Kern v. Sara Arriero Goff
- Charles Breyer
- 3:25-cv-10555
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In James Kern v. Sara Arriero Goff, Judge Breyer dismissed the action without prejudice after Kern failed to pay the required filing fee.
James Kern’s action was dismissed without prejudice after he failed to pay the required $405 filing fee. He may bring a new paid complaint, and the court closed this case and terminated the pending motions as moot.
What happened
In James Kern v. Sara Arriero Goff, the court had revoked James Kern’s fee-waiver status under a rule limiting repeated prisoner lawsuits. The court found that Kern had at least three qualifying prior dismissals and had not shown an imminent danger of serious physical injury when he filed this case.
The court gave Kern 28 days to pay the $405 filing fee or face dismissal without prejudice. Kern did not pay the fee on time. Instead, he filed another response arguing that the defendant’s handling of his physical-therapy referral had caused him to become permanently wheelchair-bound.
The court concluded that Kern’s alleged injury was not sufficiently connected to the defendant’s conduct at the time Kern filed the action, particularly because the defendant no longer provided nursing care to him by then. Judge Charles R. Breyer dismissed the action without prejudice, closed the case, and terminated the pending motions as moot.
The detailed version
- Kern v. Sara Arriero Goff · No. 3:25-cv-10555
- Charles Breyer
- Sept. 11, 2026
Background
James Kern brought this prisoner action while using a filing-fee waiver. On August 12, 2026, the court granted the defendant’s motion to revoke that status under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). That provision limits a prisoner’s ability to proceed without paying the filing fee after three or more prior prisoner actions were dismissed as frivolous, malicious, or failing to state a claim, unless the prisoner shows that he faced an imminent danger of serious physical injury when he filed the action.
The court previously found that Kern had three or more qualifying prior dismissals and had not shown the required imminent danger. It ordered him to pay the $405 filing fee within 28 days and stated that the action would be dismissed without prejudice to filing a new paid complaint if he did not do so.
Court’s reasoning
Kern did not pay the filing fee within the specified period. He instead filed an untimely second response, arguing that he faced an imminent danger because the defendant allegedly changed a pending referral for ankle physical therapy to a referral for back physical therapy after an October 20, 2025 medical visit. Kern asserted that this change caused him to become permanently wheelchair-bound.
The court explained that the imminent-danger exception requires a connection between the alleged danger and the legal violations asserted in the complaint. The court also noted that the defendant had shown that, by December 9, 2025—the filing date—she had separated from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and no longer provided nursing care to Kern. The court concluded that complaints about past injury alone could not establish the required imminent danger.
Disposition
The court dismissed the action without prejudice to bringing it in a new paid complaint. It directed the clerk to close the case and terminate all pending motions as moot. Judge Charles R. Breyer signed the order on September 11, 2026.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.