(PC) Knight v. St. Andre

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. California
DecidedMarch 27, 2024
Docket2:23-cv-00177
StatusUnknown

This text of (PC) Knight v. St. Andre ((PC) Knight v. St. Andre) 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) Knight v. St. Andre, (E.D. Cal. 2024).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 CLARENCE V. KNIGHT, No. 2:23-cv-00177-DAD-DB (PC) 12 Plaintiff, 13 v. ORDER 14 R. ST. ANDRE, et al., 15 Defendants. 16 17 Plaintiff is a state prisoner proceeding pro se with a civil rights action pursuant to 42 18 U.S.C. § 1983. The court granted plaintiff’s application to proceed in forma pauperis and 19 dismissed plaintiff’s complaint with leave to amend on November 2, 2023. (ECF Nos. 6, 8.) 20 Plaintiff was granted thirty days to file an amended complaint. (ECF No. 8.) 21 Plaintiff timely filed a First Amended Complaint on November 30, 2023. (ECF No. 10.) 22 He filed an additional, and substantively similar document titled “First Amended Complaint” on 23 December 18, 2023. (ECF No. 11.) For the reasons set forth below, the undersigned dismisses 24 plaintiff’s First Amended Complaint (FAC) and grants plaintiff an additional opportunity to 25 amend. 26 //// 27 //// 28 //// 1 SCREENING 2 I. Legal Standards 3 The court is required to screen complaints brought by prisoners seeking relief against a 4 governmental entity or an officer or employee of a governmental entity. See 28 U.S.C. § 5 1915A(a). The court must dismiss a complaint or portion thereof if the prisoner has raised claims 6 that are legally “frivolous or malicious,” that fail to state a claim upon which relief may be 7 granted, or that seek monetary relief from a defendant who is immune from such relief. See 28 8 U.S.C. § 1915A(b)(1) & (2). 9 A claim is legally frivolous when it lacks an arguable basis either in law or in fact. 10 Neitzke v. Williams, 490 U.S. 319, 325 (1989); Franklin v. Murphy, 745 F.2d 1221, 1227-28 (9th 11 Cir. 1984). The court may, therefore, dismiss a claim as frivolous where it is based on an 12 indisputably meritless legal theory or where the factual contentions are clearly baseless. Neitzke, 13 490 U.S. at 327. The critical inquiry is whether a constitutional claim, however inartfully 14 pleaded, has an arguable legal and factual basis. See Franklin, 745 F.2d at 1227. Rule 8(a)(2) of 15 the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure “requires only ‘a short and plain statement of the claim 16 showing that the pleader is entitled to relief,’ in order to ‘give the defendant fair notice of what 17 the . . . claim is and the grounds upon which it rests.’” Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007) 18 (quoting Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 47 (1957)). 19 However, in order to survive dismissal for failure to state a claim a complaint must 20 contain more than “a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action;” it must contain 21 factual allegations sufficient “to raise a right to relief above the speculative level.” Twombly, 550 22 U.S. at 555. In reviewing a complaint under this standard, the court must accept as true the 23 allegations of the complaint in question, Hospital Bldg. Co. v. Rex Hospital Trustees, 425 U.S. 24 738, 740 (1976), construe the pleading in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, and resolve all 25 doubts in the plaintiff’s favor. Jenkins v. McKeithen, 395 U.S. 411, 421 (1969). 26 The Civil Rights Act under which this action was filed provides as follows: 27 Every person who, under color of [state law] . . . subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States . . . to the deprivation 28 of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution . 1 . . shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress. 2 3 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The statute requires that there be an actual connection or link between the 4 actions of the defendants and the deprivation alleged to have been suffered by plaintiff. See 5 Monell v. Dept. of Social Servs., 436 U.S. 658 (1978); Rizzo v. Goode, 423 U.S. 362 6 (1976). “A person ‘subjects’ another to the deprivation of a constitutional right, within the 7 meaning of § 1983, if he does an affirmative act, participates in another's affirmative acts or 8 omits to perform an act which he is legally required to do that causes the deprivation of which 9 complaint is made.” Johnson v. Duffy, 588 F.2d 740, 743 (9th Cir. 1978). 10 Moreover, supervisory personnel are generally not liable under § 1983 for the actions of 11 their employees under a theory of respondeat superior and, therefore, when a named defendant 12 holds a supervisorial position, the causal link between him and the claimed constitutional 13 violation must be specifically alleged. See Fayle v. Stapley, 607 F.2d 858, 862 (9th Cir. 1979); 14 Mosher v. Saalfeld, 589 F.2d 438, 441 (9th Cir. 1978). Vague and conclusory allegations 15 concerning the involvement of official personnel in civil rights violations are not sufficient. See 16 Ivey v. Board of Regents, 673 F.2d 266, 268 (9th Cir. 1982). 17 II. Allegations in the First Amended Complaint 18 Plaintiff asserts § 1983 claims, alleging numerous constitutional violations, against the 19 following defendants, individually: 1) R. St. Andre, Warden; 2) N. Miller, Correctional Officer; 20 3) G. Watkins, Correctional Lieutenant; 4) Kimberly Thornton, Chief Deputy Warden; 5) Haley 21 Courtney, Social Worker; 6) Lori Bonzek, Office Technician; 7) Brittany Alkire, Correctional 22 Counselor; 8) L. Martinez, Associate Warden; 9) Marco Escobar, Classification Staff 23 Representative at CDR; 10) Howard Moseley, Chief of Appeals at the California Department of 24 Corrections and Rehabilitation (“CDCR”). (ECF No. 11 at 1, 3.) The allegations primarily 25 concern violations related to plaintiff’s disciplinary proceedings. (See generally, ECF No. 11.) 26 Though not expressly stated in the complaint, from what the court can an infer from plaintiff’s 27 factual allegations, plaintiff was subjected to disciplinary proceedings after he was charged with 28 //// 1 starting a riot on February 11, 2022. (Id. at 8.) Plaintiff was found guilty as a result of those 2 proceedings. (See id. at 4.) Plaintiff alleges the following facts: 3 • Defendant Watkins did not allow plaintiff to present audio and video surveillance 4 evidence and witness testimony during disciplinary proceedings. (Id. at 4, 8.) 5 • Defendant Watkins said the video evidence did not exist; however, after a “guilty 6 finding” was rendered, the video surfaced. (Id. at 4.) 7 • During the disciplinary hearing, defendant Miller submitted three narratives, upon 8 which the hearing officer relied as evidence. (Id. at 4-5.) However, the narratives 9 were not written by defendant Miller.

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Related

Conley v. Gibson
355 U.S. 41 (Supreme Court, 1957)
Jenkins v. McKeithen
395 U.S. 411 (Supreme Court, 1969)
Wolff v. McDonnell
418 U.S. 539 (Supreme Court, 1974)
Rizzo v. Goode
423 U.S. 362 (Supreme Court, 1976)
Baxter v. Palmigiano
425 U.S. 308 (Supreme Court, 1976)
Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Servs.
436 U.S. 658 (Supreme Court, 1978)
Neitzke v. Williams
490 U.S. 319 (Supreme Court, 1989)
Helling v. McKinney
509 U.S. 25 (Supreme Court, 1993)
Sandin v. Conner
515 U.S. 472 (Supreme Court, 1995)
Swierkiewicz v. Sorema N. A.
534 U.S. 506 (Supreme Court, 2002)
Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly
550 U.S. 544 (Supreme Court, 2007)
Howard v. United States Bureau of Prisons
487 F.3d 808 (Tenth Circuit, 2007)
Burrell v. Hampshire County
307 F.3d 1 (First Circuit, 2002)
Ivey v. Board of Regents of University of Alaska
673 F.2d 266 (Second Circuit, 1982)
Harry Franklin v. Ms. Murphy and Hoyt Cupp
745 F.2d 1221 (Ninth Circuit, 1984)
Wilkinson v. Austin
545 U.S. 209 (Supreme Court, 2005)
Santibanez v. HAVLIN
750 F. Supp. 2d 1121 (E.D. California, 2010)

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Bluebook (online)
(PC) Knight v. St. Andre, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pc-knight-v-st-andre-caed-2024.