Moore v. Hatton
- Beth Freeman
- 5:20-cv-01445
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Moore v. Hatton, Judge Freeman granted Johnny Andrew Moore more time to amend his complaint after confusing this case with a closed one.
Johnny Andrew Moore, the self-represented plaintiff, received additional time to file an amended complaint; the case remained subject to dismissal if he failed to comply.
What happened
In Moore v. Hatton, Johnny Andrew Moore, an incarcerated plaintiff representing himself, had been ordered to amend his complaint after the court dismissed one claim and allowed him to amend another. The court also told him he could instead remove the federal claims and return the case to state court.
Moore filed two extension requests that referred to a different, closed case. The court concluded that he had confused the case numbers and granted him an extension to file an amended complaint in this case.
The court ordered Moore to file the amended complaint within 28 days, using the court’s form and the correct case number, and warned that failing to do so would result in dismissal of the action without prejudice and without further notice. Judge Beth Abson Freeman signed the order.
The detailed version
- Moore v. Hatton · No. 5:20-cv-01445
- Beth Freeman
- Sept. 9, 2020
Background
Johnny Andrew Moore, an incarcerated plaintiff representing himself, originally filed a complaint in Monterey County Superior Court. The defendants removed the case to the federal district court. In an earlier order, the court screened the complaint, dismissed Moore’s Eighth Amendment deliberate-indifference claim as barred by res judicata, and dismissed his First Amendment retaliation claim while allowing him to amend it. The court also told Moore that he could instead strike all federal claims and ask to return the case to state court to pursue his state-law claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Extension request
Moore filed two motions seeking more time to respond to an order in a different, closed case. The court determined that he apparently had confused the case numbers. In the interest of justice, the court granted Moore an extension of time to file an amended complaint in this case.
Order
The court ordered Moore to file an amended complaint within 28 days from the filing of the order. He was required to use the court’s form, attempt to state sufficient facts for a First Amendment retaliation claim, use the caption and case number for this action, and place the words “AMENDED COMPLAINT” on the first page. The court also instructed him not to refer to the closed case, to answer all questions on the form, and to understand that the amended complaint would replace the original complaint. Claims or defendants omitted from the amended complaint would no longer be part of the action.
The court warned that failing to file the amended complaint as ordered would result in dismissal of the action without prejudice and without further notice. Judge Beth Abson Freeman signed the order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.