Harris v. Harrington

Full title: DARREN HARRIS, Plaintiff, v. K. HARRINGTON, et al., Defendants

Court: United States District Court, E.D. California

Date published: Apr 1, 2011

CASE NO. 1:10-cv-01215-AWI-SMS (E.D. Cal. Apr. 1, 2011)

Opinion

CASE NO. 1:10-cv-01215-AWI-SMS.

April 1, 2011

ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF'S MOTION TO AMEND COMPLAINT (ECF No. 27) THIRTY-DAY DEADLINE

SANDRA SNYDER, Magistrate Judge

Plaintiff Darren Harris ("Plaintiff") is a state prisoner proceeding pro se and in forma pauperis in this civil rights action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. On March 29, 2011, Plaintiff filed a motion seeking leave to amend his complaint. The Court will grant Plaintiff's motion to file an amended complaint.

In his motion Plaintiff states that he wishes to amend his complaint to exhaust administrative remedies for additional rights violated. Plaintiff is advised that administrative remedies must be exhausted prior to the initial date that he filed this action. If the court concludes that the prisoner has failed to exhaust administrative remedies, the proper remedy is dismissal without prejudice, even where there has been exhaustion while the suit is pending. Lira v. Herrera, 427 F.3d 1164, 1171 (9th Cir. 2005).

Additionally, Plaintiff may not pursue multiple, unrelated claims in this action. Pursuant to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, [a] party asserting a claim, counterclaim, crossclaim, or third-party claim may join, as independent or alternate claims, as many claims as it has against an opposing party." Fed.R.Civ.P. 18(a). "Thus multiple claims against a single party are fine, but Claim A against Defendant 1 should not be joined with unrelated Claim B against Defendant 2. Unrelated claims against different defendants belong in different suits, not only to prevent the sort of morass [a multiple claim, multiple defendant] suit produce[s], but also to ensure that prisoners pay the required filing fees-for the Prison Litigation Reform Act limits to 3 the number of frivolous suits or appeals that any prisoner may file without prepayment of the required fees. 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g)."George v. Smith, 507 F.3d 605, 607 (7th Cir. 2007). Plaintiff will not be permitted to proceed with a "mishmash of a complaint," id., and is cautioned that if his amended complaint fails to comply with Rule 18(a), the Court will choose which claims will proceed and will dismiss out all unrelated claims.

Accordingly, it is HEREBY ORDERED that Plaintiff is granted leave to file an amended complaint within thirty (30) days from the date of service of this order.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

Dated: March 31, 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 _______________________________________________