Snyder v. Allison

District Court, S.D. California·Decided August 3, 2020·No. 3:19-cv-01741·Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 ROBERT SNYDER, Case No.: 3:19-cv-01741-LAB-DEB CDCR #AC-9136, 12 ORDER DISMISSING AMENDED Plaintiff, 13 COMPLAINT vs. FOR FAILING TO STATE 14 A CLAIM PURSUANT KATHLEEN ALLISON; A. MONDET; 15 TO 28 U.S.C. § 1915A C. TISCORNIA, 16 Defendants. 17 18 I. Procedural Background 19 On September 9, 2019, Plaintiff Robert Snyder, currently incarcerated at Richard J. 20 Donovan Correctional Facility (“RJD”) in San Diego, California and proceeding pro se, 21 filed this civil action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and a temporary restraining order 22 (“TRO”). See ECF No. 1 (“Compl.”). Snyder paid the $400 filing fee required by 28 U.S.C. 23 § 1914(a) on September 18, 2019. See ECF No. 4, Receipt No. CAS115493. The Court 24 denied the TRO and dismissed the Complaint on December 5, 2019 because Plaintiff had 25 failed to state a claim pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b). See ECF No. 9. Plaintiff was given 26 leave to amend, and on April 6, 2020, Plaintiff filed an Amended Complaint. See ECF No. 27 21 (“Am. Comp.”) 28 / / / 1 II. Plaintiff’s Allegations 2 In his Amended Complaint, Snyder again contends Kathleen Allison, an 3 Undersecretary employed by the CDCR, A. Mondet, a supervisor of RJD’s Education 4 Department, and Chloe Tiscornia, RJD’s Facility A Librarian, have all interfered with his 5 ability to litigate his complaints against CDCR employees by generally impeding his access 6 to computers, providing deficient libraries, ordering the closure of A-Facilities library, 7 limiting time inside the library, creating inflexible schedules, refusing to respond to 8 inmates requests, and arbitrarily preventing inmates from copying pages out of law books. 9 Am. Compl. at 4-13. Specifically, he alleges that Allison “maintains vague library policies 10 . . . that make litigating difficult,” id. at 5, the library is both “overly small” which results 11 in “strictly limited” attendance at the library, id., and “deficient,” which helps the 12 California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (“CDCR”) “reduce its overall 13 liability.” Id. at 4. He claims Mondet “ordered closure of A-facilities library between late 14 August and early September to comply with CDCR’s ‘non-designated’ policy [which] 15 resulted in a one-month . . . gap in our library access,” id. at 7, “pushe[d] into effect various 16 unwritten procedures which limit time in their central library to four hours of physical 17 access maximum,” id., and that she “maintains a sparse collection of outdated books.” Id. 18 He further contends Mondet “doesn’t facilitate entrance into the library,” and claims 19 “there’s at all times no less than 4 obstacles standing in the way of physical access,” id. at 20 9, and that Mondet “routinely ordered unexplained library closures of A-Facilities library” 21 between February and September of 2019. Id. As to Tiscornia, Snyder alleges she 22 prohibited tutoring and “threatened to cancel . . . priority legal user (PLU) status for seeking 23 advice from other inmates,” id. at 11, used pretextual staff shortages to justify closing the 24 library, id., and “sabotaged inmate’s “quiet study by sending her clerks to enforce her 25 arbitrary set of rules.” Id. at 13. He also brings a new allegation against Tiscornia for 26 retaliation, claiming that Tiscornia “retaliated specifically against Plaintiff with a 6/24/20 27 disciplinary report to punish him for complaining to her supervisor about the lack of books 28 / / / 1 in A-Facilities library room,” and that “shortly after requesting access to CALJUR, 2 Plaintiff was issued another RVR by Mondet’s assistant.” Id. 3 Snyder asks for “declaratory relief,” that Defendants be held liable for costs and fees 4 or any “prospective damages,” and “any or all other equitable relief deemed appropriate by 5 this Court. Id. at 14. 6 III. Screening of Complaint pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915A 7 A. Standard of Review 8 As a preliminary matter, the Court must conduct an initial review of Snyder’s 9 Complaint pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915A, because he is a prisoner and seeks “redress from 10 a governmental entity or officer or employee of a governmental entity.” See 28 U.S.C. 11 § 1915A(a). Section 1915A “mandates early review—‘before docketing [] or [] as soon as 12 practicable after docketing’—for all complaints ‘in which a prisoner seeks redress from a 13 governmental entity or officer or employee of a governmental entity.’” Chavez v. Robinson, 14 817 F.3d 1162, 1168 (9th Cir. 2016). The mandatory screening provisions of § 1915A 15 apply to all prisoners, no matter their fee status, who bring suit against a governmental 16 entity, officer, or employee. See, e.g. Resnick v. Hayes, 213 F.3d 443, 446-47 (9th Cir. 17 2000). “On review, the court shall … dismiss the complaint, or any portion of the 18 complaint,” if it “(1) is frivolous, malicious, or fails to state a claim upon which relief may 19 be granted; or (2) seeks monetary relief from a defendant who is immune from such relief.” 20 Olivas v. Nevada ex rel. Dept. of Corr., 856 F.3d 1281, 1283 (9th Cir. 2017) (quoting 28 21 U.S.C. § 1915A(b)). 22 B. Access to the Courts 23 As he did in his original complaint, Snyder contends Defendants are “(1) block[ing] 24 Plaintiff’s access to courts and (2) erect[ing] barriers to physical, meaningful access to is 25 already deficient law library facility,” thereby violating his First and Fourteenth 26 Amendment right to access to the courts. Am. Compl. at 3. 27 Prisoners have a constitutional right of access to the courts. Lewis v. Casey, 518 U.S. 28 343, 346 (1996); Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 821 (1977), limited in part on other 1 grounds by Lewis, 518 U.S. at 354. In order to state a claim of a denial of the right to access 2 the courts, a prisoner must establish that he has suffered “actual injury,” a jurisdictional 3 requirement derived from the standing doctrine. Lewis, 518 U.S. at 349. An “actual injury” 4 is “actual prejudice with respect to contemplated or existing litigation, such as the inability 5 to meet a filing deadline or to present a claim.” Id. at 348 (citation and internal quotations 6 omitted). The right of access does not require the State to “enable the prisoner to discover 7 grievances,” or even to “litigate effectively once in court.” Id. at 354; see also Jones v. 8 Blanas, 393 F.3d 918, 936 (9th Cir. 2004) (defining actual injury as the “inability to file a 9 complaint or defend against a charge”). Instead, Lewis holds: 10 [T]he injury requirement is not satisfied by just any type of frustrated legal claim . . . .

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