(PC) Smith v. Albee

District Court, E.D. California·Decided September 22, 2020·No. 2:15-cv-01598·Unknown

Opinion

MICHAEL LENOIR SMITH, No. 2:15-cv-1598 JAM KJN P Plaintiff, v. ORDER AND FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS SGT. GREGORY, et al., Defendants. Plaintiff is a state prisoner, proceeding without counsel, with a civil rights action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Pursuant to the court’s screening order, this action proceeds on plaintiff’s due process claims against defendant Gregory and the County of Sacramento. (ECF No. 26.) Cross-motions for summary judgment are before the court. As discussed below, the undersigned recommends that plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment be denied and defendants’ motion for summary judgment be granted. I. Background On March 19, 2018, plaintiff’s claims based on incidents in 2002, including his retaliation claims against defendants Albee and Sheriff Jones based on their actions in 2002, were dismissed with prejudice, and plaintiff’s remaining claims, including his claim against Jones based on Jones’ alleged false claim in 2015, were dismissed without prejudice. (ECF No. 29, adopting ECF No. 26.) The district court confirmed that the instant action proceeds solely on plaintiff’s due process claims against defendants Alexander and the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department. (ECF No. 29, adopting ECF No. 26 at 7.) On July 9, 2019, the undersigned recommended that the district court deny plaintiff’s motion to amend to add new claims and additional defendants, including previously dismissed or omitted from an amended pleading, Albee, Epperson, and Scott Jones. (ECF No. 68.) But plaintiff was allowed to substitute defendant Gregory for defendant Alexander. (Id.) On September 4, 2019, the findings and recommendations were adopted in full. (ECF No. 78.) II. Plaintiff’s Second Amended Complaint Plaintiff alleges that despite being acquitted by a jury of an attempted murder charge, defendants Sgt. Gregory and the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department failed to correct their records. In 2015, plaintiff confirmed that the jail locator card continued to reference the attempted murder charge, despite plaintiff’s acquittal. He contends that the failure to correct these records subjects him to continual torment by jail staff, and results in further trumped-up charges against him. Plaintiff claims his efforts to correct such records have failed. Liberally construed, the court found plaintiff’s second amended complaint states a potentially cognizable due process claim against defendants based on their alleged failure to correct their internal records to reflect that plaintiff was acquitted by a jury of the attempted murder charge. (ECF No. 26 at 7.) III. Legal Standards for Summary Judgment Summary judgment is appropriate when it is demonstrated that the standard set forth in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56 is met. “The court shall grant summary judgment if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). Under summary judgment practice, the moving party always bears the initial responsibility of informing the district court of the basis for its motion, and identifying those portions of “the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any,” which it believes demonstrate the absence of a genuine issue of material fact. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323 (1986) (quoting then-numbered Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c)). “Where the nonmoving party bears the burden of proof at trial, the moving party need only prove that there is an absence of evidence to support the non-moving party’s case.” Nursing Home Pension Fund, Local 144 v. Oracle Corp. (In re Oracle Corp. Sec. Litig.), 627 F.3d 376, 387 (9th Cir. 2010) (citing Celotex Corp., 477 U.S. at 325); see also Fed. R. Civ. P. 56 advisory committee’s notes to 2010 amendments (recognizing that “a party who does not have the trial burden of production may rely on a showing that a party who does have the trial burden cannot produce admissible evidence to carry its burden as to the fact”). Indeed, summary judgment should be entered, after adequate time for discovery and upon motion, against a party who fails to make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of an element essential to that party’s case, and on which that party will bear the burden of proof at trial. Celotex Corp., 477 U.S. at 322. “[A] complete failure of proof concerning an essential element of the nonmoving party’s case necessarily renders all other facts immaterial.” Id. at 323. Consequently, if the moving party meets its initial responsibility, the burden then shifts to the opposing party to establish that a genuine issue as to any material fact actually exists. See Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 586 (1986). In attempting to establish the existence of such a factual dispute, the opposing party may not rely upon the allegations or denials of its pleadings, but is required to tender evidence of specific facts in the form of affidavits, and/or admissible discovery material in support of its contention that such a dispute exists. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c); Matsushita, 475 U.S. at 586 n.11. The opposing party must demonstrate that the fact in contention is material, i.e., a fact that might affect the outcome of the suit under the governing law, see Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248 (1986); T.W. Elec. Serv., Inc. v. Pacific Elec. Contractors Ass’n, 809 F.2d 626, 630 (9th Cir. 1987), and that the dispute is genuine, i.e., the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party, see Wool v. Tandem Computers, Inc., 818 F.2d 1433, 1436 (9th Cir. 1987), overruled in part on other grounds, Hollinger v. Titan Capital Corp., 914 F.2d 1564, 1575 (9th Cir. 1990). In the endeavor to establish the existence of a factual dispute, the opposing party need not establish a material issue of fact conclusively in its favor. It is sufficient that “the claimed factual dispute be shown to require a jury or judge to resolve the parties’ differing versions of the truth at trial.” T.W. Elec. Serv., 809 F.2d at 630. Thus, the “purpose of summary judgment is to ‘pierce the pleadings and to assess the proof in order to see whether there is a genuine need for trial.’” Matsushita, 475 U.S. at 587 (quoting Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(e) advisory committee’s note on 1963 amendments). In resolving a summary judgment motion, the court examines the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c). The evidence of the opposing

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

(PC) Smith v. Albee, (E.D. Cal. 2020).

(PC) Smith v. Albee ((PC) Smith v. Albee) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth
408 U.S. 564 (Supreme Court, 1972)
Wolff v. McDonnell
418 U.S. 539 (Supreme Court, 1974)
Rizzo v. Goode
423 U.S. 362 (Supreme Court, 1976)
Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Servs.
436 U.S. 658 (Supreme Court, 1978)
Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc.
477 U.S. 242 (Supreme Court, 1986)
Houston v. Lack
487 U.S. 266 (Supreme Court, 1988)
Sandin v. Conner
515 U.S. 472 (Supreme Court, 1995)
County of Sacramento v. Lewis
523 U.S. 833 (Supreme Court, 1998)
Wilkinson v. Torres
610 F.3d 546 (Ninth Circuit, 2010)
In Re Oracle Corp. Securities Litigation
627 F.3d 376 (Ninth Circuit, 2010)
Patel Ex Rel. A.H. v. Kent School District
648 F.3d 965 (Ninth Circuit, 2011)
Walls v. Central Contra Costa Transit Authority
653 F.3d 963 (Ninth Circuit, 2011)
Johnson v. Duffy
588 F.2d 740 (Ninth Circuit, 1978)
Michael Hanrahan v. Michael P. Lane
747 F.2d 1137 (Seventh Circuit, 1984)
Gary Wayne Freeman v. Richard Rideout
808 F.2d 949 (Second Circuit, 1986)