Bonilla v. Blum
- Phyllis Hamilton
- 4:25-cv-00788
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 3
In Bonilla v. Averill, Judge Hamilton dismissed multiple civil-rights cases with prejudice after finding Bonilla could not proceed without paying filing fees and the suits were barred.
Steven Wayne Bonilla and the defendants named in the multiple cases were directly affected. The cases were dismissed with prejudice, pending motions were terminated, and the clerk was directed to close the cases and return later submissions without filing them.
What happened
In Bonilla v. Averill, Steven Wayne Bonilla, a state prisoner representing himself, filed multiple nearly identical civil-rights complaints under a federal law allowing claims against officials. He sued various federal and state judges and other officials, seeking relief concerning his conviction and the handling of his other cases.
The court found that Bonilla could not proceed without paying filing fees because he did not show that he faced an immediate danger of serious physical injury when he filed the complaints. The court also said that, even if he were allowed to proceed without paying fees, the lawsuits would be barred under several legal doctrines and prior decisions.
Judge Phyllis Hamilton dismissed the cases with prejudice, terminated all pending motions, and directed the clerk to close the cases and return future documents without filing them. The court also rejected the suggestion that the judge’s impartiality could reasonably be questioned based on the filings.
The detailed version
- Bonilla v. Blum · No. 4:25-cv-00788
- Phyllis Hamilton
- Jan. 30, 2025
Background
Steven Wayne Bonilla, identified as a state prisoner and a condemned prisoner, filed multiple civil-rights complaints under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 without a lawyer. The complaints presented nearly identical claims and named various federal and state judges and other officials as defendants. Bonilla sought relief concerning his underlying conviction or the way his other cases had been handled by state and federal courts.
The order covered the case numbers listed in the caption, including 24-cv-9255-PJH, 24-cv-9265-PJH, 25-cv-0004-PJH, and the additional related cases through 25-cv-0905-PJH. The court noted that Bonilla had a pending federal petition challenging his conviction with appointed counsel and was also represented by counsel in state court proceedings.
Reasoning
The court addressed Bonilla’s possible requests to proceed without paying filing fees. Under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g), the court said Bonilla was disqualified from proceeding that way unless he showed that he was in immediate danger of serious physical injury when he filed each complaint. The court found that the allegations did not show such danger.
The court further stated that, even if an application to proceed without paying filing fees were granted, the lawsuits would be barred under the legal authorities cited in the order: Heck v. Humphrey, Younger v. Harris, Demos v. U.S. District Court, and Mullis v. U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The order did not provide a separate claim-by-claim analysis of those barriers.
The court also addressed judicial impartiality. It concluded that the repetitive and frivolous nature of the filings did not create a reasonable question about the undersigned judge’s impartiality. The court noted that Bonilla named the judge as a defendant in four of the cases but made no specific allegations against the judge in those filings.
Disposition
The court dismissed the cases with prejudice. It directed the clerk to terminate all pending motions and close the cases. It also directed the clerk to return, without filing, any further documents Bonilla submitted in the closed cases. The order was signed by United States District Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton on January 30, 2025.
Effect
The order ended the multiple cases and barred Bonilla from refiling these same cases because the dismissals were with prejudice. The order did not decide the validity of Bonilla’s underlying conviction on its merits.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.