Moore v. Woodford et al

Filing 33

ORDER dismissing supervisor liability claim against defendant Woodford. Signed by Judge ARMSTRONG on 12/8/08. (lrc, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 12/11/2008) Modified on 12/12/2008 (kk, COURT STAFF).

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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA JUMAH ALI-THOMAS MOORE, Plaintiff, No. C 06-02357 SBA (PR) ORDER DISMISSING SUPERVISORY LIABILITY CLAIM AGAINST DEFENDANT WOODFORD

JEANNE WOODFORD, et al., Defendants. /

On September 30, 2008, the Court issued an Order of Service and directed Plaintiff to amend his supervisory liability claim against Defendant Woodford. The Court gave Plaintiff until October 30, 2008 to file an amendment to the complaint. He was warned the failure to do so would result in dismissal of his supervisory liability claim without prejudice. In an Order dated November 10, 2008, the Court granted Plaintiff's request for an extension of time to file his amendment to the complaint. On November 17, 2008, Plaintiff filed his amendment to the complaint. In the amendment, Plaintiff states that Defendant Woodford failed to supervise the distribution of sufficient drinking water to the plaintiff after the Salinas Valley State Prison (SVSP) medical personnel had informed defendant Woodford to provide the plaintiff with double and triple portion rations of drinking water due to medications. This inaction of defendant Woodford to fail to supervise defendants Seller, Lamarque, Zavala, Caden, Parin and Ortiz in the distribution of drinking water to the plaintiff by defendant Woodford then cause the Eighth Amendment violation of deliberate indifference and cruel and unusual punishment to occur against the plaintiff. (Am. to Compl. at 2.) Plaintiff claims that because Defendant Woodford is the Director of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, she should be liable for the alleged deficiencies of distribution of drinking water at SVSP.1 This is a respondeat superior claim, that is, Plaintiff seeks Plaintiff does not provide any facts to support his allegation that medical personnel directly contacted Defendant Woodford about his drinking water requirements. Therefore, the Court construes his allegation to mean that SVSP medical personnel only had contact with Defendants Seller, Lamarque, Zavala, Caden, Parin and Ortiz, all of whom were allegedly not properly supervised by Defendant Woodford.
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to hold Defendant Woodford liable because she is the supervisor of the persons he contends violated his rights. This is, however, not a proper basis for liability under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. See Taylor v. List, 880 F.2d 1040, 1045 (9th Cir. 1989). Therefore, nothing in the amendment is sufficient to overcome the deficiency of his claim against Defendant Woodford which gave rise to the dismissal with leave to amend. Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the supervisory liability claim against Defendant Woodford is dismissed without further leave to amend. IT IS SO ORDERED. DATED: 12/8/08 SAUNDRA BROWN ARMSTRONG United States District Judge

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

MOORE et al, Plaintiff, v. WOODFORD et al, Defendant. /

Case Number: CV06-02357 SBA CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I, the undersigned, hereby certify that I am an employee in the Office of the Clerk, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California. That on December 11, 2008, I SERVED a true and correct copy(ies) of the attached, by placing said copy(ies) in a postage paid envelope addressed to the person(s) hereinafter listed, by depositing said envelope in the U.S. Mail, or by placing said copy(ies) into an inter-office delivery receptacle located in the Clerk's office.

Thomas Moore D-62389 Pelican Bay State Prison P.O. Box 7000 Crescent City, CA 95532 Dated: December 11, 2008

Richard W. Wieking, Clerk By: LISA R CLARK, Deputy Clerk

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