Angel Luis Poye v. State of California et al

Filing 18

ORDER signed by Magistrate Judge Gregory G. Hollows on 2/9/2012 ORDERING that plaintiff's 15 motion for reconsideration, construed as a Rule 60(b) motion, is DENIED; and plaintiff's inapposite and defective 17 motion to amend the complaint in this closed case, is DISREGARDED. (Yin, K)

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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

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FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

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ANGEL LUIS POYE,

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Plaintiff,

No. CIV S-10-3221 GGH P

vs.
STATE OF CALIFORNIA, et al.,

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Defendants.

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ORDER
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This civil rights action was dismissed on June 10, 2011, for failure to state a

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claim, and judgment thereon entered.1 Plaintiff thereafter, on July 6, 2011, filed a “motion for

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reconsideration,” after which he filed, on July 19, 2011, “a motion for leave to file amended

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complaint.” The inapposite and defective motion for further leave to amend in this closed case,

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unaccompanied by a proposed amended complaint, will be disregarded. The court will construe

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the motion for reconsideration as a motion pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b).2

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Under Rule 60(b), a party may seek relief from judgment and to re-open his case

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in limited circumstances, “including fraud, mistake, and newly discovered evidence.” Gonzalez

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Plaintiff consented to the jurisdiction of the undersigned in a consent form, dated as
signed on December 16, 2010. See docket # 7, filed on December 20, 2010.
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If considered made under Fed. R. Civ. 59(e), the result of this order would be the same.
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v. Crosby, 545 U.S. 524, 528, 125 S. Ct. 2641, 2645-46 (2005). “Motions for relief from

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judgment pursuant to Rule 60(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are addressed to the

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sound discretion of the district court.” Allmerica Financial Life Insurance and Annunity

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Company v. Llewellyn,139 F.3d 664, 665 (9th Cir. 1997).

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Once a decision of law is made, it becomes the “law of the case,” and absent clear

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error or changed circumstances should not be changed. See United States v. Estrada-Lucas, 651

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F.2d 1261, 1263-64 (9th Cir.1980). The law of the case doctrine provides that “a court is

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generally precluded from reconsidering an issue that has already been decided by the same court,

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or a higher court in the identical case.” United States v. Cuddy, 147 F.3d 1111, 1114 (9th Cir.

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1998), quoting United States v. Alexander, 106 F.3d 874, 876 (9th Cir. 1997) (internal quotation

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and citation omitted).

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“A motion for reconsideration should not be granted, absent highly unusual

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circumstances, unless the district court is presented with newly discovered evidence, committed

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clear error, or if there is an intervening change in the controlling law.” Marlyn Nutraceuticals,

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Inc. v. Mucos Pharma GmbH & Co., 571 F.3d 873, 880 (9th Cir. 2009) (internal quotations

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marks and citations omitted). A party seeking reconsideration must do more than disagree with

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the court’s decision or recapitulate that which the court has previously considered. U.S. v.

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Westlands Water Dist., 134 F.Supp.2d 1111, 1131 (E.D. Cal. 2001). Nor can a reconsideration

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motion “be used to raise arguments or present evidence for the first time when they could

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reasonably have been raised earlier in the litigation.” Marlyn Nutraceuticals, 571 F.3d at 880.

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“To succeed, a party must set forth facts or law of a strongly convincing nature to induce the

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court to reverse its prior decision.” Westlands Water Dist., 134 F.Supp.2d at 1131 (internal

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citations omitted).

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Plaintiff, by his motion attempts to re-argue his claims taking issue with the

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court’s ruling regarding various allegations of his amended complaint, claiming that he did

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indeed suffer an “atypical and significant hardship” in his administrative segregation placement
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because his mental health condition deteriorated while in ad seg to the point that he was

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“transferred from general population ad seg to mental health ad seg” and prescribed medication.

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Motion (Docket # 15), p. 2. Plaintiff does not implicate the conditions of his ad seg placement

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other than to indicate that it was the isolation itself which caused his alleged mental breakdown.

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Id., at 2-3. However, the focus of the “atypical and significant hardship” is not on plaintiff’s

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subjective perceptions, but rather on an objective assessment of the conditions. See Sandin v.

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Connor, 515 U.S. 472, 486 (n.8), 115 S.Ct. 2293 (1995); White v. Steuben County, 2011 WL

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4496504 *10 (N.D. Ind. 2011). The conditions he complains of do not rise to the level

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articulated in Wilkinson v. Austin, 545 U.S. 209, 213, 125 S. Ct. 2384, 2389 (2005), as set forth

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in this court’s ruling on June 10, 2011. He claims again that his due process rights were violated

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at a classification hearing. Id., at 3. He suggests with respect to his due process claim regarding

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a deprivation of his personal property that it was authorized because some of his property was

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inventoried, but he claimed in his amended complaint that defendants did not properly inventory

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all of his property and confiscated his personal property as an act in retaliation for plaintiff’s

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reluctance to transpack his property for a transfer, i.e., that the deprivation was unauthorized. Id.,

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at 4; see Amended Complaint, pp. 23-26.

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Plaintiff in essentially recapitulating what the court has already considered has

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failed in his motion to do more than disagree with the court’s ruling. U.S. v. Westlands Water

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Dist., 134 F.Supp.2d at 1131. The motion for reconsideration will be denied.

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Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED that:

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1. Plaintiff’s motion for reconsideration, filed on July 6, 2011 (docket # 15),

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construed as a motion pursuant to Rule 60(b), is denied;

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2. Plaintiff’s inapposite and defective motion for leave to filed a further amended

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complaint in this closed case, filed on July 19, 2011 (docket # 17), is disregarded.

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DATED: February 9, 2012

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/s/ Gregory G. Hollows
UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

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GGH:009
poye3221.ord3

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