El-Shaddai v. Salinas Valley State Prison
- Wise
- 5:24-cv-02901
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Adonai El-Shaddai v. Salinas Valley State Prison, Judge Wise dismissed the action without prejudice because El-Shaddai failed to provide a current address.
Adonai El-Shaddai’s civil-rights action was dismissed without prejudice because he did not provide a current address or maintain contact with the court.
What happened
Adonai El-Shaddai filed a civil-rights action alleging retaliation at Salinas Valley State Prison. After the court dismissed his original complaint with permission to amend, he filed an amended complaint.
The court later learned that mail about the case had been returned as undeliverable. El-Shaddai had not provided a current address or contacted the court for more than eight months, as required for a self-represented party under the court’s local rule.
Judge Noél Wise dismissed the case without prejudice to El-Shaddai filing a motion to reopen it. Any motion to reopen must include his current address, and the clerk was ordered to close the file.
The detailed version
- El-Shaddai v. Salinas Valley State Prison · No. 5:24-cv-02901
- Wise
- May 6, 2025
Background
Adonai El-Shaddai filed a civil-rights action alleging retaliation at Salinas Valley State Prison. The court initially dismissed his complaint with leave to amend, and El-Shaddai later filed an amended complaint. The case was reassigned to Judge Noél Wise on February 24, 2025.
Address and Communication Issue
The court’s notice of reassignment was returned as undeliverable. El-Shaddai had not provided the court with his current address and had not contacted the court for more than eight months. The court explained that Northern District of California Civil Local Rule 3-11 requires a self-represented party whose address changes during a case to promptly file and serve a notice of the new address. The rule permits dismissal without prejudice when court mail is returned as undeliverable and the party does not provide a current address within 60 days.
Ruling
Judge Wise ordered that the matter be dismissed without prejudice to El-Shaddai filing a motion to reopen the action. The court required any motion to reopen to include El-Shaddai’s current address and ordered the clerk to close the file. The order did not decide whether the alleged retaliation occurred or whether El-Shaddai’s civil-rights claims had merit.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.