(PC) Castro v. Pfeiffer ( 2021 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 DANIEL Z. CASTRO, Case No. 1:21-cv-00418-BAM (PC) 12 Plaintiff, ORDER REGARDING PLAINTIFF’S NOTICE OF VOLUNTARY DISMISSAL 13 v. (ECF No. 11) 14 PFEIFFER, et al., 15 Defendants. 16 17 Plaintiff Daniel Z. Castro (“Plaintiff”) is a state prisoner proceeding pro se in this civil 18 rights action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. 19 On March 16, 2021, the Court issued an order denying Plaintiff’s motion to proceed in 20 forma pauperis, without prejudice, and ordering Plaintiff to submit a completed prisoner 21 application to proceed in forma pauperis or pay the $402.00 filing fee within thirty days. (ECF 22 No. 10.) 23 On April 1, 2021, Plaintiff filed a document requesting that the Court dismiss this action if 24 no court fees have yet been charged. (ECF No. 11.) Based on the filing, it appears that this 25 action was opened inadvertently, and is duplicative of Case No. 1:20-cv-01454-NONE-EPG 26 (PC), which was opened on October 6, 2020. Plaintiff therefore requests that this complaint be 27 dismissed with no filing fee attached to his prisoner account. (Id.) The Court construes the filing 28 as a notice of voluntary dismissal pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1)(A)(i). 1 “[U]nder Rule 41(a)(1)(A)(i), a plaintiff has an absolute right to voluntarily dismiss his 2 action prior to service by the defendant of an answer or a motion for summary judgment.” 3 Commercial Space Mgmt. Co., Inc. v. Boeing Co., Inc., 193 F.3d 1074, 1077 (9th Cir. 1999) 4 (quotation and citation omitted). “[A] dismissal under Rule 41(a)(1) is effective on filing, no 5 court order is required, the parties are left as though no action had been brought, the defendant 6 can’t complain, and the district court lacks jurisdiction to do anything about it.” Id. at 1078. No 7 defendant has been served in this action and no defendant has filed an answer or motion for 8 summary judgment. In addition, Plaintiff has not completed an application to proceed in forma 9 pauperis for this action, so no filing fee has been charged. 10 Accordingly, this action is terminated by operation of law without further order from the 11 Court. Fed. R. Civ. P. 41(a)(1)(A)(i). The Clerk of the Court is directed to terminate all pending 12 motions and deadlines, and close this case. 13 IT IS SO ORDERED. 14 15 Dated: April 2, 2021 /s/ Barbara A. McAuliffe _ UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28