Opinion
No. C 10-1859 JSW (PR)
05-02-2013
EARNEST C. WOODS, Plaintiff, v. BEN CURRY, et al., Defendants.
ORDER OF DISMISSAL
(Docket No. 36)
Plaintiff, a California prisoner, has filed this pro se civil rights complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. He was granted leave to proceed in forma pauperis.
After reviewing the complaint pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g), the Court found that it improperly joined a variety of claims into a single complaint. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 18, 20. Specifically, the complaint asserted claims against 41 different defendants based on a wide variety of unrelated events that occurred at his prison, the California Training Facility ("CTF"), over a substantial period of time. See George v. Smith, 507 F.3d 605, 607 (7th Cir. 2007) (federal joinder rules prohibit prisoner filing "buckshot complaint" that joins unrelated claims against different defendants, e.g. "a suit complaining that A defrauded plaintiff, B defamed him, C punched him, D failed to pay a debt, and E infringed his copyright, all in different transactions"). Because it could not be discerned which of the broad array of claims Plaintiff would want to eliminate, the case was dismissed with leave to file an amended complaint that, pursuant to federal joinder rules, only included claims that arise out of the same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences and present questions of law or fact common to all defendants. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 20(a). He was cautioned that his failure to do so would result in the dismissal of this case without prejudice.
Plaintiff has filed an amended complaint that suffers from the same deficiencies as the original complaint. It names 43 defendants and consists entirely of a narrative recounting over approximately 30 pages a long series of unrelated events that took place at his prison over the course of five years. He asserts a wide variety of constitutional violations against different defendants, but at no point does he list his claims. He also attaches voluminous unlabeled exhibits, which he does not cite or explain. In sum, the amended complaint is a prototypical "buckshot" complaint alleging different and unrelated claims against different defendants. As Plaintiff has been informed that such a complaint is prohibited, and as he has been afforded an opportunity to cure this type of deficiency in his pleadings but has failed to do so, this case is DISMISSED without prejudice to filing a new complaint in a new case that complies with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
Plaintiff's renewed request for "appointment" of counsel (dkt. 36) is DENIED. The Clerk shall enter judgment and close the file.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
______________
JEFFREY S. WHITE
United States District Judge
EARNEST C. WOODS II, Plaintiff,
v.
BEN CURRY et al, Defendant.
Case Number: CV10-01859 JSW
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I, the undersigned, hereby certify that I am an employee in the Office of the Clerk, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California. That on May 2, 2013, I SERVED a true and correct copy(ies) of the attached, by placing said copy(ies) in a postage paid envelope addressed to the person(s) hereinafter listed, by depositing said envelope in the U.S. Mail, or by placing said copy(ies) into an inter-office delivery receptacle located in the Clerk's office. Earnest C. Woods D 58091
P.O. Box 689
Soledad, CA 95696
______________
Richard W. Wieking, Clerk
By: Jennifer Ottolini, Deputy Clerk