Manlove v. County of San Diego

CourtDistrict Court, S.D. California
DecidedMay 8, 2025
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. 2025).

Opinion

1 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 IN PART AND 14 v. DENYING IN PART MOTION TO DISMISS 15 COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO, et al.,

16 Defendants. [Doc. No. 22] 17 18 19 On May 6, 2024, Plaintiff Floyd Manlove brought a lawsuit pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 20 1983 and other causes against Defendants County of San Diego, San Diego County 21 Sheriff’s Deputies Dylan Olguin, Michael Alcarion, Airan Kunz, and Osmark Gonzalez, 22 and Does 1–10 (“Defendants”). The Court granted Defendants’ motion to dismiss. [Doc. 23 No. 17.] Plaintiff filed a first amended complaint (“FAC”). [Doc. No. 18.] Defendants 24 subsequently filed a motion to dismiss the FAC. [Doc. No. 22.] The Court GRANTS the 25 motion in part and DENIES the motion in part. 26 27 I. FACTUAL ALLEGATIONS 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. Off. of Educ., 502 F.3d 1116, 1120 1 (9th Cir. 2007). Except as noted below, the FAC alleges substantially similar facts to those 2 in Plaintiff’s initial complaint. 3 In the FAC, Plaintiff alleges that Defendant Gonzalez could clearly observe 4 Plaintiff’s movements as Defendant Olguin conducted the traffic stop. [FAC ¶ 17.] 5 Plaintiff asserts that “objectively unreasonable and unlawful excessive force was applied” 6 by Defendants Olguin, Alcarion, Kunz, and Gonzalez (“Deputy Defendants”) as he 7 attempted to exit the vehicle by his own volition. [Id. ¶ 21.] Plaintiff claims that a civilian 8 witness captured a video of the incident, and the video allegedly shows Defendant Olguin 9 “punch a non-resistant [Plaintiff] to the face at least 3 times causing bruising and bleeding 10 to [Plaintiff’s] face and nose.” [Id. ¶ 22.] According to Plaintiff, he was then “pinned and 11 brought down to the hard concrete by [Deputy Defendants].” [Id. ¶ 23.] 12 13 II. LEGAL STANDARD 14 At the pleading stage, the Court looks to whether Plaintiff has plausibly stated a 15 claim: an exercise that draws on judicial experience and common sense. Eclectic Props. 16 E., LLC v. Marcus & Millichap Co., 751 F.3d 990, 995 (9th Cir. 2014). Fed. R. Civ. P. 17 12(b)(6) permits a party to file a motion to dismiss for “failure to state a claim upon which 18 relief can be granted.” “To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient 19 factual matter . . . to ‘state a claim for relief that is plausible on its face.’” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 20 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570 (2007)). 21 “Vague and conclusory allegations” concerning government involvement in civil rights 22 violations are insufficient to withstand a motion to dismiss. Ivey v. Bd. of Regents of Univ. 23 of Alaska, 673 F.2d 266, 268 (9th Cir. 1982). 24 III. ANALYSIS 25 Plaintiff’s FAC presents the same causes of action as the initial complaint: (1) 26 27 Section 1983 violation, (2) Monell violation, (3) failure to intervene, (4) assault, (5), 28 battery, (6) false arrest, and (7) Bane Act violation. The Court takes each of Plaintiff’s claims in turn and analyzes Defendants’ qualified immunity defense. // 1 A. Plaintiff’s Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment Section 1983 Claims 2 Plaintiff alleges two Section 1983 claims based on the Fourth and Fourteenth 3 Amendments. [FAC ¶ 27(a).] To state a Section 1983 claim, Plaintiff must allege that: (1) 4 a right secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States was violated, and (2) a 5 person acting under the color of state law committed the alleged violation. West v. Atkins, 6 487 U.S. 42, 48 (1988). Moreover, Plaintiff must specifically identify who caused the 7 alleged violation. See Leer v. Murphy, 844 F.2d 628, 633 (9th Cir. 1988) (“The inquiry 8 into causation must be individualized to focus on the duties and responsibilities of each 9 individual defendant whose acts or omissions are alleged to have caused a constitutional 10 deprivation.”). 11 12 i. Fourth Amendment Unlawful Search/Seizure 13 Plaintiff’s first constitutional claim is an alleged violation of his Fourth Amendment 14 rights: that the individually named Deputies “seized, searched, arrested, and handcuffed” 15 Plaintiff without probable cause. [FAC at ¶ 27(a).] 16 As discussed in the Court’s prior order ruling on Defendants’ first motion to dismiss, 17 Defendants Olguin and Gonzalez had probable cause to make the initial stop, and Plaintiff 18 failed to plead an unlawful arrest claim. [Doc. No. 17 at 5-6.] In other words, no 19 constitutional infirmity plagued the arrest as pleaded. As it relates to the search, Plaintiff 20 does not identify who searched his person or vehicle. [See FAC ¶ 25.] That itself renders 21 Plaintiff’s claim defective: Plaintiff must specifically allege who (even if it is a Doe 22 defendant) faces causal responsibility for the constitutional violation alleged. See Leer, 23 844 F.2d at 633. 24 In the FAC, however, Plaintiff pleaded new facts regarding his allegation that 25 Deputy Defendants used excessive force against him during the stop. The use of excessive 26 27 force by a law enforcement officer may violate the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition 28 against unreasonable seizures. Lowry v. City of San Diego, 858 F.3d 1248, 1254 (9th Cir. 2017). The Court analyzes such claim under the Fourth Amendment’s “reasonableness” standard. Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 395 (1989). 1 In assessing the objective reasonableness of a particular use of force, the Court 2 considers: (1) “the severity of the intrusion on the individual’s Fourth Amendment rights 3 by evaluating the type and amount of force inflicted,” (2) “the government’s interest in the 4 use of force,” and (3) the balance between “the gravity of the intrusion on the individual” 5 and “the government’s need for that intrusion.” Glenn v. Washington Cnty., 673 F.3d 864, 6 871 (9th Cir. 2011) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). 7 a. The Type and Amount of Force 8 Analyzing the appropriate type and amount of force requires a case-by-case 9 approach. See Torres v. City of Madera, 648 F.3d 1119, 1124 (9th Cir. 2011) (an excessive 10 force inquiry is a “highly fact-intensive task for which there are no per se rules”). The 11 Ninth Circuit has held that a jury could find that an officer’s repeated punching of a 12 13 physically non-resistant plaintiff in the face—actions leading to serious and painful 14 claimed injuries—violates the Fourth Amendment. Lolli v. Cnty. of Orange, 351 F.3d 410, 15 417 (9th Cir. 2003). Here, Plaintiff states that he voluntarily stepped out of the vehicle, 16 and Deputy Olguin punched him in the face several times. [FAC ¶¶ 20, 22.] Plaintiff 17 claims that Deputy Olguin’s punches caused facial bleeding and led to injuries to his face, 18 neck, and back. [FAC ¶¶ 22, 25.] Plaintiff has sufficiently pleaded that Defendant Olguin 19 used an inappropriate type and amount of force during the stop.

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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-2025.