Samtani v. City of Laredo

274 F. Supp. 3d 695
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Texas
DecidedAugust 16, 2017
DocketCIVIL ACTION NO. 5:15-CV-00174
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 274 F. Supp. 3d 695 (Samtani v. City of Laredo) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Samtani v. City of Laredo, 274 F. Supp. 3d 695 (S.D. Tex. 2017).

Opinion

CLAIM CONSTRUCTION MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

THE HONORABLE J. SCOTT HACKER, United States Magistrate Judge

Plaintiff Manoj Samtani (“Samta-ni”), a pro se litigant, filed his Complaint against City of Laredo (“the city”), Laredo Police Department (“LPD”), LPD Officer Juan Morales (“LPD Morales”) (in his individual and official capacity), United States of America, United States Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”), CBP.Officer #1 (in his individual and official capacity), CBP Officer.#2 (in his individual and official capacity), CBP Officer #3 (in his individual and official capacity), CBP Officer #4 (in his individual and official.capacity), and CBP Officer #5 (in his individual and official capacity). (Dkt. No. 1 (“Complaint”)). Subsequently, the list of unknown1 Defendants was replaced2 .by CBP Officer Franco Borreca (in his individual and official capacity), CBP Officer Juan Cortinas (in his individual and official capacity), CBP Officer Yoel De Angel (in his individual and official capacity), CBP Officer Alexiz Gonzalez (in his individual and official capacity), CBP Officer Jorge Ruiz (in his individual and official capacity), CBP Officer Oscar Zenteno (in his individual and official capacity), and Federal Armed Security Officer3 Rey Vasquez (“FAS Vasquez”).

Samtani’s pro se Complaint is now ripe for construction. Pro se com[698]*698plaints are to be liberally construed. Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 520 21, 92 S.Ct. 594, 30 L.Ed.2d 652 (1972); Hernandez v. Maxwell, 905 F.2d 94, 96 (5th Cir. 1990). They are to be held to “less stringent- standards than formal pleadings drafted by lawyers,” Haines, 404 U.S. at 520, 92 S.Ct. 594. A court is expected to exercise “common sense” in- interpreting these frequently diffuse pleadings, United States ex rel. Simmons v. Zibilich, 542 F.2d 259, 260 (5th Cir. 1976) (citation omitted), and is to accord them a “liberal yet realistic construction.” Johnson v. Estelle, 625 F.2d 75, 77 (5th Cir. 1980). Although pro se pleadings are to be treated quite liberally, at least “some facts must be alleged that convince [the court] that the plaintiff has a colorable claim; conclusory allegations will not suffice.” Mills v. Criminal Dist. Court #3, 837 F.2d 677, 678 (5th Cir. 1988). A court must scrutinize the pleadings of a non-lawyer appearing pro se with especial care to determine, if, among the dabblings, some colorable claim exists. Fed. R. Civ. P. 8; Haines, 404 U.S. at 520-21, 92 S.Ct. 594; Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 106, 97 S.Ct. 285, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976); Slotnick v. Garfinkle, 632 F.2d 163, 165 (1st Cir. 1980); McDonald v. Hall, 610 F.2d 16, 17 (1st Cir. 1979); Guerro v. Mulhearn, 498 F.2d 1249, 1255-56 (1st Cir.1974). In performing this task, a court will accept as true all material factual allegations and will view the complaint in- the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Cooper v. Pate, 378 U.S. 546, 546, 84 S.Ct. 1733, 12 L.Ed.2d 1030 (1964); EEOC v. Simbaki, Ltd., 767 F.3d 475, 484 (5th Cir. 2014); United States v. Trevino, 554 Fed.Appx. 289, 293 (5th Cir. 2014); Johnson v. Epps, 479 Fed.Appx. 583, 587 (5th Cir. 2012).

While much liberality is allowed in construing pro se complaints, a pro se litigant cannot simply dump a stack of exhibits on the court and expect the court to sift through them to determine if some nugget is buried somewhere in that mountain of papers, .waiting to be unearthed and refined into a cognizable claim. See Carita v. Mon Cheri Bridals, LLC, No. 10 2517, 2012 WL 3638697, at *2 (D.N.J. Aug. 22, 2012) (“It is not the Court’s duty to pore through hundreds of pages of -evidentiary record in order to find one party’s saving grace buried underneath”); Lacadie v. Town of Milford, Civ. No, 07-101, 2008 WL 1930410, at *6 n. 8 (D. Me. May 1, 2008) (“Courts are not required or even expected to independently sift through the record in search of evidence that might salvage a pro se plaintiffs case”). Likewise, the Court’s construction process does not preclude a defendant from filing a subsequent Rulé 12(b)(6) motion. See Teahan v, Wilhelm, 481 F.Supp.2d 1115, 1119 (S.D. Cal. 2007) (The “sua sponte [construction] process is cumulative of, not a substitute for” a Rule 12 motion.).

In light of these principles, the Court now construes Samtani’s Complaint, holding that the Complaint states the following causes of action:4

[699]*699I. Deprivation of Civil Rights by the City of Laredo: Samtani’s Complaint states two claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the city for violating Samtani’s federal rights under the Fourth Amendment.

First, Samtani" claims that there is a “persistent; widespread practice of city ... employees namely police officers [ ]— that, although not authorized by officially adopted policy, is so common and well settled as to constitute a custom that fairly represents official municipal policy.” (Dkt. No. 1 at 15). Specifically, Samtani alleges that “sufficiently numerous incidents of police officers using excessive force or tazing [sic] citizens establishes custom and accession to that custom by the City’s policy makers.” (Id,). Samtani claims that the “City of Laredo has actual or constructive knowledge of this practice, custom, and/or policy or procedure” within the LPD. (Id,). Samtani’s Complaint states sufficient facts that give rise to a cognizable claim against the city for promoting the use of excessive force within the LPD. See, e.g., In re Foust, 310 F.3d 849, 861 (5th Cir. 2002) (“In suits against a municipality, a plaintiff must [allege] that a [city] policy was the moving force behind the constitutional violation.”) (internal quotation omitted).

Second, Samtani claims that the “City of Laredo [is] liable for inadequate training of [its] respective officers under § 1983 [because] failure to train amounts to deliberate indifference to the rights of the persons with whom the police .,. come in contact.” (Id.). In particular, Sam-tani alleges that the LPD’s “training program in relation to the tasks the particular officer[s] must perform is inadequate in the respect that the program fails to teach new police ... that using excessive force [against] citizens ... violates [their] constitutional rights.” (Id.).

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274 F. Supp. 3d 695, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/samtani-v-city-of-laredo-txsd-2017.