Karam v. Pima, County of

CourtDistrict Court, D. Arizona
DecidedMarch 3, 2022
Docket4:21-cv-00171
StatusUnknown

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

Bluebook
Karam v. Pima, County of, (D. Ariz. 2022).

Opinion

1 WO 2 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

9 Rose Ann Karam, No. CV-21-00171-TUC-SHR

10 Plaintiff, Order Re: Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss, Plaintiff’s Motion for Leave to 11 v. File Amended Complaint, and Plaintiff’s Motions for Status Update 12 County of Pima, et al.,

13 Defendants. 14 15 16 Pending before the Court are Defendant Pima County’s Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 17 18), Plaintiff Rose Karam’s Motion for Leave to File Second Amended Complaint (Doc. 18 23), and Plaintiff’s Motions for Status Update (Docs. 25, 27, 28). For the following 19 reasons, Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss is granted, Plaintiff’s Motion to File Second 20 Amended Complaint is granted in-part and denied in-part, and Plaintiff’s Motions for 21 Status Updates are denied as moot. 22 I. Background 23 Plaintiff filed her original Complaint in April 2021, alleging a civil rights claim 24 against Pima County and four unnamed Pima County employees, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 25 1983, based on the alleged deprivation of her property during a security screening at the 26 Pima County Consolidated Justice Court (“Justice Court”) on January 4, 2021. (Doc. 1.) 27 In August 2021, Defendant Pima County moved to dismiss Plaintiff’s Complaint for failure 28 to state a claim (Doc. 14). Pursuant to Stratton v. Buck, 697 F.3d 1004 (9th Cir. 2012), the 1 Court issued an Order notifying Plaintiff of her rights and responsibilities in responding to 2 Defendant’s motion to dismiss, and ordered Plaintiff to file a response within fourteen days 3 of the Order (Doc. 15). Plaintiff did not file a response—instead, she filed her First 4 Amended Complaint (“FAC”), in which she appears to have attempted to add a retaliation 5 claim based on a Justice of the Peace at Justice Court dismissing Plaintiff’s small-claims 6 case in June 2021. (Doc. 16.) Defendant moved to dismiss the FAC for failure to state a 7 claim (Doc. 18). In response, Plaintiff filed a “Motion for Contempt of Court Order 8 Against Pima County” (Doc. 19), in which she asked this Court to hold Defendant in 9 contempt for filing the Motion to Dismiss because Plaintiff misunderstood the screening 10 process of pro se civil cases under 28 U.S.C. § 1915. The Court denied Plaintiff’s motion 11 (Doc. 20) and again notified her of her rights and responsibilities with respect to 12 Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss and ordered Plaintiff to file a response within fourteen days 13 (Doc. 20). Plaintiff responded (Doc. 21) and Defendant replied (Doc. 22). Two days after 14 Defendant replied, Plaintiff filed a motion requesting leave to file a second amended 15 complaint and attached her proposed second amended complaint. (Doc. 23-1.) 16 II. Plaintiff’s First Amended Complaint (Doc. 16) 17 Plaintiff alleges when she went through security on the first floor of the Justice Court 18 on January 4, 2021, “two screeners pulled the contents out” of each of her bags, “removed 19 an unusual number of items from [her] bags” and “secretly removed a date-book which 20 was filled with legal documents.” (Doc. 16 at 2.) When Plaintiff reached the second floor 21 of the building, where she was attempting to file a document in a small-claims case, she 22 noticed her “filing documents had been removed from her belongings,” so she was unable 23 to file whatever documents she intended to that day. (Id.) When Plaintiff returned to the 24 first floor to retrieve her missing belongings, she “was verbally reprimanded by a security 25 officer” and was told to either go back upstairs or leave the building. (Id. at 2-3.) Plaintiff 26 alleges when she left the building, she “did not receive all of the media/storage devices 27 removed from [her] bags,” including several “storage devices containing evidence for 28 current and future litigation,” her datebook, and legal documents. (Id. at 3.) Plaintiff 1 alleges the four security screening officers involved in this “illegal transaction” were Pima 2 County employees. (Id.) She further asserts, “[i]f four employees are involved in an illegal 3 search and seizure, the practice is likely a policy (written or otherwise) of their employer,” 4 and, therefore, she argues, “Respondeat superior applies.” (Id.) Plaintiff also alleges she 5 was denied access to the security surveillance footage when she asked to review it a few 6 days later. (Id.) 7 Next, Plaintiff alleges Judge Erica Cornejo dismissed the small-claims case 8 referenced above “without explanation or justification” on June 15, 2021, which Plaintiff 9 alleges “is evidence of retaliation secondary to the litigation against Pima County.” (Doc. 10 16 at 3.) Plaintiff alleges the filing of her original § 1983 complaint was a protected 11 activity. (Id. at 3.) She goes on to allege that because Judge Cornejo dismissed Plaintiff’s 12 small-claims case “without explanation or justification twelve days after notification via 13 Certified Mail of [this] legal action” twelve days after Pima County was served with the 14 original complaint, the dismissal of the small-claims case constitutes an adverse action and 15 a “causal connection [time] exists between the ‘protected activity’ and the adverse action.” 16 (Id. at 3-4.) Although Plaintiff does not specifically allege any constitutional violations 17 against Defendant, she vaguely refers to the Fourth and Fifth Amendment. (Id.) Plaintiff 18 also lists the elements of retaliation. (Id.) 19 As to damages, Plaintiff seeks: (1) to have her “two 5 gigabyte external hard drives, 20 USB drives, SD micro drives, [and] legal documents among other items” returned to her; 21 (2) “financial reimbursement for the replacement of storage media, documents, and other 22 items equaling a total of approximately $500”; (3) “$2,000,000 for current litigation 23 compromised by theft of evidence”; (4) “$18,000,000 for damages related to compromising 24 future litigation dependent on if evidence illegally seized has been returned unaltered”; (5) 25 “$2,500 for losses secondary to the case dismissal secondary to retaliation”; and (6) 26 punitive damages “for the retaliation and intent to deceive and the shocking nature of the 27 illegal search and seizure and subsequent deprivation of property.” (Doc. 16 at 4-5.) 28 1 III. Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 18) 2 Defendant has moved to dismiss Plaintiff’s FAC for failure to state a claim, pursuant 3 to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). (Doc. 18 at 3.) Pursuant to Rule 8(a)(2) of 4 the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, “[a] pleading that states a claim for relief must 5 contain . . . a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to 6 relief.” While Rule 8 does not require detailed factual allegations, “it demands more than 7 an unadorned, the-defendant-unlawfully-harmed-me accusation.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 8 U.S. 662, 678 (2009). Under Rule 12(b)(6), a party may move to dismiss a claim for relief 9 by asserting “failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.” “To survive a 10 motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to 11 ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’” Id. (quoting Bell Atlantic Corp. v. 12 Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570 (2007)).

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Karam v. Pima, County of, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/karam-v-pima-county-of-azd-2022.