Holestine v. Covello

District Court, S.D. California·Decided September 3, 2021·No. 3:20-cv-00159·Unknown

Opinion

ERNEST KELLY HOLESTINE, Case No.: 3:20-cv-0159-LAB-JLB CDCR #J-01366, ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND Plaintiff, DENYING IN PART MOTION TO vs. ALTER OR AMEND [ECF No. 53] P. COVELLO; D. PARAMO; F. ARMENTA; C. COVEL; P. BRACAMONTE; LT. SMITH; A. GONZALEZ; R. HERRERA; C. TAYLOR; F. CAMACHO; N. UHDE; C/O SALAS; M. GONZALEZ, Defendants. I. Procedural History Ernest Kelly Holestine, (“Plaintiff”), currently incarcerated at Salinas Valley State Prison (“SVSP”) located in Soledad, California is proceeding pro se and in forma pauperis (“IFP”) in this civil rights action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Section 1983. On December 21, 2020, Plaintiff filed his First Amended Complaint (“FAC”). (See ECF No. 35, FAC.) Plaintiff alleged that Defendants, officials from the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility (“RJD”), violated his constitutional rights and he also brings state law claims against these same Defendants. (See generally FAC.) Defendants A. Gonzalez, Smith, Herrera, Covello, Paramo, Covel, Armenta, and Bracamonte filed a Motion to Partially Dismiss Plaintiff’s FAC pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). (See ECF No. 34.) On June 9, 2021, the Court granted Defendants’ Motion. (See ECF No. 48 at 16.) Specifically, the Court dismissed Plaintiff’s First Amendment retaliation claim against Defendant Herrera. (See id.) In addition, the Court dismissed Plaintiff’s Fifth, Eighth, and Ninth causes of action against Defendants Covello, Paramo, Armenta, Covel, Bracamonte, Smith, and A. Gonzalez. (See id.) Plaintiff has filed a “Motion to Alter or Amend the Order Granting Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss.” (ECF No. 53.) Plaintiff does not seek reconsideration of the Order dismissing the First Amendment retaliation claims against Defendant Herrera. (See id. at 2.) Plaintiff instead seeks reconsideration of the Court’s dismissal of the Fifth, Eighth, and Ninth causes of action found in Plaintiff’s FAC. (See id.) Defendants have filed an Opposition to Plaintiff’s Motion. (See ECF No. 61.) II. Motion for Reconsideration A. Standard of Review Under Rule 60, a motion for “relief from a final judgment, order or proceeding” may be filed within a “reasonable time,” but usually must be filed “no more than a year after the entry of the judgment or order or the date of the proceeding.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(c). Reconsideration under Rule 60 may be granted in the case of: (1) mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect; (2) newly discovered evidence; or (3) fraud; or if (4) the judgment is void; (5) the judgment has been satisfied; or (6) for any other reason justifying relief. Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b). “Although the application of Rule 60(b) is committed to the discretion of the district courts . . ., as a general matter, Rule 60(b) is remedial in nature and must be liberally applied.” TCI Group Life Ins. Plan v. Knoebber, 244 F.3d 691, 695-96 (9th Cir. 2001) (internal quotation marks and ellipsis omitted). Nevertheless, Rule 60(b) provides for extraordinary relief and may be invoked only upon a showing of “exceptional circumstances.” Engleson v. Burlington N.R. Co., 972 F.2d 1038, 1044 (9th Cir. 1994). B. Plaintiff’s Motion 1. Eighth Amendment – failure to protect claim Plaintiff’s Fifth cause of action sought to hold Defendants Covello, Paramo, Armenta, Covel, Bracamonte, Smith, and A. Gonzalez liable because they allegedly “subjected Plaintiff to cruel and unusual punishment when they deliberately failed to protect him from the substantial and pervasive pattern of violence.” (FAC at ¶ 156.) He further alleged that these Defendants "failed to lawfully administer, train, supervise, and discipline their subordinate employees leading to Plaintiff being battered by another inmate.” (Id.) These Defendants argued in their Motion that they should not be held liable for the attack on Plaintiff in their supervisory capacity because Plaintiff “cannot plead that any of them had an involvement or even knowledge of the purported planned assault.” (Defs.’ Mtn. to Dismiss, ECF No. 34 at 14.) Specifically, Plaintiff sought to hold these Defendants liable on a “failure to train” theory. In his current Motion, Plaintiff argues Defendants were “indirectly involved by deliberately failing to protect him from the substantial and pervasive pattern of violence and by deliberately failing to lawfully administer, supervise, train and discipline their subordinates.” (Pl.’s Mot., ECF No. 53 at 8.) “Under Section 1983, supervisory officials are not liable for actions of subordinates on any theory of vicarious liability.” Crowley v. Bannister, 734 F.3d 967, 977 (9th Cir. 2013) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). “A supervisor may be liable only if (1) he or she is personally involved in the constitutional deprivation, or (2) there is ‘a sufficient causal connection between the supervisor's wrongful conduct and the constitutional violation.’ ” Id. at 977 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). “Under the latter theory, supervisory liability exists even without overt personal participation in the offensive act if supervisory officials implement a policy so deficient that the policy itself is a repudiation of constitutional rights and is the moving force of a constitutional violation.” Id.; see also Taylor v. List, 880 F.2d 1040, 1045 (9th Cir. 1989) (“A supervisor is only liable for constitutional violations of his subordinates if the supervisor participated in or directed the violations, or knew of the violations and failed to act to prevent them.”); accord Starr v. Baca, 652 F.3d 1202, 1205–06 (9th Cir. 2011); Corales v. Bennett, 567 F.3d 554, 570 (9th Cir. 2009). Plaintiff argues that his allegations in his FAC that the supervisory Defendants deliberate indifference was due to “other unconstitutional living conditions that was the direct and proximate cause of their subordinates conspiring with the inmate to assault Plaintiff” are sufficient to state a claim based on supervisory liability. (Pl.’s Mot. at 8 citing FAC at ¶¶ 65, 89, 156.) Specifically, Plaintiff alleges in his FAC that “[u]pon information and belief, the conspiracy to assault Plaintiff, as well as the other retaliatory actions perpetrated against him was allowed to occur as a direct and proximate result of the substantial and pervasive pattern of violence, code of silence, and other pattern of staff and inmate misconduct that had flourished unchecked at the RJDCF for many years.” (FAC at ¶ 65.) Plaintiff argues that the Court erred in finding that he had failed to allege sufficient factual allegations to support a causal connection between the supervisory Defendants failure to train and the actions purportedly taken by inmate Gonzalez against Plaintiff. In support of this argument, Plaintiff contends that, like the plaintiff in Starr, he has sufficiently alleged that the “supervisory Defendants deliberate indifference to the substantial and pervasive pattern of violence, as well as their deliberate failure to supervise, train and discipline their subordinates, was casually connected to, and was the moving force behind, Plaintiff being assaulted by another inmate.” (Pl.’s Mot. at 11.) However, in Starr, the Ninth Circuit found that the plaintiff’s complaint made “detailed factual allegations that go well beyond reciting the elements of a claim

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