(PC) Bell v. Jones ( 2020 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 ERIC BELL, SR., No. 2:20-cv-00793-WBS-CKD 12 Plaintiff, 13 v. ORDER 14 GAVIN NEWSOM, et al., 15 Defendants. 16 17 Plaintiff is a county inmate proceeding pro se in this civil rights action filed pursuant to 18 42 U.S.C. § 1983. On May 15, 2020 the court directed plaintiff to notify the court within 21 days 19 whether he wanted to proceed on the original complaint as screened by the court or whether he 20 wanted the court to screen his first amended complaint. Rather than return the attached Notice of 21 Election, plaintiff filed a “Notice of Clarification” indicating that he was attempting to add to the 22 allegations of the original complaint by filing a first amended complaint. ECF No. 13 at 2. 23 However, on the same day, plaintiff also returned the service documents for defendant Scott 24 Jones along with two copies of the original complaint. ECF No. 15. 25 The court once again instructs plaintiff that the court cannot refer to a prior pleading in 26 order to make plaintiff’s first amended complaint complete. Local Rule 220 requires that an 27 amended complaint be complete in itself without reference to any prior pleading. This is because, 28 as a general rule, an amended complaint supersedes the original complaint. See Loux v. Rhay, MwA 2 OU UV ESO RY NEE MMU PIO OPEN TP OAYt oI 1 375 F.2d 55, 57 (9th Cir. 1967). Therefore, the court will not proceed to serve the original 2 | complaint on defendant Jones at this time based on the pending first amended complaint. 3 Plaintiff will be granted one last opportunity to file the attached notice of election as 4 | required by the court’s prior order. Failure to respond will result in a recommendation that this 5 | action be dismissed without prejudice for failure to prosecute pursuant to Rule 41(b) of the 6 | Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. 7 Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that plaintiff is granted one last extension of 8 | time to respond to the court’s May 15, 2020 order by returning the attached Notice of Election 9 | form within 21 days from the date of this order. 10 | Dated: June 18, 2020 CA rd kt / (g—, CAROLYN K DELANEY) 12 UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 12/bell0793.eot.docx 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 ERIC BELL, SR., 12 Plaintiff, No. 2:20-cv-00793 WBS CKD 13 v. NOTICE OF ELECTION 14 GAVIN NEWSOM, et al., 15 Defendants. 16 17 You must choose ONE AND ONLY ONE option listed below and return it to the court: 18 _____ Plaintiff wants to proceed on the original complaint as screened by the court’s order of 19 May 4, 2020; or, 20 _____ Plaintiff wants the court to screen the first amended complaint filed on May 1, 2020. 21 22 23 DATED: 24 ________________________________ 25 Plaintiff 26 27 28