(PC) Bryant v. Kibler

District Court, E.D. California·Decided January 17, 2023·No. 2:21-cv-00060·Unknown

Opinion

KEVIN D. BRYANT, No. 2:21-CV-0060-TLN-DMC-P Plaintiff, v. ORDER BRIAN KIBLER, et al., Defendants. Plaintiff, a prisoner proceeding pro se, brings this civil rights action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Pending before the Court is Plaintiff’s first amended complaint, ECF No. 39. The Court is required to screen complaints brought by prisoners seeking relief against a governmental entity or officer or employee of a governmental entity. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(a). The Court must dismiss a complaint or portion thereof if it: (1) is frivolous or malicious; (2) fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted; or (3) seeks monetary relief from a defendant who is immune from such relief. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b)(1), (2). Moreover, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure require that complaints contain a “short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2). This means that claims must be stated simply, concisely, and directly. See McHenry v. Renne, 84 F.3d 1172, 1177 (9th Cir. 1996) (referring to Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(e)(1)). These rules are satisfied if the complaint gives the defendant fair notice of the plaintiff’s claim and the grounds upon which it rests. See Kimes v. Stone, 84 F.3d 1121, 1129 (9th Cir. 1996). In order to survive dismissal for failure to state a claim, a complaint must contain factual allegations sufficient “to raise a right to relief above the speculative level.” Bell Atl. Corp v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555-56 (2007). The complaint must contain “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Id. at 570. “A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009). “The plausibility standard is not akin to a ‘probability requirement,’ but it asks for more than a sheer possibility that a defendant has acted unlawfully.” Id. (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 556). The mere possibility of misconduct will not suffice to meet this standard. See id. at 679. Because Plaintiff must allege with at least some degree of particularity overt acts by specific defendants that support the claims, vague and conclusory allegations fail to satisfy this standard. I. PLAINTIFF’S ALLEGATIONS1 Plaintiffs names the following Defendants: (1) Kathleen Allision, Secretary of California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (“CDCR”); (1) Brian Kibler, Warden of High Desert State Prison (“HDSP”); (3) Jason Picket, Warden of HDSP; (4) Robert Peery, Associate Warden of HDSP; (5) Dr. Kevin Rueter, Chief Medical Executive of HDSP; (6) Dr. Taber, Chief Physician of HDSP; (7) Joseph Bick, Director of California Correctional Health Care Services (“CCHCS”); (8) Diana Toche, Undersecretary of CCHCS; (9) Connie Gipson, Director of Division of Adult Institutions; (10) Matt Williams, Captain at HDSP; (11) Does 1-10, top officials of CDCR, CCCS, HDSP, and San Quentin prisons; (12) C. Barrier, Correctional Officer at HDSP; and (13) S. Gates, Chief, Health Care Correspondence and Appeals Branch at CCHCS. See ECF No. 39, pgs. 4-7. Defendants are sued in their individual and official 1 The Court notes Plaintiff’s first amended complaint is 151 pages, most of which are lengthy exhibits. Plaintiff is cautioned that it is the Court’s duty to evaluate the factual allegations within a complaint, not to wade through exhibits in order to determine the basis for Plaintiff’s claims. For screening purposes, the Court must assume that Plaintiff’s factual allegations are true; therefore, it is generally unnecessary to submit exhibits in support of capacities. See id. Plaintiff alleges violations of the Eighth Amendment based on Defendants’ knowledge that Plaintiff was at high risk for complications of Covid-19, yet approved the transfer of inmates to HDSP from San Quentin Prison, with inadequate testing procedures in place, and that Defendants failed to properly test and isolate the incoming inmates, resulting in Plaintiff contracting the Covid-19 virus. See generally, ECF No. 39, pgs. 8-12. It appears that Plaintiff is currently housed at R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility but was housed at the HDSP at the time of the alleged injury. See id., pgs. 1, 9. Specifically, Plaintiff alleges that Defendants Allison, Bick, Toche, Gipson, Kibler, Picket, Peery, Rueter, Taber and Does were deliberately indifferent in the way they handled the Covid-19 pandemic when they approved the transfer of inmates from California Institute for Men to San Quentin Prison without following proper safety precautions. See id., pg. 8. Without proper testing for the virus, the prison had no way of knowing whether the transferred inmates were infected or not, and Defendants and Does were aware of such before the transfers occurred. See id., pgs. 8-9. Plaintiff claims that the transfer of these inmates occurred between May 28, 2020 and May 30, 2020, and that even though some of the inmates to be transferred had symptoms consistent with Covid-19, those inmates were placed on buses where there was no physical distancing. See id., pg. 9. Thereafter, around June 8, 2020, Defendants and Does began transferring inmates from San Quentin Prison to HDSP, and within days there was an outbreak of Covid-19 that started in the unit where those transferred inmates were housed. Plaintiff was housed on the same yard where the outbreak occurred. See id. Plaintiff argues that despite a state-wide emergency lockdown, Defendants and Does defied that lockdown order by transferring inmates between prisons. See id. On December 6, 2020, Plaintiff’s cellmate tested positive for Covid-19 and was moved to a quarantine building, but alleges that other inmates that tested positive were left in the building and not transferred for isolation. See id. On December 7, 2020, Plaintiff was tested for the virus, but the results were negative. See id. However, on December 8, 2022,2 Plaintiff asserts

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

(PC) Bryant v. Kibler, (E.D. Cal. 2023).

(PC) Bryant v. Kibler ((PC) Bryant v. Kibler) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Rizzo v. Goode
423 U.S. 362 (Supreme Court, 1976)
Estelle v. Gamble
429 U.S. 97 (Supreme Court, 1976)
Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Servs.
436 U.S. 658 (Supreme Court, 1978)
Hutto v. Finney
437 U.S. 678 (Supreme Court, 1979)
Rhodes v. Chapman
452 U.S. 337 (Supreme Court, 1981)
Helling v. McKinney
509 U.S. 25 (Supreme Court, 1993)
Sandin v. Conner
515 U.S. 472 (Supreme Court, 1995)
Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly
550 U.S. 544 (Supreme Court, 2007)
Ashcroft v. Iqbal
556 U.S. 662 (Supreme Court, 2009)
Johnson v. Duffy
588 F.2d 740 (Ninth Circuit, 1978)
Fayle v. Stapley
607 F.2d 858 (Ninth Circuit, 1979)
Ellis v. Cassidy
625 F.2d 227 (Ninth Circuit, 1980)
Ivey v. Board of Regents of University of Alaska
673 F.2d 266 (Second Circuit, 1982)
Keith A. Berg v. Larry Kincheloe
794 F.2d 457 (Ninth Circuit, 1986)
Kim King and Kent Norman v. Victor Atiyeh
814 F.2d 565 (Ninth Circuit, 1987)