(PC) Jones v. Bal ( 2022 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 GREGORY JONES, No. 2:19-CV-1971-TLN-DMC-P 12 Plaintiff, 13 v. ORDER 14 INDERPAL BAL, et al., 15 Defendants. 16 17 Plaintiff, a prisoner proceeding pro se, brings this civil rights action pursuant to 18 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Pending before the Court is Plaintiff’s motion, ECF No. 47, for summary 19 judgment, which was filed before any defendant answered the operative complaint. 20 A motion for summary judgment or adjudication filed before an answer has been 21 filed results in uncertainty as to which allegations are in dispute and which are not, making it 22 impossible to evaluate which disputes might raise genuine issues of material fact. See Mohamed 23 v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc., 579 F.3d 943, 961, n.9 (9th Cir. 2009); see also Vining v. Runyon, 99 24 F.3d 1056, 1058 (11th Cir. 1996) (“A premature decision on summary judgment impermissibly 25 deprives the [defendants] of their right to utilize the discovery process to discover the facts 26 necessary to justify their opposition to the motion”). 27 / / / 28 / / / ] Because Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment is premature procedurally given 2 || that the case was not yet at issue when it was filed, the Court will strike it from the docket. The 3 || Court does so without expressing any opinion as to the merits of Plaintiffs motion and without 4 || prejudice to Plaintiff renewing the arguments offered in favor of summary judgment at an 5 || appropriate time as ordered by the Court after an answer has been filed and the case has been 6 || scheduled. Finally, to the extent Plaintiff seeks summary disposition in his favor by way of 7 || default judgments based on failure to respond to the operative complaint, the motion is premature 8 | because no defaults have been entered on the docket by the Clerk of the Court. 9 The Court will address Defendant’s pending motion to dismiss separately by 10 || findings and recommendations to the District Judge. 11 Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Plaintiffs motion for summary 12 || judgment, ECF No. 47, is stricken and terminated as a pending motion, without prejudice to 13 || renewal at a later stage in the proceedings. 14 15 || Dated: September 20, 2022 = Cf > 16 DENNIS M. COTA 17 UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28