Rider v. Sanchez

District Court, S.D. California·Decided October 27, 2020·No. 3:20-cv-02028·Unknown

Opinion

ANDRE RIDER, Case No.: 3:20-cv-02028-DMS-RBB CDCR #T-13317, ORDER: Plaintiff, vs. 1) GRANTING MOTION TO PROCEED IN FORMA PAUPERIS

[ECF No. 2] D. SANCHEZ, Correctional Officer; R. OWENS, Correctional Sergeant; A. AND SILVA, Correctional Officer; A. MIRANDA, Correctional Lieutenant; M. 2) DISMISSING CLAIMS FOR POLLARD, Correctional Warden, FAILING TO STATE A CLAIM Defendants. PURSUANT TO 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2) AND § 1915A(b) Plaintiff Andre Rider, currently incarcerated at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility (“RJD”) in San Diego, California has filed a civil rights complaint pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Plaintiff has not paid the filing fees required by 28 U.S.C. § 1914(a), but instead has filed a Motion to Proceed In Forma Pauperis (“IFP”) pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a). See ECF No. 2. / / / / / / I. IFP Motion All parties instituting any civil action, suit or proceeding in a district court of the United States, except an application for writ of habeas corpus, must pay a filing fee of $400.1 See 28 U.S.C. § 1914(a). The action may proceed despite a plaintiff’s failure to prepay the entire fee only if he is granted leave to proceed IFP pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a). See Andrews v. Cervantes, 493 F.3d 1047, 1051 (9th Cir. 2007). However, prisoners who are granted leave to proceed IFP remain obligated to pay the entire fee in “increments” or “installments,” Bruce v. Samuels, __ U.S. __, 136 S. Ct. 627, 629 (2016); Williams v. Paramo, 775 F.3d 1182, 1185 (9th Cir. 2015), and regardless of whether their action is ultimately dismissed. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(1) & (2); Taylor v. Delatoore, 281 F.3d 844, 847 (9th Cir. 2002). Section 1915(a)(2) also requires prisoners seeking leave to proceed IFP to submit a “certified copy of the trust fund account statement (or institutional equivalent) for ... the 6-month period immediately preceding the filing of the complaint.” 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(2); Andrews v. King, 398 F.3d 1113, 1119 (9th Cir. 2005). From the certified trust account statement, the Court assesses an initial payment of 20% of (a) the average monthly deposits in the account for the past six months, or (b) the average monthly balance in the account for the past six months, whichever is greater, unless the prisoner has no assets. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(1); 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(4). The institution having custody of the prisoner then collects subsequent payments, assessed at 20% of the preceding month’s income, in any month in which his account exceeds $10, and forwards those payments to the Court until the entire filing fee is paid. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(2); Bruce, 136 S. Ct. at 629. 1 In addition to the $350 statutory fee, civil litigants must pay an additional administrative fee of $50. See 28 U.S.C. § 1914(a) (Judicial Conference Schedule of Fees, District Court Misc. Fee Schedule, § 14 (eff. June 1, 2016). The additional $50 administrative fee does In support of his IFP Motion, Plaintiff has submitted a copy of his CDCR Inmate Statement Report as well as a Prison Certificate completed by a trust account official at RJD. See ECF No. 2 at 4‒7; 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(2); S.D. Cal. CivLR 3.2; Andrews, 398 F.3d at 1119. These documents show he carried an average monthly balance of $54.18, maintained $54.17 in average monthly deposits to his trust account for the 6-months preceding the filing of this action, but had an available balance of only $.30 to his credit at the time of filing. See ECF No. 2 at 5. Therefore, the Court GRANTS Plaintiff’s Motion to Proceed IFP (ECF No. 2) and assesses his initial partial filing fee to be $10.84 pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(1). However, the Court will direct the Secretary of the CDCR, or her designee, to collect this initial filing fee only if sufficient funds are available in Plaintiff’s account at the time this Order is executed. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(4) (providing that “[i]n no event shall a prisoner be prohibited from bringing a civil action or appealing a civil action or criminal judgment for the reason that the prisoner has no assets and no means by which to pay the initial partial filing fee.”); Bruce, 136 S. Ct. at 630; Taylor, 281 F.3d at 850 (finding that 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(4) acts as a “safety-valve” preventing dismissal of a prisoner’s IFP case based solely on a “failure to pay ... due to the lack of funds available to him when payment is ordered.”). The remaining balance of the $350 total fee owed in this case must be collected by the agency having custody of the prisoner and forwarded to the Clerk of the Court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(2). II. Screening pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1915(e)(2)(B) and 1915A(b) A. Standard of Review Because Plaintiff is a prisoner and is proceeding IFP, his Complaint requires a preliminary screening pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2) and § 1915A(b). Under these statutes, the Court must sua sponte dismiss a prisoner’s IFP complaint, or any portion of it, which is frivolous, malicious, fails to state a claim, or seeks damages from defendants who are immune. See Lopez v. Smith, 203 F.3d 1122, 1126-27 (9th Cir. 2000) (en banc) (discussing 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)); Rhodes v. Robinson, 621 F.3d 1002, 1004 (9th Cir. 2010) (discussing 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b)). “The purpose of [screening] is ‘to ensure that the targets of frivolous or malicious suits need not bear the expense of responding.’” Nordstrom v. Ryan, 762 F.3d 903, 920 n.1 (9th Cir. 2014) (quoting Wheeler v. Wexford Health Sources, Inc., 689 F.3d 680, 681 (7th Cir. 2012)). “The standard for determining whether a plaintiff has failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted under § 1915(e)

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

Rider v. Sanchez, (S.D. Cal. 2020).

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

Related

Wilkins v. Gaddy
559 U.S. 34 (Supreme Court, 2010)
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)
Hudson v. McMillian
503 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1992)
Sandin v. Conner
515 U.S. 472 (Supreme Court, 1995)
Edwards v. Balisok
520 U.S. 641 (Supreme Court, 1997)
Muhammad v. Close
540 U.S. 749 (Supreme Court, 2004)
Wilkinson v. Dotson
544 U.S. 74 (Supreme Court, 2005)
Tellabs, Inc. v. Makor Issues & Rights, Ltd.
551 U.S. 308 (Supreme Court, 2007)
Ashcroft v. Iqbal
556 U.S. 662 (Supreme Court, 2009)
Thomas v. Ponder
611 F.3d 1144 (Ninth Circuit, 2010)
Rhodes v. Robinson
621 F.3d 1002 (Ninth Circuit, 2010)
Onofre T. Serrano v. S.W. Francis
345 F.3d 1071 (Ninth Circuit, 2003)
Wilkinson v. Austin
545 U.S. 209 (Supreme Court, 2005)