Kauffman 360639 v. Mohave, County of

Opinion

1 MDR 2 WO 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA 8 9 Zion Z. Kauffman, No. CV-23-08030-PCT-JAT (JZB) 10 Plaintiff, 11 v. ORDER 12 Mohave County, et al., 13 Defendants.

15 Self-represented Plaintiff Zion Z. Kauffman is confined in the Arizona State Prison 16 Complex-Lewis and proceeding in forma pauperis in this civil rights action brought 17 pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Pending before the Court are Plaintiff’s Motion to Order 18 ADCRR to Remove Charges (“Motion to Remove Charges”) (Doc. 36) and Motion to 19 Dismiss Without Prejudice (Doc. 38). The Court will grant the Motion to Dismiss but will 20 deny the Motion to Remove Charges. 21 I. Motion to Dismiss 22 Under Rule 41(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, a party may dismiss an 23 action without a court order by filing a notice of dismissal at any time before service of an 24 answer or a motion for summary judgment. The right to voluntarily dismiss an action under 25 these circumstances is absolute. Commercial Space Mgmt. Co., Inc. v. Boeing Co., Inc., 26 193 F.3d 1074, 1077 (9th Cir. 1999). Thus, the Court will grant Plaintiff’s Motion to 27 Dismiss. 28 . . . . 1 II. Motion to Remove Charges 2 Plaintiff requests the Court order the Arizona Department of Corrections, 3 Rehabilitation & Reentry (ADC) to “remove and refund All Money that was taken.” He 4 claims ADC “posted 350.00 x 3 that = to 1,050” and has “then taken more money and [is] 5 sending it to the Court.” He contends ADC is “double charging [him].” 6 Plaintiff included with his Motion portions of several inmate account statements.1 7 A review of those statements indicates Plaintiff is mistaken and ADC is not double 8 charging him. Therefore, the Court will deny Plaintiff’s Motion to Remove Charges. 9 Between August 29 and 31, 2023, the Court assessed a $350.00 filing fee in three 10 of Plaintiff’s cases.2 ADC added those fees to Plaintiff’s “Inmate Debt” account on 11 September 5 and 15 using the Accounting Event code “35 FED FILING FEE.”3 ADC 12 made these accounting entries to keep track of the amount of money Plaintiff ultimately 13 needed to pay the Court. 14 Because Plaintiff did not have money to pay the fees when the Court assessed them, 15 ADC did not take money out of Plaintiff’s inmate account when it made the accounting 16 entries. However, ADC has been incrementally sending money to the Court. When it does, 17 it takes money out of Plaintiff’s “Spendable Account” and reduces the balance of his 18 Inmate Debt Account, using the Accounting Event code “35 PMT FED FILING FEE.”4 19 20

21 1 Document 37 contains an Inmate Consolidated Statement showing information regarding all of Plaintiff’s prison accounts from September 1, 2023, to January 23, 22 2024 (id. at 1-9); a January 23, 2023 “View Obligation” page showing reductions to one of Plaintiff’s filing fee debts (id. at 10); and an Inmate Account Statement from September 23 1 to December 22, 2023 (id. at 11-17). 24 2 See Kauffman v. D.C.S., CV-23-08128-PCT-JAT (JZB) (D. Ariz. Aug. 29, 2023); Kauffman v. Mohave County, CV-23-08030-PCT-JAT (JZB) (D. Ariz. Aug. 30, 2023); and 25 Kauffman v. Rynning (Prison), CV-23-01278-PHX-JAT (JZB) (D. Ariz. Aug. 31, 2023). 26 3 See Doc. 37 at 17. The charge for CV-23-01278 is incorrectly listed as a charge for “CV-23-012798.” The “9” is a typographical error. 27 4 See Doc. 37 at 14-15 (Dec. 8, 2023 entries decreasing the balances in Plaintiff’s 28 Spendable and Inmate Debt accounts by $1.12); 11-12 (Dec. 22 entries decreasing balances by $1.13); and 13 (Dec. 22 entries decreasing balances by $2.94). Each time this occurs, the amount Plaintiff owes the Court, as reflected in the Debt 2| Account, is less.> No double charging is occurring. 3| ITIS ORDERED: 4 (1) Plaintiff’s Motion to Order ADCRR to Remove Charges (Doc. 36) is denied. 5 (2) Plaintiff's Motion to Dismiss Without Prejudice (Doc. 38) is granted. 6 (3) This case is dismissed without prejudice. The Clerk of Court must enter 7 | judgment accordingly. 8 Dated this 28th day of February, 2024. 9 10 A 11 James A. Teilborg 12 Senior United States District Judge 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

> See Doc. 37 at 10.