(PC) Hoffmann v. Lassen County ( 2020 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 9 10 KASEY F. HOFFMANN, No. 2:15-cv-1382 KJM DB P 11 Plaintiff, 12 v. ORDER 13 LASSEN COUNTY, et al., 14 Defendants. 15 16 KASEY F. HOFFMANN, No. 2:17-cv-1755 KJM DB P 17 Plaintiff, 18 v. ORDER 19 MICHELE YDERRAGA, 20 Defendant. 21 22 23 Plaintiff is a state prisoner proceeding pro se with a civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 24 1983. Plaintiff has requested a second extension of time to file and serve oppositions to 25 defendants’ March 26, 2020 motions for summary judgment. Plaintiff states that the prison has 26 barred library access due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He contends that without library access he 27 cannot conduct meaningful legal research to oppose defendants’ motions. 28 1 In an order filed September 21, 2020, this court first noted that plaintiff failed to establish 2 good cause for an extension of time to “next year” as he requested. However, this court also 3 found that it lacked sufficient information to rule on plaintiff’s motion. This court ordered 4 defendants’ counsel to contact the litigation coordinator at the California Correctional Institution 5 (“CCI”) to determine what sort of access prisoners in plaintiff’s housing unit have to legal 6 research materials. Plaintiff was also given the opportunity to file a statement explaining what, if 7 any, ability he has to obtain legal research materials. 8 Both parties filed responses to the court’s September 21 order. Defendants explain that 9 inmates at CMC1 have access to a paging system for legal materials. That system works as 10 follows. A staff member from the “education program” at CMC “tours each housing unit at least 11 once per day to gather requests from inmates for educational or legal library services.” In 12 between those tours, inmates may submit written requests for services. “If an inmate is in need of 13 legal research, they are able to submit a request for legal research and the legal librarian will 14 provide all relevant materials to the inmate via institutional mail.”2 (ECF No. 47 at 9.) 15 In his filing, plaintiff first argues that denying him physical access to the law library is 16 unconstitutional per se. It is not. See Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 821 (1977), limited in part 17 on other grounds by Lewis v. Casey, 518 U.S. 343, 354 (1996). Plaintiff next argues that he is 18 unable to conduct meaningful research using the paging system because he does not know what 19 20 1 Defendants address plaintiff’s access to legal materials at the California Men’s Colony (“CMC”) rather than CCI. Recent filings by plaintiff appear to have been sent from CMC. However, 21 plaintiff never informed the court of his change of address. The last change of address on file, dated March 14, 2019, gave plaintiff’s address as CCI. Plaintiff is reminded that he must inform 22 the court of any changes in his address. See E.D. Cal. R. 183(b). Plaintiff risks dismissal of this 23 action in the future if he fails to do so. 24 2 Defendants’ response relies upon an unsigned declaration of a Public Information Officer at CMC, Lieutenant John Hill. (See ECF No. 47 at 9-10.) When defendants’ counsel asked 25 Lieutenant Hill to sign the declaration for submission in the present cases, counsel was contacted 26 by Frank Perez, the Litigation Coordinator at CMC. Mr. Perez informed defendants’ counsel that Mr. Hill would not sign the declaration absent a “subpoena.” (ECF No. 47 at 9-11.) In order to 27 obtain a declaration regarding CMC’s procedures for prisoners to obtain legal research materials, this court will request a special appearance by the Office of the Attorney General to address that 28 matter. 1 legal materials he requires and therefore cannot make specific requests for materials. Plaintiff 2 states that when he had physical law library access he could ask inmate law clerks for assistance. 3 Plaintiff further states that he is permitted to request “cases only.” (ECF No. 48.) 4 The parties’ responses provide very different descriptions of the law library services 5 available to plaintiff. Neither addresses issues raised in the other party’s response. Defendants 6 state that plaintiff may request legal “research” on a certain subject, and the law librarian will 7 provide “all relevant materials” on that subject. While “all relevant materials” is a very general 8 description of what would be provided, there is no indication in defendants’ response that the 9 materials are limited to cases or that plaintiff must provide citations to just what materials he is 10 seeking. With respect to plaintiff’s response, he fails to explain whether has made any requests 11 for legal materials and, if he has, what materials he was provided. 12 This court, again, finds it lacks sufficient information to rule on plaintiff’s motion. This 13 court will request a special appearance by the Office of the Attorney General to provide the court 14 with the necessary details regarding prisoners’ access to legal research materials at CMC. In 15 addition, this court requires additional information from plaintiff. 16 Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED as follows: 17 1. The Clerk of the Court shall amend the docket to reflect plaintiff’s place of 18 incarceration and address as the California Men’s Colony. In addition, the Clerk of the Court is 19 directed to serve a copy of this order on Ms. Monica Anderson, Supervising Deputy Attorney 20 General, Office of the California Attorney General. 21 2. Within fourteen days of the filed date of this order plaintiff shall file a statement 22 explaining the following: 23 (a) Whether he has requested legal research on a certain subject. If plaintiff has 24 made such a request, he must explain just what he received in response. If plaintiff has 25 not requested legal research on a certain subject, he must explain why he has not done so. 26 (b) Why he believes he may only request cases from the law library. 27 3. Within fourteen days of the filed date of this order, the Office of the California 28 Attorney General shall file a statement with the following information, supported by a declaration 1 | signed by an official at CMC with relevant knowledge of current procedures for providing 2 | prisoners at CMC with legal materials: 3 (a) What specific legal research materials may an inmate be provided upon 4 request? Solely cases? Other materials as well? 5 (b) Isthere a limitation on the number of volumes or documents that an inmate 6 may be provided in response to one request for legal research materials? 7 (c) If an inmate requested legal research on the subject of qualified immunity, 8 what specific materials would he receive? 9 | Dated: October 19, 2020 Vlad” 11 D ORAH BARNES UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 13 14 15 | DLB9 16 DB/prisoner-civil rights/hoff1382+1755.msj oppo eot(2).new 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28