Opinion
No. 1:08-CV-1055-RCC.
May 5, 2011
ORDER
Pending before the Court is Defendants' Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 22). The issue has been fully briefed, and the Court now denies the motion for the reasons discussed below.
I. Motion to Dismiss
Plaintiff filed his Complaint on July 23, 2008 and an Amended Complaint on November 7, 2008, alleging that Defendants Blackford, Mobley and Sandoval violated his Eighth Amendment rights by failing to protect him from sexual assaults by other inmates. (Docs. 1 14). Plaintiff alleges that, after repeatedly asking to move out of a dormitory because of harassment by other inmates, he was sexually assaulted by an inmate in that dormitory on June 26 and 27, 2008. Plaintiff further alleges that Defendants did not properly investigate the attacks. Plaintiff submitted a grievance regarding the incident on July 8, 2008.
Under the PLRA, a prisoner must exhaust available administrative remedies before bringing a federal action concerning prison conditions. See 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a); Griffin v. Arpaio, 557 F.3d 1117, 1119 (9th Cir. 2009). Exhaustion is required for all suits about prison life, Porter v. Nussle, 534 U.S. 516, 523 (2002), regardless of the type of relief offered through the administrative process,Booth v. Churner, 532 U.S. 731, 741 (2001). And a prisoner must complete the administrative review process in accordance with the applicable rules. See Woodford v. Ngo, 548 U.S. 81, 92 (2006). If a prisoner fails to exhaust his remedies prior to filing, dismissal without prejudice is required. Vaden v. Summerhill, 449 F.3d 1047 (9th Cir. 2006); McKinney v. Carey, 311 F.3d 1198, 1199-1200 (9th Cir. 2002).
Exhaustion is an affirmative defense. Jones v. Bock, 549 U.S. 199, 212 (2007). Thus, the defendant bears the burden of raising and proving the absence of exhaustion. Wyatt v. Terhune, 315 F.3d 1108, 1119 (9th Cir. 2003). Because exhaustion is a matter of abatement in an unenumerated Rule 12(b) motion, a court may look beyond the pleadings to decide disputed issues of fact. Id. at 1119-20.
Plaintiff here admits that he filed his Complaint prior to exhausting his administrative remedies; however, he claims he should be exempt from this requirement, because he did not have access to the administrative remedy process. (Doc. 32). He claims that he was denied access through (1) the untimely response of prison staff to his grievances, and (2) threats of retaliation made by staff for filing grievances. Id.
As to the first, Plaintiff commenced this action before the prison's time to answer his grievance ran. As Plaintiff noted, staff had 30 working days to answer his grievance. Id. He filed this action 15 days after he filed his grievance. Plaintiff cannot claim that staff delays in processing his grievance denied him access to the administrative remedy process when there was no delay at the time he filed this action.
As to the second, Plaintiff general allegations that someone at the prison threatened to retaliate against him are not sufficient. Plaintiff does not identify any of the specifics regarding these threats, and, without more, the Court is unable to conclude that Plaintiff plausibly qualifies for an exception to the exhaustion requirement. See Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 1953 (2009).
The Court finds that Defendants provided evidence of the existence of a grievance procedure, that Plaintiff failed to exhaust his remedies under the procedure, and that Plaintiff has not offer a sufficient reason for his failure.
II. Leave to Amend
Plaintiff may amend his Complaint. He must clearly designate on the face of the document that it is a "Second Amended Complaint". The Second Amended Complaint must be retyped or rewritten in its entirety and may not incorporate any part of the original Complaint by reference. Plaintiff must describe each ground for relief and the facts supporting each ground.
An amended complaint supersedes an original complaint. See Ferdik v. Bonzelet, 963 F.2d 1258, 1262 (9th Cir. 1992); Hal Roach Studios v. Richard Feiner Co., 896 F.2d 1542, 1546 (9th Cir. 1990). After amendment, the Court will treat all prior Complaints as nonexistent. Ferdik, 963 F.2d at 1262. Any ground for relief that was raised in a prior Complaint is waived if it is not raised in the Second Amended Complaint. See King v. Atiyeh, 814 F.2d 565, 567 (9th Cir. 1987).
III. Warnings
A. Address Changes
Plaintiff must file and serve a notice of any change of address. Plaintiff must not include a motion for other relief with a notice of change of address. Failure to comply may result in dismissal of this action.
B. Copies
Plaintiff must submit an additional copy of every filing for use by the Court. Failure to comply may result in the filing being stricken without further notice to Plaintiff.
C. Possible Dismissal
If Plaintiff fails to timely comply with every provision of this Order, including these warnings, the Court may dismiss the action without further notice. See Ferdik v. Bonzelet, 963 F.2d 1258, 1260-61 (9th Cir. 1992). IT IS ORDERED granting Defendants' Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 22).
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED denying Plaintiff's Motion to Deny (Doc. 32).
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED dismissing this action without prejudice. Plaintiff may file an Amended Complaint on or before June 6, 2011. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the Clerk of Court must enter a judgment of dismissal of this action without prejudice and without further notice to Plaintiff, if Plaintiff fails to file an Amended Complaint on or before June 6, 2011. 42 U.S.C. § 1983 Previous Lawsuits (list all other previous or pending lawsuits on back of this form): II. Exhaustion of Administrative Remedies ALL NOTICE: 42 U.S.C. § 1983 42 U.S.C. § 1997ebefore Booth v. Churner 532 U.S. 731 741 McKinney v. Carey 311 F.3d 1198 1999 Even if you are seeking only money damages and the inmate appeal or administrative remedy process does not provide money, you must exhaust the process before filing suit. Booth 532 U.S. at 734 Defendants Statement of Claim facts Relief.
Plaintiff's Name_________________________ Inmate No._______________________________ Address__________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ (Name of Plaintiff) (Case Number) vs. AMENDED COMPLAINT ____________________________________ Civil Rights Act, ____________________________________ ____________________________________ ____________________________________ ____________________________________ ____________________________________ ____________________________________ (Names of all Defendants) I. A. Have you brought any other lawsuits while a prisoner? Yes ____ No ____ B. If your answer to A is yes, how many? _______________ Describe previous or pending lawsuits in the space below. (If more than one, use back of paper to continue outlining all lawsuits.) 1. Parties to previous lawsuit: Plaintiff ________________________________________________________________________________ Defendants ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________ 2. Court (if Federal Court, give name of District; if State Court, give name of County) _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. Docket Number __________________________ 4. Assigned Judge ______________________________________ 5. Disposition (For example: Was the case dismissed? Was it appealed? Is it still pending?) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ 6. Filing date (approx.) __________________ 7. Disposition date (approx.) __________________________ A. Is there an inmate appeal or administrative remedy process available at your institution? Yes____ No____ B. Have you filed an appeal or grievance concerning of the facts contained in this complaint? Yes____ No____ If your answer is no, explain why not_________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ C. Is the process completed? Yes____ If your answer is yes, briefly explain what happened at each level. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ No____ If your answer is no, explain why not. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Pursuant to the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995, "[n]o action shall be brought with respect to prison conditions under [], or any other Federal law, by a prisoner confined in any jail, prison, or other correctional facility until such administrative remedies as are available are exhausted." (a). If there is an inmate appeal or administrative remedy process available at your institution, you may not file an action under Section 1983, or any other federal law, until you have first completed (exhausted) the process available at your institution. You are required to complete (exhaust) the inmate appeal or administrative remedy process filing suit, regardless of the relief offered by the process. , , (2001); , , (9th Cir. 2002). , . III. (In Item A below, place the full name of the defendant in the first blank, his/her official position in the second blank, and his/her place of employment in the third blank. Use item B for the names, positions and places of employment of any additional defendants.) A. Defendant _____________________________________ is employed as __________________________________________ ______________________________ at _______________________________________________________________ B. Additional defendants ___________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ IV. (State here as briefly as possible the of your case. Describe how each defendant is involved, including dates and places. Do not give any legal arguments or cite any cases or statutes. Attach extra sheets if necessary.) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ V. (State briefly exactly what you want the court to do for you. Make no legal arguments. Cite no cases or statutes.) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct. Date _________________________ Signature of Plaintiff______________________________________