Williams v. Monterey County Jail
- Kandis Westmore
- 3:25-cv-03043
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 1
In Williams v. Monterey County Jail, Judge Chen dismissed the complaint without prejudice because Williams did not comply with the court’s address-update rule.
The dismissal affects Rickey Wayne Williams’s complaint against Monterey County Jail. The court dismissed the matter without prejudice and closed the file.
What happened
In Williams v. Monterey County Jail, Rickey Wayne Williams filed a complaint and asked to proceed without paying the filing fee. Court correspondence about problems with his application was returned as undeliverable, as were several later mailings.
More than five months passed without the court receiving an amended complaint, a request for more time, or any other communication from Williams. The court found that he failed to comply with Civil Local Rule 3-11.
Judge Edward M. Chen dismissed the matter without prejudice, directed the clerk to terminate all pending motions, and closed the file.
The detailed version
- Williams v. Monterey County Jail · No. 3:25-cv-03043
- Kandis Westmore
- Sept. 16, 2025
Background
Rickey Wayne Williams filed a complaint and a motion for permission to proceed without paying the filing fee on March 26, 2025. The court later sent correspondence about deficiencies in his filing-fee application, but that correspondence was returned as undeliverable. Several other pieces of court mail were also returned.
Failure to Update Address or Communicate
More than five months after the first returned mailing, the court had not received an amended complaint, a request for an extension of time, or any other communication from Williams. The court determined that Williams had failed to comply with Civil Local Rule 3-11, which the opinion applied to the address and communication problem.
Disposition
The court dismissed the matter without prejudice. It also directed the clerk to terminate all pending motions and close the file. The order did not decide the underlying allegations in the complaint.
Judge and Metadata Note
The opinion is signed by Edward M. Chen, United States District Judge. The supplied case metadata identifies Kandis Westmore as the judge, so the summary uses the judge named in the signed opinion.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.