(PC) Dao v. Campbell

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. California
DecidedMay 20, 2024
Docket2:23-cv-01242
StatusUnknown

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

Bluebook
(PC) Dao v. Campbell, (E.D. Cal. 2024).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 CUONG HUY DAO, No. 2:23-CV-1242-KJM-DMC-P 12 Plaintiff, 13 v. ORDER 14 DUSTIN CAMPBELL, et al., 15 Defendants. 16 17 Plaintiff, a prisoner proceeding pro se, brings this civil rights action pursuant to 18 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Pending before the Court is Plaintiff’s first amended complaint, ECF No. 9. 19 The Court is required to screen complaints brought by prisoners seeking relief 20 against a governmental entity or officer or employee of a governmental entity. See 28 U.S.C. 21 § 1915A(a). This provision also applies if the plaintiff was incarcerated at the time the action was 22 initiated even if the litigant was subsequently released from custody. See Olivas v. Nevada ex rel. 23 Dep’t of Corr., 856 F.3d 1281, 1282 (9th Cir. 2017). The Court must dismiss a complaint or 24 portion thereof if it: (1) is frivolous or malicious; (2) fails to state a claim upon which relief can 25 be granted; or (3) seeks monetary relief from a defendant who is immune from such relief. See 26 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b)(1), (2). Moreover, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure require that 27 complaints contain a “. . . short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is 28 entitled to relief.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2). This means that claims must be stated simply, 1 concisely, and directly. See McHenry v. Renne, 84 F.3d 1172, 1177 (9th Cir. 1996) (referring to 2 Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(e)(1)). These rules are satisfied if the complaint gives the defendant fair notice 3 of the plaintiff’s claim and the grounds upon which it rests. See Kimes v. Stone, 84 F.3d 1121, 4 1129 (9th Cir. 1996). Because Plaintiff must allege with at least some degree of particularity 5 overt acts by specific defendants which support the claims, vague and conclusory allegations fail 6 to satisfy this standard. Additionally, it is impossible for the Court to conduct the screening 7 required by law when the allegations are vague and conclusory. 8 9 I. PLAINTIFF’S FIRST AMENDED COMPLAINT 10 Plaintiff initiated this action with a pro se complaint filed on June 28, 2023. See 11 ECF No. 1. In this 22-page pleading, Plaintiff named eight individual defendants. See id. at 2, 3. 12 Plaintiff alleged events occurring at both California State Prison – Sacramento and Pelican Bay 13 State Prison. See id. at 1. Prior to screening of the original complaint, Plaintiff filed the pending 14 first amended complaint as of right on July 14, 2023. See ECF No. 9. This pleading is 182 pages 15 long, consisting entirely of Plaintiff’s hand-written allegations. See id. Plaintiff now names 201 16 individual defendants. See id. at 2-9. A number of these defendants are alleged to be prison 17 officials at Salinas Valley State Prison. See id. It thus appears that Plaintiff’s claims now include 18 allegations related to events at three separate prisons – California State Prison – Sacramento, 19 Pelican Bay State Prison, and Salinas Valley State Prison. Finally, Plaintiff’s first amended 20 complaint appears to be incomplete in that the first page of the pleading is page 5 of this Court’s 21 form civil rights complaint for state prisoners. See id. at 1. Not included with the filing are pages 22 1-4 of the form complaint and, as a result, a number of key allegations, such as those related to 23 jurisdiction and exhaustion of administrative remedies, are not contained within the current 24 operative pleading. 25 / / / 26 / / / 27 / / / 28 / / / 1 II. DISCUSSION 2 Plaintiff’s amended complaint suffers a number of crucial defects. First, the 3 amended complaint violates Rule 8 because it does not contain a short and plain statement of 4 Plaintiff’s claims. Second, the amended complaint appears to violate Rules 18 and 20 with 5 respect to joinder of claims and parties. Third, the amended complaint is not complete and would 6 require the Court to impermissibly refer to another pleading in order to make the amended 7 complaint complete. The principles associated with each defect are outlined in this order. 8 Plaintiff will be provided an opportunity to amend with these principles in mind. 9 A. Short and Plain Statement 10 First and foremost, the Court finds that Plaintiff’s first amended complaint violates 11 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8. As discussed above, Rule 8 requires a complaint contain a 12 short and plain statement of the claims. Here, Plaintiff’s complaint spans 182 pages for claims 13 against 201 defendants. This pleading method does not satisfy the requirement of Federal Rule of 14 Civil Procedure 8(a) that claims must be stated simply, concisely, and directly. Plaintiff will be 15 provided an opportunity to further amend his complaint to comply with Rule 8. 16 B. Misjoinder 17 Second, Plaintiff’s amended complaint appears to violate Federal Rules of Civil 18 Procedure 18 and 20. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 18(a) limits the joinder of claims, 19 whereas Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 20(a) limits the joinder of parties in a single 20 lawsuit. Rule 18(a) states: “A party asserting a claim . . . may join, as independent or alternative 21 claims, as many claims as it has against an opposing party.” Rule 20(a)(2) states: “[p]ersons . . . 22 may be joined in one action as defendants if: (A) any right to relief is asserted against them 23 jointly, severally, or in the alternative with respect to or arising out of the same transaction, 24 occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences; and (B) any question of law or fact common 25 to all defendants will arise in the action.” Courts have recognized that when multiple parties are 26 named, the analysis under Rule 20 precedes that under Rule 18. See Herndon v. Mich. Dep’t of 27 / / / 28 / / / 1 Corr., 2021 WL 1559156 at *2 (W.D. Mich. April 12, 2021). 2 Rule 20 deals solely with joinder of parties and becomes relevant 3 only when there is more than one party on one or both sides of the action. It is not concerned with joinder of claims, which is governed by Rule 18. 4 Therefore, in actions involving multiple defendants Rule 20 operates independently of Rule 18. . . . 5 Despite the broad language of Rule 18(a), plaintiff may join multiple defendants in a single action only if plaintiff asserts at least one 6 claim to relief against each of them that arises out of the same transaction or occurrence and presents questions of law or fact common to all. 7 Id. (citing 7 Charles Allen Wright & Arthur R. Miller, Federal Practice and 8 Procedure § 1655 (3d ed. 2001), quoted in Proctor v. Applegate, 661 F. Supp. 2d 743, 778 (E.D. Mich. 2009), and Garcia v. Munoz, No. 08-1648, 9 2008 WL 2064476, at *3 (D.N.J. May 14, 2008); see also United States v.

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Bluebook (online)
(PC) Dao v. Campbell, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pc-dao-v-campbell-caed-2024.