(PS) Miller v. Sacramento City Unified School District ( 2022 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 SONIA MAREE MILLER, No. 2:21-cv-0757-JAM-CKD PS 12 Plaintiff, 13 v. ORDER & FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 14 SACRAMENTO CITY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT, (ECF Nos. 31, 33) 15 Defendant. 16 17 18 Plaintiff is proceeding without counsel in this fee-paid employment discrimination 19 action.1 On November 5, 2021, the court adopted the undersigned’s October 14, 2021 findings 20 and recommendations thereby (1) dismissing plaintiff’s claims against her employer, the 21 Sacramento City Unified School District (the “School District”), with leave to amend, and (2) 22 dismissing with prejudice plaintiff’s claims against the other two defendants. (ECF Nos. 29, 31.) 23 On December 9, 2021, after the deadline for any amendment had passed, the undersigned issued 24 an order to show cause why the case should not be dismissed with prejudice for failure to 25 prosecute. (ECF No. 32.) The order to show cause specified that the filing of a First Amended 26 Complaint or notice of voluntary dismissal within fourteen days would satisfy the order to show 27 1 Because plaintiff is self-represented, all pretrial matters are referred to the undersigned pursuant 28 to Local Rule 302(c)(21) and 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1). 1 cause; and that failure to comply with the order would result in a recommendation of dismissal 2 with prejudice under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b). (Id. at 2-3.) 3 On December 20, 2021, plaintiff filed a 47-page response to the order to show cause. 4 (ECF No. 33.) The first nine pages contain a single, unbroken stream of sentences expressing 5 plaintiff’s difficulties with various judicial and law enforcement systems, primarily regarding her 6 loss of custody of one of her daughters and fear for that daughter’s safety. Almost none of 7 plaintiff’s narrative responses bear any relation to the employment discrimination claims asserted 8 in this case. The rest of the response consists of exhibits regarding state court cases and 9 communications that are also unrelated to this employment discrimination case. 10 Although the court sympathizes with plaintiff’s difficult experiences, the only claims 11 before the court in this case are those arising from plaintiff’s employment with the School 12 District. The only portion of plaintiff’s response relevant to this case are her opening sentences, 13 in which she states: “I do not intend to amend my first complaint. I feel like I submitted a 14 thorough and truthful account of my workplace experiences spanning two decades, and I provided 15 the court and defendants with ample evidence of foul play.” (ECF No. 33 at 1.) Plaintiff also 16 expresses an inability to compose legal arguments and states this “is really a law enforcement 17 investigation.” (Id.) 18 As explained in the undersigned’s October 14, 2021 findings and recommendations, 19 plaintiff’s complaint fails to plead the necessary facts to make out any of the employment 20 discrimination claims she appeared to be asserting against the School District—and most of her 21 claims are likely time-barred as well. (ECF No. 29 at 12-19.) The court explained these 22 deficiencies to plaintiff and gave her an opportunity to address them via amendment. Plaintiff has 23 expressly declined that opportunity, and thus her claims against the School District should now be 24 dismissed with prejudice for the reasons explained in the undersigned’s October 14th findings and 25 recommendations. 26 Lastly, buried within plaintiff’s response to the order to show cause are repeated requests 27 that the response not be made public in order to preserve the privacy of plaintiff’s minor child. 28 While plaintiff has not attempted to comply with Local Rule 141, governing “requests to seal” 1 information being filed with the court, the undersigned finds good cause to order the response to 2 be sealed. Plaintiff’s response contains a wide range of information bearing no relation to this 3 case which might infringe the privacy rights of third parties—including plaintiff’s minor 4 daughter—who are not part of this litigation. Plaintiff is cautioned of the strong presumption that 5 all documents filed with the court should be publicly accessible, and cautioned that any future 6 requests to seal documents in this court must comply with Local Rule 141. 7 ORDER 8 Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that: 9 1. Plaintiff’s request contained in her response to the show cause order that her response 10 (ECF No. 33) be filed under seal is GRANTED; and 11 2. The Clerk of Court is instructed to SEAL the document filed at ECF No. 33. 12 RECOMMENDATION 13 It is further RECOMMENDED that: 14 1. All of plaintiff’s claims against the only remaining defendant, Sacramento City 15 Unified School District, be DISMISSED with prejudice both under Fed. R. Civ. 16 P. 41(b) and for failure to state a claim, for the reasons set forth in the undersigned’s 17 October 14, 2021 Findings and Recommendations (ECF No. 29); and 18 2. The Clerk of Court be directed to close this case. 19 These findings and recommendations are submitted to the United States District Judge 20 assigned to the case, pursuant to the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(l). Within fourteen (14) 21 days after being served with these findings and recommendations, any party may file written 22 objections with the court and serve a copy on all parties. Such a document should be captioned 23 “Objections to Magistrate Judge’s Findings and Recommendations.” Any reply to the objections 24 shall be served on all parties and filed with the court within seven (7) days after service of the 25 objections. The parties are advised that failure to file objections within the specified time may 26 ///// 27 ///// 28 1 || waive the right to appeal the District Court’s order. Turner v. Duncan, 158 F.3d 449, 455 (9th 2 || Cir. 1998); Martinez v. YIst, 951 F.2d 1153, 1156-57 (9th Cir. 1991). 3 | Dated: January 4, 2022 ( aie } Kt | Ld , a sia 4 CAROLYN K DELANEY 5 UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 6 7 8 || 19.mill.757 9 10 1] 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28