.S.C. § 1915 to preclude the privilege to proceed IFP: . . . if [a] prisoner has, on 3 or more prior occasions, while incarcerated or detained in any facility, brought an action or appeal in a court of the United States that was dismissed on the grounds that it is frivolous, malicious, or fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, unless the prisoner is under imminent danger of serious physical injury. 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). “This subdivision is commonly known as the ‘three strikes’ provision.” Andrews v. King, 398 F.3d 1113, 1116 n.1 (9th Cir. 2005). “Once a prisoner has accumulated three strikes, he is prohibited by § 1915(g) from pursuing any other IFP action in federal court unless he can show he is facing ‘imminent danger of serious physical injury.’” See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g); Cervantes, 493 F.3d at 1055 (noting § 1915(g)’s exception for IFP complaints which “make[] a plausible allegation that the prisoner faced ‘imminent danger of serious physical injury’ at the time of filing.”) “Strikes are prior cases or appeals, brought while the plaintiff was a prisoner, which were dismissed ‘on the ground that (they were) frivolous, malicious, or fail[ed] to state a claim,’” Andrews, 398 F.3d at 1116 n.1, “even if the district court styles such dismissal as a denial of the prisoner’s application to file the action without prepayment of the full filing fee.” O’Neal v. Price, 531 F.3d 1146, 1153 (9th Cir. 2008). When courts “review a dismissal to determine whether it counts as a strike, the style of the dismissal or the procedural posture is immaterial. Instead, the central question is whether the dismissal ‘rang the PLRA bells of frivolous, malicious, or failure to state a claim.’” El-Shaddai v. Zamora, 833 F.3d 1036, 1042 (9th Cir. 2016) (quoting Blakely v. Wards, 738 F.3d 607, 615 (4th Cir. 2013)). B. Plaintiff’s Prior “Strikes” While defendants typically carry the initial burden to produce evidence demonstrating a prisoner is not entitled to proceed IFP, “in some instances, the district court docket may be sufficient to show that a prior dismissal satisfies at least one of the criteria under § 1915(g) and therefore counts as a strike.” Andrews, 398 F.3d at 1120. That is the case here. Courts may “‘take notice of proceedings in other courts, both within and without the federal judicial system, if those proceedings have a direct relation to matters at issue.’” Tiedemann v. von Blanckensee, 72 F.4th 1001, 1007 (9th Cir. 2023) (citation omitted). Based on a review of its own dockets and other court proceedings publicly available on PACER, the Court finds that Plaintiff Brian T. Hill, currently identified as California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (“CDCR”) Inmate #H-67149, while incarcerated, has had three prior civil actions dismissed on the grounds that they were frivolous, malicious, or failed to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. They are: (1) Hill v. Prunty, et al., Civil Case No. 3:96-cv-00844-J-JFS (S.D. Cal. Sept. 11, 1997) (Order Granting Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a) and Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6)) (ECF No. 19) (strike one)1;

1 See El-Shaddai, 833 F.3d at 1043–44 (noting that in those “rare cases where a failure to (2) Hill v. Prunty et al., Civil Case No. 3:00-cv-00012-J-LAB (S.D. Cal. May 3, 2001) (Order Dismissing Second Amended Complaint without leave to amend and with prejudice pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6)) (ECF No. 32) (strike two),2and

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