Keavney v. O'Brian

CourtDistrict Court, S.D. California
DecidedDecember 11, 2020
Docket3:20-cv-01443
StatusUnknown

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

Bluebook
Keavney v. O'Brian, (S.D. Cal. 2020).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 8 9 MICHAEL RICHARD KEAVNEY, Case No. 3:20cv1443-MMA-MSB Booking #17104761, 10 ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO Plaintiff, 11 PROCEED IN FORMA PAUPERIS v. PURSUANT TO 28 U.S.C. SECTION 12 1915(a);

13 DR. O’BRIEN, et al., [Doc. No. 2] 14 Defendants. 15 DENYING AS MOOT MOTIONS TO PROCEED IN FORMA PAUPERIS; 16

17 [Doc. Nos. 5, 7]

18 DISMISSING CIVIL ACTION FOR 19 FAILING TO STATE A CLAIM PURSUANT TO 28 U.S.C. SECTION 20 1915(e)(2) AND SECTION 1915A; 21 DENYING MOTION FOR 22 TEMPORARY RESTRAINING 23 ORDER AND PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION 24

25 [Doc. No. 3] 26 27 Plaintiff Michael Richard Keavney, currently incarcerated at San Diego County 28 Sheriff’s Department’s Vista Detention Facility, is proceeding pro se in this civil rights 1 action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Section 1983. See Compl., Doc. No. 1. 2 Plaintiff has not prepaid the $402 civil and administrative filing fee required by 28 3 U.S.C. Section 1914(a), and has instead submitted several motions for leave to proceed in 4 forma pauperis (“IFP”) pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Section 1915(a)(1). See Doc. Nos. 2, 5, 7. 5 In addition, Plaintiff has filed a Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order (“TRO”) and 6 a Preliminary Injunction (“PI”). See Doc. No. 3. 7 I. Motion to Proceed In Forma Pauperis 8 All parties instituting any civil action, suit or proceeding in a district court of the 9 United States, except an application for writ of habeas corpus, must pay a filing fee of 10 $400.1 See 28 U.S.C. § 1914(a). The action may proceed despite a plaintiff’s failure to 11 prepay the entire fee only if he is granted leave to proceed IFP pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 12 Section 1915(a). See Andrews v. Cervantes, 493 F.3d 1047, 1051 (9th Cir. 2007); 13 Rodriguez v. Cook, 169 F.3d 1176, 1177 (9th Cir. 1999). However, a prisoner who is 14 granted leave to proceed IFP remains obligated to pay the entire fee in “increments” or 15 “installments,” Bruce v. Samuels, 136 S. Ct. 627, 629 (2016); Williams v. Paramo, 775 16 F.3d 1182, 1185 (9th Cir. 2015), and regardless of whether his action is ultimately 17 dismissed. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(1), (2); Taylor v. Delatoore, 281 F.3d 844, 847 (9th 18 Cir. 2002). 19 Section 1915(a)(2) requires prisoners seeking leave to proceed IFP to submit a 20 “certified copy of the trust fund account statement (or institutional equivalent) for . . . the 21 6-month period immediately preceding the filing of the complaint.” 28 U.S.C. 22 § 1915(a)(2); Andrews v. King, 398 F.3d 1113, 1119 (9th Cir. 2005). From the certified 23 trust account statement, the Court assesses an initial payment of 20% of (a) the average 24 monthly deposits in the account for the past six months, or (b) the average monthly 25

26 1 In addition to the $350 statutory fee, civil litigants must pay an additional administrative fee of $52. See 27 28 U.S.C. § 1914(a) (Judicial Conference Schedule of Fees, District Court Misc. Fee Schedule, § 14 (eff. Dec. 1, 2020)). The additional $52 administrative fee does not apply to persons granted leave to proceed 28 1 balance in the account for the past six months, whichever is greater, unless the prisoner 2 has no assets. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(1); 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(4). The institution 3 having custody of the prisoner then collects subsequent payments, assessed at 20% of the 4 preceding month’s income, in any month in which his account exceeds $10, and forwards 5 those payments to the Court until the entire filing fee is paid. See 28 U.S.C. § 6 1915(b)(2); Bruce, 136 S. Ct. at 629. 7 As mentioned, Plaintiff has submitted several IFP motions. Two such motions 8 contain the prison certificate verifying his available balances for the relevant six-month 9 period preceding the filing of his Complaint. See Doc. No. 2 at 4; Doc. No. 5 at 4. Two 10 of Plaintiff’s IFP motions attach certified copies of his trust account statements, (see ECF 11 No. 5, at 6-10; ECF No. 7, at 5), but only by combining the two statements can the Court 12 determine Plaintiff’s balances for the six-month period preceding the filing of his 13 Complaint as required by 28 U.S.C. Section 1915(a)(2) and S.D. Cal. Civ. L.R. 3.2. 14 Andrews, 398 F.3d at 1119. Plaintiff’s trust account statements show that although he 15 carried an average monthly balance of $12.99 and had $49.83 in average monthly 16 deposits to his trust account for the six months preceding the filing of this action, Plaintiff 17 had an available balance of just $0.03 at the time of filing. See Doc. No. 7 at 7. 18 Accordingly, the Court GRANTS Plaintiff’s Motion to Proceed IFP (Doc. No. 2) 19 and declines to impose the initial partial filing fee pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Section 20 1915(b)(1) because his trust account statements indicate that he may currently have “no 21 means to pay it.” See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(4) (providing that “[i]n no event shall a 22 prisoner be prohibited from bringing a civil action or appealing a civil action or criminal 23 judgment for the reason that the prisoner has no assets and no means by which to pay the 24 initial partial filing fee.”); Taylor, 281 F.3d at 850 (finding that 28 U.S.C. Section 25 1915(b)(4) acts as a “safety-valve” preventing dismissal of a prisoner’s IFP case based 26 solely on a “failure to pay . . . due to the lack of funds available to him when payment is 27 ordered.”). Instead, the Court DIRECTS the Watch Commander of Vista Detention 28 Facility, or his designee, to collect the entire $350 balance of the filing fees required by 1 28 U.S.C. Section 1914 and to forward them to the Clerk of the Court pursuant to the 2 installment payment provisions set forth in 28 U.S.C. Section 1915(b)(1). Because IFP 3 status has been granted, the Court DENIES as moot Plaintiff’s two additional Motions to 4 Proceed IFP (Doc. Nos. 5, 7). 5 II. Sua Sponte Screening pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Section 1915(e)(2) and Section 6 1915A(b) 7 A.

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Bluebook (online)
Keavney v. O'Brian, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/keavney-v-obrian-casd-2020.