Manlove v. County of San Diego

CourtDistrict Court, S.D. California
DecidedDecember 13, 2024
Docket3:24-cv-00801
StatusUnknown

This text of Manlove v. County of San Diego (Manlove v. County of San Diego) 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
Manlove v. County of San Diego, (S.D. Cal. 2024).

Opinion

2 3 4

8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10

11 FLOYD MANLOVE, Case No.: 3:24-CV-0801-CAB-MMP 12

Plaintiff, 13 ORDER GRANTING MOTIONS TO 14 v. DISMISS

15 COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO, et al., [ECF No. 3, 14] 16 Defendants. 17 18 19 Plaintiff Floyd Manlove brought a lawsuit pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and other 20 causes against the County of San Diego and known and unknown San Diego County 21 Sheriff’s Department Defendants. The County filed a motion to dismiss on behalf of itself 22 and the ten Doe Defendants. [ECF No. 3.] The named individual Defendants—Deputies 23 Olguin, Alcarion, Kunz, and Gonzales (Deputy Defendants)—filed a separate motion to 24 dismiss (joined by the County). [ECF No. 14.] The Court GRANTS both motions with 25 leave to amend. 26 I. FACTUAL ALLEGATIONS 27 28 The Court takes the alleged material facts as true and construes them in the light most favorable to Plaintiff. Stoner v. Santa Clara Cnty. Office of Educ., 502 F.3d 1116, 1120 (9th Cir. 2007). According to the complaint, on the evening of March 22, 2023 in Spring Valley, CA, at least one Deputy Defendant apprehended Plaintiff while he was 2 parked at a gas station. [Compl. ¶ 19.] Plaintiff admits that he lacked a front license plate 3 in violation of California Vehicle Code 5200(A). [Id.] In apparent response, Deputy 4 Olguin purportedly demanded that Plaintiff produce his state driver’s license, a request 5 Plaintiff pleads he satisfied. [Id. ¶ 20.] Plaintiff claims that he wore jeans and a sweater 6 without any visible bulges in his clothing. [Id.] 7 Next, Plaintiff alleges that Deputy Olguin asked him to exit the vehicle without 8 justification, upon which Plaintiff questioned the reasoning behind his request. [Id. ¶ 21.] 9 According to Plaintiff, this exchange allegedly led to a dispute and to Deputy Olguin’s 10 attempt to reach into Plaintiff’s car and open his door. [Id. ¶ 20.]. Plaintiff asserts that 11 “unlawful and excessive force was applied to him” as he attempted to exit the vehicle by 12 13 his own volition, and “shortly thereafter,” Plaintiff “was pinned and brought down to the 14 ground by at least [four] deputies.” [Id. ¶¶ 21–23.] According to Plaintiff, as a result of 15 this maneuver, he suffered injuries to his face, neck, and back. [Id. ¶ 25.] Though Plaintiff 16 does not specify who arrested him, Plaintiff claims that he was placed under arrest after 17 being subdued. [Id. ¶ 23.] The search of Plaintiff’s person allegedly yielded a glass pipe, 18 and the search of his vehicle, a collapsible baton. [Id. ¶ 24.]. 19 Although Plaintiff refers to numerous officers in the factual core of his complaint, 20 he assigns an explicit role to only Deputy Olguin. Besides naming them, Plaintiff does not 21 plead any facts to specifically define the actions of Deputies Alcarion, Kunz, or Gonzales. 22 Nor does he provide any facts about the role of any Doe Defendant. 23 II. ANALYSIS 24 From the face of his complaint, Plaintiff presents five separate causes: (1) a 42 25 U.S.C. § 1983 claim against the Deputy Defendants and Does 1–5, (2) a Section 1983 26 Monell liability claim against the County of San Diego and Does 6–10, (3) a common law 27 28 assault and battery action against the Deputy Defendants and Does 1–5, (4) a common law false arrest claim against the Deputy Defendants and Does 1–5, and (5) a claim under California Civil Code § 52.1 (the Bane Act) against the Deputy Defendants and Does 1–5. At issue are the two motions to dismiss. Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) permits a party to 2 file a motion to dismiss for “failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.” “To 3 survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter . . . to ‘state 4 a claim for relief that is plausible on its face.’” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) 5 (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570 (2007)). “Vague and conclusory 6 allegations” concerning government involvement in civil rights violations are insufficient 7 to withstand a motion to dismiss. Ivey v. Bd. Of Regents of Univ. of Alaska, 673 F.2d 266, 8 268 (9th Cir. 1982). Since the filed motions—though overlapping—target different claims, 9 the Court’s analysis proceeds claim-by-claim. 10 A. The Federal Claims Against the Doe Defendants Are Insufficiently Pleaded 11 Plaintiff includes Doe Defendants in all his causes of action. As it relates to the 42 12 13 U.S.C. § 1983 claim and the related Monell claim, there are no facts indicating what 14 involvement Does 1–10 had in any alleged constitutional violation. 15 “As a general rule, the use of ‘John Doe’ to identify a defendant is not favored.” 16 Gillespie v. Civiletti, 629 F.2d 637, 642 (9th Cir. 1980) (citing Wiltsie v. California 17 Department of Corrections, 406 F.2d 515, 518 (9th Cir. 1968)). To successfully plead a 18 Section 1983 claim, Plaintiff must set forth facts that each defendant personally violated 19 his constitutional rights. See Taylor v. List, 880 F.2d 1040, 1045 (9th Cir. 1989). This 20 requires an “individualized” assessment of causality to attribute conduct (or lack thereof) 21 that allegedly forms the basis of a constitutional deprivation. Leer v. Murphy, 844 F.2d 22 628, 633 (9th Cir. 1988). 23 Plaintiff names four law enforcement personnel who were involved in the alleged 24 takedown. [Compl. ¶ 23.] But he presents no facts, either for his traditional Section 1983 25 claim or his Monell liability claim, that indicate what Doe Defendants did, if anything, to 26 contribute to the identified constitutional harms. Because Plaintiff fails to plead sufficient 27 28 (or any) facts connecting Does 1–10 to any of the federal constitutional claims, the Court dismisses those claims against the Doe Defendants with leave to amend. Barren v. Harrington, 152 F.3d 1193, 1194 (9th Cir. 1998) (“A plaintiff must allege facts, not simply conclusions, t[o] show that [each defendant] was personally involved in the deprivation of 2 his civil rights.”) 3 B. Plaintiff Fails to State a Claim Under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments 4 To state a Section 1983 claim, a plaintiff must allege that: (1) a right secured by the 5 Constitution or laws of the United States was violated, and (2) a person acting under the 6 color of state law committed the alleged violation. West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42, 48 (1988). 7 Plaintiff alleges two separate constitutional violations based on the Fourth and Fourteenth 8 Amendments. But the eight paragraphs that form the “Factual Allegations” portion of the 9 complaint specify only one Deputy Defendant’s involvement in the alleged violations: 10 Deputy Olguin. [See generally, Compl. ¶¶ 18-25.] In the “Cause of Action” section of his 11 complaint, Plaintiff indicates that each Deputy Defendant was involved in the purported 12 13 Section 1983 violations. [Compl. ¶ 27(a)].

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Manlove v. County of San Diego, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/manlove-v-county-of-san-diego-casd-2024.