(PC) Lipsey v. Norum

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. California
DecidedOctober 10, 2019
Docket2:18-cv-00362
StatusUnknown

This text of (PC) Lipsey v. Norum ((PC) Lipsey v. Norum) 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) Lipsey v. Norum, (E.D. Cal. 2019).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 CHRISTOPHER LIPSEY, Jr., No. 2:18-cv-0362 KJM DB P 12 Plaintiff, 13 v. ORDER AND FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 14 Dr. NORUM, et al., 15 Defendants. 16 17 Plaintiff is a state prisoner proceeding with a civil rights action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 18 1983. Plaintiff alleges defendants’ use of the Guard One Security System deprived him of sleep 19 in violation of his Eighth Amendment rights and state law. Before the court is defendants’ 20 motion to dismiss, plaintiff’s motion to compel discovery, and defendants’ motion to stay 21 discovery. For the reasons set forth below, this court will recommend defendants’ motion to 22 dismiss be granted in part and denied in part and defendants’ motion to stay discovery be denied. 23 In addition, the court will deny plaintiff’s motion to compel without prejudice. 24 BACKGROUND 25 I. Plaintiff’s Allegations 26 This case is proceeding on plaintiff’s second amended complaint (“SAC”) filed November 27 17, 2017. (ECF No. 151.) Plaintiff alleges that starting in May 2013 when he was incarcerated in 28 the Administrative Segregation Unit (“ASU”) at Pelican Bay State Prison (“PBSP”) and 1 continuing through most of plaintiff’s other prison placements since then, he has been subjected 2 to frequent security checks using the Guard One system.1 Plaintiff alleges the Guard One system 3 requires officers to strike a metal plate on each cell door with a metal pipe. The metal pipe has an 4 electronic sensor that records each such contact. Plaintiff contends the noise from the use of 5 Guard One has deprived him of sleep in violation of the Eighth Amendment. He also alleges 6 state law claims for violation of the California Constitution, for negligence, and for intentional 7 infliction of emotional distress. 8 Plaintiff identifies numerous defendants who he classifies into two groups: warden 9 defendants2 and state-level CDCR defendants.3 He sues the wardens and all but one of the state- 10 level defendants in their individual capacities. (ECF No. 151 at 2-3.) He sues defendant Kernan 11 in his official and individual capacities. (Id. at 3.) He seeks damages from all defendants. In 12 addition, he seeks injunctive and declaratory relief against defendant Kernan. See Virginia Office 13 for Protection and Advocacy v. Stewart, 563 U.S. 247, 269 (2011) (suit for injunctive relief must 14 be brought against a state official in his official capacity). 15 //// 16 //// 17

18 1 Plaintiff lists the following housing assignments that involved the use of Guard One: (1) PBSP ASU from May 2013 to September 2013 and from December 2013 to September 2014; (2) 19 California State Prison- Corcoran (“Corcoran”) Security Housing Unit (“SHU”) from September 2014 to March 2016; (3) Corcoran PSU and California Men’s Colony (“CMC”) ASU for periods 20 of time between March 2016 and August 2016; (4) Folsom State Prison (“Folsom”) Psychiatric 21 Services Unit (“PSU”) from August 2016 to March 2017; and (5) Corcoran SHU from March 2017 to November 2017 when plaintiff filed his SAC. (SAC (ECF No. 151) ¶¶ 29-36.) 22 2 The warden defendants are: (1) Greg Lewis, PBSP Warden in 2013; (2) Clark Ducart, Acting 23 Warden and later Warden of PBSP since 2014; (3) David Davey, Acting Warden and then Warden of Corcoran since 2014; (4) Josie Gastelo, Warden of CMC since 2016; and (5) Ron 24 Rackley, Warden of Folsom since 2016. (ECF No. 151 at 2.)

25 3 The state-level CDCR defendants are: (1) Michael Stainer, Acting Director and then Director of CDCR’s Division of Adult institutions from 2013 to 2014; (2) Kelly Harrington, Director of the 26 Division of Adult Institutions from 2015 to March 2016; (3) Kathleen Allison, Director of the 27 Division of Adult Institutions since 2016; (4) Jeffrey Beard, Secretary of CDCR from December 2012 through December 2015; and (5) Scott Kernan, Secretary of CDCR since January 2016. 28 (ECF No. 151 at 3.) 1 II. Procedural Background 2 Plaintiff initiated this action in pro per by filing a complaint in 2014 in the Northern 3 District of California. In 2017, that court appointed counsel for plaintiff. (ECF No. 141.) On 4 November 17, 2017, plaintiff filed the SAC. (ECF No. 151.) 5 On January 3, 2018, defendants filed a motion to dismiss this action and a related action, 6 Suarez v. Beard. Defendants argued that both cases should be dismissed because the Guard One 7 system was instituted pursuant to an order issued by Judge Mueller in Coleman v. Newsom, No. 8 2:90-cv-0520 KJM DB (E.D. Cal.). On February 9, 2018, after hearing argument on the motion 9 to dismiss and without ruling on it, the Northern District judge transferred the present case and 10 Suarez to the Eastern District. (ECF No. 161.) In March 2018, both cases were related to 11 Coleman. (ECF No. 166.) Since then, several other cases challenging use of the Guard One 12 system in the California prisons have been related to Coleman as well. 13 In March 2019, Judge Mueller granted in part and denied in part the defendants’ motion to 14 dismiss in one of the related cases, Rico v. Beard, No. 2:17-cv-1402 KJM DB P, 2019 WL 15 1036075 (E.D. Cal. Mar. 5, 2019). The issues in Rico concern use of the Guard One system at 16 the Security Housing Unit (“SHU”) at PBSP in 2015 and 2016. Judge Mueller dismissed Rico’s 17 claims for injunctive and declaratory relief because he was no longer housed in the SHU or ASU, 18 where Guard One checks were used. Rico, 2019 WL 1036075, at *5-6. Judge Mueller further 19 held that the Guard One system was not, on its face, unconstitutional. On that basis, she 20 distinguished the high-level supervisory defendants, who only bore responsibility for instituting 21 the Guard One system as required by the order in Coleman, and the other two categories of 22 defendants, who were responsible for the day-to-day implementation of the Guard One system. 23 Judge Mueller dismissed the high-level supervisory defendants because they are protected by 24 qualified immunity. She held that the appeals review defendants and floor officer defendants 25 were not so protected. See id. at 2-5. 26 At this court’s request, the parties filed briefs regarding any effects of Judge Mueller’s 27 decision in Rico on defendants’ motion to dismiss in the present case. (ECF Nos. 176, 178, 184.) 28 When the Rico defendants filed an interlocutory appeal of Judge Mueller’s order, this court 1 ordered the parties to state their positions on a stay of these proceedings pending the Ninth 2 Circuit’s decision on the qualified immunity issues in Rico.4 (See ECF Nos. 186, 189, 190, 194.) 3 On April 24, 2019, plaintiff filed a motion to compel defendants to respond to plaintiff’s 4 first request for production of documents and admissions. (ECF No. 179.) In response, 5 defendants moved to stay discovery. (ECF No. 181.) 6 MOTION TO DISMISS 7 Defendants move to dismiss this action on several grounds. They argue they are entitled 8 to qualified immunity, plaintiff’s claims are precluded by the principles of judicial comity, and 9 plaintiff’s claims are precluded because they are a collateral attack on an order issued in 10 Coleman. Finally, defendants argue this court should decline to exercise supplemental 11 jurisdiction over plaintiff’s state law claims. 12 I. Standard of Review on Motion to Dismiss 13 Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provides for motions to dismiss for 14 “failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.” “To survive a motion to dismiss, a 15 complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is 16 plausible on its face.’” Ashcroft v.

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(PC) Lipsey v. Norum, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pc-lipsey-v-norum-caed-2019.