(PC) Rodriguez v. Solano State Prison

District Court, E.D. California·Decided December 23, 2022·No. 2:21-cv-00622·Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 ANTONIO RODRIGUEZ, No. 2:21-cv-00622 DB P 12 Plaintiff, 13 v. ORDER 14 WARDEN, SOLANO STATE PRISON, et al., 15 Defendants. 16 17 Plaintiff, an inmate proceeding pro se and in forma pauperis, seeks relief pursuant to 42 18 U.S.C. § 1983. Plaintiff claims defendants were deliberately indifferent to plaintiff’s serious 19 medical needs in violation of his Eighth Amendment rights. Presently before the court is 20 plaintiff’s Second Amended Complaint (“SAC”) for screening. (ECF No. 21.) For the reasons 21 set forth below, the court will give plaintiff the option of proceeding on his cognizable claims or 22 being given leave to file an amended complaint. 23 //// 24 //// 25 //// 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.’” Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 18 544, 555 (2007) (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.” Bell Atlantic, 22 550 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 //// 27 //// 28 //// 1 The Civil Rights Act under which this action was filed provides as follows: 2 Every person who, under color of [state law] . . . subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States . . . to the deprivation 3 of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution . . . shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, 4 or other proper proceeding for redress.

5 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The statute requires that there be an actual connection or link between the 6 actions of the defendants and the deprivation alleged to have been suffered by plaintiff. See 7 Monell v. Dept. of Social Servs., 436 U.S. 658 (1978); Rizzo v. Goode, 423 U.S. 362 (1976). “A 8 person ‘subjects’ another to the deprivation of a constitutional right, within the meaning of § 9 1983, if he does an affirmative act, participates in another's affirmative acts or omits to perform 10 an act which he is legally required to do that causes the deprivation of which complaint is made.” 11 Johnson v. Duffy, 588 F.2d 740, 743 (9th Cir. 1978). 12 Moreover, supervisory personnel are generally not liable under § 1983 for the actions of 13 their employees under a theory of respondeat superior and, therefore, when a named defendant 14 holds a supervisorial position, the causal link between him and the claimed constitutional 15 violation must be specifically alleged. See Fayle v. Stapley, 607 F.2d 858, 862 (9th Cir. 1979); 16 Mosher v. Saalfeld, 589 F.2d 438, 441 (9th Cir. 1978). Vague and conclusory allegations 17 concerning the involvement of official personnel in civil rights violations are not sufficient. See 18 Ivey v. Board of Regents, 673 F.2d 266, 268 (9th Cir. 1982). 19 II. Linkage Requirement 20 Under Section 1983, a plaintiff bringing an individual capacity claim must demonstrate 21 that each defendant personally participated in the deprivation of his rights. See Jones v. 22 Williams, 297 F.3d 930, 934 (9th Cir. 2002). There must be an actual connection or link between 23 the actions of the defendants and the deprivation alleged to have been suffered by plaintiff. See 24 Ortez v. Washington County, State of Oregon, 88 F.3d 804, 809 (9th Cir. 1996); see also Taylor 25 v. List, 880 F.2d 1040, 1045 (9th Cir. 1989). 26 Government officials may not be held liable for the actions of their subordinates under a 27 theory of respondeat superior. Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 676 (stating vicarious liability is inapplicable in 28 1 Section 1983 suits). Since a government official cannot be held liable under a theory of vicarious 2 liability in Section 1983 actions, plaintiff must plead sufficient facts showing that the official has 3 violated the Constitution through his own individual actions by linking each named defendant 4 with some affirmative act or omission that demonstrates a violation of plaintiff's federal rights. 5 Id. at 676. 6 III. Allegations in the SAC 7 Plaintiff states that, at all relevant times, he was a prisoner at California State Prison 8 Solano (“SOL”). (ECF No. 21 at 2.) Plaintiff names five defendants in this action: Registered 9 Nurse (“RN”) N. Sabati, RN G. Coder, RN Isaac Walatye, Dr. Kemal, and Dr. Boitor. (Id. at 3, 10 5.) 11 The SAC contains the following allegations: Plaintiff was placed on suicide watch “on or 12 about December 6 or 12….” (Id. at 4.) Defendant Kemal or defendant Boitor prescribed plaintiff 13 Propanolo, Busbar, Abilify1, and Benadryl “all to be delivered by a Registered Nurse with an 14 Officer present.” (Id.) The prescription also instructed that plaintiff was to only receive “only 15 one and to make sure the Patien swallow [sic].” (Id.) Defendants Sabati, Coder, and Walatye 16 were assigned to deliver medication to prisoners in Ad Seg where plaintiff was located at the 17 time. (Id.

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