(PC) Morgan v. Sacramento Co. Dept. of Health Service

District Court, E.D. California·Decided December 30, 2020·No. 2:19-cv-01600·Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10 11 SAMMY DAVIS MORGAN, No. 2:19-cv-1600 CKD P 12 Plaintiff, 13 v. ORDER and FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH SERVICE, 15 et al., 16 Defendants. 17 18 Plaintiff, a former county and current federal prisoner proceeding pro se, seeks relief 19 pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983; Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. 20 § 12132; Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (RA) of 1973; and California Government Code 21 § 11135. (ECF No. 24.) 22 I. Statutory Screening of Prisoner Complaints 23 The court is required to screen complaints brought by prisoners seeking relief against a 24 governmental entity or officer or employee of a governmental entity. 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(a). The 25 court must dismiss a complaint or portion thereof if the prisoner has raised claims that are 26 “frivolous, malicious, or fail[] to state a claim upon which relief may be granted,” or that “seek[] 27 monetary relief from a defendant who is immune from such relief.” 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b). 28 //// 1 A claim “is [legally] frivolous where it lacks an arguable basis either in law or in fact.” 2 Neitzke v. Williams, 490 U.S. 319, 325 (1989); Franklin v. Murphy, 745 F.2d 1221, 1227-28 (9th 3 Cir. 1984). “[A] judge may dismiss . . . claims which are ‘based on indisputably meritless legal 4 theories’ or whose ‘factual contentions are clearly baseless.’” Jackson v. Arizona, 885 F.2d 639, 5 640 (9th Cir. 1989) (quoting Neitzke, 490 U.S. at 327), superseded by statute on other grounds as 6 stated in Lopez v. Smith, 203 F.3d 1122, 1130 (9th Cir. 2000). The critical inquiry is whether a 7 constitutional claim, however inartfully pleaded, has an arguable legal and factual basis. 8 Franklin, 745 F.2d at 1227-28 (citations omitted). 9 “Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a)(2) requires only ‘a short and plain statement of the 10 claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief,’ in order to ‘give the defendant fair notice of 11 what the . . . claim is and the grounds upon which it rests.’” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 12 U.S. 544, 555 (2007) (alteration in original) (quoting Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 47 (1957)). 13 “Failure to state a claim under § 1915A incorporates the familiar standard applied in the context 14 of failure to state a claim under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6).” Wilhelm v. Rotman, 15 680 F.3d 1113, 1121 (9th Cir. 2012) (citations omitted). In order to survive dismissal for failure 16 to state a claim, a complaint must contain more than “a formulaic recitation of the elements of a 17 cause of action;” it must contain factual allegations sufficient “to raise a right to relief above the 18 speculative level.” Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555 (citations omitted). “‘[T]he pleading must contain 19 something more . . . than . . . a statement of facts that merely creates a suspicion [of] a legally 20 cognizable right of action.’” Id. (alteration in original) (quoting 5 Charles Alan Wright & Arthur 21 R. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 1216 (3d ed. 2004)). 22 “[A] complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to 23 relief that is plausible on its face.’” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (quoting 24 Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570). “A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual 25 content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the 26 misconduct alleged.” Id. (citing Twombly, 550 U.S. at 556). In reviewing a complaint under this 27 standard, the court must accept as true the allegations of the complaint in question, Hosp. Bldg. 28 Co. v. Trs. of the Rex Hosp., 425 U.S. 738, 740 (1976) (citation omitted), as well as construe the 1 pleading in the light most favorable to the plaintiff and resolve all doubts in the plaintiff’s favor, 2 Jenkins v. McKeithen, 395 U.S. 411, 421 (1969) (citations omitted). 3 II. First Amended Complaint 4 The complaint alleges that defendants Sacramento Department of Health Services and 5 Lord violated plaintiff’s rights under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, the ADA, the RA, 6 and state law. 7 In Claim One, plaintiff alleges that he suffers from a plantar cyst and diabetic neuropathy 8 that cause him chronic pain, which qualifies as a disability under the ADA. (ECF No. 24 at 3.) 9 While in custody at the jail, defendant Sacramento Department of Health Services violated his 10 Fourteenth Amendment rights and rights under the ADA by instructing custody staff to make 11 ADA inmates sleep on the ground if an ADA cell was not available, which resulted in plaintiff 12 having to sleep on the ground next to the toilet and having bodily waste spilled on him. (Id. at 2- 13 3.) Claim Four repeats the allegations in Claim One and reasserts that they violate his rights 14 under the ADA. (Id. at 8-9.) 15 Claim Two alleges that the conduct by the Department of Health Services alleged in 16 Claim One also violated plaintiff’s rights under the Eighth Amendment and that the Department 17 denies inmates the right to proper medications for chronic pain. (Id. at 4.) He further alleges that 18 defendant Lord violated his Eighth Amendment rights by prescribing him anti-depressants for 19 pain management, which did not reduce his pain and caused unspecified side effects. (Id. at 5.) 20 When he told medical personnel that prior to coming to jail he had been prescribed Norco and 21 Tylenol 3, Lord and other medical staff told him that it was jail policy not to prescribe narcotics 22 for chronic pain issues. (Id.) Claim Three reiterates the claims against Lord and adds that 23 plaintiff submitted numerous complaints about his chronic pain and advised Lord that some anti- 24 depressants caused bad side effects and the pain medications prescribed did not provide any pain 25 relief. (Id. at 6-7.) In response, Lord continued to prescribe anti-depressants and ineffective, 26 non-narcotic pain medication and ignored his requests for Norco or Tylenol 3. (Id.) 27 Claim Five alleges that plaintiff’s rights under the RA were violated when he was denied 28 effective pain medication and was forced to sleep on the floor because there were not any ADA 1 cells available. (Id. at 9-10.) 2 Finally, in Claim Six, plaintiff alleges that California Government Code § 11135 was 3 violated when the policies of the Department of Health Services resulted in the denial of effective 4 pain medication and plaintiff having to sleep on the floor. (Id. at 10-11.) 5 A.

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