Villalta v. Superior Court

JOSE G. VILLALTA, Plaintiff, v. SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA,COUNTY OF ORANGE, et al., Defendants.

No. 1:20-cv-01245-NONE-EPG

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

September 29, 2020

SCREENING ORDER

ORDER FOR PLAINTIFF TO:

(1) FILE A FIRST AMENDED COMPLAINT; OR

(2) NOTIFY THE COURT THAT HE WISHES TO STAND ON HIS COMPLAINT

(ECF NO. 1)

THIRTY DAY DEADLINE

Plaintiff Jose G. Villalta ("Plaintiff") is a state inmate proceeding pro se in this civil rights action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Plaintiff filed the Complaint commencing this action on September 2, 2020. (ECF No. 1). The Complaint brings claims that relate to occurrences before trial, immediately after trial, and at prison. Plaintiff names the Superior Court of California, County of Orange as a defendant. The Court finds that the Complaint fails to state any cognizable claims.

After Plaintiff reviews this order, Plaintiff can decide to file an amended complaint, which the Court will screen in due course. Plaintiff can also notify the Court that he wants to stand on his complaint, in which case this Court will issue findings and recommendations to the district judge assigned to the case recommending that Plaintiff's complaint be dismissed for the reasons in this order. If Plaintiff does not file anything, the Court will recommend that the case be dismissed.

I. SCREENING REQUIREMENT

The Court is required to screen complaints brought by inmates seeking relief against a governmental entity or officer or employee of a governmental entity. 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(a). The Court must dismiss a complaint or portion thereof if the inmate has raised claims that are legally "frivolous or malicious," that fail to state a claim upon which relief may be granted, or that seek monetary relief from a defendant who is immune from such relief. 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b)(1), (2). As Plaintiff is proceeding in forma pauperis, the Court may also screen the complaint under 28 U.S.C. § 1915. "Notwithstanding any filing fee, or any portion thereof, that may have been paid, the court shall dismiss the case at any time if the court determines that the action or appeal fails to state a claim upon which relief may be granted." 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii).

A complaint is required to contain "a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief." Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2). Detailed factual allegations are not required, but "[t]hreadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of action, supported by mere conclusory statements, do not suffice." Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (citing Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007)). Plaintiff must set forth "sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to 'state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.'" Id. (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570). The mere possibility of misconduct falls short of meeting this plausibility standard. Id. at 679. While a plaintiff's allegations are taken as true, courts "are not required to indulge unwarranted inferences." Doe I v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 572 F.3d 677, 681 (9th Cir. 2009) (citation and quotation marks omitted). Additionally, a plaintiff's legal conclusions are not accepted as true. Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678.

Pleadings of pro se plaintiffs "must be held to less stringent standards than formal pleadings drafted by lawyers." Hebbe v. Pliler, 627 F.3d 338, 342 (9th Cir. 2010) (holding that pro se complaints should continue to be liberally construed after Iqbal).

II. ALLEGATIONS IN THE COMPLAINT

A. Claim I

Claim I begins by quoting California Penal Code § 1203.01(a) in full. That statute concerns the views the judge or district attorney has about a person who has just been convicted or sentenced. Then the complaint reads:

This never happen and wasn't deliver to me, that's why the counselor are denying my request Privacy Act information and pointing to the CDCR BOP Sacramento.

The unprecedented sentencing with a multiple charges same & similar offenses violates U.S.S.G. Access to the Court, Double Jeopardy Cruel & unusual punishment & Due Process, Equal Protection Destroyed my family by separating us. PC 269 - aggravated assault, GBI but no DNA evidence, offense date is mystery 8-24-99 not born yet, my daughter born 10-10-99 They'd have the same ages by the accuser.

B. Claim II

Plaintiff, who used the civil rights complaint form for this district, stated his claims arose under: "Amendment's 5, 8, 14 Due Process, Equal Protection, Double Jeopardy, Cruel & Unusual Punishment." Plaintiff cites gives purported descriptions for two cases: Sanders v. English, 950 F.2d 1152 (5th Cir. 1992) and Sellers v. Bureau of Prisons, 959 F.2d 307 (D.C. Cir. 1992).

As his injury, Plaintiff wrote identified four groups:

Investigator's - Police misconduct

Prosecutor's - Prosecutorial misconduct

Judge - Judicial Abuse

CDCR - BOP - Warden

Plaintiff the alleges that those groups were: "working together for mass incarceration Prison Profit, easy Target for poor, middle income families, but not to rich, famous as Hon. Justice Kavanaugh. No one is above the law for them."

C. Claim III

The supporting facts for Claim III reads as follows (legal arguments omitted):

But this J. Boyd correctional officer gave a false report. Report title 15 of Section 3017 failure to present at count time, then the Sgt. Eaton & Capotain Townsend convicted me guilty lost of credit 30 days & the 12 weeks credit, without a procedural due process.

In connection with those supporting facts, Plaintiff alleges the following injuries:

This J. Boyd correctional officer he will go online check your charges and destroy your reputation and you can become a threat to the community for exposing your charges and giving continuous false report. No respect with elderly inmates under ADA, his response that he doesn't care. Don't know the Armstrong Remedial Plan.

III. SECTION 1983

The Civil Rights Act under which this action was filed provides:

Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress . . . .

42 U.S.C. § 1983. "[Section] 1983 'is not itself a source of substantive rights,' but merely provides 'a method for vindicating federal rights elsewhere conferred.'" Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 393-94 (1989) (quoting Baker v. McCollan, 443 U.S. 137, 144 n.3 (1979)); see also Chapman v. Houston Welfare Rights Org., 441 U.S. 600, 618 (1979); Hall v. City of Los Angeles, 697 F.3d 1059, 1068 (9th Cir. 2012); Crowley v. Nevada, 678 F.3d 730, 734 (9th Cir. 2012); Anderson v. Warner, 451 F.3d 1063, 1067 (9th Cir. 2006).

To state a claim under § 1983, a plaintiff must allege that (1) the defendant acted under color of state law, and (2) the defendant deprived him of rights secured by the Constitution or federal law. Long v. County of Los Angeles, 442 F.3d 1178, 1185 (9th Cir. 2006); see also Marsh v. Cnty. of San Diego, 680 F.3d 1148, 1158 (9th Cir. 2012) (discussing "under color of state law"). A person deprives another of a constitutional right, "within the meaning of § 1983, 'if he does an affirmative act, participates in another's affirmative act, or omits to perform an act which he is legally required to do that causes the deprivation of which complaint is made.'" Preschooler II v. Clark Cnty. Sch. Bd. of Trs., 479 F.3d 1175, 1183 (9th Cir. 2007) (quoting Johnson v. Duffy, 588 F.2d 740, 743 (9th Cir. 1978)). "The requisite causal connection may be established when an official sets in motion a 'series of acts by others which the actor knows or reasonably shouldknow would cause others to inflict' constitutional harms." Preschooler II, 479 F.3d at 1183 (quoting Johnson, 588 F.2d at 743). This standard of causation "closely resembles the standard 'foreseeability' formulation of proximate cause." Arnold v. Int'l Bus. Mach. Corp., 637 F.2d 1350, 1355 (9th Cir. 1981); see also Harper v. City of Los Angeles, 533 F.3d 1010, 1026 (9th Cir. 2008).

Additionally, a plaintiff must demonstrate that each named defendant personally participated in the deprivation of his rights. Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 676-77. In other words, there must be an actual connection or link between the actions of the defendants and the deprivation alleged to have been suffered by Plaintiff. See Monell v. Dep't of Soc. Servs. of City of N.Y., 436 U.S. 658, 691, 695 (1978).

Supervisory personnel are generally not liable under § 1983 for the actions of their employees under a theory of respondeat superior and, therefore, when a named defendant holds a supervisory position, the causal link between him and the claimed constitutional violation must be specifically alleged. Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 676-77; Fayle v. Stapley, 607 F.2d 858, 862 (9th Cir. 1979); Mosher v. Saalfeld, 589 F.2d 438, 441 (9th Cir. 1978). To state a claim for relief under § 1983 based on a theory of supervisory liability, a plaintiff must allege some facts that would support a claim that the supervisory defendants either personally participated in the alleged deprivation of constitutional rights; knew of the violations and failed to act to prevent them; or promulgated or "implement[ed] a policy so deficient that the policy itself is a repudiation of constitutional rights' and is 'the moving force of the constitutional violation." Hansen v. Black, 885 F.2d 642, 646 (9th Cir. 1989) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted); Taylor v. List, 880 F.2d 1040, 1045 (9th Cir. 1989). For instance, a supervisor may be liable for his "own culpable action or inaction in the training, supervision, or control of his subordinates," "his acquiescence in the constitutional deprivations of...