Williams 124345 v. Winget ( 2021 )

1 WO SH 2 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA 8 9 DaJuan Torrell Williams, No. CV 19-05096-PHX-MTL (CDB) 10 Plaintiff, 11 v. ORDER 12 Unknown Winget, et al., 13 Defendants. 14 15 Plaintiff DaJuan Torrell Williams, who is currently confined in Yuma County 16 Detention Center in Yuma, Arizona, brought this civil rights case pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 17 1983. (Doc. 16.) Before the Court is Plaintiff’s Motion for Relief from Judgment and/or 18 to Alter or Amend Judgment, which Defendants oppose. (Docs. 84, 89.)1 19 On screening Plaintiff’s First Amended Complaint (Doc. 16) under 28 U.S.C. § 20 1915A(a), the Court determined that Plaintiff stated Eighth Amendment excessive force 21 claims against Defendants Winget, Tribolet, Verdugo, Valencia, Villanueva, Cornejo, and 22 Lopez and directed them to answer. (Doc. 17.) The Court dismissed the remaining claims 23 and Defendants. (Id.) 24 On September 30, 2020, Plaintiff sought leave to file a Second Amended Complaint, 25 and the Court denied the motion on February 26, 2021. (Docs. 52, 55, 72.) The Court also 26 dismissed Defendants Winget, Verdugo, Valencia, and Cornejo for failure to serve 27 pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(m). (Doc. 72.) 28 1 The Court will address the remaining motions by separate Order. 1 On April 1, 2021, Plaintiff filed the pending Motion for Relief from Judgement 2 and/or to Alter or Amend Judgement. (Doc. 84.) In the Motion, Plaintiff seeks relief 3 pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 60(b)(1), 60(b)(6), and 59(e) from the 4 February 26, 2021 Order dismissing Defendants Winget, Verdugo, Valencia, and Cornejo 5 and denying Plaintiff’s request to file an amended complaint. (Doc. 84.) In the alternative, 6 Plaintiff asks the Court to stay the proceedings pending his interlocutory appeal of the 7 February 26, 2021 Order to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. (Id.) 8 Relief from judgment pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b) is not 9 available to Plaintiff at this time because Rule 60(b) only allows a court to relieve a party 10 from a final judgment, order, or proceeding, and the Order from which Plaintiff seeks relief 11 did not address all of the claims in this action and are therefore not final orders. Hall v. 12 City of Los Angeles, 697 F.3d 1059, 1070 (9th Cir. 2012) (“An order denying leave to 13 amend a complaint is not appealable.”) (citation omitted). Moreover, Plaintiff does not 14 identify any “special circumstances” that would render the February 26, 2021 Order an 15 “appealable final order” for the purposes of Rule 60(b)(6). Williamson v. UNUM Life Ins. 16 Co. of Am., 160 F.3d 1247, 1250 (9th Cir. 1998). 17 Similarly, Plaintiff cannot bring his motion pursuant to Rule 59(e) at this time 18 because no judgment has been entered, and the February 26, 2021 Order is not an 19 appealable interlocutory order. See Balla v. Idaho State Bd. of Corrs., 869 F.2d 461, 466 20 (9th Cir. 1989) (noting that Rule 59(e) only applies to final judgments and appealable 21 interlocutory orders); cf. Anderson v. Allstate Ins. Co., 630 F.2d 677, 680 (9th Cir. 1980) 22 (“Because the orders appealed from dismiss the action as to only some of the defendants, 23 it is clear that they were not final orders pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 at the time they were 24 entered. Moreover, plaintiffs did not obtain the interlocutory certificate required by Fed. 25 R. Civ. P. 54(b).”). 26 Finally, the Court will also deny Plaintiff’s request to stay the action pending the 27 results of his interlocutory appeal (Doc. 85) of the February 26, 2021 Order to the Ninth 28 Circuit. On April 20, 2021, the Ninth Circuit issued an Advance Decision denying 1| Plaintiffs appeal “because the order challenged in the appeal is not final or appealable.” 2| (Doc. 91.) Accordingly, for the foregoing reasons, 3 IT IS ORDERED that the reference to the Magistrate Judge is withdrawn as to Plaintiff's Motion for Relief from Judgment and/or to Alter or Amend Judgment (Doc. 84), 5 | and the Motion is denied. 6 Dated this 29th day of April, 2021. 7 WM clacl T. Hburde Michael T. Liburdi 10 United States District Judge 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28