Jones v. Runge
- Beth Freeman
- 5:21-cv-00281
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Jones v. Runge, Judge Freeman granted Jones more time to file an amended complaint after the court dismissed his original complaint with leave to amend.
Ronald Anthony Jones and the defendants in his civil-rights action; Jones received a new deadline, and the action could be dismissed without prejudice if he failed to meet it.
What happened
In Jones v. Runge, Ronald Anthony Jones, a state prisoner representing himself, sued San Quentin State Prison staff under a federal civil-rights law. The court had dismissed his original complaint but allowed him to amend it.
Jones asked for more time because the prison law library was closed. He needed to file the amended complaint using the court’s form and answer all of its questions.
Judge Beth Labson Freeman granted the extension and set July 30, 2021, as the new deadline. The order warned that failing to file on time would result in dismissal of the action without prejudice.
The detailed version
- Jones v. Runge · No. 5:21-cv-00281
- Beth Freeman
- June 14, 2021
Background
Ronald Anthony Jones, a state prisoner proceeding without a lawyer, filed a civil-rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against prison staff at San Quentin State Prison. On May 11, 2021, the court dismissed his original complaint but gave him permission to file an amended complaint correcting its deficiencies. The court directed him to file the amended complaint within 28 days.
Jones moved for an extension of time because the prison law library was closed.
Ruling
The court found good cause and granted Jones’s motion for an extension of time to file an amended complaint. It ordered him to use the court’s form complaint and file the amended complaint no later than July 30, 2021.
The court also explained that the amended complaint would replace the original complaint. Claims not included in the amended complaint would no longer be claims, and defendants not named in it would no longer be defendants. The order warned that failure to file the amended complaint by the deadline would result in dismissal of the action without prejudice and without further notice.
This order granted additional time; it did not decide the merits of Jones’s civil-rights claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.