Servin v. Tampkins
- Vince Chhabria
- 3:19-cv-01873
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Servin v. Tampkins, Judge Chhabria dismissed Servin’s petition without prejudice after he failed to meet requirements for staying the case.
Jaime Tapia Servin’s federal petition was dismissed without prejudice. The order leaves open the possibility of a future petition containing only exhausted federal claims, but no certificate of appealability will issue.
What happened
Jaime Tapia Servin, a California inmate representing himself, filed a petition seeking federal review under a law governing challenges to state custody. The court had previously allowed him to amend after finding that he had not identified a federal constitutional or legal violation and had not exhausted his claims through the state courts.
Servin filed two requests to pause the federal case while pursuing his unexhausted claims in state court, but neither met the required conditions. The court gave him another chance and a 28-day deadline to file a corrected request. Servin did not file another request or contact the court.
Judge Vince Chhabria dismissed the petition without prejudice, meaning Servin may file a new petition in the future containing only exhausted federal claims. The court also said that a certificate allowing an appeal would not issue.
The detailed version
- Servin v. Tampkins · No. 3:19-cv-01873
- Vince Chhabria
- Mar. 25, 2020
Background
Jaime Tapia Servin, a California inmate proceeding without a lawyer, filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The court’s August 13, 2019 order dismissed the original petition with leave to amend because Servin had not alleged a violation of the Constitution or federal law and had not exhausted any claims in state court.
The court allowed Servin to file an amended petition together with a request to stay and abey the federal case under Rhines v. Weber. A stay and abeyance would pause the federal case while the petitioner pursues unexhausted claims in state court. Servin filed a stay request on September 9, 2019, but it did not satisfy the requirements identified by the court. The court denied that request without prejudice and allowed him to correct the deficiencies.
Servin filed an amended petition and another stay request on October 21, 2019. The court dismissed that second stay request on December 19, 2019, again explaining how the deficiencies could be corrected. The court ordered Servin to file a third stay request within 28 days and stated that otherwise the petition would be dismissed without prejudice to filing a new petition containing only exhausted federal claims.
Ruling
The 28-day deadline passed, and Servin did not file another stay request or communicate with the court. The court therefore dismissed the petition without prejudice. The dismissal was procedural: the court did not decide the merits of any federal claim.
The court also stated that a certificate of appealability would not issue under 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c), entered the required judgment separately, and directed the clerk to close the file. The order was signed by United States District Judge Vince Chhabria.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.