Opinion
No. CIV S-06-0765 GEB GGH P.
May 16, 2007
ORDER
Plaintiff is a state prisoner proceeding pro se with a civil rights action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. On June 29, 2006, the court ordered the United States Marshal to serve the complaint on defendants. Process directed to defendant Bourland was returned unserved because he retired and did not leave any forwarding information. On December 13, 2006, the court granted plaintiff sixty days to provide additional information to serve this defendant.
On February 15, 2007, plaintiff filed a request for judicial intervention stating that he is unable to locate defendant Bourland. Plaintiff states that on December 29, 2006, he sent defense counsel a request for production of documents requesting information regarding the location of defendant Bourland. Plaintiff claims that defense counsel did not respond to this request.
On April 9, 2007, the court ordered defendants to file a response to plaintiff's February 15, 2007, request for judicial notice addressing his claim that defendants failed to respond to his request for production of documents seeking information regarding defendant Bourland.
On April 19, 2007, defendants filed a response to the request for judicial notice. Defendants do not address the claim that they failed to respond to plaintiff's request for production of documents. However, defendants state that they contacted the personnel department at Calipatria State Prison to locate information regarding defendant Bourland. The personnel department informed defendants that defendant Bourland is retired and living out of state. The personnel department would not give defendants any contact information regarding defendant Bourland, however, a personnel supervisor contacted the last known number for defendant and left a message that he was to contact the Attorney General's Office immediately. As of April 19, 2007, defendant Bourland had not contacted the Attorney General's Office.
It is not clear from defendants' pleading when the message was left for defendant Bourland asking him to contact the Attorney General's Office. If the message was left on April 18, 2007, for example, it would not be unexpected that he had not contacted the Attorney General's Office by April 19, 2007.
Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that within ten days of the date of this order, defendants shall file a verified declaration by counsel indicating when, to the best of counsel's knowledge, defendant Bourland was contacted and whether he has contacted the Attorney General's Office.