Perez v. Walker

CourtDistrict Court, D. Arizona
DecidedFebruary 5, 2021
Docket2:21-cv-00130
StatusUnknown

This text of Perez v. Walker (Perez v. Walker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Perez v. Walker, (D. Ariz. 2021).

Opinion

1 WO SC 2 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA 8 9 Gerardo Perez, No. CV 21-00130-PHX-JAT (CDB) 10 Plaintiff, 11 v. ORDER 12 Greg Walker, et al., 13 Defendants.

14 15 Plaintiff Gerardo Perez, who is confined in the High Desert State Prison, Indian 16 Springs, Nevada, has filed a pro se civil rights Complaint pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 19831 17 and an Application to Proceed In Forma Pauperis (Doc. 2). The Court will deny the 18 deficient Application to Proceed and will give Plaintiff 30 days to pay the filing and 19 administrative fees or file a complete Application to Proceed In Forma Pauperis. The Court 20 will also dismiss the Complaint with leave to amend. 21 I. Payment of Filing Fee 22 When bringing an action, a prisoner must either pay the $350.00 filing fee and a 23 $52.00 administrative fee in a lump sum or, if granted the privilege of proceeding in forma 24 pauperis, pay the $350.00 filing fee incrementally as set forth in 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(1). 25 An application to proceed in forma pauperis requires an affidavit of indigence and a 26 certified copy of the inmate’s trust account statement for the six months preceding the filing 27 28 1 Plaintiff’s claims concern events that occurred while he was confined in CoreCivic’s Saguaro Correctional Center and the Central Arizona Florence Correctional Complex. 1 of the Complaint. 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(2). An inmate must submit statements from each 2 institution where the inmate was confined during the six-month period. Id. To assist 3 prisoners in meeting these requirements, the Court requires use of a form application. 4 LRCiv 3.4. 5 If a prisoner is granted leave to proceed in forma pauperis, the Court will assess an 6 initial partial filing fee of 20% of either the average monthly deposits or the average 7 monthly balance in Plaintiff’s account, whichever is greater. 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(1). An 8 initial partial filing fee will only be collected when funds exist. 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(4). 9 The balance of the $350.00 filing fee will be collected in monthly payments of 20% of the 10 preceding month’s income credited to an inmate’s account, each time the amount in the 11 account exceeds $10.00. 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(2). 12 II. Application Fails to Comply With Statute 13 Plaintiff has used a Nevada State Prison form and not this District’s court-approved 14 form, which requires that he complete the “Acknowledgement of Collection of Filing Fees 15 from Trust Account” section and have the “Certificate of Correctional Official as to Status 16 of Applicant’s Trust Account” section completed. Further, Plaintiff has not submitted a 17 certified six-month trust account statement. In light of these deficiencies, the Court will 18 deny the Application to Proceed and will give Plaintiff 30 days to either pay the $402.00 19 filing and administrative fees or file a complete Application to Proceed In Forma Pauperis. 20 III. Statutory Screening of Prisoner Complaints 21 The Court is required to screen complaints brought by prisoners seeking relief 22 against a governmental entity or an officer or an employee of a governmental entity. 28 23 U.S.C. § 1915A(a). The Court must dismiss a complaint or portion thereof if a plaintiff 24 has raised claims that are legally frivolous or malicious, that fail to state a claim upon which 25 relief may be granted, or that seek monetary relief from a defendant who is immune from 26 such relief. 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b)(1)-(2). 27 Local Rule of Civil Procedure 3.4 requires in part that “[a]ll complaints and 28 applications to proceed in forma pauperis by incarcerated persons shall be signed and 1 legibly written or typewritten on forms approved by the Court and in accordance with the 2 instructions provided with the forms.” Plaintiff’s Complaint is not on a court-approved 3 form as required by Local Rule of Civil Procedure 3.4. Further, Plaintiff’s Complaint 4 exceeds the page limit for a prisoner complaint. Plaintiff’s Complaint will therefore be 5 dismissed without prejudice, with leave to amend, in order for Plaintiff to file an amended 6 complaint on a court-approved form and in compliance with the Instructions for completing 7 the court-approved form complaint. 8 IV. Leave to Amend 9 Within 30 days, Plaintiff may submit a first amended complaint on a court-approved 10 form. The Clerk of Court will mail Plaintiff a court-approved form to use for filing a first 11 amended complaint. If Plaintiff fails to use the court-approved form, the Court may strike 12 the amended complaint and dismiss this action without further notice to Plaintiff. 13 Plaintiff must clearly designate on the face of the document that it is the “First 14 Amended Complaint.” The first amended complaint must be retyped or rewritten in its 15 entirety on the court-approved form and may not incorporate any part of the original 16 Complaint by reference. Plaintiff may include only one claim per count. 17 A first amended complaint supersedes the original Complaint. Ferdik v. Bonzelet, 18 963 F.2d 1258, 1262 (9th Cir. 1992); Hal Roach Studios v. Richard Feiner & Co., 896 F.2d 19 1542, 1546 (9th Cir. 1990). After amendment, the Court will treat the original Complaint 20 as nonexistent. Ferdik, 963 F.2d at 1262. Any cause of action that was raised in the 21 original Complaint and that was voluntarily dismissed or was dismissed without prejudice 22 is waived if it is not alleged in a first amended complaint. Lacey v. Maricopa County, 693 23 F.3d 896, 928 (9th Cir. 2012) (en banc). 24 V. Warnings 25 A. Address Changes 26 Plaintiff must file and serve a notice of a change of address in accordance with Rule 27 83.3(d) of the Local Rules of Civil Procedure. Plaintiff must not include a motion for other 28 relief with a notice of change of address. Failure to comply may result in dismissal of this action. 2 B. Possible Dismissal 3 If Plaintiff fails to timely comply with every provision of this Order, including these 4) warnings, the Court may dismiss this action without further notice. See Ferdik v. Bonzelet, 5 | 963 F.2d 1258, 1260-61 (9th Cir. 1992) (a district court may dismiss an action for failure 6 | to comply with any order of the Court). 7| ITIS ORDERED: 8 (1) Plaintiff's Application to Proceed In Forma Pauperis (Doc. 2) is denied without prejudice. 10 (2) Within 30 days of the date this Order is filed, Plaintiff must either pay the 11 | $350.00 filing fee and $52.00 administrative fee or file a complete Application to Proceed 12 | In Forma Pauperis and a certified six-month trust account statement. 13 (3) If Plaintiff fails to either pay the $350.00 filing fee and $52.00 administrative 14 | fee or file a complete Application to Proceed In Forma Pauperis within 30 days, the Clerk 15 | of Court must enter a judgment of dismissal of this action without prejudice and without 16 | further notice to Plaintiff and deny any pending unrelated motions as moot. 17 (4) The Complaint (Doc.

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Perez v. Walker, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/perez-v-walker-azd-2021.