Salmen v. California Department of Correction Rehabilitation

CourtDistrict Court, S.D. California
DecidedNovember 2, 2020
Docket3:20-cv-02088
StatusUnknown

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

Bluebook
Salmen v. California Department of Correction Rehabilitation, (S.D. Cal. 2020).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 Case No.: 3:20-cv-2088-GPC-KSC JUSTIN SALMEN, 12 CDCR # BK-5881, ORDER: 13 Plaintiff, 1) GRANTING PLAINTIFF’S 14 v. MOTION TO PROCEED IN FORMA 15 PAUPERIS PURSUANT TO 28 U.S.C. CALIFORNIA DEP’T OF § 1915(a) (ECF No. 2); 16 CORRECTIONS AND

REHABILITATION; S. ROBERTS; 17 2) DENYING MOTION TO APPOINT M. GLYNN; DR. J. HODGES; A. COUNSEL (ECF No. 3); AND 18 KENDALL; DR. CHAU; H. FRANKLIN;

S. ANDERSON; A. SHITTU; 19 3) DISMISSING COMPLAINT S. GATES, PURSUANT TO 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2) 20 Defendants. AND 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b) 21

22 23 24 Justin Salmen (“Plaintiff”), incarcerated at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional 25 Facility (“RJD”) in San Diego, California filed a pro se civil rights Complaint pursuant to 26 42 U.S.C. Section 1983. (See ECF No. 1, Compl.) Plaintiff claims that Defendants 27 violated his Eighth Amendment rights by failing to provide adequate medical care and 1 denying his grievance and subsequent appeals. (See id. at 5-6.) 2 Plaintiff did not pay the fee required by 28 U.S.C. § 1914(a) when he filed his 3 Complaint, instead filing a Motion to Proceed In Forma Pauperis (“IFP”) pursuant to 28 4 U.S.C. § 1915(a). (See ECF No. 2.) In addition, Plaintiff has filed a Motion to Appoint 5 Counsel. (See ECF No. 3.) 6 I. Plaintiff’s Motion to Proceed IFP 7 All parties instituting any civil action, suit or proceeding in a district court of the 8 United States, except an application for writ of habeas corpus, must pay a filing fee of 9 $400.1 See 28 U.S.C. § 1914(a). The action may proceed despite a plaintiff’s failure to 10 prepay the entire fee only if he is granted leave to proceed IFP pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 11 Section 1915(a). See Andrews v. Cervantes, 493 F.3d 1047, 1051 (9th Cir. 2007); 12 Rodriguez v. Cook, 169 F.3d 1176, 1177 (9th Cir. 1999). However, a prisoner who is 13 granted leave to proceed IFP remains obligated to pay the entire fee in “increments” or 14 “installments,” Bruce v. Samuels, 136 S. Ct. 627, 629 (2016); Williams v. Paramo, 775 15 F.3d 1182, 1185 (9th Cir. 2015), and regardless of whether his action is ultimately 16 dismissed. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(1), (2); Taylor v. Delatoore, 281 F.3d 844, 847 (9th 17 Cir. 2002). 18 Section 1915(a)(2) requires prisoners seeking leave to proceed IFP to submit a 19 “certified copy of the trust fund account statement (or institutional equivalent) for . . . the 20 6-month period immediately preceding the filing of the complaint.” 28 U.S.C. 21 § 1915(a)(2); Andrews v. King, 398 F.3d 1113, 1119 (9th Cir. 2005). From the certified 22 trust account statement, the Court assesses an initial payment of 20% of (a) the average 23 monthly deposits in the account for the past six months, or (b) the average monthly 24 25 1 In addition to the $350 statutory fee, civil litigants must pay an additional administrative 26 fee of $50. See 28 U.S.C. § 1914(a) (Judicial Conference Schedule of Fees, District Court Misc. Fee Schedule, § 14 (eff. Oct. 1, 2019)). The additional $50 administrative fee does 27 not apply to persons granted leave to proceed IFP. Id. 1 balance in the account for the past six months, whichever is greater, unless the prisoner 2 has no assets. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(1); 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(4). The institution 3 having custody of the prisoner then collects subsequent payments, assessed at 20% of the 4 preceding month’s income, in any month in which his account exceeds $10, and forwards 5 those payments to the Court until the entire filing fee is paid. See 28 U.S.C. 6 § 1915(b)(2); Bruce, 136 S. Ct. at 629. 7 In support of his IFP Motion, Plaintiff has submitted a certified copy of his trust 8 account statement pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Section 1915(a)(2) and S.D. Cal. Civ. L.R. 3.2. 9 Andrews, 398 F.3d at 1119. The Court has reviewed Plaintiff’s trust account activity, as 10 well as the attached prison certificate verifying his available balances. (See ECF No. 5, at 11 1-3.) These documents show that he carried an average monthly balance of $1.49 and 12 had $1.45 in average monthly deposits to his trust account for the six months preceding 13 the filing of this action, and that Plaintiff had an available balance of just $0.30 at the 14 time of filing. (See id.) 15 Therefore, the Court GRANTS Plaintiff’s Motion to Proceed IFP (ECF No. 2), and 16 declines to impose the initial partial filing fee pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Section 1915(b)(1), 17 because his prison certificate indicates he may currently have “no means to pay it.” See 18 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(4) (providing that “[i]n no event shall a prisoner be prohibited from 19 bringing a civil action or appealing a civil action or criminal judgment for the reason that 20 the prisoner has no assets and no means by which to pay the initial partial filing fee.”); 21 Taylor, 281 F.3d at 850 (finding that 28 U.S.C. Section 1915(b)(4) acts as a “safety- 22 valve” preventing dismissal of a prisoner’s IFP case based solely on a “failure to pay . . . 23 due to the lack of funds available to him when payment is ordered.”). Instead, the Court 24 directs the Secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation 25 (“CDCR”), or her designee, to collect the entire $350 balance of the filing fees required 26 by 28 U.S.C. Section 1914 and to forward them to the Clerk of the Court pursuant to the 27 installment payment provisions set forth in 28 U.S.C. Section 1915(b)(1). 1 II. Motion to Appoint Counsel 2 Plaintiff also seeks the appointment of counsel because he is unable to afford a 3 lawyer and claims his imprisonment will limit his ability to litigate. (See ECF No. 3, Pl.’s 4 Mot. at 1.) 5 However, there is no constitutional right to counsel in a civil case. Lassiter v. Dept. 6 of Social Servs., 452 U.S. 18, 25 (1981); Palmer v. Valdez, 560 F.3d 965, 970 (9th Cir. 7 2009). And while 28 U.S.C. § 1915

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Salmen v. California Department of Correction Rehabilitation, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/salmen-v-california-department-of-correction-rehabilitation-casd-2020.