(PC) Johnson v. California Department of Corrections ( 2022 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 DARRELL EUGENE JOHNSON, No. 2:21-CV-2348-WBS-DMC-P 12 Plaintiff, 13 v. ORDER 14 STATE OF CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS 15 AND REHABILITATION, et al., 16 Defendants. 17 18 Plaintiff, a prisoner proceeding pro se, brings this civil rights action pursuant to 19 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Pending before the Court is Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment, ECF 20 No. 27, which has been filed before any defendant has answered the operative complaint. 21 A motion for summary judgment or adjudication filed before an answer has been 22 filed results in uncertainty as to which allegations are in dispute and which are not, making it 23 impossible to evaluate which disputes might raise genuine issues of material fact. See Mohamed 24 v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc., 579 F.3d 943, 961, n.9 (9th Cir. 2009); see also Vining v. Runyon, 99 25 F.3d 1056, 1058 (11th Cir. 1996) (“A premature decision on summary judgment impermissibly 26 deprives the [defendants] of their right to utilize the discovery process to discover the facts 27 necessary to justify their opposition to the motion”). 28 / / / 1 Because Plaintiff's motion for summary judgment is premature procedurally given 2 | that the case is not yet at issue, the Court will strike it from the docket. The Court does so 3 | without expressing any opinion as to the merits of Plaintiff's motion and without prejudice to 4 | Plaintiff renewing the arguments offered in favor of summary judgment at an appropriate time as 5 | ordered by the Court after an answer has been filed and the case has been scheduled. The Court 6 | will address Defendants’ pending motion to dismiss separately by findings and recommendations 7 | to the District Judge. 8 Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Plaintiff's motion for summary 9 | adjudication, ECF No. 27, is stricken and terminated as a pending motion, without prejudice to 10 | renewal at a later stage in the proceedings. 11 12 | Dated: August 16, 2022 Ssvcqo_ 13 DENNIS M. COTA 14 UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28