(PC) Gibson v. Moseley

District Court, E.D. California·Decided July 7, 2023·No. 1:23-cv-00230·Unknown

Opinion

KENDALE GIBSON, Case No. 1:23-cv-00230-SAB (PC) Plaintiff, ORDER DIRECTING CLERK OF COURT TO RANDOMLY ASSIGN A DISTRICT v. JUDGE TO THIS ACTION HOWARD MOSELEY, et al., FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATION RECOMMENDING DISMISSAL OF Defendants. ACTION (ECF No. 11)

Plaintiff Kendale Gibson is proceeding pro se in this civil rights action filed pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. This matter was referred to a United States Magistrate Judge pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(B) and Local Rule 302. Plaintiff’s complaint in this action was filed on February 15, 2023. (ECF No. 1.) On May 5, 2023, the Court screened the complaint, found that Plaintiff failed to state a cognizable claim for relief, and granted Plaintiff thirty days to file an amended complaint. (ECF No. 10.) Plaintiff failed to file an amended complaint or otherwise respond to the May 5, 2023 order. Therefore, on June 13, 2023, the Court issued an order for Plaintiff to show cause why the action should not be dismissed. (ECF No. 11.) Plaintiff has failed to respond to the order to show cause and the time to do so has now passed. Accordingly, dismissal of the action is warranted. I. SCREENING REQUIREMENT The Court is required to screen complaints brought by prisoners seeking relief against a governmental entity or officer or employee of a governmental entity. 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(a). The Court must dismiss a complaint or portion thereof if the prisoner has raised claims that are legally “frivolous or malicious,” that “fail[] to state a claim on which relief may be granted,” or that “seek[] monetary relief against a defendant who is immune from such relief.” 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B); see also 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b). A complaint must contain “a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief. . . .” Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2). Detailed factual allegations are not required, but “[t]hreadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of action, supported by mere conclusory statements, do not suffice.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (citing Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007)). Moreover, Plaintiff must demonstrate that each defendant personally participated in the deprivation of Plaintiff’s rights. Jones v. Williams, 297 F.3d 930, 934 (9th Cir. 2002). Prisoners proceeding pro se in civil rights actions are entitled to have their pleadings liberally construed and to have any doubt resolved in their favor. Wilhelm v. Rotman, 680 F.3d 1113, 1121 (9th Cir. 2012) (citations omitted). To survive screening, Plaintiff’s claims must be facially plausible, which requires sufficient factual detail to allow the Court to reasonably infer that each named defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged. Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678-79; Moss v. U.S. Secret Service, 572 F.3d 962, 969 (9th Cir. 2009). The “sheer possibility that a defendant has acted unlawfully” is not sufficient, and “facts that are ‘merely consistent with’ a defendant’s liability” falls short of satisfying the plausibility standard. Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678; Moss, 572 F.3d at 969. II. The Court accepts Plaintiff’s allegations in his complaint as true only for the purpose of the screening requirement under 28 U.S.C. § 1915. On September 23, 2022, Plaintiff’s wife traveled from Brooklyn, New York to California to bring Plaintiff’s child to visit him. Plaintiff’s wife presented the child’s certified record of birth as required by California Code of Regulations, Title 15, section 3173(b). However, the unidentified sergeant and lieutenant would not allow the child to visit because the birth certificate Plaintiff filed a grievance for the denial of visitation. In an attempt to block Plaintiff’s access to the courts, Defendant Rhodes rejected the grievance citing a regulation completely unrelated to visitation. On December 12, 2022, Defendant Moseley knowingly violated the law and regulations after being told the cited regulation had nothing to do with visitation. In retaliation, both Rhodes and Moseley conducted the adverse action of rejecting the grievance in violation of the First Amendment. Defendants Rhodes and Moseley violated state law under California Government Code sections 52.1 and 815.2. Defendant also negligence under California Civil Code section 1714. A. First Amendment-Visitation Rights The Due Process Clause prohibits states from “depri[ving] any person of life, liberty, or property, without the due process of law.” U.S. Const. Amend. XIV, Section 1. “The requirements of procedural due process apply only to the deprivation of interests encompassed by the Fourteenth Amendment's protection of liberty and property.” Bd. of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 566 (1972). In order to invoke the protection of the Due Process Clause, a plaintiff must first establish the existence of a liberty interest. Sandin v. Conner, 515 U.S. 472 (1995). Under Sandin, a prisoner can show a liberty interest under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment only if he alleges a change in confinement that imposes an “atypical and significant hardship ... in relation to the ordinary incidents of prison life.” Sandin 515 U.S. at 484. In this case, Plaintiff has failed to establish facts related to the conditions of his confinement which show “the type of atypical, significant deprivation [that] might conceivably create a liberty interest.” Sandin, 515 U.S. at 486. Specifically, Plaintiff alleges his due process rights were denied as the result of being denied family visitation privileges. However, family visitation is not a liberty interest that triggers due process protection. See Kentucky Dep't of visitor is well within the terms of confinement ordinarily contemplated by a prison sentence, and therefore is not independently protected by the Due Process Clause.”); Kornegay v. Bailey, No. 12-CV-1616 JLS (MDD), 2013 WL 6229344, at *4 (“California has not created liberty interests by prisoners in either classification or visitation.”) (quoting Stevens v. Robles, No. 06CV2072-LAB (LSP), 2008 WL 667407, at * (S.D. Cal. Mar. 6, 2008); see also Green v. Nieto, No. 11cv2023 BEN (BGS), 2011 WL 5975806 (S.D. Cal. Nov. 28, 2011) (“[t]he Due Process Clause does not guarantee a right of unfettered visitation”). Instead, “Plaintiff's inability to visit his family is an ordinary incident of prison life.” Edwards v. Carey, No. CIV S- 05-1353 LKK DAD P, 2008 WL 59155 (E.D. Cal. Jan. 3, 2008) (holding that CDCR's family visitation regulation does not impose an atypical and significant hardship) (citations omitted). Accordingly, Plaintiff fails to state a cognizable claim for relief. B. Retaliation Plaintiff contends that Defendants Rhodes and Moseley conducted the adverse action of rejecting the grievance in violation of the First Amendment. “Within the prison context, a viable claim of First Amendment retaliation entails five basic elements: (1) An assertion that a state actor took some adverse action against an inmate (2) because of (3) that prisoner’s protected conduct, and that such action (4) chilled the inmate's exercise of h

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