Memory v. Pima County Health Department

CourtDistrict Court, D. Arizona
DecidedNovember 19, 2024
Docket4:24-cv-00273
StatusUnknown

This text of Memory v. Pima County Health Department (Memory v. Pima County Health Department) 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
Memory v. Pima County Health Department, (D. Ariz. 2024).

Opinion

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

9 Tony Clarence Memory, No. CV-24-00273-TUC-AMM

10 Plaintiff, ORDER

11 v.

12 Pima County Health Department, et al.,

13 Defendants. 14 15 Pending before the Court are Defendant Pima County Health Department’s 16 (“PCHD”) Motion to Dismiss Party (Doc. 10); Defendant Pima County’s Motion to 17 Dismiss Party (Doc. 18) and Motion to Strike (Doc. 24); and Defendant Portillo’s 18 Hotdogs, LLC’s (“Portillo’s”) Motions for More Definite Statement (Docs. 13, 19). 19 I. Background 20 On May 29, 2024, Plaintiff Tony Clarence Memory, proceeding pro se, filed a 21 Complaint and paid the filing fee. (Docs. 1–4.) Plaintiff alleged “wrongful termination” 22 against PCHD and Portillo’s and cited several civil and criminal statutes.1 (Doc. 1 at 4.) 23 He included 27 pages of additional written material that contained disorganized factual 24 allegations and citations to various other statutes. (Id. at 6–33.) Plaintiff also separately 25 1 Plaintiff indicated this matter involved a federal question and cited “Civil Violations 26 ARS 12-2505, Breach of duty negligence, Felony VIOLATIONS ARS 13-2407, Tampering with a public record, Felony VIOLATIONS ARS 13-2602, Felony theft of 27 more then [sic] $1000 value, Bribery of state Health Inspector, ARS 13-2602, 18 U.S.C. § 201(a)(2), Arizona Employment Wrongful Termination, ARS 23-1501(3)(c)(i)(ii), 28 Food code violations See attached page 21-24, Regulartory [sic] Violations.” (Doc. 1 at 3.) 1 filed three exhibits with additional factual allegations. (Docs. 2–4.) In summary, Plaintiff 2 alleged that he worked at Portillo’s and witnessed PCHD officials accepting free meals in 3 exchange for ignoring health code violations. (Doc. 1 at 4.) He further alleged that he 4 reported the violations to PCHD, and Portillo’s eventually terminated his employment. 5 (Id. at 4, 7–19.) 6 On July 24, 2024, PCHD filed a Motion to Dismiss Party arguing PCHD is a non- 7 jural entity that lacks the capacity to be sued. (Doc. 10 at 1.) On July 29, 2024, Portillo’s 8 filed a Motion for More Definite Statement pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9 12(e) seeking an order requiring Plaintiff to clarify his claims against Portillo’s. (Doc. 13 10 at 1.) 11 Before the Court ruled, Plaintiff filed an Amended Complaint.2 (Doc. 15.) The 12 Amended Complaint, which totals 119 pages, names Portillo’s and Pima County. (Id. at 13 2.) It does not name PCHD. (Id.) Plaintiff completed the first six pages of his Amended 14 Complaint using a court-provided form for employment discrimination lawsuits. (Id. at 15 1–6.) He alleges that Portillo’s violated Title VII because he was falsely accused of 16 stealing and terminated based on his race. (Id. at 4.) Plaintiff renews his allegations that 17 health inspectors received free meals from Portillo’s in exchange for ignoring health code 18 violations. (Id. at 5.) Plaintiff states he complained, but “[t]he inspectors refused to take 19 [his] complaints after rouge [sic] managers told them not to speak to [him].” (Id.) He 20 further alleges that he was “[f]rame[d]” for stealing $1,000 worth of items because he is 21 African American. (Id.) He includes a copy of his Charge of Discrimination3 to the U.S. 22 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) in which he states that he was 23 2 The Court will only assess the claims contained in Plaintiff’s Amended Complaint 24 because the “amended complaint supersedes the original, the latter being treated thereafter as non-existent.” Loux v. Rhay, 375 F.2d 55, 57 (9th Cir. 1967), overruled on 25 other grounds by Lacey v. Maricopa Cnty., 693 F.3d 869, 928 (9th Cir. 2012) (en banc). 26 The Court will, therefore, deny as moot PCHD’s Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 10) and Portillo’s Motion for More Definite Statement (Doc. 13). 27 3 The copy Plaintiff included is not signed, but he did receive a Determination and Notice 28 of Rights letter on May 31, 2024, which confirms he filed the Charge of Discrimination. (Doc. 15 at 9.) 1 accused of stealing and lost his job after complaining about health code violations. (Id. at 2 7.) 3 The remaining 104 pages of the Amended Complaint are a muddle of factual 4 allegations, legal citations, and communications via text and email between Plaintiff, 5 Portillo’s, and Pima County. (Id. at 15–119.) The length and disorganized nature of these 6 allegations make it difficult to discern which facts relate to which claim against which 7 party. See Indep. Towers of Wash. v. Wash., 350 F.3d 925, 929 (9th Cir. 2003) (quoting 8 United States v. Dunkel, 927 F.2d 955, 956 (7th Cir. 1991)) (“Judges are not like pigs, 9 hunting for truffles buried in briefs.”). 10 Plaintiff’s most succinct claim against Pima County alleges that Pima County 11 “willfully ignored” his complaints, which Plaintiff asserts “is Breach of Duty and bribery 12 although this is not the TORT CLAIM Lawsuit [he is] filing, their actions were racially 13 motivated as they could care less about hard working African Americans and thus they 14 should be also included in this EEOC civil rights lawsuit.” (Id. at 21.) He further states, 15 “Pima County though not my employer illegally conspired with Portillos [sic] to steal 16 meals and money from the Restaurant in favor of no violations[,]” thus “Pima County 17 should be liable as a NON TORT CLAIM defendant in this civil rights lawsuit.” (Id. at 18 22.) 19 On August 14, 2024, Pima County filed a Motion to Dismiss Party. (Doc. 18.) On 20 August 15, 2024, Portillo’s filed a Second Motion for More Definite Statement. (Doc. 21 19.) The Court will address these motions in turn. 22 /// 23 /// 24 /// 25 /// 26 /// 27 /// 28 /// 1 II. Motion to Dismiss Party 2 a. Sur-Reply 3 Pima County’s Motion to Dismiss Party is fully briefed. (Docs. 18, 21–22.) After 4 Pima County filed its Reply, Plaintiff filed a “2nd Reply Opposition Motion to Dismiss.” 5 (Doc. 23.) Pima County moved to strike the document as an impermissible sur-reply.4 6 (Doc. 24.) 7 As an initial matter, the Court will strike Plaintiff’s sur-reply. “[N]either the 8 Federal Rules of Civil Procedure nor the District’s Local Rules entitle a party to a sur- 9 reply as a matter of right.” Burgess v. Shinn, No. CV-21-01164-PHX-DJH, 2022 WL 10 2341218, at *1 (D. Ariz. June 29, 2022) (citing LRCiv 7.2). The Court may, in its 11 discretion, permit a party to file a sur-reply, considering “whether the movant’s reply in 12 fact raises arguments or issues for the first time, whether the nonmovant’s proposed 13 surreply would be helpful to the resolution of the pending motion, and whether the 14 movant would be unduly prejudiced were leave to be granted.” Liberty Corp. Cap. Ltd. v. 15 Steigleman, No. CV-19-05698-PHX-GMS, 2020 WL 2097776, at *1 n.2 (D. Ariz. May 1, 16 2020) (quoting Sebert v. Ariz. Dep’t of Corr., No. CV-16-00354-PHX-ROS-ESW, 2016 17 WL 3456909, at *1 (D. Ariz. June 17, 2016)). Here, the Court finds that Pima County’s 18 Reply did not raise any new arguments, and Plaintiff’s sur-reply would not otherwise 19 help in resolving the pending Motion to Dismiss Party. Accordingly, the Court will strike 20 the sur-reply. (Doc. 23.) 21 b. Arguments 22 Pima County seeks to dismiss the Amended Complaint on three grounds. (Doc.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Griffin v. Breckenridge
403 U.S. 88 (Supreme Court, 1971)
Rizzo v. Goode
423 U.S. 362 (Supreme Court, 1976)
Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife
504 U.S. 555 (Supreme Court, 1992)
Pliler v. Ford
542 U.S. 225 (Supreme Court, 2004)
Erickson v. Pardus
551 U.S. 89 (Supreme Court, 2007)
Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly
550 U.S. 544 (Supreme Court, 2007)
Bartlett v. Strickland
556 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 2009)
Hebbe v. Pliler
627 F.3d 338 (Ninth Circuit, 2010)
Richard E. Loux v. B. J. Rhay, Warden
375 F.2d 55 (Ninth Circuit, 1967)
United States v. James C. Dunkel
927 F.2d 955 (Seventh Circuit, 1991)
Coffin v. Safeway, Inc.
323 F. Supp. 2d 997 (D. Arizona, 2004)
Ernest Quiroz Et Ux v. Alcoa Inc
416 P.3d 824 (Arizona Supreme Court, 2018)
Scott v. Ross
140 F.3d 1275 (Ninth Circuit, 1998)
Lopez v. Smith
203 F.3d 1122 (Ninth Circuit, 2000)
Sheffield v. Orius Corp.
211 F.R.D. 411 (D. Oregon, 2002)
Castillo v. Norton
219 F.R.D. 155 (D. Arizona, 2003)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
Memory v. Pima County Health Department, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/memory-v-pima-county-health-department-azd-2024.